Best of the Big Bands, Vol. 2

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When Peggy Lee replaced Helen Forrest with the Goodman band in 1941, there was some question as to whether she was ready for the challenge. The material here traces Lee's first four months with the King of Swing, which began inauspiciously with a previously unreleased version of "Elmer's Tune," on which Lee was so tense that producer John Hammond encouraged Goodman to fire her. That disaster aside, this is a creditable beginning, with Lee rapidly growing more assured and soon coming into her own with "Somebody Nobody Loves" and "How Long Has This Been Going On?" If there's a sense of unease about the material, it comes from more than Lee's inexperience. It goes to the heart of what was a growing big band dilemma--the need for popular records and the drive toward ever-more complex arrangements. By 1941, the Goodman band was becoming a showcase for Eddie Sauter's increasingly orchestral, harmonically challenging charts. With a larger brass section, including trumpeters Jimmy Maxwell and Cootie Williams, the group had a power surpassing earlier Goodman bands, with tremendous swing generated by sometimes drummer Sid Catlett. It clearly inspired Goodman, but might have proved daunting for even a singer with more experience than Lee. And although her first hit with Goodman--"Why Don't You Do Right?"--was still a ways off, this album is an interesting window on a fine band and a singer with a distinguished future. --Stuart Broomer

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