Fever: The Life and Music of Miss Peggy Lee by Peter Richmond, a review from The Atlantic Monthly by Benjamin Schwarz.
"Lee, of course, was one of the first great singer-songwriters (she amassed more than 200 composing credits). She was also among her era's finest recording artists (with her 1956 Black Coffee, which epitomized world-weary sophistication for a generation, she pioneered the 'concept album'). She was, moreover, the greatest chanteuse of her age (her minimalist and confessional style perfectly suited the intimacy of the nightclub, and her act at Ciro's in the 1940s and, above all, her engagement at Basin Street East in the winter of 1961 remain legendary). She was, as Hoefer declared, simply 'the greatest white female jazz singer since Mildred Bailey.' " Read the entire Atlantic Monthly review.