Peggy Lee - "I Like A Sleighride (Jingle Bells)"

As every Holiday Season, this month I’ll be choosing only Holiday Songs from as many holidays as I can.

Smoky, sultry, and classy, Peggy Lee was one of the few “girl singers” along with Ella, Judy, & Doris, who was able to stand up to the Rat Pack boys and all their versions of the hits. She could take a song and really make it her own, infusing it with her style and substance that was often lacking from pop starlettes of the day.

Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, over a career spanning seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, Lee created a sophisticated persona, writing music for films, acting, and recording conceptual record albums combining poetry and music.

Lee recorded over 1,100 masters and composed over 270 songs, and was nominated for 13 Grammy Awards. In 1969, her hit "Is That All There Is?" won her the Grammy for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance. In 1995, she was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

So today, with a wink & a smile, I choose Peggy Lee’s dizzying "I Like A Sleighride (Jingle Bells)" as my, keep on spinning, lights all around, a blur of color and sound, song for a, one sleep closer, planes - trains & automobiles, gird your loins, Wednesday.