Black Coffee (Peggy Lee album)

History

By 1953, Lee had been recording professionally since joining the Benny Goodman Orchestra in 1941, but had only released songs on 78s or 45s. This was her first opportunity to record an album, and in the early 1950s, common record company wisdom reserved the 12" LP for classical music and, in the case of Decca and Columbia Records, cast recordings of Broadway musicals. This practice would end soon after this LP was recorded, ten-inch records discontinued generally by the mid-1950s, Lee adding four songs at sessions in 1956 to expand the running time up to that of the twelve-inch LP.

Reception

Neither the 10" nor the 12" release made the Popular Album Chart, the chart expanding to a listing of ten to thirty LPs on average during 1956. Joni Mitchell has declared the album among her favorites, leading off her torch song album of 2000, Both Sides Now, with a selection from Black Coffee, "You're My Thrill". In his book Jazz Singing, Will Friedwald names the album as one of his desert island discs.

Sessions

Three separate sessions in 1953 yielded the initial eight tracks for the ten-inch LP, all at Decca Studios, 50 West 57th Street in New York City, on April 30, May 1, May 4. The 1956 sessions to record the additional four tracks needed for the twelve-inch LP were done with different personnel at the Decca studios in Hollywood on April 3.

On October 26, 2004, the album was reissued as part of the Verve Records Master Edition series, Verve and Decca now both units within the giant Universal Music Group conglomerate. The track sequence followed that of the 1956 twelve-inch reissue. No original producer is listed, although Milt Gabler is mentioned in the reissue credits as Decca A&R.

1953 sessions

1956 sessions

Side one

1. "Black Coffee" (Sonny Burke, Paul Francis Webster) – 3:05
2. "I've Got You Under My Skin" (Cole Porter) – 2:28
3. "Easy Living" (Ralph Rainger, Leo Robin) – 2:44
4. "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" (Porter) – 2:09

Side two

1. "A Woman Alone With the Blues" (Willard Robison) – 3:12
2. "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) – 2:18
3. "(Ah, the Apple Trees) When the World Was Young" (M. Philippe-Gerard, Angele Vannier, Johnny Mercer) – 3:16
4. "Love Me or Leave Me" (Gus Kahn, Walter Donaldson) – 2:08

Side one

1. "Black Coffee" – 3:05
2. "I've Got You Under My Skin" – 2:28
3. "Easy Living" – 2:44
4. "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" – 2:09
5. "It Ain't Necessarily So" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward) – 3:22
6. "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You?" (Don Redman, Andy Razaf) – 3:22

Side two

1. "A Woman Alone With the Blues" – 3:12
2. "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" – 2:18
3. "When the World Was Young" – 3:16
4. "Love Me or Leave Me" – 2:08
5. "You're My Thrill" (Sidney Clare, Jay Gorney) – 3:22
6. "There's a Small Hotel" (Rodgers, Hart) – 2:44