I'm a Woman

Peggy Lee's I'm a Woman LP is a good example of a quickie album project put together on the fly to take advantage of a hit single rising up the chart, in this case, of course, the R&B-inflected title song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Benny Carter conducted that track, as well as the jazzy version of "I'll Get By" here, but the rest of the short (under half an hour) disc was handled by Dick Hazard, who brought in a small, versatile band to come up with blues, jazz, and Latin arrangements of some familiar material including Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'," the Bobby Darin hit "Mack the Knife," and the Tony Bennett hit "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." No one involved, including Lee, seems to have taken the session too seriously — they didn't have time to — but that's precisely the record's charm. The musicians simply play what occurs to them, and Lee blissfully rolls over the top. She makes fun of "Mack the Knife," and why not? The range and speed demanded in Antonio Carlos Jobim's "One Note Samba" almost throw her, but there might not have been time for another take. The music is somewhat rushed all the way through, but that makes it all the more lively and fits in with the rollicking hit it is meant to accompany.