Running hot: Greco, Anders pay tribute to Peggy Lee with ‘Fever’

Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2002 | 8:41 a.m.

By the time she died in January, Peggy Lee's sultry voice had delivered a collection of songs so dreamy, suggestive, alluring and melancholy that she drew fans of all musical tastes.

Discovered by Benny Goodman in 1941, Lee would go on to record hits for several decades. Her seductive voice and impeccable timing would became her trademark.

In "Fever: A Tribute to Peggy Lee" opening Wednesday in the Judy Bayley Theater at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, singer Lezlie Anders and herhusband Buddy Greco pay homage to Lee's musical career.

"What I really want to show the world is the great gifts and legacy Peggy Lee gave us," the 54-year-old Anders said during a break in rehearsal at UNLV's Alta Ham Arts Building. "Peggy was probably the most important woman in American music. She was absolutely her own."

Backed by the 16-member UNLV jazz ensemble and with choreography by Dolly Kelepecz, the show is a celebration of the martini days when bridge was in and upright pianos were a living-room staple. Lee's music usually set the mood.

Audiences will hear roughly 20 selections of her hits, from "Hey Big Spender" to an instrumental rendition of "Lover" performed by Greco.

"Her music has been like the score to my life," Anders said. She remembers hearing "Golden Earrings" played when she was a small child.

"Golden Earrings," an enticing Gypsy tale of love, was on the charts for 18 weeks in 1947. By then Lee had won over listeners with "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good," "Why Don't You Do Right" and "Waitin' For the Train to Come In."

"Manana," a whimsical and upbeat late 1940s Spanish-influenced hit, followed "Golden Earrings." The song spent 21 weeks on the top of the charts. For her 1960s hit "Fever," critics regarded Lee as subdued and sexy, and her 1969 Grammy Award-winning "Is That All There Is?" brought in a slew of new fans.

"In the beginning she sounded so much like Billie Holiday," Anders said. "Then she just developed her own voice."

As the story goes, that voice developed as Lee began performing and couldn't snag the audience's attention. So she slowed it down, tuned it down and lured them in.

Lee performed and sang in movies including "The Jazz Singer" (1953) and "Pete Kelly's Blues" (1955).

Born Norma Deloris Egstrom to Scandinavian parents in North Dakota, Lee would take two unsuccessful trips to California and perform on radio in Fargo before landing a gig in Chicago's Ambassador West Hotel. That's where Goodman spotted her and used her to replace departing vocalist Helen Forrester.

Hypnotic and enduring, Lee would return to the charts each decade through the 1970s. An obsessive perfectionist, her life would be riddled with illness, injury and broken marriages.

"She did not have a happy life," Anders said. "The greatest thing she did was her music."

Putting it together

Anders' voice has been compared to Lee's. Her short blonde hair adds to the similarities.

But in "Fever," Anders (who, unlike Lee, adds dance to her singing) is not out to impersonate the singer. She performs as herself, a gig she's pretty familiar with.

Born in Seattle, Anders sang during her 20s in a band in Los Angeles before leaving the music scene behind to enter business and real estate finance in the Midwest.

In 1985 she returned to school and majored in music. She started her own big band and wrote musical arrangements and performed in jazz clubs. Realizing that she could make a better living with a big band, she formed the Roseland Dance Orchestra in Oregon.

"I was so tired of making 100 bucks a night in jazz clubs," Anders said. "Suddenly, this unknown girl singer was bringing a couple thousand a night."

In 1992 Anders moved her show to Las Vegas and began singing in the Desert Inn's Starlight Theater. It was there she met longtime crooner and jazz pianist Greco.

"She was my opening act," Greco said with a laugh. "Now I'm her opening act."

The couple tour regularly. Greco performs selections from his own lengthy discography. Anders performs jazz and big-band favorites.

Similar to Lee, Greco ("Lady Is a Tramp") performed early in his career with Benny Goodman.

"He launched her career and he launched my career," Greco said, referring to Goodman. "We really owe Benny a lot."

But Greco was already on his way by the time he joined Goodman, having produced a hit ("Ooh Look-a-There Ain't She Pretty") with the trio he formed as a teenager.

Greco spent two years with Goodman before going solo. He has recorded more than 60 albums and wrote music for such legendary singers as Rosemary Clooney.

A different era

The idea for "Fever: A Tribute to Peggy Lee" originated when Anders was planning to record her second CD.

Already having covered such Lee songs as "Fever" on her first CD, "With Love, Lezlie," Anders decided to devote her entire second CD to songs performed by Lee. Anders and Greco will begin recording the CD in September.

Friends who heard of the project encouraged Anders to bring the songs to the stage.

"We started writing the music and here we are," Anders said.

In October Anders and Greco will perform the show in Stoneham, Mass. In November they will perform "Fever" in Chicago.

The couple would like to find a permanent home in Las Vegas for the show, Greco said. But finding work in Las Vegas isn't always easy.

"Right now the city is very unhip," Greco said. "I'm not working here. Steve and Eydie are not working here.

"It's very different," he said, comparing work in Las Vegas to other cities. "There are people here who want to see this ('Fever') and they want to see Steve and Eydie."

Packed-in audiences in other cities is usually no problem for the duo. Because of the trendy revival of the martini generation, many younger fans turn up at their shows, Anders and Greco said.

"When we're in New York there's a whole bunch of young fans dressing retro," Anders said.

The glamour and style of the big-band days, Anders said, "is something we miss."

Greco still performs in a tuxedo and wants nothing more than to see a return of the elegance that was an intricate part of the big-band and swing era.

"When I first started here in the late 1950s and 60s women wore beautiful clothing," Greco said. "Guys wore ties and jackets."

When Greco and Anders began a Friday night big-band engagement at the Flamingo in 1999, they demanded band ambience all the way down to the audience.

"We were the only room that had a dress code," Anders said with a smile. "I think we were known more for that" than the show.

Greco arranged the music for "Fever" and is producing the show.

"It's swell for me because I'm a jazz musician and have never done this," Greco said, pointing to the dancers.

But, he added, "I'm not dancing."

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