Peggy Lee: “Norma Deloris Egstrom From Jamestown North Dakota Expanded Edition” (2022) CD Review

Fifty years have passed since Peggy Lee released her Norma Deloris Egstrom From Jamestown North Dakota album, and to celebrate the anniversary, an expanded edition of the album is being released, with seven bonus tracks, including several alternate takes. I always liked the title of this record, which is just Peggy Lee’s real name and her hometown. And in fact the name Peggy Lee does not appear on the cover. It is as if to say, here is the real me. That is interesting, considering that none of her own material is included on this album. Though Peggy Lee wrote a good amount of songs, this album contains all covers. This expanded edition contains extensive liner notes, with thoughts and memories from Tom Catalano, Artie Butler and Brian Panella, with some snippets from interviews with Peggy Lee as well.

The album opens with “Love Song,” which begins as a folk song, like Lesley Duncan’s original recording, and soon grows to include a good rhythm and horns and strings. And toward the end, there is a brief section where the track starts to rock in a surprisingly funky way. This song was written by Lesley Duncan, and included on her 1971 album Sing Children Sing. Duncan also sang on Elton John’s recording of this song. Things then get seriously cool with “Razor (Love Me As I Am),” written by Jack Schechtman.  I absolutely love Peggy Lee’s delivery here, the song having a vibe similar to that of “Fever.” At first, I felt that the horns are unnecessary, that the song might be stronger and more seductive without them, with the focus completely on her vocals. But I’ve warmed to the horns, which add to the song’s power. And the horns do support her, echoing her attitude and her strength. “You can love me like I am, or goodbye/I’d rather see the worst coming/Than to bury my head ‘neath the sand/I’d rather be hurt and helpless/Than to grovel before any man.” This is one of my favorite tracks. Then at the beginning of “When I Found You,” Peggy Lee sings, “Yesterday I knew where I was going/And though I knew, I didn’t seem to mind/But today I had no way of knowing.” But when this track really starts to work is when she begins belting out the lyrics. She just kind of grabs you, you know? This song has a bright energy.

There have been a lot of covers of Leon Russell’s “A Song For You” over the years, but this version from Peggy Lee might be the best. It is haunting and melancholy and beautiful, all the while time is ticking away. What a voice. These lines in particular are striking in this recording: “I know your image of me/Is what I hoped to be/I treated you unkindly/But darling, can’t you see/There’s no one more important to me” and “I love you in a place/Where there’s no space or time/I love you for my life/You are a friend of mine/When my life is over/Remember when we were together.” That’s followed by “It Takes Too Long To Learn To Live Alone,” a moving song of loss and longing and memory, and the question of what to do when love is gone, how to go about the day-to-day routine of living. That in turn is followed by another Leon Russell song, “Superstar,” which was a hit for the Carpenters. This version begins with horns and strings. It is a moving and dramatic rendition. Just listen to the way she delivers lines like, “Loneliness is such a sad affair/And I can hardly wait/To be with you again.”

Obviously, we expect Peggy Lee to turn in excellent vocal performances. But even so, I am blown away by what she does on “Just For A Thrill.” This track contains an absolutely stellar vocal performance. Every note, every nuance, every breath is perfect. And I love the work on piano. “The thought of you gave my heart wings/But to you it was one of those things/You made my heart stand still/And it was just for a thrill.” Gorgeous, cool, sexy, moving. This is certainly one of the album’s highlights. Peggy Lee delivers another moving vocal performance on “Someone Who Cares.” About a minute and a half in, the song suddenly kicks in, and she tells us, “I’ve made up my mind, you’re going to love me.” Well, yes, that sounds about right. Who doesn’t love Peggy Lee? Then “The More I See You” features some pretty work on guitar, as well as some nice percussion. It leads straight into the original album’s final track, “I’ll Be Seeing You,” which is beautiful and wonderfully sad. “I’ll be seeing you/In every lovely summer’s day/In everything that’s light and gay/I’ll always think of you that way.”

Bonus Tracks

This special expanded edition contains seven bonus tracks. The first of these is “It Changes,” a song from Snoopy, Come Home, the 1972 animated film. This is another beautifully sad song. “Just when you’re sure of a dream that you planned/That’s when the scenery changes.” Toward the end, there is a spoken word section where Peggy Lee asks, “Why can’t we get together with all the people in the world we really like, and then just stay together forever?” I’ve often fantasized about having a cul-de-sac on which all my close friends and family live (and no one else). She continues: “But someone would leave/Someone always leaves/And then we’d have to say goodbye/I hate goodbyes.” This song was included on the 2004 version of this album, where it was placed after “A Song For You.”  That’s followed by “Pieces Of Dreams,” which was also written for a film (the film is also titled Pieces Of Dreams). It has a dreamlike feel at the start, with the chimes. This song was released on a single in 1970.

The rest of the bonus tracks are alternate takes of songs included on the original album, beginning with “When I Found You.” This version is fairly close to the original, but you can hear differences, as in her delivery of “And now I know I can’t go on.” That’s followed by another great take of “A Song For You” and then “Someone Who Cares.” As the original album concludes, the bonus tracks conclude with “The More I See You” and “I’ll Be Seeing You.” What is missing here is that piano part at the end of “The More I See You,” linking it to “I’ll Be Seeing You.”

CD Track List

1. Love Song
2. Razor (Love Me As I Am)
3. When I Found You
4. A Song For You
5. It Takes Too Long To Learn To Live Alone
6. Superstar
7. Just For A Thrill
8. Someone Who Cares
9. The More I See You
10. I’ll Be Seeing You
11. It Changes
12. Pieces Of Dreams
13. When I Found You
14. A Song For You
15. Someone Who Cares
16. The More I See You
17. I’ll Be Seeing You

This special fiftieth anniversary expanded edition of Norma Deloris Egstrom From Jamestown North Dakota is scheduled to be released on November 18, 2022.