Peggy Lee: Love Held Lightly

Recorded in 1988 and originally released in 1993 by Angel Records, Love Held Lightly: Rare Songs by Harold Arlen has been out of print for nearly a decade. It returns to CD on Harbinger Records with new introductory notes by Bill Rudman and Ken Bloom, the album’s producers (along with musical director, pianist and arranger Keith Ingham), plus the original version’s essays by Will Friedwald (about “The Singer”) and Arlen biographer Edward Jablonski (about “The Songs”).

Although all fourteen Arlen songs on Love Held Lightly are rare — and all were new to Peggy’s vast repertoire in 1988 — eight songs received their very first recordings. Among these premieres is “Happy with the Blues,” the sole songwriting partnership between Arlen and Lee. Originally written in 1961 as the title song for a television special starring Peggy and saluting Arlen’s music, Peggy revised her lyric for this recording. The other lyricists featured here comprise a who’s who of American popular songwriting: Johnny Mercer, Dorothy Fields, Yip Harburg, Ted Koehler, Carolyn Leigh, Martin Charnin — even Truman Capote, Arlen’s lyricist for the 1954 Broadway musical House of Flowers.

Track List 

1. "Look Who's Been Dreaming" (Dorothy Fields) 2:40
2. "Love Held Lightly (from Saratoga)" (Johnny Mercer) 4:18
3. "Buds Won't Bud" (Yip Harburg) 3:30
4. "Can You Explain?" (Truman Capote) 3:39
5. "Wait'll It Happens to You" (Mercer) 2:31
6. "Come on, Midnight" (Martin Charnin) 4:38
7. "Happy with the Blues" (Peggy Lee) 4:25
8. "Bad for Each Other" (Carolyn Leigh) 3:27
9. "Love's No Stranger to Me" (Capote) 2:49
10. "I Could Be Good for You" (Charnin) 2:39
11. "Got to Wear You Off My Weary Mind" (Mercer) 4:13
12. "I Had a Love Once" (Harold Arlen) 2:44
13. "Love's a Necessary Thing" (Ted Koehler) 3:38
14. "My Shining Hour" (Mercer) 2:35