She began her singing career as the female vocalist in the Benny Goodman Orchestra in 1941. Later she had a successful solo singing career and worked with her husband Dave Barbour until their divorce. She is most famous for her cover version of the Little Willie John hit "Fever" and her rendition of Leiber and Stoller's "Is That All There Is?" .
She was also known as a songwriter with hits like the songs from the Disney movie Lady and the Tramp.
In the early 1990s, she successfully sued Disney for royalties on Lady and The Tramp. She claimed that she was due royalties for video tapes, a technology that didn't exist when she agreed to write and perform for Disney.
Peggy Lee is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California.