The “Golden Hits Of The 50s”
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PEGGY KING
“Make Yourself Comfortable”
(Bob Merrill)
Columbia 40363
No. 30 February 5, 1955
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“I was on a hit TV show for three years, from 1955, the “George Gobel Show.” I was the singer and I
received an Emmy nomination at the end of my first year there. The next year downbeat and Billboard
named me the ‘Best New Singer.’ Before that I was a big band singer,” said Peggy King proudly and rapidly
in an exclusive interview. “I sang with Charlie Spivak, Ray Anthony, and Ralph Flanagan. I think, Edie
Gorme and I were the last of the lot to get in on that Big Band era…”
Peggy (b. February 16, 1930/Greensburg, Pa.) received no musical training, but began giving voice to her
ambitions at about the age of four. In her teen years her family moved to Ohio. “There was a radio show
[on WGAR] in Cleveland, one of those shows where you auditioned and if you passed you got on the air for
a whole week. When I auditioned, I was working as a legal stenographer. I remember, Lex Barker, who
was playing Tarzan, was one of the judges. He said, ‘My God, you’re good. How come you’re not out there
singing.’ Now, the regular girl singer on the show just ran off with the trumpet player and the male singer
broke his leg, so they were without anyone. I know it sounds like I made it up, but they asked me to come
on, not just for a week but regularly.”
After a year as staff vocalist with WGAR, Peggy left Ohio to tour with some of the biggest names in the Big
Band biz, Anthony, Flanagan, and Spivak. “Mel Torme had the first color television show, a half-hour
daily. Kaye Ballard and I [in 1952] got positions with the show as regulars. Mel took me under his wing
and took me from whatever I was to being a real singer. He’s the greatest and I’ll always consider him my
mentor.”
In 1954, Peggy stumbled into her big break. “The vocal coach at Metro told me that Les Paul & Mary Ford
were going to do this commercial for Hunt’s Tomato Sauce, but that they had been involved in an accident
and that they needed someone else to do the jingle. I did it [“I Got to Cook and Cook and Cook”, they
unofficially called it; later Ms. King had it issued on Vista as “I Got to Kiss and…] and it became like a hit
record. It was, I think, the first instance of a commercial turning someone into a star. Three days later,
Mitch Miller heard it and offered me a contract with Columbia Records, right over the telephone. Almost
as a direct result, I was placed with the “George Gobel Show” and got that Emmy nomination.”
While none of her now rare lps charted, Ms. King did make the listings with a few follow-ups (“Learning to
Love” #61, 1955; “Kiss and Run” #88, 1956 b/w “Angel Pie [Postilion!] #81, 1956) to her rendering of “Make
Yourself Comfortable.” Competing versions by Andy Griffth (#26, 1955) and Sarah Vaughn (#6, 1955)
divvied up the sales on what could have been a solid hit for Peggy.
“I don’t know what happened, after that. I think it was that at Columbia I was the number three girl
singer. They had Doris Day and Rosemary Clooney and so I got what they didn’t record, and, as you know,
there is not that many great songs out there.”
After numerous club appearances, some TV spots (including “Musical Chairs,” a short-run L.A. TV
program she co-hosted with Johnny Mercer and Bobby Troup), and some minor movie roles Ms. King
retired to become a wife and mother.