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<b>Peggy Lee’s fever pitch</b>

Singer/songwriter Peggy Lee consistently proved during her lengthy and impressive career that a great performer could be extremely popular, yet maintain high artistic standards. Peter Richmond’s exhaustively researched new biography, <b>Fever: The Life and Music of Miss Peggy Lee</b>, chronicles her rise from obscure small-town singer Norma Deloris Egstrom to jazz and pre-rock diva Peggy Lee, the epitome of class, swing and sophistication. The journey was anything but smooth, and Richmond details the constant turmoil and stress Lee endured throughout her life, from early problems with stage fright and mastering physical awkwardness to tragic romantic encounters and four unsuccessful marriages. Though he delves extensively into intimate situations, Richmond does so without becoming judgmental or substituting innuendo for fact.

He’s equally convincing in his examination of Lee’s musical gifts. His descriptions of her interaction with such famously prickly characters as Johnny Mercer and Benny Goodman give readers insight into not only what made her excel musically, but also how sharp she was in dealing with creatively innovative, quirky figures. Lee had an incredible knack for reworking a tune, and turned Lil Green’s Why Won’t You Do Right and Little Willie John’s Fever into such masterful signature songs that many mistakenly assumed she had written them. Her storytelling skills were ideal for the lush, metaphor-laden material that was the stock-in-trade of Mercer, Harold Arlen, Cole Porter and other kingpin composers of the pre-rock era.

Still, though Lee’s fame and wealth increased, she seldom enjoyed sustained peace and happiness. Her desire to be simply Norma Deloris Egstrom from Nortonville, North Dakota, when she was at home frequently bewildered admirers and often angered her companions and husbands. The ’70s and ’80s proved mostly cruel decades in terms of commercial fortunes, but Lee continued working until she suffered a massive stroke in 1998. Fortunately, Richmond’s volume ensures that Peggy Lee’s contributions to the American musical canon will not only be remembered, but appreciated.

Johnny Cash was a man who seemed destined for immortality. A hard-living native of Arkansas whose career spanned five decades and spawned more than 1,000 songs, he was an omnipresent figure on the country music scene, a proudly defiant survivor who used the pressures of fame to fuel his work. Given the scope of his influence and his larger-than-life persona, Cash’s death on September 12, 2003, seemed an impossible thing. His songs were rooted in the South but written for the world. Timeless classics like Big River, I Walk the Line and Folsom Prison Blues achieved international recognition, becoming permanent components of the country music canon. This month, BookPage spotlights a special group of volumes that chronicle Cash’s remarkable career.

The Man in Black Cash: An American Man (CMT/Pocket, $30, 176 pages, ISBN 0743496299) tells the story of the singer through photographs, letters, lyric sheets, album covers and other visual riches. Sanctioned by the Johnny Cash estate and assembled with the help of Cash’s close friend and longtime fan, Bill Miller, the collection of artifacts presented in this colorful volume reflects more than 50 years of country music culture. There are publicity shots of the singer taken for Sun Records in Memphis in the early 1950s; photos of Cash and his wife, singer June Carter; ticket stubs from the Grand Ole Opry; and one-of-a-kind Cash collectibles, including a Slurpee cup from the 1970s emblazoned with the singer’s face. (Our favorite photo: a black-and-white shot of Cash, circa 1953, his face innocent and unlined, his arm around a tuxedoed Elvis.) Edited by Mark Vancil and Jacob Hoye, Cash: An American Man is the first title from CMT Books, a new imprint created by CMT: Country Music Television and Simon &and Schuster’s Pocket Books. With lively text provided by Miller, whose friendship with Cash lasted more than 30 years, this must-have scrapbook also contains the singer’s final interview, granted to music journalist Kurt Loder shortly before Cash died, and the lyrics to the last song he composed. Produced by the editors of Rolling Stone magazine, Cash (Crown, $29.95, 224 pages, ISBN 140005480X) is the ultimate memorial to a man who lived what he wrote and sang what he believed. With tributes from Bob Dylan, Bono, Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris, the volume provides a complete historical overview of Cash’s music. Highlights include a comprehensive discography, an interview with Rick Rubin, who produced four of Cash’s albums, and pieces of classic Rolling Stone reportage, including Ralph J. Gleason’s account of the performer’s 1969 San Quentin concert. There are also excerpts from Cash’s two autobiographies, as well as chapters on his screen career and his marriage to June, who, as a member of the famous Carter Family, had a recording career of her own. Rare photographs offer a vivid, behind-the-scenes look at Cash’s extended family, including his 13 grandchildren. Singer Rosanne Cash, daughter of the Man in Black, captures the special essence of her father in her foreword to the volume: “He was a poet who worked in the dirt,” she says. “He was the stuff of dreams, and the living cornerstone of our lives.” Country music’s First Family Fans hankering for more details on the Cash-Carter dynasty should pick up Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? by journalist Charles Hirshberg and filmmaker Mark Zwonitzer. Recently released in paperback, the biography, which was a National Book Critics Circle Finalist in 2002, takes an in-depth look at the humble beginnings, heavenly harmonies and history-making careers of the Carter Family. A.P., Sara and Maybelle Carter (June’s mother) entered the world of country music as a trio starting in the 1920s. This fluid account of their lives, both personal and musical, begins with patriarch A.P.’s birth in southern Virginia in 1891 and continues into the 1970s, creating a context for the folk tunes they made famous (“Wildwood Flower,” “Wabash Cannonball”), examining seminal recording sessions and offering a wonderful overview of the cultural forces that influenced American roots music. With their dolorous ballads and gentle instrumentals, their hymns and laments, the Carters helped to shape the sounds of the 20th century. Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? explains how and why their delicate melodies endure. Julie Hale writes from Austin, Texas.