A Peggy Lee & Ray Charles Time Capsule From 1961

Off topic With Peggy Lee With Quincy Jones

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1. Intro;
2. I Got A (Wo)Man;
3. You Won’t Let Me Go;
4. Just For A Thrill;
5. Yes, Indeed.

Peggy Lee was a huge fan of Ray Charles, who called her “Sister Peggy”. She studio-recorded some of his tunes as early as 1959. A few years later she embedded an extensive Tribute To Ray Charles in her club show. At least two* of these shows, at the Basin Street East club in February 1961, were live-recorded: the February 9 “supper show” Basin Street East Proudly Presents Miss Peggy Lee Recorded At The Fabulous New York Club (Capitol T1520, 1961), and the February 8 “dinner show” Peggy At Basin Street East (Collectors’ Choice CCM 2942, 2002).

Ray at that time was living in New York for a part of the year, and was a participant in Peggy’s late night party entourage – probably thanks to Quincy “Brother Gump” Jones. Q wrote some charts for her, conducted her band when she returned to the Basin Street East in November 1961, and had a wild love affair with her.

Not too long before this second stint at the club, the three of them were part of a dinner event at the Backstreet Restaurant. One of the participants was a Dr. Robert Walters. For some reason, all guests were asked to sign the menu for him. This menu was auctioned in early March, 2018.
RR Auction House decribed the “Ray Charles” doodle (below) as a genuine signature, but that’s a highly questionable authentication. Everybody who knew the Genius, also knew that he never signed anything. Nevertheless, seven or eight similar “signatures” from the years 1961 – 1964 have popped up over the past years.** My best guess is that this pseudo signature was routinely jotted down by Ray’s personal assistant (or “valet” as he was often called), Duke Wade.
The “Mrs” added to the name may have been another result of Wade’s discreet fantasy. It’s much more feasible that the lady was Ray’s current NYC girlfriend (or just one of them).