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Interviewer's Preface: Recently I had the good
fortune to interview an icon of popular music: Peggy
March. Or, "Little" Peggy March, as she was
introduced to the world as a mere toddler. Peggy, born
Margaret Annemarie Battavio, March 8th, 1948, in Lansdale, a
medium-sized town in the American state of Pennsylvania, was
made for show business. At age 5, she began her lifelong,
focused passion of music making which she still continues
today. Peggy's latest CD, called GET HAPPY, is a wonderful
grab-bag of carefully chosen standards from the Tin Pan Alley
and Rock eras. It-- she-- sounds sensational. Her power,
range, clarity, verve, flexibility have not been touched by
the demands of a career that has spanned over four decades. In
fact, her voice may be better today than ever. How many Rock
and Pop divas, who "broke big" in the 1960's-- name
every name-- can you make that claim about? She has always
been a beauty and a fashion plate-- and still looks like
dynamite today. Americans will know her as the winsome kid who
had an international smash in 1963 with "I Will Follow
Him". The song came at the climax of the American
"Girl Group" sound, and it is certain that many
Americans will think of "I Will Follow Him" as a
Girl Group record. They might be surprised to know that today
in Germany and Japan, she remains a superstar and an icon:
inundated by the British Invasion of the mid-1960's, Peggy
found a career elsewhere, and she has emerged the better for
it. We spoke by telephone in late April, 2005, she at her home
in Florida, myself at my home in central Texas.
Peggy March
David Lincoln Brooks: You're an amazing person. Your career
has crossed every border, every generational group. You hold
the world's record as being the youngest female artist ever to
hold a #1 record around the world simultaneously. You have
sung not only confidently, but fluently in a handful of world
languages. In fact, the only singer in your league here might
be Connie Francis...
Peggy March: ...except she did her foreign language records in
the Sixties, then was done with them. I moved to Europe where
I was actually part of the local pop scenes and had hits in
German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish... and, in Japan, in Japanese.
I did record in French but didn't follow it up.
DLB: How did you get the nickname "Little" Peggy
March?
PM: Firstly, I hated that name! I had been performing for
years as "Peggy Battavio "... I did many and sang on
numerous local television shows, like Rex Tailor's Show and
appeared with Sally Star, Chief Halftown and the Tune Dusters.
So I had a career long before "I Will Follow Him".
"Little" was the nickname given to me by Hugo &
Luigi... but we're getting ahead of ourselves...
DLB: Your name at birth was "Margaret Annemarie
Battavio". So your parents were Italian-American. Just
how "old world" was the household in which you grew
up?
PM: Not very, actually, my paternal grandmother was
Pennsylvania Dutch. My maternal grandparents were both
Sicilian, and spoke Sicilian.
DLB: You mean--
PM: Yes, Sicilian is a different language, and it's the one I
learned as a child. Italians, as you know, are very secular;
each region has a dialect that identifies who you are. I
remember telling the execs at RCA Italia that I was
half-Sicilian and they didn't take too well to that. But the
fact that my grandfather came from Abruzza won them over.
DLB: Languages have always come easily for you, haven't they?
You actually knew German and Japanese long before you ever set
foot in those countries, right?
PM: Well, sort of. In Eighth Grade, a Student Language program
was offered in Lansdale, and I decided to take up German. I
don't know why.
DLB: ...and the Japanese?
Peggy in concert
PM: Oh, you'll love this story: In Lansdale, Pennsylvania,
there was a large chick-sexing factory near my home. You know
what chick-sexing is? Determining the sex of chickens? All the
workers there were Japanese. And after "I Will Follow
Him" became a huge hit, I was asked to record it in
Japanese as well as an album worth of songs and one of the
Japanese families in Lansdale offered to help with the
pronunciation of the words.
DLB: When did things really start to "take off" for
you?
PM: I'd say it was when I joined the Tony Grant's Stars of
Tomorrow at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey. I had
taken vocal lessons for some years with Verna Kerr, a
well-known coach at the time, who discovered me at age five,
singing for the Women's Auxiliary League. She networked her
kids-- about age six to age eight-- for the Steel Pier Show.
DLB: What do you remember about that time?
PM: I mainly remember that my father hated traveling. He had
been in the Navy in World War II, spending ALL his time aboard
ships. I remember hating the fact that, there I was, on the
beach, but I couldn't go in swimming... it was a bummer. The
water upset my sinuses and interfered with my ability to sing
well. My repertoire at the time was mostly Western songs... I
was gradually amassing a repertoire that would serve me well
all my life. My singing style was very natural... just like
the kid in BEACHES, who grows up into Bette Midler!
DLB: Were you getting paid at this time?
PM: No!
DLB: How did things change for you?
PM: I was 13, and singing at a wedding reception, when I was
approached by a man named Russ Smith. He boasted of having
recorded Al Martino (which I later found out was a lie). He
told my parents he wanted to manage me. My Dad at first said
an emphatic "No!". Dad finally gave in after I
begged and begged, but Russ Smith also was assigned to be my
legal guardian because of the Coogan law.
DLB: ...named after the 1930's child star Jackie Coogan..?
PM: Yes. The Coogan Law, as it stood at the time, forbade
parents to manage their kid-star's money. Jackie Coogan had
reached 18, found himself penniless, even though he'd earned
millions for the studios. So he sued his parents in 1939-- and
won!
DLB: Did you like Russ Smith at the time?
Peggy and Perry Como
PM: Hmm... "like" him? I remember he was
short and he smoked. And he played mind games with people, I
later discovered. For example, while he was managing me, he
gave me no spending money but gave his wife $100 a week, as
well as buying new furniture for his house, and subsidizing
other artists; I had to petition dresses from him... and I was
not allowed a voice in what I was to wear! I had to do a lot
of things I didn't like to do.
DLB: What was your first recording with Russ Smith as your
manager?
PM: Well, it was Russ who introduced me to Hugo [Peretti]
& Luigi [Creatore]. Hugo and Luigi were an amazing
production team who worked largely for RCA records in the
1950's and early 60's. They had created numerous hit records
for Perry Como and Elvis Presley; they had a huge hit with
"The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by The Tokens. They're
best known for doing all the great records for Sam Cooke:
"You Send Me", "Cupid", "Another
Saturday Night", and all the others. They essentially
made Sam a crossover star.
The first record I did with Hugo and Luigi was called
"Little Me". It came out in 1962. I guess it was
because of the song's title that I got the nickname,
"Little" Peggy March. But also, I was only 13, and
stood 4'10" at the time. They had said
"Battavio" is just too long... you need something
shorter and snappier... "When's your birthday?" They
asked me. "March 8th", I said. "Okay, from now
on, you're 'Little' Peggy March."
"Little Me" was a song taken from a successful
Broadway show that Sid Caesar was currently doing, in which he
played seven different comedic roles. The record "Little
Me" only lasted three weeks on the charts; it was just an
uncommercial project... it had an odd melody... it just wasn't
"hook-y" enough for Top 40.
It was around that time that we had a meeting in Hugo &
Luigi's office and saw the lead sheet for an unfamiliar song
sitting on their desk. It was for a French song called
"Chariot". Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox, the
great songwriting team, had given it an English lyric.
The guys said it was my new song, and they were sure that it
would be a hit. I took it home and practiced it over and over,
and my sister remembered that I didn't like it because it was
so repetitious. Of course looking back it is exactly that that
made it a hit!!!
DLB: When was it recorded?
PM: We recorded the song in early January of 1963. Then the
single was actually released on the 22nd of January, 1963.
(Sande, our daughter, was born on January 22nd, 1974). I
remember the record first started "moving"-- getting
airplay-- in Detroit. I remember flying to Detroit to do a
promo on the record... it was my very first plane trip! By
April of 1963, the record was a national smash.
DLB: What was instant fame like?
PM: It was a very exciting time. The music of that time, the
Girl Group era, was different in that it was very... real. Not
like today, where they can make anyone's voice sound like
anything. You could almost say-- I'm not being catty here--
that things are unfair today... Today, an AMERICAN IDOL winner
needs to have sold only 250,000 records to have a #1 hit... In
1963, you had to sell one million records to have a #1 hit!
Times were more demure then, too: I remember, when I appeared
on a Perry Como special, they actually wanted me to wear
gloves!
'I will Follow Him'
commemorative disc
for a million sales
DLB: Speaking of demureness, it must have been a little daring
for a young girl of 15 to issue a song, as you did at the
time, with the title, "I'll Never Forget Last Night"
?
PM: (laughs.) Yes, I suppose it was. But, then again, the
artist Lou Christie-- who happens to be a dear friend of mine,
both then and now-- had a hit around that time with a lyric
that might be construed as suggestive: "Lightnin'
Strikes". And then, of course, the ultimate
suggestive lyric from that period was "Will You Still
Love Me Tomorrow?", written in 1962 for The Shirelles by
Carole King. Everything was suggested, not sung
outright!
DLB: How did RCA follow up on "I Will Follow Him"
?
PM: My grievance has always been that they followed up "I
Will Follow Him" with "I Wish I Were A
Princess"...
DLB: What was wrong with that song? I really like it!
PM: Well, it just wasn't right for me at the time. I
mean, I was already 15 years old, for heaven's sake! I
could see it, say, for a young girl of 9, 10 or 11. But
I was already too mature to be singing such a lyric. No
teenager wants to be reminded that they are not grown up.
DLB: Years later, the director John Waters handpicked that
song for his original movie version of HAIRSPRAY. Were you
happy about that?
PM: Oh, I was very happy!
DLB: How's that?
PM: Well, if you'll remember, in the film, they used the song
as the "theme" song for "the bitch", the
antagonist... the girl we're supposed to hate. (Laughs).
There she is, flipping through all these expensive clothes,
while they play "I Wish I Were A Princess". It
was perfect.
But in 1963, it was the wrong song to follow up with.
They really should have issued, "Hello Heartache, Goodbye
Love" instead, which was a much stronger single.
In fact, it was a very big hit in the UK. But the
powers-that-be said no, and I had no say.
Around that time, the Japanese language version of "I
Will Follow Him" was released, and it made me instantly a
star over there. The Japanese lyric is quite a literal
translation of the English. In the mid-60's, I'd perform
over there, and theaters would be packed... I did TV
shows, concerts, and for a long while I would travel to Japan
twice a year. I had an even bigger hit there, in
1971, with a song called "Wasurenaiwa". Since
then, that song has absolutely become a standard in Japan.
An anthem.
You want to hear a cute story?
DLB: Sure!
Peggy and Dick Clark
PM:
Recently, I was buying some makeup at a department store in
Fort Lauderdale. The woman behind the counter was Asian,
and I immediately recognized that her accent was Japanese.
Well, when she looked at my credit card and saw my name--
she gasped, said "Wasurenaiwa" 'That's my favorite
song'! and blushed a deep red. That's how deeply that
song has affected the Japanese people.
DLB: It must have been in that early "Japanese
period" that you had that lovely record-sleeve photograph
taken... you know, the one of you with a twig of
"sakura"... cherry blossoms... in front of your
face.
PM: Hmmm, if it's the picture I'm thinking of, I hate it!
Because I was sick as a dog that day!
DLB: (laughs.) Now wasn't it around this time that your look
really changed... You grew very svelte and took your hair
blonde? I love the cover of your album NO FOOLIN'.
You look incredibly chic.
PM: Yes, I went blonde at age 19 at the request of Arnie
Harris. Who is now my husband and manager. We've
been together since 1967.
DLB: I've enjoyed corresponding with Arn by email.
He seems like quite a character... larger-than-life in every
way. Tell me how you two met.
PM: Yes, Arnie is a powerhouse. Around 1966,
I discovered, to my horror, that my finances were a disaster.
My then-Manager, Russ Smith, had been pocketing all my money,
even though I was earning millions. My Mom was convinced
that all the people involved, were pocketing money.
So we sued. No punitive damages were permitted. My
parents couldn't help because of the Coogan Law. I
emerged with my freedom-- but with only $500 to my name.
I was only 18.
After that low point, I was self-managed for a time.
I took on, as my producer, Danny Davis, who would later go on
to be very successful for his work with The Nashville Brass.
It was around that time that Norman Racusin of RCA had a
meeting with Arnie Harris, later to be my Manager and
Husband... on March 8th! I remember I showed
up, on March 8th my birthday, and all the secretaries took me
to lunch. Arn was unhappy with me as I recall...
He claimed I was an hour late! (I didn't even know
about the appointment, someone forgot to inform me) He hated
the dress I wore-- a somewhat shapeless, A-line shift...
in lime green. And he hated my "flip"
hairdo.
Arn said he first wanted to see me perform; He wasn't going to
promise me anything. So he arranged for me to perform at
the Concord Hotel in the Catskill mountains. I called my
mother and told her how excited I was that I'd met Arn and I
told her I think I've met my new manager. At the show,
there was an audience of about 3000 people. I wore a
black top with a white chiffon skirt.
After the show, Arn signed on as my manager, on the spot.
We married in 1968, and have been together ever since.
DLB: Did Russ Smith leave you with some nasty outstanding
debts?
PM: After I took Arnie on as my manager, Arn was indeed hit
up, in Europe, by some of Russ's debts. But
gradually Russell Smith faded away, and died about 10 years
ago. My mother sent me a clipping of the obit which did,
in fact, mention my name.
DLB: What did you think about the "British Invasion"
in America in the mid-60's?
PM: Funny you should mention that. The Beatles
really hit big Stateside in 1964. But a year
earlier, in 1963, I was in the UK promoting my single,
"Hello Heartache, Goodbye Love" which was a big hit
over there. I was booked to do a TV show in London
called JUKEBOX JURY, a kind of fun show where a panel of
celebrities listen to various new records and then offer their
opinions on whether the song will be a hit or not.
Well, one of the songs they played for us was a tune called
"She Loves You" by a local group calling themselves
The Beatles. I gave it a listen. And I was
in their country and naturally wanted to make a good
impression, so I smiled broadly and said, "Yes. I
think it will become a huge hit in the US."
But this was a fib, because privately, I hated the
song... I thought that that "Yeah, yeah, yeah"
repetitious business sounded silly! (Laughs.)
DLB: Tell about your German connection...
PM: Well, around the mid-60's, the mood in America changed.
Many clubs in New York and around the country closed, and
America was shaken by the assassinations of The Kennedys and
Martin Luther King. At the time, I began a resurgence of
interest in classical music.
In 1965, I sang a song at the Schlagfest Festival Spiele in
Munich... a beautiful song written for me by Heinz Korn called
"Mit 17 hat man noch Träume"-- "at 17, one
still has dreams".
DLB: I love that song! The lyric is so tender and heartfelt...
sort of a plea for adults to understand the younger
generation...
PM: Yes, exactly. "Mit 17" became a huge hit
in Germany, and even today, every German knows it by heart.
It was even used recently in a TV commercial!
DLB: ...and Italy embraced you...
Peggy under the spotlight
PM: Yes. Besides having a huge hit there with the Italian
version of "I Will Follow Him", around
that time I also sang at the San Remo Song Festival... I
remember I sang two songs: "Passo su Passo" and
"Gli Occhi Tuoi Sono Blu". I followed this
with the Italian version of "Hello Heartache: Perche Te
Ne Vai", which went to #1. I had done an album in '64--
in Italian-- recorded at Rome's RCA Studios; it was produced
by an up-and-coming producer called Ennio Morricone...
DLB: Wow... This was before his work filmscoring for Sergio
Leone...
PM: That's right. Would you believe I still know
all the performers and producers of those festivals, even
today?
DLB: Do you know what song of yours I most love from this
period? "Try To See It My Way"
from 1966. It was written, I know, by Burt
Bacharach and Hal David for their musical TV special,
ON THE FLIP SIDE. In that little movie, the song
is sung as a duet by Joanie Sommers and Ricky Nelson.
It's nice, of course-- it met the dramatic demands of the
show-- But I love your version much, much
more. Your version is more serious, cooler,
smoother; it makes me hear the song in a totally
new way. You also sing a totally different lyric...
PM: Thank you. Well, you know, Burt's songs are always a
little bit... strange. Or should I say
"challenging". They're not always easy to
learn or perform.
DLB: Yes, with their metrical tricks and harmonic
ambiguities. Peggy, I think of your sound as
always being a few years before its time... For example,
I initially guessed "Try To See It My Way" as being
from '68 or so. And another one of my
cherished records of yours, "I've Been Here Before",
I pegged as coming from about 1972 or 3... when in fact you'd
released it in 1968! I also think a lot of your
work from 1968 and 1969 sounds strongly ABBA-esque, even
though they didn't hit until 1974 with "Waterloo".
PM: Thank you! You know one of the best
compliments I ever received was in the mid-1970's.
I happened to meet Annifrid Lyngstad of ABBA-- she was the
darkheaded one, remember?-- while we were both
doing a TV show in Germany. She told me that I had long been
one of her biggest influences!
DLB: That's really cool! Tell me, what aspect of
your work do you like the least?
PM: I'd have to say that I hate practicing.
I love rehearsals. I'm also learning not to be afraid of
mistakes and happenstances during live performances... I love
my live shows today a lot more than I did in the early days.
Just feeling that emotion coming from an audience is great...
whether it be happiness or tears.
DLB: You and Arn have one child, a daughter, correct?
PM: Yes, Sande. She's 31 years old now.
I can remember how she appeared in photographs with me in
German women's magazines, when she was only 1, 2, 3, 4 years
old... She has a great ear for music.
In her younger years she often leaned towards Classical, but
as she's gotten older, she's gotten into Hip-Hop and Big Band.
She initially had decided to become an actress... she studied
theater at Florida State. But as time went on, she discovered
that she really didn't like the business part of California
show-biz. So she's changed her focus... to
Veterinary Science. It's just right for her, and
she's very happy.
DLB: Peggy, what about you... What music do you
listen to today? I've heard Paul Simon say
something to the effect that, had he and Art
"broken out" during the MTV era, they might not have
made it... Do you reckon that's true?
PM: I find myself listening to a lot of Country-Western
music these days. C&W is truly the last
vestige of good good songwriting. Even a
Country crossover hit is better than a straight pop hit. I
think recognizability is so important in pop music, and I just
don't get that in, say, hard rock. Individuality is so
important; in Country, you can always tell the artist. I
personally love Trace Adkins, Jo Dee Messina, Toby Keith,
Keith Urban. I love Tim McGraw... loved his song
"Live Like You Were Dying".
DLB: Lastly, you've recently begun exploring a new art, at
which you're receiving high praise: Watercolors.
PM: Yes. Watercolors was something I always wanted to do,
something I always told myself that I would do when I was
"old and grey" (laughs). One day, Sande
told me, "You're never going to do it if you don't do it
now." So I bought myself a couple of books on
the subject. I found I had a talent for it. A
woman I met at The King's Hotel in Munich owns the largest
framing company in the world... She showed me how to frame
properly so that it really shows off the painting...
As of now, I've had three art exhibitions, in Munich, Nürnberg
and Hamburg. The Süd-Deutsche Zeitung called me "a
multi-talent". It scared me half-to-death, exhibiting my
own art. But I'm gaining in confidence. I'm still honing in on
my own style.
DLB: I'm loving your latest CD...
PM: Yes, it's called GET HAPPY. It's a collection
of lots of different material from the 40s, 50s and 60s, which
my conductor/arranger re-arranged and re-recorded.
DLB: What's next?
PM: Right now, Arnie and I are preparing for a big show in Las
Vegas on May 12th when I open for Don Rickles. After Vegas we
will be going to L.A. to talk to a record label who is very
interested in releasing GET HAPPY.
DLB: Peggy, thank you so very much.
PM: You're welcome. Do you realize our
"45-minute" interview has turned into two hours?!
A glam shot of Peggy
Retrosellers
wishes to thank Peggy March and Arnie Harris for graciously
contributing their time to this interview. Peggy
March's latest CD, GET HAPPY, will be released sometime in
August 2005; RETROSELLERS will have the date for you as soon
as it is confirmed.
Peggy's website is www.peggymarch.net
Her watercolors are also on view there.
Also many thanks go to Wendy Kay at Mars Talent Agency
[www.marstalent.com] for her help in making this interview a
reality. And many thanks to Ms. Terri
Langley-Weber for her indispensable help and support.
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