Back to the future of music and life

What makes a life? Love and friendship, yes, of course. But we make our lives not just with the people we love, but also with the experiences we have: the special places we visit, the foods we eat, the fun and laughter we share. We are the totality of our likes as well as our loves; the music we play loudly, the teams we root for, the causes we support, the dogs and cats we bring into our homes. To really know a person is to know their passions.

But things change over time. Tastes change. Avocados are big today, iceberg lettuce not so much. Music changes. Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra were once enormous stars. Today, young people are likely to ask, “Peggy who?,” or “That old mafia guy?” When the things we loved all our lives draw a blank from our kids, it’s hard not to feel a sense of loss. Fame expires faster than raspberries.

Last week, a packed Hollywood Bowl audience witnessed the musical torch being passed to a new generation, as pop superstar Billie Eilish stepped on stage and told the crowd, “Peggy Lee and

Frank Sinatra changed my life in so many ways.” She then went about proving it by singing a pitchperfect rendition of Lee’s classic, “Fever” before joining rock-icon Debbie (Blondie) Harry in a duet of another Lee hit, “Is That All There Is?” “Well, ‘Fever’ has only been my favorite song for my entire life,” Eilish said during rehearsal the night before the big show. Now, thanks to Billie, maybe it’s someone else’s favorite song.

The evening was billed as a tribute to Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra and featured a diverse bill of talented performers including the brilliant Diane Reeves and a compelling Bettye LaVette, backed by the legendary Count Basie Orchestra. But truth be told, it was 20-year-old Eilish we came to hear.

Ms. Eilish rocketed to the top of the music world at 15. Like all young comets, the naysayers predicted an equally rapid fall. That’s what the snobs said about Frank Sinatra 79 years ago when he became the first pop act to play the Hollywood Bowl. Yet Sinatra’s influence, if not the man himself, lives on. So too pioneering singer/songwriter

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Peggy Lee, thanks to young stars like Michael Bublé, Lady Gaga and Billie Eilish who use their fame and talents to introduce older artists to a new generation.

This is a comfort to those of us with more candles than cake. Each generation learns this melancholy lesson: children always have their own passions, and someday their children will ask, “Who’s Billie Eilish?”

While it is human nature for the young to live in the moment, all artists stand on the shoulders of the giants who came before them. Last week’s Bowl concert gave hope to those of us who love a fast-fading idiom, the Great American Songbook: a young star with intelligence and curiosity wowed 17,500 people singing a Peggy Lee hit from 53 years ago. We want our world to be remembered, even if we are not. This didn’t happen by accident.

Holly Foster Wells is the custodian of Peggy Lee’s musical legacy. She is also Peggy Lee’s granddaughter and the moving force behind the COVIDdelayed centennial celebration of Ms. Lee’s birth, Holly Foster Wells has shepherded new Peggy Lee CD releases, a Grammy Museum retrospective, as well as major tribute concerts at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl and soon Royal Albert Hall in London. “Wherever Peggy is,” Wells told me in a phone interview, “I hope she enjoyed what we did.”

While I’m not psychic, I’m pretty sure Peggy

Lee not only enjoyed the show, she’s gushing with pride over her granddaughter’s vision and tenacity. All lovers of great music are in Holly’s debt.

When we look back on our lives and the touchstones that have made us who we are, it’s not simply wallowing in nostalgia, even if we tend to see our past through rose colored glasses. We are really seeking validation that our lives had meaning, that we have left behind something of value to those who come after us. For one night at least, mission accomplished.

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