In honor of the 60th anniversary of Peggy Lee’s 1966 album Guitars à la Lee, the jazz icon’s estate is celebrating with a new digital EP, My Guitar à la Lee, out August 21 via Capitol Records and Universal Music Enterprises (UMe).
The five-song project digs into Capitol Records’ archives to spotlight an earlier creative path for one of the album’s key songs. At its center are two previously unheard versions of “My Guitar,” recorded in 1961 during sessions for If You Go and arranged and conducted by fellow music icon Quincy Jones. The takes were ultimately shelved at the time and have remained in the vault ever since.
The recordings have now been restored and remastered from the original Capitol session tapes by Robert Vosgien of RV Mastering, bringing them into circulation more than 60 years after they were first cut in Hollywood.
Hearing the two early versions alongside the later 1966 release highlights how the song evolved across different phases of Lee’s career. The 1961 sessions present a more exploratory approach, before she revisited and reworked the track years later for Guitars à la Lee, with legendary guitarist Bob Bain shaping its final arrangement.
“These recordings show my grandmother still searching for the song’s final shape, five years before she found it,” Holly Foster Wells, Lee’s granddaughter and president of Peggy Lee Associates, shared. “Hearing both takes side by side is like watching her think.”
The EP also includes three tracks from the original Guitars à la Lee album — “Sweet Happy Life,” “Nice ‘n’ Easy,” and an interpretation of Tony Hatch’s “Call Me.”
Originally released in 1966, Guitars à la Lee paired the singer with seven guitarists, including Bain, Laurindo Almeida, Herb Ellis, and Al Hendrickson. The concept album explored the instrument through a blend of jazz, Brazilian and Latin influences, bossa nova, pop, and standards, placing the guitar alongside Lee’s distinctive vocals.
My Guitar à la Lee follows another recent celebration of Lee’s 1966 catalog. Last month, her “Big Spender” hit received a club-ready remix by electronic producer duo Girl Math in honor of the recording’s 60th anniversary. The remix was accompanied by an animated visualizer inspired by the Bob Fosse-choreographed dance sequence in 1966’s Sweet Charity musical.
Listen to Peggy Lee’s My Guitar à la Lee here.
