Why Don't You Do Right (Get Me Some Money Too) - Peggy Lee

Why Don't You Do Right (Get Me Some Money Too) - Peggy Lee
2:28
single, 1942
Written by Kansas Joe McCoy and Herb Morand, 1936

Irresistibly fun fact about this song: it is a rewritten version of a song by the Harlem Hamfats jazz band called "The Weed Smoker's Dream."  Here it's a chastisement of a man who can't get his act together.  "If you had prepared twenty years ago / You wouldn't be a-wanderin' from door to door."  Backed here by Benny Goodman's ace band, Lee gives us a vocal of cool, controlled seduction.  It's a torch song, but delivered with a playful yet steely vocal.  She delivers the lines with a mix of sultry restraint and quiet authority, not belting it out, but insinuating.  The phrasing is jazz-perfect: slightly behind the beat, full of nuance.