At fifteen, Peggy March became the youngest female artist to top the American music charts — a record that she still holds to this day — with her recording of "I Will Follow Him." The vocalist and songwriter was cheated out of many royalties; but recharged and found new fame as a leading schlager singer in Germany and an in-demand recording artist in Japan — performing in the native tongue. She talks with Justin Kantor about her career achievements and Always and Forever, her first English pop album in thirty years.
This is your first English pop album in quite awhile. How did Always and Forever come together?
When Darren Harvey-Beswick of Night Dance Records approached me, he told me that Soren Jensen was primarily a dance-song producer. I’d never done anything like that — except for a disco album in ’79 that really wasn’t up to par with what was happening. I thought it’d be interesting to do something like this; but I told Darren, the most important thing is the song — no matter what you do.
So, Soren sent me “Every Day’s a New Day.” The lyric wasn’t acceptable. It felt like it was written by someone who didn’t speak English well. I told him, “I like the song; but do you mind if I change a little bit here and there with this line?” I took a lot of what he had and just edited it. It was fun to do. Then he sent me the second song on the album, “I Can’t Say No to You,” and it all started to flow. He started sending me one song after another, and I sent him back lyrics. It became a relationship. This went over a few weeks. It’s what became the album. It’s not like we went in there and said, “This is the kind of album we’re going to make.” It was all done by e-mail.
How did the song “I Still Follow You” come to fruition?
When Darren first told me he wanted a follow-up — pardon the pun — to “I Will Follow Him,” I wasn’t so sure it was a good idea. It sounded corny. Not that I wanted to get away from the song, but I didn’t want to be identified only with that. I thought about it for the longest time, and nothing came to me. One day I was going to take a nap in my living room. My computer was on the dining room table. I started to get the idea for a lyric as I was dozing off. “Oh, please, leave me alone. I just want to go to sleep now!” One line after another kept coming up until I finally said, “Okay, I’ll get up!” So, I went to the computer and literally wrote the lyric in twenty minutes. I sent it to Soren, and he had a melody the next morning!
Article comments
1 - Pennelainer
Fascinating account of what Little Peggy March has been doing all these years. She certainly has been a very busy and successful lady!
2 - Baby
I think it is totally amazing that someone like Peggy is so talented that she can write a song that good in just 20 minutes. I have heard other instances of people being able to do this. Like the song "All the gold in California" was written in 30 minutes on a plane ride. My hat is off to the people like Peggy, and I thank them.
3 - Jen Green
Thank you so much for this incredibly in depth article! What a great account of the career of an American legend. I'm so happy to hear about all the success she's had, and I can't wait to go out and find her new album.
4 - Justin Kantor
Thank you all! Also check page two of the article for the BlogTalkRadio player, if you want to hear the full interview (including some questions that I couldn't fit into the article for length considerations!) You can purchase the new album digitally on Amazon. Don't know why it's not showing up anymore with the article; I had included it! The physical CD is available on Amazon's UK site, or on Peggy's official site.