The morphing of Norma Deloris Egstrom, born in small-town North Dakota, into legendary singer Peggy Lee is one of the great stories of transformation in American pop history. Produced to commemorate her 80th birthday, Rare Gems and Hidden Treasures gives an impressive cross section of Lee"s versatility. However unfamiliar some of the material (almost half the songs here were never previously released), rest assured you"ll encounter Lee"s trademark imaginative approach: in the way she phrases her softly caressing voice, going from a cool, smoky texture and expert timing à la Billie Holiday (in "Ain"t Doin" Bad Doin" Nothing") to the silly antics of "Blum Blum, I Wonder Who I Am" (where Lee even impersonates an ice-cream cone). Also represented is the very quintessential Afro-Cuban fad of an era past, in the voodoo-ish "Similau"--territory explored in Lee"s 1960 Broadway collection, Latin ala Lee. Surface noise can be heard on some of the tracks, but there are also some lovely remasterings. Even if you"ve already acquired a mountain of Peggy Lee recordings, a real fan won"t want to be without the new discoveries here. --Thomas May