William Clarence Eckstine was an American jazz and pop singer and a bandleader during the swing and bebop eras. He was noted for his rich, almost operatic bass-baritone voice. In 2019, Eckstine was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award "for performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording." His recording of "I Apologize" was given the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999. The New York Times described him as an "influential band leader" whose "suave bass-baritone" and "full-throated, sugary approach to popular songs inspired singers like Earl Coleman, Johnny Hartman, Joe Williams, Arthur Prysock, and Lou Rawls."

Peabody High School was a public school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the neighborhood of East Liberty. The school opened in 1911 in the renovated former Margaretta Street elementary school and was rededicated in honor of Highland Park physician Dr. Benjamin Helm Peabody. After 100 years in operation, the school board of the Pittsburgh Public Schools voted to close the school and graduate its final class in 2011.