Sunday, May 01, 2022

Peggy Lee: Is That All There Is?

This is a third and final choice of a Sunday music video inspired by some of my mother's favourite songs.

Is That All There Is? must have appeared in the house when I was nine, and I remember thinking it wonderfully grown up.

Today I note that it was written by the classic team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and that the arrangement was by Randy Newman, who also plays the piano. And Peggy Lee's performance is simply perfect.

Is that all there is? was the last thing I thought after my mother's funeral, which went off wonderfully and brought home to me just how much she had done with her life.

As to theological questions, family legend has it that when one of my Dissenting great-grandmothers was dying the minister came to see her and she told him he knew no more about the afterlife than she did. I think that's the only sensible position to take,

1 comment:

Phil Beesley said...

Your mother had good taste.

I first learned the song from Cristina's 1980 version. Leiber and Stoller originally withdrew publishing rights for the splendid recording.