From Chapter 5: "Is That All There Is?" from 1969 was Peggy Lee's last of three pop hits over the course of her career, and it's a fitting ending. How often in our lives do we feel let down, our expectations unmet, our joyous anticipation a cruel joke? But I'm not here to talk about online dating...
The song was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, the Rodgers and Hammerstein of pop music. The lyrics suggest that, instead of worrying about life, we should "break out the booze and have a ball, if that's all there is." Words to live by (especially if you're online dating). Randy Newman conducted the orchestra that accompanies Miss Lee, and also did the musical arrangement.
Peggy Lee's other two charting songs in the "rock era" were "Mr. Wonderful" in 1956 and, of course, "Fever," from 1958. If you've never sung along to "Fever" while drunk, well, you just haven't lived. So break out the booze and have a ball.
In Cusp, Karen absentmindedly flips through old 45s in the den while on the phone with her friend Gwen. This is one of three she finds, and it brings back memories: "What fun I used to have hamming it up to that
one."
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