Peggy Lee, “is that all there is?”

Description

Peggy Lee was 49 years old when Capitol Records released Is That All There Is? in 1969. It was her 42nd album, and it had been over 10 years since the singer born Norma Deloris Egstrom, in 1920, had last graced the US Top 40 with her presence; her sultry take on Little Willie John’s “Fever” scaled the upper echelons of the American hit parade in 1958.
But Lee, a country girl with Scandinavian ancestry who hailed from the plains of North Dakota, had more in the tank. The haunting and idiosyncratic “Is That All There Is?” (inspired by a short story called Disillusionment from German writer Thomas Mann) captured the public imagination when it was released as a single in the States and started climbing the pop charts, where it peaked at No.11. Such was the song’s impact that it won Lee a Grammy Award in the category of Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance in 1970. Its success was a surprise to Capitol, who thought the song was too odd and esoteric to be a hit.