Peggy Lee - Is That All There Is

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   I have finally acquired a promo copy of this rather left-field, #11 BB 

peaking, Nov. 1969 pop hit. Mainly just to confirm there was no 

short/long DJ 45 configuration present, given its longish-for-the-era run 

time, and even though I never remember hearing a shorter version on the 

radio when it was current.

I can now confirm this fact. "Is That All There Is" appears on only one side 

of my promo 45. And, like my stock 45, it is stereo, confirmed as Capitol 

2602, and has both a listed and actual time of (4:19). Promo 45 deadwax: 

"S-45-71710-A-1". Stock 45 deadwax: "S45-71710-W1 #5".

According to Lee's website (via Jerry Stoller's son, Peter) Lee had nailed a 

"perfect take" of the song. But, alas, the sound engineer had forgotten to 

turn the recorder on for the take! All told, after about 3 dozen takes, Lee 

herself played on the title, and announced to the room, "That's all there is, 

boys!", and called it a day. From there, at least a dozen edits were utilized 

to create the final master, and is the reason cited for those who complain 

about heavy tape hiss being present.

I believe this to be among the last big hits for the legendary songwriting 

duo of Mike Leiber & Stoller, who also produced Lee's hit version. This 

song had initially been released as an A-side in early 1968, as Epic 

10297, by longtime NYC DJ "Dandy Dan" Daniel, who was on-air at WMCA 

at the time. It stiffed out, although his station did chart it for three weeks 

(even though the 45 wrongly spelled his name as "Dan Daniels".) For 

anyone curious, his version can be heard on YouTube.        

Although similar in song style, Daniel's lyrical delivery was far more stiff 

and disconnected, and ended with a totally ineffective, forced, demented-

sounding cackle/laugh by him, repeated over and over. It fell totally flat. 

This song was clearly meant to be sung by a woman, by a seasoned 

recording artist used to both taking lyrics to heart, and bringing a song to 

life. Its reflective tone was also crying out to be sung "straight", and not in 

the quasi-novelty way that Daniel presented it. (Perhaps this wasn't 

Daniel's fault, however, as Leiber/Stoller didn't produce his version.) I 

wasn't a big fan of this song back in 1969, but I appreciate it far more 

today. And that only increased 1000-fold, after hearing the original (with 

all respect to one of the very best DJs ever - Dan was just out of his 

element as a recording artist here, that's all.) 