Back in the 1950s and 60s, one of the best-known female singers was Peggy Lee. One of her hit songs, written by Mike Stoller and Jerry Lieber, was titled "Is That All There Is?" and it has to be one of the saddest songs ever sung.
 The singer begins by telling of a time in her childhood when she stood on the pavement watching a home burn to the ground. Then she sings: "Is that all there is? If that's all there is ... then let's keep dancing. Let's break out the booze and have a ball. If that's all."
 She speaks again, telling of going to a circus and enjoying seeing the clowns, the trapeze artists, the various animals and so forth. Yet when the entertainment ended and it is time to leave, she sings "Is that all there is?"
 Then she speaks of being in love with "the most wonderful boy in the world." She tells of the joy she had when with him. Then one day he went away and she thought she would die. So she sings hopelessly, "Is that all there is?"
 Toward the end of the song, she says people may ask if her life is so tragic, why doesn't she just end it all? Her answer contains the saddest words of all: "Oh no. Not me. I'm in no hurry for that final disappointment." Yet in the meantime she will keep asking: "Is that all there is?"
 The song was taken from a story by Thomas Mann called "Disillusionment" in which one character says, "Do you know what disillusionment is? Not a miscarriage in small unimportant matters, but the great and general disappointment which everything, all of life, has in store." The character goes on to say that all of the great experiences of his li

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