Cruise studied French horn at Drake University and performed as a singer and actress in New York, where she also worked as a talent scout for Angelo Badalamenti. In 1985, Badalamenti was composing the score for David Lynch's Blue Velvet, as well as serving as the vocal coach for the film's star, Isabella Rossellini. A key scene in Blue Velvet was intended to feature Song to the Siren by This Mortal Coil, but when the rights to the song proved prohibitively expensive, it was suggested that Badalamenti compose a pop song in the same style, with lyrics written by Lynch. Because the song required a vocalist with a haunting, ethereal voice, Badalamenti recommended Julee Cruise, who had sung "like an angel" in a New York theater workshop that Badalamenti had produced. The result of their initial collaboration was "Mysteries of Love", which figures prominently in Blue Velvet's closing scenes.
Positive reaction to "Mysteries of Love" led Badalamenti and Lynch to write and produce additional songs for Cruise, most of which were featured in her debut album, Floating Into the Night. The album was released on 12 September 1989 by Warner Bros. Records, and charted on Billboard the following year. A moody, tightly structured collection of pop songs with lush, idiosyncratic orchestrations and intentionally retro lyrics, Floating Into the Night became a favorite of such musicians as Tim Booth, lead singer of the band James, and techno artist Moby, who would go on to collaborate with Cruise on the unreleased track "Drown Disco". It also provided musical material for two of Lynch's other projects. The first was Industrial Symphony No. 1, a dark, intentionally obscure performance piece in which Cruise performed while "floating" from a harness dozens of feet above a stage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
The second, more significant project was the soundtrack to Lynch's Twin Peaks, for which Badalamenti composed the original score. The song "Falling", which became the orchestral theme for the television series, caused a minor sensation, winning a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental, while the Twin Peaks soundtrack, featuring Cruise on the songs "Into the Night" and "The Nightingale" as well as on the vocal version of "Falling", eventually became the best-selling television soundtrack of all time. Cruise made a number of appearances on Twin Peaks as a girl singer at a local bar, and was prominently featured in the show's landmark pilot episode, as well as in 1992's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.
The campy but unsettling "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart", the second single from Floating Into the Night, was released in 1990. Cruise also made a controversial appearance on Saturday Night Live on 12 May 1990, when scheduled performer SinΓ©ad O'Connor refused to appear on the same show as guest host Andrew Dice Clay. The following year, Cruise recorded a Lynch- and Badalamenti-produced cover of the Elvis Presley song "Summer Kisses, Winter Tears" for the soundtrack of Wim Wenders's Until the End of the World. Afterwards, Cruise maintained a relatively low profile until her second album, The Voice of Love, was released in 1993. To many listeners and reviewers, this album suffered in comparison to its predecessor, possibly due to the numerous other projects competing for Lynch and Badalamenti's attention. Many of the tracks were little more than instrumentals from Wild at Heart or Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me with added vocals. However, several songs, notably "Questions in a World of Blue", are ranked by fans among Cruise's best.
Cruise's early collaborations with Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch were closely related to Lynch's film work, and their lyrics often reflect this. For example, "Into the Night" begins with the whispered words "Now it's dark", a line which was repeatedly spoken by Frank Booth, Dennis Hopper's character, in Blue Velvet. Lynch also photographed Cruise for the liner notes of Floating Into the Night and The Voice of Love, and created the sculptures featured on the covers of both albums.
The following decade found Cruise lending her vocals to works by a more miscellaneous list of collaborators, mostly in techno and dance music. She provided vocals and lyrics to several of the songs on Wide Angle, the debut album by Welsh electronic music group Hybrid, notably the epic techno track "If I Survive". She also appeared on two albums by dance artist Khan. The lyrics for many of these songs, such as "Body Dump", reflect Cruise's own interest in true crime. She appears on a number of tracks on the 2003 album "Dreams Top Rock" by German post-rock act Pluramon.
Cruise also acted and sang in the Off Broadway cast of Return to the Forbidden Planet, a spoof of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, and toured with the B-52s in 1992 and 1993.
Cruise's long-delayed third album, The Art of Being a Girl, was released in 2002. This was the first of her albums for which Badalamenti and Lynch did not produce or write any of the music, with music and lyrics for each of the songs being written by Cruise herself (with the exception of an updated version of her classic single "Falling") and guest produced by Rick Strom and Mocean Worker. The following year, Cruise's song "The World Spins" was featured in an extended ballet sequence in Robert Altman's The Company.
Cruise passed away on June 9, 2022 at age 65.
Floating
Julee Cruise Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I burst in flame and burned
I'm floating
Love has set our hearts aflame
Burn like the sun
We're floating as one...
Floating
Floating with you.
Ever since you kissed my eyes
I find myself alive
I'm floating
Ever since I held your face
I soar through space,
I'm floating with you...
Floating
Floating
Floating with you.
(spoken)
Why don't you come over to my house?
Please...
Love has set our hearts aflame
Burn like the sun
We're floating as one...
Floating
Floating
Floating with you.
In the song "Floating" by Julee Cruise, she describes the feeling of being in love as floating. The lyrics convey the idea that when she heard her lover's secret name, she burst into flames and burned, perhaps as a metaphor for feeling overwhelmed with passion. The repetition of the word "floating" throughout the song emphasizes the feeling of being weightless and free.
Cruise's description of being in love is vivid and intense. The lines "Love has set our hearts aflame, Burn like the sun," suggest the passion and heat that comes with falling in love. The use of the word "aflame" is particularly powerful, as it evokes both the intensity of the experience and the idea of being consumed by it.
The song also has a dream-like quality to it, with its ethereal music and Cruise's otherworldly vocals. The lines "Ever since you kissed my eyes, I find myself alive," and "Ever since I held your face, I soar through space," suggest the idea of being transported to another world through love. The image of soaring through space is particularly powerful, as it conveys both the feeling of weightlessness and the idea of exploring uncharted territory.
Overall, "Floating" is a beautiful and poetic tribute to the power of love.
Line by Line Meaning
When you told your secret name
The singer was deeply affected when the person she loves revealed something very personal about themselves.
I burst in flame and burned
The singer's emotions flared up intensely when they heard their loved one's secret name, causing them to feel as though they were on fire.
I'm floating
The singer is in a state of pure bliss and weightlessness as a result of their love for this person.
Love has set our hearts aflame
The love between the two people is powerful and intense, burning like fire.
Burn like the sun
Their love is bright and hot, like the sun itself.
We're floating as one...
The two people are completely connected and united in their feelings for each other, feeling as though they are floating through life together.
Ever since you kissed my eyes
The person's love was awakened by a romantic gesture and has been thriving ever since.
I find myself alive
Through their love, the artist has discovered a new sense of vitality and energy in their life.
Ever since I held your face
The artist has been endlessly captivated and enamored by their loved one ever since they first touched them.
I soar through space,
The artist feels free and unencumbered as though they are flying through the cosmos.
Floating with you...
The singer and their loved one are happily, euphorically floating through life together.
(spoken) Why don't you come over to my house? Please...
The artist is inviting their loved one into their personal space, hoping to intimately deepen their bond.
Lyrics Β© Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: ANGELO BADALAMENTI, DAVID K. LYNCH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@paulobrian7799
RIP, Julee Cruise. Thank you for your memorable, haunting work.
@ingwermiez
RIP Julee, my heart is broken.
@momokatran3495
RIP you and your voice are eternal
@keironhiggspoet
"ever since you kissed my eyes, i find myself alive"
such a beautiful take on a already wonderful track. RIP to Julee cruise and Angelo now.
@blaggard132
So Incredibly Beautiful.
@Dale_Blackburn
This song is the best thing ever happened musically on the Planet!! This huge emotions! Oh my god! Lynch, Angelo! They must be gods!
@MrHumanracin
Adore Julee, very under rated these days. Her 3 albums are all magical...
@juleecruise5703
MrHumanracin thats so very kind of you, but the fact is, Im very sick, I cant stand up, I have SLE, I hope I can make it through this flare, but I have So Many Cool People like you, Im doing pretty good.....β‘
@MrHumanracin
So sorry to hear you are unwell Julee, you're one of my all time favourite singers, love your music. Hope things get better for you, sending love your way xo xo
@juleecruise5703
MrHumanracin 4 albums, And 34 soundtracks, Countless Guest Spots Feat. And Im so Lucky!