Julie London (née Peck; September 26,1926 — October 18, 2000) was an Ameri… Read Full Bio ↴Julie London (née Peck; September 26,1926 — October 18, 2000) was an American jazz and pop singer and actress. She was noted for her smoky, sensual voice and languid demeanor. She released 32 albums of pop and jazz standards during the 1950s and 1960s, with her signature song being the classic "Cry Me a River," which she introduced in 1955.

London's 35-year acting career began in films in 1944 and included playing opposite Gary Cooper in Man of the West (1958) and Robert Mitchum in The Wonderful Country (1959). She achieved continuing success in the TV medical drama Emergency! (1972–1979), co-starring her real-life husband, Bobby Troup, and produced by her ex-husband, Jack Webb, in which London played the female lead role of nurse Dixie McCall. She and Randolph Mantooth, who played one-half of her medical students, a paramedic, in the series, were very close to her family, until her death in 2000.

Born in Santa Rosa, California, she was the daughter of Jack and Josephine Peck, who were a vaudeville song-and-dance team. When she was fourteen the family moved to Los Angeles. Shortly after that, she began appearing in movies. She graduated from the Hollywood Professional High School in 1945.

London began singing under the name Gayle Peck in public in her teens before appearing in a film. She was discovered by talent agent Sue Carol (wife of actor Alan Ladd), while working as an elevator operator. Her early film career, however, did not include any singing roles.
London recorded 32 albums in a career that began in 1955 with a live performance at the 881 Club in Los Angeles. Billboard named her the most popular female vocalist for 1955, 1956, and 1957. She was the subject of a 1957 Life cover article in which she was quoted as saying, "It's only a thimbleful of a voice, and I have to use it close to the microphone. But it is a kind of oversmoked voice, and it automatically sounds intimate."
London's debut recordings were for the Bethlehem Records label. While shopping for a record deal, she recorded four tracks that would later be included on the compilation album Bethlehem's Girlfriends in 1955. Bobby Troup backed London on the album, for which London recorded the standards "Don't Worry About Me", "Motherless Child", "A Foggy Day", and "You're Blasé".
London's most famous single, "Cry Me a River", was written by her high-school classmate Arthur Hamilton and produced by Troup. The recording became a million-seller after its release in December 1955 and also sold on reissue in April 1983 from the attention brought by a Mari Wilson cover. London performed the song in the film The Girl Can't Help It (1956), and her recording gained later attention in the films Passion of Mind (2000) and V for Vendetta (2006). The song "Yummy Yummy Yummy" was featured on the HBO television series Six Feet Under and appears on its soundtrack album. London's "Must Be Catchin'" was featured in the 2011 premiere episode of the ABC series Pan Am. Her last recording was "My Funny Valentine" for the soundtrack of the Burt Reynolds film Sharky's Machine (1981).
Other popular singles include "Hot Toddy", "Daddy", and "Desafinado". Recordings such as "Go Slow" epitomized her career style: her voice is slow, smoky, and playfully sensual.

She was married to Jack Webb, of Dragnet fame. Her obvious beauty and self-poise (she was a pinup girl prized by GIs during World War II) contrasted with his pedestrian appearance and stiff-as-a-board acting technique (much parodied by impersonators). This unlikely pairing arose from his and her love for jazz; their marriage lasted from July 1947 to November 1953. They had two daughters, one who was killed in a traffic accident in the 1990s and one who survived London. In 1954, having become somewhat reclusive after her divorce from Jack Webb, she met jazz composer and musician Bobby Troup at a club on La Brea Blvd. They married on December 31, 1959 and remained married until Troup's death in February 1999. Together, they had one daughter and twin sons.

London suffered a stroke in 1995, and was in poor health until her death in Encino, California, at the age of seventy-four, survived by four of her five children. She died on18th October 2000, and was buried in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Blame It on My Youth
Julie London Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

If I expected love when first we kissed,
Blame it on my youth.
If only for you I did exist,
Blame it on my youth.

I believed in everything,
Like a child of three;
You meant more than anything,

All the world to me!

If you were on my mind all night and day,
Blame it on my youth.
If I forgot to eat and sleep and pray,
Blame it on my youth.

If I cried a little bit
When first I learned the truth,
Don't blame it on my heart,
Blame it on my youth.

If I cried a little bit
When first I learned the truth,

Don't blame it on my heart,
Blame it on my youth.

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of the song "Blame It on My Youth" by Julie London are a nostalgic look back on a first love that didn't work out. The singer blames their own youth for their naivety and belief in love. They believed in everything like a young child, and their first love meant everything to them. They couldn't help but think about their love all the time and forgot about basic necessities like eating and sleeping. When they found out that the love wasn't reciprocated or didn't last, they cried a little bit but attribute it to their inexperience with heartbreak.

The singer uses their youth as an explanation for their actions and emotions, essentially saying that they didn't know any better. The theme of youth and inexperience with love is a common one in music, but this song takes a more introspective approach than most. The tone of the song is melancholy and regretful, adding to the sense of nostalgia and hindsight. The lyrics are simple yet effective in conveying the singer's emotions.

Line by Line Meaning

If I expected love when first we kissed,
I shouldn't have believed that a kiss meant love, but I was young and foolish.

Blame it on my youth.
I was naive and inexperienced, so I made mistakes.

If only for you I did exist,
You were my entire world, my reason for being.

I believed in everything,
I was gullible and trusting, believing everything I was told.

Like a child of three;
I was as innocent and vulnerable as a young child.

You meant more than anything,
You were the most important thing in my life, above all else.

All the world to me!
You were my world, my everything.

If you were on my mind all night and day,
I couldn't stop thinking about you, even when I needed to rest.

If I forgot to eat and sleep and pray,
You consumed my thoughts so much that I even neglected my basic needs.

If I cried a little bit
I shed tears

When first I learned the truth,
When I finally discovered what was really going on.