Shirley Luster was born in Springfield, Illinois, and moved with her family to Decatur, Illinois, when she was three years old. She began to sing with the Decatur-based Bill Oetzel Orchestra at thirteen. While attending Decatur High School she appeared with Oetzel and his society band, the Ben Bradley Band, and Bill Madden's Band. After high school she moved to Chicago, changed her name to Sharon Leslie, and sang with a group led by Boyd Raeburn. Later she joined Benny Strong's band. In 1944, Strong's band moved to New York at the same time Christy was quarantined in Chicago with scarlet fever.
In 1945, after hearing that Anita O'Day had left Stan Kenton's Orchestra, she auditioned and was chosen for the role as a vocalist. During this time, she changed her name once again, becoming June Christy.
Her voice produced successful hits such as "Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy," the million-selling "Tampico" in 1945, and "How High the Moon". "Tampico" was Kenton's biggest-selling record. When the Kenton Band temporarily disbanded in 1948, she sang in nightclubs for a short time, and reunited with the band two years later in 1950.
Beginning Sept. 28, 1959, Christy began a five-week road tour of 38 performances called "Road Show". The all-star billing: Stan Kenton and his orchestra, June Christy, The Four Freshmen. Capitol recorded highlights on October 10 at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, for a two-disc LP, reissued in 1991 on CD.
From 1947, she started to work on her own records, primarily with arranger and bandleader Pete Rugolo. In 1954, she released a 10" LP entitled Something Cool, recorded with Rugolo and his orchestra, a gathering of notable Los Angeles jazz musicians that included her husband, multi-instrumentalist Bob Cooper and alto saxophonist Bud Shank. Something Cool was re-released as a 12" LP in 1955 with additional selections, and then entirely rerecorded in stereo in 1960 with a somewhat different personnel. Christy would later say that the album was "the only thing I've recorded that I'm not unhappy with." Something Cool was also important in launching the vocal cool movement of the 1950s, and it hit the Top 20 Charts, as did her third album, The Misty Miss Christy.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Christy appeared on a number of television programs, including the short-lived CBS show Adventures in Jazz (1949), Eddie Condon's Floor Show (1949), The Jackie Gleason Show (1953), The Tonight Show (1955), The Nat King Cole Show (1957), Stars of Jazz (1958), The Steve Allen Show (1959), The Lively Ones (1963). and The Joey Bishop Show (1967). She also appeared on the first sponsored jazz concert on television, The Timex All-Star Jazz Show I (December 30, 1957), which also featured Louis Armstrong, Carmen McRae, Duke Ellington and Gene Krupa.
Christy embarked on dozens of concert tours, playing in Europe, South Africa, Australia and Japan. She toured to such an extent that eventually it began taking a toll on her marriage. She began to pull back from touring in the early 1960s.
R.M. Cook and Brian Morton, writers of The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings, appreciated the singer's body of work: "Christy's wholesome but particularly sensuous voice is less an improviser's vehicle than an instrument for long, controlled lines and the shading of a fine vibrato. Her greatest moments—the heartbreaking 'Something Cool' itself, 'Midnight Sun,' 'I Should Care'—are as close to creating definitive interpretations as any singer can come."
Christy semi-retired from the music business in 1969, in part due to her battle with alcoholism.
In 1972, she sang at the Newport Jazz Festival in New York City, where she was reunited with the Kenton Orchestra. She also performed at a handful of jazz festivals during the late 1970s and 1980s, playing with a band of all-star West Coast jazz musicians led by Shorty Rogers, as well as taking part in a number of world tours.
Christy returned to the recording studio in 1977 to record her final solo LP, Impromptu. She recorded an interview for a Paul Cacia produced an album in 1987 called "The Alumni Tribute to Stan Kenton" on the Happy Hour label. A number of other Kenton the alumni-Shorty Rogers, Lee Konitz, Jack Sheldon, among them, plus Mort Sahl - interspersed their tunes with reminiscences of the man and the years on the road.
Christy toured one final time in 1988, again with Shorty Rogers. Her final performance was sharing the stage with Chet Baker.
Christy died at her home in Sherman Oaks, California of kidney failure on June 21, 1990, at the age of 64. Her remains were cremated and scattered off the coast of Marina Del Rey.
Easy Living
June Christy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It's easy to live when you're in love
And I'm so in love
There's nothing in life but you
I never regret the years that I'm giving
They're easy to give when you're in love
I'm happy to do, whatever I do for you
For you, maybe I'm a fool, but it's fun
People will say you rule me with one wave of your hand
Darling, it's grand, they just don't understand
Living for you is easy living
It's easy to live when you're in love
And I'm so in love
There's nothing in life but you
The song "Easy Living" by June Christy is a love song that speaks about how easy life becomes when you are in love. The lyrics are simple and yet profound in that they express how love can make even the most difficult things in life seem easy when you have your beloved with you. The singer declares that living for her lover is easy because she is so in love and that there is nothing in life but him. She goes on to say that giving her time and effort to him is not a burden but a joy because she is happy to do whatever it takes to make him happy.
The second verse of the song talks about how some people may view her actions as foolishness, but to her being a fool for love is fun. The people around her may not understand the hold her lover has over her, but to her, it is a grand feeling. The final verse reiterates that living for her lover is easy because of the love that they share. It's a simple song that speaks volumes about the power of love and how it makes life easy.
Line by Line Meaning
Living for you is easy living
It's effortless to live life when you're in love with someone.
It's easy to live when you're in love
When you're in love, everything in your life seems to fall into place and becomes easy to manage.
And I'm so in love
I have deep affection for you.
There's nothing in life but you
My entire life revolves around you and I don't need anyone or anything else.
I never regret the years that I'm giving
I'm happy to devote my life to you without any regrets.
They're easy to give when you're in love
When you're in love with someone, it's effortless to dedicate your life to them.
I'm happy to do, whatever I do for you
I take great pleasure in doing anything and everything for you because of my love for you.
For you, maybe I'm a fool, but it's fun
I may seem foolish to others for being so devoted to you, but it brings me great joy to do so.
People will say you rule me with one wave of your hand
People may believe that you have control over me, and I'm okay with that because I'm devoted to you.
Darling, it's grand, they just don't understand
It doesn't bother me what others think about my love for you because our love is something special that they don't understand.
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Capitol CMG Publishing, Songtrust Ave, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: LEO ROBIN, RALPH RAINGER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Walter Gray
Brilliant version of this great standard.
Thank you so much for sharing. Much appreciated.
HFritzson
I like.