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.
I Should Care
June Christy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
But I don't because, you see
I have loved and I have learned
And as far as I'm concerned
I should care
I should go around weeping
I should care
Strangely enough I sleep well
'Cept for a dream or two
But, then, I count my sheep well
Funny how sheep can tell you to sleep, so
I should care
I should let it upset me
I should care
But it just doesn't get me
Maybe I should find
Someone as lovely as you
But I should care
And I do
June Christy's song 'I Should Care', written by Sammy Cahn, Axel Stordahl and Paul Weston, portrays a character who believes that she should care about a person who has left her, but surprisingly, she does not. She recognizes that she should pity herself for losing her lover, but acknowledges that she has learned from her experience and is grateful for the love that she has experienced. The song is delivered in a slow and melancholic manner, imbuing a sense of longing and heartbreak in the listener.
The character then expresses that she should be weeping, unable to sleep, and devastated due to the loss, but she is not. While she assures the listener that she sleeps well, her dreams sometimes plague her to the point where she starts counting her sheep. Interestingly, she wonders why sheep have the ability to help someone sleep. Her ambivalence is captured in “I should care, I should let it upset me, I should care, but it just doesn’t get me.” She struggles with the societal norm that she should care about someone who left her, despite how much she loved them. She contemplates finding someone new, someone as lovely as her ex-lover, but ultimately concludes that she should care, and she does.
Line by Line Meaning
I know I should pity me
I am aware that people may view me as someone to pity
But I don't because, you see
However, I don't feel that way at all
I have loved and I have learned
I have experienced love and the lessons that come with it
And as far as I'm concerned
From my perspective
I should care
I should be upset or affected by it
I should go around weeping
I should be crying all the time
I should care
I should be upset or affected by it
I should go without sleeping
I should be unable to sleep because of it
Strangely enough I sleep well
Oddly, I am able to sleep comfortably
'Cept for a dream or two
Except for a few dreams that I have
But, then, I count my sheep well
But when I do have trouble sleeping, I am able to count sheep effectively
Funny how sheep can tell you to sleep, so
It's interesting how the act of counting sheep can actually help you fall asleep
I should care
I should be upset or affected by it
I should let it upset me
I should allow it to bother me
I should care
I should be upset or affected by it
But it just doesn't get me
But I am not actually affected by it
Maybe I should find
Perhaps I should try to find
Someone as lovely as you
A person who is just as wonderful as you are
But I should care
But I should still be upset or affected by it
And I do
And I am
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, HANOVER MUSIC CORPORATION, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Paul Weston, Sammy Cahn, A Stordahl
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@Michael-zs9hw
I've never heard such a simply elegant voice. So beautiful.
@mauricioduron3193
Impeccable. A valid counterpart to Sarah Vaughan.
@hachinohehorse
Take me back to Tokyo in the late '50's....Times were good.....
@ronbuil6923
One of my favorite comments on Youtube. I'm very envious of you.
@QUABLEDISTOCFICKLEPO
Hachinohehorse
I was assigned to Camp Drake (Asakamachi, Saitamaken) from '55 to '58. I don't know what your experiences were, but those days were happy days for me...outside the Army, of course..
@user-gj2jj9bt1t
こちらは、姉御の登場、悪かろうはずがない、。
云う事なし。