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.
If I Schould Lose You
June Christy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The stars would fall from the sky
If I should lose you
The leaves would wither and die
The birds in May-time
Would sing a mournful refrain
And I would wander around
With you beside me
The rose would bloom in the snow
With you beside me
No winds of winter would blow
I gave you my love
And I was living a dream
But living would seem in vain
If I lost you
The song "If I Should Lose You" by June Christy is a classic love ballad that speaks about the devastating effect of losing someone you love. The lyrics convey the message that the world would come to an end if the singer lost her lover. The first two lines of the song are particularly striking. They use vivid imagery to describe how catastrophic losing the lover would be. She compares it to the stars falling from the sky and the leaves withering and dying. These are natural calamities that are beyond human control, just like losing someone you love can feel like an uncontrollable event.
The second verse of the song continues the same pattern of comparing the natural world to the emotional turmoil the singer would feel if she lost her lover. The birds that sing joyfully in May would become mournful and sad, reflecting the singer's own sadness. The singer says she would wander around hating the sound of rain, once again invoking nature to express her emotional state.
However, the last verse gives hope. The singer says that with her lover by her side, the rose would bloom even in the snow, and no winds of winter would blow. This line suggests that her love is strong enough to overcome even the harshest of conditions. But the final line of the song brings the song back to the reality that losing her lover would make her life meaningless.
Line by Line Meaning
If I should lose you
Losing you would be devastating to me
The stars would fall from the sky
Losing you would feel like the end of the world
If I should lose you
Losing you would be unbearable
The leaves would wither and die
Without you, life would feel gray and lifeless
The birds in May-time
Even the happy songs of spring would turn mournful
Would sing a mournful refrain
The natural beauty around me would become sad
And I would wander around
I would become lost and aimless
Hating the sound of rain
Even the rain would become a source of pain
With you beside me
My happiness is intertwined with yours
The rose would bloom in the snow
With your love, impossible things become possible
With you beside me
Together, we can weather any storm
No winds of winter would blow
Your presence brings warmth and light to my life
I gave you my love
I devoted myself to you completely
And I was living a dream
Being with you felt like a perfect, happy dream
But living would seem in vain
Without you, life would have no purpose
If I lost you
Losing you would be the worst thing that could happen to me
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: RALPH E GRAHAM
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
ROBERT ATKINSON
SUPERB!!! I love the way she vocally just floats with ease through this entire song and expresses the emotion of "if you were to lose someone" so subtly but effectively. No wild vocal acrobatics or over-the-top ad libs needed And it's interesting how her vocal sound and style in the 1940's differs dramatically from her "Something Cool" days during the 1950s and onward as she matured. I LOVE BOTH SOUNDS!! Chris Connor's version with Stan Kenton is very nice also, as well as I've checked out many others, including my all-time favorite jazz vocalist, Sarah Vaughan, performing this song, and I must say that they are all interesting, but June Christy's version is my personal favorite and at the top of the list. YOU GO, GIRL!! :)
Philip Anderson
serious pitch problems....