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.
It Never Entered My Mind
June Christy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
That I'd be playing solitaire
Uneasy in my easy chair
It never entered my mind
And once you told me I was mistaken
That I'd awaken with the sun
And ordered orange juice for one
You had what I lack, myself
Now I even have to scratch my back myself
Once you warned me that if you scorned me
I'd say a lonely prayer again
And wish that you were there again
To get into my hair again
It never entered my mind
Once you warned me that if you scorned me
I'd say a lonely prayer again
And wish that you were there again
To get into my hair again
It never entered my mind
June Christy's "It Never Entered My Mind" is a melancholic ballad about love and loss. The song is sung from the point of view of the person who has lost her lover and now regrets and misses him deeply. The opening lines depict the singer laughing off her lover's warning that she would be alone, playing solitaire in her easy chair. She was once nonchalant about his concern, never giving it a second thought. And yet, as she looks back, she now understands that his warnings were valid, and she is left feeling lonely.
The second verse shows how her lover knew her better than she knew herself. He would awaken with the sun and order orange juice for both of them, but she would never wake up in time. She felt guilty for not being able to be on the same page as him, yet she still ignored his warnings.
The final stanza has a conversational tone and repeats the warnings from the second stanza: "Once you warned me that if you scorned me, I'd say a lonely prayer again and wish that you were there again." There is a sense of acceptance from the singer. She knows that she should have listened to her lover's advice, but it never entered her mind until it was too late. The song is a reflection of the human tendency to ignore the signs that their actions or inactions might lead to heartbreak.
Line by Line Meaning
Once I laughed when I heard you saying
I used to find your comments amusing
That I'd be playing solitaire
You suggested I'd be alone and lonely
Uneasy in my easy chair
I'd be restless even when sitting comfortably
It never entered my mind
I didn't take your warning seriously
And once you told me I was mistaken
You said I was wrong about something
That I'd awaken with the sun
I wouldn't be able to sleep in or relax
And ordered orange juice for one
I'd have no one to share my morning routine with
You had what I lack, myself
You had self-confidence that I lacked
Now I even have to scratch my back myself
I'm completely alone and have no one to help me
Once you warned me that if you scorned me
You said that if you rejected me, I'd be heartbroken
I'd say a lonely prayer again
I'd feel isolated and desperate
And wish that you were there again
I'd long for your company once more
To get into my hair again
To annoy or bother me again
It never entered my mind
I didn't believe it would end up like this
Lyrics © Roba Music Verlag GMBH, Universal Music Publishing Group, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Royalty Network, Peermusic Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind