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.
Lonely House
June Christy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
This old house seems to breathe a sigh
Sometimes I hear a neighbor snoring
Sometimes I can hear a baby cry
Sometimes I can hear a staircase creaking
Sometimes a distant telephone
Oh, and when the night settles down again
Lonely house, lonely me
Funny with so many neighbors
How lonesome you can be
Lonely town, lonely street
Funny, you can be so lonely
With all these folks around
I guess there must be something
I don't comprehend
Sparrows have companions
Even stray dogs have a friend
The night for me is not romantic
Unhook the stars and take them down
I'm lonely in this lonely town, in this lonely house
The night, the night for me is not romantic
Unhook the stars and take them down
I'm lonely in this lonely town, in this lonely house
At night when everything is quiet
June Christy's "Lonely House" is a melancholic song that talks about the feeling of loneliness, even when surrounded by many people. The song describes an old house that seems to breathe a sigh when everything is quiet at night. The singer can hear various sounds like a neighbor snoring, a baby crying, a staircase creaking, and a distant telephone. These sounds are indicative of the presence of other people around, but the singer feels lonely nonetheless.
Despite having many neighbors in the locality, the singer feels lonely in the town and the street. The song talks about the irony of how one could feel lonely in a place where there are so many people around. The singer is perplexed by this and wonders if there is anything that they do not understand, as even sparrows have companions and stray dogs have friends.
The song's mood is sad, and the lyrics are highly relatable to anyone who has experienced loneliness, especially at night. The idea that the night is not romantic, unhooking the stars, and feeling lonely in a lonely town, in a lonely house, is a powerful image of despair. The song's somber melody, along with June Christy's beautiful voice, evokes a sense of solace in the listener.
Line by Line Meaning
At night when everything is quiet
During the night when there's nothing stirring
This old house seems to breathe a sigh
This house makes a sound as if it's sighing
Sometimes I hear a neighbor snoring
I can sometimes hear someone snoring in a nearby house
Sometimes I can hear a baby cry
I sometimes hear a baby crying in the distance
Sometimes I can hear a staircase creaking
I occasionally hear a staircase making noise
Sometimes a distant telephone
There's times I hear a phone ringing far away
Oh, and when the night settles down again
And when the night becomes still once more
This old house and I are all alone
This house and I are completely alone
Lonely house, lonely me
This house and myself are both lonely
Funny with so many neighbors
It's strange that there's so many neighbors around
How lonesome you can be
Despite that, it's still possible to feel alone
Lonely town, lonely street
This town and street can be lonely
Funny, you can be so lonely
It's peculiar that it can still be lonely with so many people
With all these folks around
Considering there's so many people present
I guess there must be something
I suppose there's something I don't understand
I don't comprehend
I just don't get it
Sparrows have companions
Even sparrows have friends or partners
Even stray dogs have a friend
Even stray dogs sometimes have companionship
The night for me is not romantic
I don't see the night as being romantic
Unhook the stars and take them down
To me, the stars aren't very impressive
I'm lonely in this lonely town, in this lonely house
In this town and house, I'm all by myself and feel lonely
The night, the night for me is not romantic
Once again, the night doesn't seem romantic to me
Unhook the stars and take them down
The stars don't hold any allure to me
I'm lonely in this lonely town, in this lonely house
It's a fact that I'm alone and feeling lonely in both this town and house
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: KURT WEILL, LANGSTON HUGHES
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
GermanGameAdviser
stunning
colsome miah
Noboby today has that husky catch in the voice like June....