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.
One I Love The
June Christy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And all my daydreams have gone astray
I think about the one and only
Who's bound to find me some golden day
The one I love is coming along some day
And I'll have none except the one I love
He/She may be near or ever so far away
And though our meeting is left to chance
Until our meeting
I still will have my dream romance
And through the night I pray to the moon above
To please be kind and find the one I love
The lyrics to June Christy's "One I Love" express a sense of longing and hope for the perfect romantic partner. The singer reflects on her feelings of loneliness, when her daydreams have failed to satisfy her, and she turns her thoughts to the one person who will make her life complete. The use of the phrase "golden day" suggests that the singer has an idealized vision of what her future with this person will be like, full of joy and happiness.
The chorus of the song emphasizes the singer's devotion to the one she loves. She is determined to have no one else in her life except for this person, regardless of whether they are currently close to her or far away. The repetition of the phrase "the one I love" emphasizes the significance of this person in the singer's life. It is a simple but powerful declaration of her love and loyalty.
Despite the fact that the singer has not yet met this person, she remains optimistic that they will come into her life eventually. She continues to hold onto the hope of their meeting and imagines their future romance. The final lines of the song express her prayer to the moon for help in finding the one she loves. The moon is often associated with romantic themes, and the singer turns to this symbol of love to help her in her search.
Line by Line Meaning
When days are long and nights are lonely
During times of great difficulty and loneliness
And all my daydreams have gone astray
When all of my hopes and wishes have fallen apart
I think about the one and only
I think of my one true love
Who's bound to find me some golden day
Who will come and bring happiness and joy to my life
The one I love is coming along some day
My true love will arrive someday
And I'll have none except the one I love
I will accept no one but the one I truly love
He/She may be near or ever so far away
My true love may be close by or very far away
But I'll have none except the one I love
I will accept no one but the one I truly love
And though our meeting is left to chance
Despite the fact that our meeting is outside of our control
Until our meeting
Until we finally have a chance to be together
I still will have my dream romance
I will continue to hold onto the hope of a romantic future
And through the night I pray to the moon above
During the dark and lonely nights, I pray to the sky for guidance
To please be kind and find the one I love
To bring my true love to me with kindness and love
Lyrics © HAL LEONARD CORPORATION , Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: BRONISLAW KAPER, GUS KAHN, WALTER JURMANN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
DadsLloyd
Great song by a truly great singer! I met her once in about 1959 at her home in Encino. My friend's dad, the friend, and I were cleaning her carpet! I was oblivious of her music at the time, of course. Thanks for posting this!
Jukebox Americano
Wonderful singer with an excellent lineup. Thanks, man!
Brews Jazzclub
Smoothest swing. Thanks for this gem.
ponderosa1850
wonderful! thx!
ljliljohn
Very nice. Who are the musicians? This is very early June.
Miklos Antonescu
Thanks for the info!
konidolfine
@local802blues Thanks you're nice information!
Lou Maserati
She's thinkin of me LOL. Riguardi di Brossa di Bolluto, Italia!
Hans van Zoon
That's what I think ;))