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.
Out of This World
June Christy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When I'm looking at you,
I hear out of this world
The music that no mortal ever knew.
You're right out of a book,
The fairy tale I read when I was so high,
No armored knight out of a book
After waiting so long for the right time,
After reaching so long for a star,
All at once from the long and lonely night time,
And despite time, here you are!
I'd fly out of this world
If you said we were through,
So let me fly out of this world
And spend the next eternity or two with you;
I'll spend the next eternity or two with you.
In June Christy's song "Out of This World", the lyrics describe how the singer is completely enamored by the person they are looking at. The singer knows that this person is clear out of this world - that they are extraordinary and not of this earthly realm. When the singer hears the music that seems to emanate from the person, they believe that it's music no other mortal has ever heard before. For the singer, this person is like a fairy tale character, like the Lorelei - a mythical siren of the Rhine river who would lure sailors to their demise with her captivating song.
The singer has been waiting for a long time for the right person to come along. They have been reaching for the stars - longing for something that seemed unreachable. However, this person has arrived in their life and despite the time that has passed, they're exactly what the singer has been waiting for. If this person were to leave, the singer would be devastated - so much so that they'd need to fly out of this world. They'd want to spend eternity with this person, just to be near them forever.
June Christy's "Out of This World" was written in 1945 by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer for a musical revue entitled "St. Louis Woman". Since then, it has been covered by many different artists, including Ella Fitzgerald, Margaret Whiting, and Nancy Wilson.
Line by Line Meaning
You're clear out of this world
You are beyond anything in this world, you are exceptional.
When I'm looking at you,
Every time I look at you,
I hear out of this world
I hear something that is otherworldly,
The music that no mortal ever knew.
Music that only gods or beings in a higher realm would know.
You're right out of a book,
You're like a character I read in a book,
The fairy tale I read when I was so high,
You are like a fairytale character that I read about when I was young,
No armored knight out of a book
No heroic knight from a storybook,
Could find a more enchanted Lorelei than I.
Could find a woman as enchanting as you.
After waiting so long for the right time,
After waiting for so long to find the right moment,
After reaching so long for a star,
After striving for so long to reach a goal,
All at once from the long and lonely night time,
Suddenly, after a long and lonely time,
And despite time, here you are!
Despite everything else, you are now here in my life.
I'd fly out of this world
I would feel overjoyed and ecstatic,
If you said we were through,
If you said that our relationship was over,
So let me fly out of this world
Allow me to feel ecstatic,
And spend the next eternity or two with you;
And spend a great deal of time with you in the future;
I'll spend the next eternity or two with you.
I want to be with you forever.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: COLE PORTER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@samhamod3085
one of the greatest jazz singers; as good as sarah and ella any day; all good, but too few dj's play her. prof sam hamod
@bennyjazzful
WOW WOW WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From a mad keen 73yo Aussie fan.