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.
Prelude To A Kiss
June Christy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
A song in blue
Like a flower crying
For the dew
That was my heart serenading you
My prelude to a kiss
If you hear a song that grows
That was my heart trying to compose
A prelude to a kiss
Though it's just a simple melody
With nothing fancy
Nothing much
You could turn it to a symphony
A Shubert tune with a Gershwin touch
Oh how my love song gently cries
For the tenderness within your eyes
My love is a prelude that never dies
A prelude to a kiss
Though it's just a simple melody
With nothing fancy
Nothing much
You could turn it to a symphony
A Shubert tune with a Gershwin touch
Oh how my love song so gently cries
For the tenderness within your eyes
My love is a prelude that never dies
A prelude to a kiss
The lyrics of "Prelude to a Kiss" by June Christy are a poetic expression of a person's love for someone. The first verse describes the heart's longing for the one it loves. The blue song represents the sadness that the person feels in the absence of the person they love. The flower crying for dew is a metaphor for the heart's desire for the love it needs. The serenading heart is expressing the love it has in the form of music, which is the prelude to a kiss.
In the second verse, the person speaks of the composition of music that is pouring from their heart. The melody is simple, yet it is a reflection of their sentimental woes. The heart is trying to convey the depth of their love through the music that it produces. The melody could turn into a symphony or a Shubert tune with a Gershwin touch, but it remains a prelude to a kiss, a reflection of the love they have.
The last verse expresses the undying love that the person has for the one they love. The love song that is gently crying represents the depth of their affection. They long for the tenderness within the eyes of their loved one, and their love remains a prelude that never dies.
Line by Line Meaning
If you hear
If you happen to listen
A song in blue
A melancholic tune
Like a flower crying
As if a flower is shedding tears
For the dew
As if the flower is missing the drops of dew
That was my heart serenading you
That's how my heart was expressing its love for you
My prelude to a kiss
A preface to a love-filled moment
If you hear a song that grows
If you come across a tune that intensifies
From my tender sentimental woes
Arising from my soft and emotional distress
That was my heart trying to compose
That's how my heart was attempting to create
A prelude to a kiss
An introduction to a romantic beginning
Though it's just a simple melody
Despite being an uncomplicated tune
With nothing fancy
Without any decorations or grandeur
Nothing much
Nothing substantial
You could turn it to a symphony
It could be elevated to a grand musical piece
A Shubert tune with a Gershwin touch
Transformed into a rich and elegant song
Oh how my love song gently cries
How my expression of love sounds with a soft tone
For the tenderness within your eyes
For the affection and warmth in your gaze
My love is a prelude that never dies
My love will always have a beginning filled with love
A prelude to a kiss
A preface to a gesture of love
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Duke Ellington, Irving Mills, Irving Gordon
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind