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.
September Song
June Christy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I played me a waiting game
If a maid refused me with tossing curls
I'd let the old Earth make a couple of whirls
While I plied her with tears in lieu of pearls
And as time came around she came my way
As time came around, she came
But the days grow short when you reach September
When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
And you ain't got time for waiting game
When days dwindle down to a precious few
September November,
And these few golden days I'd share with you
Those golden days I share with you
When you meet with the young girls early in the Spring
You court them in song and rhyme
They answer with words and a clover ring
But if you could examine the goods they bring
They have little to offer but the songs they sing
And the plentiful waste of time of day
A plentiful waste of time
Oh, it's a long, long while from May to December
But the days grow short when you reach September
When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
One hasn't got time for the waiting game
Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few
September, November
And these few precious days I'll spend with you
These precious days I'll spend with you
The lyrics to June Christy's "September Song" describe the difference between the youth and the old age when it comes to love and romance. When the singer was young, he would court the girls with a "waiting game," allowing time to pass and eventually winning over the girl he was pursuing. However, as he grew older, he realized that time flies by quickly, and autumn turns the leaves to flame. September is a symbol of old age, where one may not have the luxury of playing a waiting game anymore. The singer acknowledges that there's little time left, and if he wants to spend his remaining days with someone he loves, he simply doesn't have the luxury of waiting around anymore.
The song also touches upon the idea of youth being symbolized by spring and new beginnings. The young girls in springtime are courted with songs and rhymes, but upon further examination, they don't have much to offer beyond the songs they sing. The singer recognizes that time is fleeting and that waiting for love is both a waste of time and a luxury he can no longer afford.
Overall, the song speaks to the inevitability of time and the realization that one can't always afford to play games when it comes to matters of the heart. It's a poignant reminder that time waits for no one, and one must strive to live in the moment.
Line by Line Meaning
When I was a young man courting the girls
As a young man, I used to woo girls
I played me a waiting game
I patiently waited for the girl I wanted
If a maid refused me with tossing curls
If a girl rejected me with a gesture of her head
I'd let the old Earth make a couple of whirls
I waited for some time
While I plied her with tears in lieu of pearls
I shed tears instead of giving her valuable gifts
And as time came around she came my way
Eventually, the girl I wanted came to me
As time came around, she came
Over time, she became interested in me too
Oh, it's a long long while from May to December
It's a long time between the beginning and end of a relationship
But the days grow short when you reach September
However, time passes quickly when the relationship nears its end
When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
The change of season reflects the change of the relationship
And you ain't got time for waiting game
There's no time to waste anymore
When days dwindle down to a precious few
When there's only a few days left together
September November,
Specifically, in the months of September to November
And these few golden days I'd share with you
I want to spend these last moments together
Those golden days I share with you
These will be the best memories we have together
When you meet with the young girls early in the Spring
When you start a new relationship in the Spring
You court them in song and rhyme
You use romantic gestures to win them over
They answer with words and a clover ring
They respond with sweet words and a simple gift
But if you could examine the goods they bring
However, if you examine what they have to offer
They have little to offer but the songs they sing
They don't have much to offer besides words and gestures
And the plentiful waste of time of day
And a lot of time spent doing nothing of consequence
A plentiful waste of time
A lot of time wasted
And these few precious days I'll spend with you
These last moments together are very special to me
These precious days I'll spend with you
I treasure these last days we have together
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Kurt Weill, Maxwell Anderson
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Fernanda
She's fabulous!!! Thank you for posting!!!
Charlie Foley
Always my # 1 canary
P. Pijpers
Music by Kurt Weill, with lyrics by Maxwell Anderson
Gab Chaim
precious
Lucinda Goodwin
The Misty Miss Christy!
skorecki7
i'm no music ignorant, senor, just happen to have forged a name, sfumato (techinique in classical painting, to describe a paticular kind of "smoky voice" such as miss christy's ... i'm french, you're from an old western, senor .... you should try to listen to old dagar's pieces, from my account, which are the oldest forms of classical north indian ragas to know that pitch is a very, very, relative occidental notion ... that's all for today senor ...