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.
There's No You
June Christy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It steals cross my pillow
As soft as a will-o'-the-wisp
And in its song there is sadness because
There's no you
The lonely autumn trees
How softly they're sighing
For summer is dying they know
There's no you
The park that we walked in
The garden we talked in
How lonesome they seem in the fall
The stormy clouds hover and falling leaves cover
Our favorite nook in the wall
In spring we'll meet again
We'll kiss and recapture
The summertime rapture
We knew
And from that day never more will I say
There's no you
The stormy clouds hover and falling leaves cover
Our favorite nook in the wall
In spring we'll meet again
We'll kiss and recapture
The summertime rapture
We knew
And from that day never more will I say
There's no you
The song, "There's No You," sung by June Christy, is a melancholy ballad where the singer describes their loneliness during autumn. The opening line of "feel the autumn breeze" evokes a sense of peace and calmness, but as the song continues, the singer reveals their loneliness and sadness due to the absence of their loved one, hence the repeated phrase "there's no you" throughout the song. The singer mentions soft will-o'-the-wisp, which can be seen as a metaphorical representation of the fleeting nature of their lover's presence. The lonely autumn trees, as they sigh softly for summer is dying, mirror the singer's sense of loss and melancholy.
The second verse mentions a park and garden where the singer and the lover used to walk and talk. The park and garden feels lonesome in the fall and the stormy clouds hover as falling leaves cover their favorite nook in the wall. This imagery captures the melancholy tone of the song as the singer yearns for their loved one's return. The bridge of the song provides a glimmer of hope and a promise to reunite with their lost love in the springtime. The singer believes that they will recapture the summer rapture they once knew, and from that day forward, they will never have to say "there's no you" again.
Overall, "There's no You" is a heart-wrenching song that captures the depth of loneliness and longing for a lost love during the autumn season.
Line by Line Meaning
feel the autumn breeze
I am experiencing the cool wind of fall
It steals cross my pillow
The breeze quietly enters my bedroom and moves across my pillow
As soft as a will-o'-the-wisp
It is as gentle as a flickering, ghostly light
And in its song there is sadness because
The wind's melody brings me sorrow as it reminds me
There's no you
that you are not with me
The lonely autumn trees
The trees around me are also melancholy
How softly they're sighing
They express this through their gentle, leafy rustlings
For summer is dying they know
The trees realize that summer is coming to an end
That in my heart there's no gladness because
And this exacerbates my already sad state of mind
There's no you
As I feel the absence of you
The park that we walked in
When I reflect on the times we spent together
The garden we talked in
In the garden where we shared our thoughts
How lonesome they seem in the fall
These places now appear desolate without you by my side
The stormy clouds hover and falling leaves cover
The weather is tumultuous, with clouds and leaves crashing around us
Our favorite nook in the wall
Yet, even amidst this chaos, there remains a special place we shared
In spring we'll meet again
I am optimistic that we will reconnect come spring
We'll kiss and recapture
And when we do, it will feel like we have regained something lost
The summertime rapture
Those blissful moments from summer
We knew
That we shared and enjoyed together
And from that day never more will I say
Once we reunite, I vow to never again speak the words
There's no you
That signify your absence from my life
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Thomas M. Adair, Harold S. Hopper
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind