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.
Time After Time
June Christy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And think of you
Caught up in circles confusion,
Is nothing new
Flashback,warm nights,
Almost left behind
Suitcases of memories,
Time after,
Sometimes you picture me,
I'm walking too far ahead
You're calling to me, I can't hear
What you've said,
Then you say,go slow,
I fall behind,
The second hand unwinds
[Chorus]
If you're lost you can look,and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall I will catch you,I'll be waiting
Time after time
After my picture fades and darkness has
Turned to gray
Watching through windows,you're wondering
If I'm OK
Secrets stolen from deep inside
The drum beats out of time,
[Chorus]
You said go slow,
I fall behind
The second hand unwinds,
[Chorus]
Time after time
Time after time
Time after time
June Christy's "Time After Time" is a song about the memories of a long-lost love. The lyrics describe a person lying in bed hearing the clock ticking, reminiscing about their past experiences with someone they loved. The verses speak of lost moments, confusion, and the desire to hold on to memories that seem to slip away. The chorus offers comfort, with the singer promising to be there time after time, waiting for the lost love to return. The final verse speaks to the universal pain of losing someone you still care about, with the singer wondering if their lost love is okay.
The song speaks to the universal pain of losing someone and the unending cycle of memories that come with that loss. The opening lyrics convey a sense of being alone and stuck in one's thoughts, haunted by memories of a love that is now gone. As the song progresses, the second verse describes the struggle to hold onto the past, with memories fading away like an old photograph. The chorus offers a ray of hope that the lost love can be found again, and the singer will always be there waiting, no matter how much time has passed. The final verse is resigned to the fact that life goes on, with the singer watching from a distance and wondering about the person they used to love.
Line by Line Meaning
Lying in my bed I hear the clock tick,
I am alone in bed and I can hear the sound of the clock.
And think of you
I am thinking about you while I lay in bed.
Caught up in circles confusion,
I am confused and trapped in a cycle.
Is nothing new
This isn't something new to me.
Flashback,warm nights,
I have warm memories of the past.
Almost left behind
But those memories are almost forgotten.
Suitcases of memories,
These memories are now packed away.
Time after,
But they keep coming back to me over and over again.
Sometimes you picture me,
At times, you imagine me.
I'm walking too far ahead
I am moving ahead too quickly.
You're calling to me, I can't hear
You try to talk to me, but I can't hear you.
What you've said,
I am unable to understand what you are saying.
Then you say,go slow,
You tell me to slow down.
I fall behind,
But I can't keep up with you.
The second hand unwinds
Time is passing by.
[Chorus]
The song's chorus begins.
If you're lost you can look,and you will find me
If you are lost, just search for me and you'll find me.
Time after time
This has happened again and again.
If you fall I will catch you,I'll be waiting
If you ever fall, I'll be there to catch you.
Time after time
This has happened again and again.
After my picture fades and darkness has
After time has passed, and I change.
Turned to gray
Everything becomes dull.
Watching through windows,you're wondering
You're staring at me from a distance, wondering how I am doing.
If I'm OK
If I am doing fine.
Secrets stolen from deep inside
My deepest secrets are taken without me knowing.
The drum beats out of time,
Life and my heart aren't beating in sync
[Chorus]
The song's chorus repeats.
You said go slow,
You ask me to slow down.
I fall behind
I can't keep up with the pace.
The second hand unwinds,
Time keeps moving forward.
[Chorus]
The song's chorus repeats one final time.
Time after time
This has happened again and again.
Time after time
This has happened again and again.
Time after time
This has happened again and again.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, THE MUSIC GOES ROUND, Spirit Music Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
will segen
nice. never heard this before. who on flute? thanks.
Jonathan S.
The flute is credited to Bud Legge, which apparently was a pseudonym for Bud Shank.