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.
Until the Real Thing Comes Along
June Christy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'd be a beggar or a knave for you! (what is a knave anyway?)
If that isn't love it'll have to do
Until the real thing comes along.
I'd gladly move the earth for you, (yeah I'm strong baby, plenty strong)
To prove my love and it's worth to you;
If that isn't love it'll have to do
With all the words, dear, at my command,
I just can't make you understand;
I'll always love you darling, come what may,
My heart is yours, what more can I say? (what do you want me to do, rob a bank?)
(well listen, I tell ya)
I'd sigh for you, yeah, cry for you,
I'd tear the stars down from the sky for you!
If that isn't love, well skip it, it'll have to do,
Until the real thing comes along.
I'd sigh for you, die for you,
I'd tear the stars down from the sky for you!
If that isn't love, it'll have to do,
Until the real thing comes along.
9yeah, that's the real thing, so help me!)
In June Christy's song "Until the Real Thing Comes Along," the lyrics express a deep commitment and devotion to a loved one. The singer is willing to do anything for their partner, even work tirelessly as a slave or a beggar, to prove their love and worthiness. They would move mountains and tear down the stars from the sky, all in the name of love. The singer laments that despite all of their efforts to express their love, their partner doesn't seem to fully understand. They declare that their heart belongs to their loved one, and that until the truest form of love is realized between them, their current level of devotion will have to suffice.
Line by Line Meaning
Oh I'd work for you, I'd slave for you,
I'd be a beggar or a knave for you! (what is a knave anyway?)
I'm willing to do anything for you, even if it means being a lowly beggar or criminal.
If that isn't love it'll have to do
Until the real thing comes along.
This may not be true love, but it's all I have to offer until something better comes along.
I'd gladly move the earth for you, (yeah I'm strong baby, plenty strong)
To prove my love and it's worth to you;
If that isn't love it'll have to do
Until the real thing comes along.
My love for you is so strong that I'm willing to do the impossible just to prove it, even if it's not the real thing.
With all the words, dear, at my command,
I just can't make you understand;
I'll always love you darling, come what may,
My heart is yours, what more can I say? (what do you want me to do, rob a bank?)
I've said everything I can to communicate my love for you, but maybe actions speak louder than words?
(well listen, I tell ya)
I'd sigh for you, yeah, cry for you,
I'd tear the stars down from the sky for you!
If that isn't love, well skip it, it'll have to do,
Until the real thing comes along.
I'm emotionally invested in you to the point where I'd do anything, even something impossible like tearing the stars from the sky.
I'd sigh for you, die for you,
I'd tear the stars down from the sky for you!
If that isn't love, it'll have to do,
Until the real thing comes along.
(9yeah, that's the real thing, so help me!)
I'd go to the extreme of sacrificing my life for you if it meant proving my love, but until the genuine, authentic love comes along, this is all I can offer.
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Alberta Nichols, L.e. Freeman, Mann Holiner, Sammy Cahn, Saul Chaplin
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind