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.
Willow Weep For Me
June Christy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Willow weep for me
Bent your branches down along the ground
And cover me
Listen to my plea
Hear me willow and weep for me
Gone my lovely dreams
Gone and left me here
To weep my tears along the stream
Sad as I can be
Hear me willow and weep for me
Whisper to the wind and
Say they love has sinned
To leave my heart a sign
And crying alone
Murmur to the night
Hide her starry light
So none will find me sighing
Crying all alone
Weeping willow tree
Weeping sympathy
Bent your branches down along the ground
And cover me
Listen to me plea
Hear me willow and weep for me
Willow, willow, weep for me
The song "Willow Weep for Me" is a melancholic ballad in which the singer asks for the willow tree to weep for her broken heart. The lyrics use personification to describe the willow as a sympathizing friend by urging it to bend its branches down and cover her while she cries. The first stanza repeats the melancholic plead to the willow tree to hear her plea and weep for her.
The second verse reflects on the singer’s lost dreams of summer and the sorrow left behind. She sings about her sadness making a request to the wind to carry her emotions away and urge it to say her love has sinned. This request shows a deep sense of loss and abandonment. The misty and lonely night is used as a metaphor for her sense of abandonment where she murmurs a request to the willow tree to hide the starry light and cover her in its branches so that no one can see her crying all alone.
Line by Line Meaning
Willow weep for me
I am feeling lost and alone, and I am asking the willow tree to join me in my sorrow.
Willow weep for me
I am repeating my plea to the willow tree, hoping that it will offer me comfort in my pain.
Bent your branches down along the ground
I want the willow tree to physically express my sadness by drooping its branches.
And cover me
I am asking the willow tree to shelter me with its leaves and branches, providing a safe space for me to grieve.
Listen to my plea
I hope that the willow tree will hear my cries and understand how much I am hurting.
Hear me willow and weep for me
I am urging the willow tree to empathize with my pain and weep alongside me.
Gone my lovely dreams
I have lost my happy vision of the future, leaving me feeling hopeless.
Lovely summer dreams
I had once looked forward to warm, happy days, but now they seem distant and unattainable.
Gone and left me here
My hopes and dreams have abandoned me, leaving me alone in my sadness.
To weep my tears along the stream
I am overcome with grief and am shedding tears next to a body of water.
Sad as I can be
I am at my lowest point, feeling completely consumed by my sadness.
Whisper to the wind and say they love has sinned
I am expressing my hurt and anger over a lost love, wishing that the wind would carry my message to them.
To leave my heart a sign
I am hoping that my lost love will show me some form of kindness or remorse to ease my pain.
And crying alone
I am enduring my pain without the comfort of another person, feeling completely isolated.
Murmur to the night
I am speaking to the darkness, asking it to keep my secrets and sorrows hidden.
Hide her starry light
I am asking the night sky to dim its stars, symbolizing the loss of light and joy in my life.
So none will find me sighing
I do not want anyone to witness my grief, and hope that the darkness of night keeps my emotions private.
Weeping willow tree
I am again calling out to the willow tree, identifying it as a symbol of sadness and loss.
Weeping sympathy
The willow tree is a representation of empathy and comfort, understanding my pain and sharing in my sorrow.
Hear me willow and weep for me
I am repeating my refrain, asking the willow tree to shed tears and offer solace in my time of need.
Willow, willow, weep for me
My final plea to the willow tree, hoping that it will continue to sympathize and understand my pain.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Ann Ronell
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@caileanjack6284
Lovely version. It always makes me think of a film noir with the piano and June's vocals. VERY CLASSY indeed
@colsomemiah6095
1953.......on every radio.....also artistry in rhythm....Momm said.....
@tuxguys
One of only two Kenton tracks I have ever really liked.
(Coincidentally, Ms. Christy also has a vocal on the other one.)
Recorded July 25, 1946, in Hollywood, and I think the reason I like it is because, intermittently roaring as it is, the stuff that's done to this Bluesy Non-Blues in this arrangement reminds me of the French Impressionists, especially Maurice Ravel.
(Of course, the arranger is not Kenton, it's Pete Rugolo.)