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.
You Took Advantage of Me
June Christy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And my caution was leaving you flat,
I should have made use of the tonic
Before you gave me that!
A mental deficient you'll grade me.
I've given you plenty of data.
You came, you saw and you slayed me,
And that-a is that-a!
I'm a sentimental sap, that's all.
What's the use of trying not to fall?
I have no will,
You've made your kill
'Cause you took advantage of me!
I'm just like an apple on a bough
And you're gonna shake me down somehow.
So what's the use,
You've cooked my goose
'Cause you took advantage of me!
I'm so hot and bothered that I don't know
My elbow from my ear.
I suffer something awful each time you go
And much worse when you're near.
Here am I with all my bridges burned,
Just a babe in arms where you're concerned,
So lock the doors
And call me yours
'Cause you took advantage of me.
When a girl has the heart of a mother
It must go to someone, of course;
It can't be a sister or brother
And so I loved my horse.
But horses are frequently silly-
Mine ran from the beach of Kailua
And left me alone for a filly,
So I-a picked you-a.
I'm a sentimental sap, that's all.
What's the use of trying not to fall?
I have no will,
You've made your kill
'Cause you took advantage of me!
I'm just like an apple on a bough
And you're gonna shake me down somehow.
So what's the use,
You've cooked my goose
'Cause you took advantage of me!
I'm so hot and bothered that I don't know
My elbow from my ear.
I suffer something awful each time you go
And much worse when you're near.
Here am I with all my bridges burned,
Just a babe in arms where you're concerned,
So lock the doors
And call me yours
'Cause you took advantage of me.
“You Took Advantage of Me” is a song originally written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1928 for the musical “Present Arms”. In June Christy’s rendition of the song, we hear her sing about being taken advantage of by her lover. In the song, Christy is regretful that she let her guard down when she was enamored with her lover. She sings about her lack of self-control and her inability to resist her lover’s charm. She blames herself for being unable to resist him, calling herself a “sentimental sap.” The lyrics of the song are full of descriptive metaphors and wordplay.
The first verse of the song talks about how Christy's lover took advantage of her vulnerability in the spring when her guard was down. Here she suggests that she should have taken action to protect herself, but was too slow to realize it. The second verse further characterizes Christy as helpless and at the mercy of her lover, with lines like “I'm just like an apple on a bough and you're gonna shake me down somehow.” Christy’s willpower is weak and she is easily influenced, which she acknowledges in the line, “I have no will, you’ve made your kill.” In the final verse, Christy uses a horse as a metaphor, which suggests that she had initially loved and trusted the horse, but it had let her down. Subsequently, she turns to her lover, whom she also loves but feels has taken advantage of her.
Line by Line Meaning
In the spring when the feeling was chronic
When my passion was strong but my judgment was clouded
And my caution was leaving you flat,
And I was ignoring my better judgment
I should have made use of the tonic
I should have taken steps to regain my sense of rationality
Before you gave me that!
Before you took advantage of my vulnerability
A mental deficient you'll grade me.
You might think I'm a fool
I've given you plenty of data.
I've let my guard down around you and shared my innermost thoughts
You came, you saw and you slayed me,
You came into my life, saw my vulnerability, and took advantage of it
And that-a is that-a!
And that's just the way it is
I'm a sentimental sap, that's all.
I'm a hopeless romantic
What's the use of trying not to fall?
Why bother resisting love?
I have no will,
I am powerless against my feelings for you
You've made your kill
You've won me over completely
'Cause you took advantage of me!
Because you used my vulnerability to your advantage
I'm just like an apple on a bough
I'm ripe for the picking
And you're gonna shake me down somehow.
You're going to use my vulnerability to your advantage
So what's the use,
There's no point
You've cooked my goose
You've trapped me
'Cause you took advantage of me!
Because you saw my vulnerability and took advantage of it
I'm so hot and bothered that I don't know
I'm so overwhelmed with passion that I can't think straight
My elbow from my ear.
Which way is up
I suffer something awful each time you go
I'm miserable when you're not here
And much worse when you're near.
And even more miserable when you're around
Here am I with all my bridges burned,
I've burned all my other bridges and have nowhere else to turn
Just a babe in arms where you're concerned,
I'm totally defenseless when it comes to you
So lock the doors
Let's seal ourselves off from the rest of the world
And call me yours
And make me yours
Cause you took advantage of me.
Because you saw my weakness and took advantage of it
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind