Article Response: Julie London

It hits home, and expresses pretty much how I also feel when I hear Julie's music.

Hopefully you will find it, or better, you already got it.

Regards,

Martin Houwer, another Julie London fan from The Hague, The Netherlands.

It is one of the best things I have ever read about Julie London. Then again, it's one of the few things I have ever read about Julie London.

I can't quite work out how much she is a common property that everyone knows, or an obscurity. (But the reissue racks in eg. Dress Circle are full of her work.) And I can't quite work out how familiar Tom E himself is or was with her work. Probably no less familiar than me.

I'm not sure about Tom E's claim that 'old music' is not central to many people's lives. I guess it depends what 'central' and 'many' are taken to mean.

Also, I don't quite see the problem Tom E seeks to establish re. listening to JL at home. Another way of talking about her records would be: they are intimate; they encourage an idea of one-to-one communication, candle-lit or not. They are less garish and boisterous than, for instance, the rap tracks Tom E recently gave me -- in what way are the latter apparently more suitable for home consumption?

I have discovered what I always wanted to know, or think: that her versions of the standards are more reliably agreeable than anyone else's I can think of.

Julie Is Her Name is great, although I can see that the jazz cognoscenti might not buy it. I especially like "Laura," with its copious amounts of echo.

1. Tom E's view that the standards are not central to many people's lives nowadays probably contains a lot of truth. But the whole dilettante debate may reframe this: perhaps a dilettante would be one who has the reaction to standards that Tom says is typical?

2. Tom E treats Julie London as 'old music' - and again, I know what he means. But I realized today that part of her identity is really is that she's NOT such old music - she sings the standards at a *different* moment from Crosby or Fitzgerald. She represents cool late 50s or even swinging 60s, as much as she does the Broadway of Cole Porter. (And as I've said, I prefer her more 'modern' arrangements of many of the songs.)

3. re. Tom E's views on Julie L as 'performance' of standards, and hence not very intimate: perhaps he has more of a point than I gave him credit for. Perhaps what he is getting at is the 'impersonality' of the standards - the way they are ready-made texts to be performed, rather than unique expressions of singers' souls. (I suppose I was trying to get at something similar in my Rosemary Squires article.)

i have no article response, but i have been digging through my oldest records and have been listening to julie london, esp this

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/7a153a6aebe269c8b422eff36678e1ed/128729.jpg

love her

my image disappeared and it deserves to be seen

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/94/JulieLondon_LonelyGirl.jpg/200px-JulieLondon_LonelyGirl.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns8aibNOjhA

Oh yes.

so good, her cole porter album is amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0NXNJbH5yo

Don't see any mention here of her husband, Bobby Troup, composer of "Route 66," and the fact that they both appeared on the 70s television show "Emergency!"

OMG at this episode of Tattletales
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NVf-9cgrAE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sACIovFKkg

on What's My Line?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uix0Z1zZG00

Anyone know if the article linked in the original post is still online anywhere?

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2000/10/julie/

Wonderful. Thanks.

Hello, Olde ILX! I come to tell you that I have just heard some cuts off of the Julie London album Yummy, Yummy, Yummy and it is good. It reminds me of certain Serge Gainsbourg records, kind of melancholy and energetic at the same time, the same kind of slow churning rhythm section with a busy pick-y bass line.

I own this album and have tried to like it, but the backing music sounds like it was recorded separately in a different studio in a different city and then the resulting tape was slowed down. Meanwhile she sounds like she took a Seconal and had a couple of whiskey sours before recording the vocal tracks.

You say the second sentence like it's a bad thing...

Honestly, I own a number of her records and don't play that one often. I'll give it a try again tonight.

Worth noting Julie's famed star turn (with one song) is about to get a glossed up rerelease

https://www.criterion.com/films/29605-the-girl-can-t-help-it

I hope this means a big screen release too, that's how I've long wanted to see it. (It played at Anthology Film Archives here about three years ago & I regret not catching it).

I need to see that one again.

You say the second sentence like it's a bad thing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXg6UB9Qk0o

This bass player is a monster! FB double bass forum says his name is Don Bagley.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfANFQOLGKA

Was figuring the guitar player on the one with guitar was Barney Kessel but it seems like maybe It is another guy I never heard of, Dennis Budimir.

The original version of "Cry Me a River" of course WAS Barney Kessel, along with Ray Leatherwood on bass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv4OQ4jkRzw
With transcription!

haven’t listened much to Julie London, but Budimer is a fine guitarist.

Guess it’s time to give some Julie a spin

Julie always seems to have a great band so you won’t be disappointed on that front. I just read some anecdote, not sure how true it is yet, which illustrated that one reason she divorced Jack Webb was that his musical taste wasn’t hip enough. Hearing my internalized Lee Konitz use the word “corny,” although I am not sure he ever weighed in on this situation.

C'mon, he was on the scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PyHIqOPlnA

Uh.

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?/topic/6643-julie-london/

That Jack Webb recording makes Eugene Levy's Perry Como imitation Mr. Excitement by comparison.

But it’s funny you bring that up bc that’s what the ‘Yummy, Yummy, Yummy’ album kind of reminds me of. It’s approaching that area. Doesn’t Levy as Como do “I Love the Nightlife (Disco Round)”? Very similar feel.

Yes, he does do that. I disagree that this here is a snooze fest. I am totally loving the chill core vibe. I’m a bit surprised I never saw it on the shelf at Other Music back in the day.

Her version of “Louie Louie” is the missing link between The Kingsmen and “Je t’aime… moi non plus.”

Not one but two Margo Guryan songs.

Lyle Ritz killing it on bass.

Blimey, ILX is (at least) 21 years old!

You think 21 is gonna be a good year?

We turn 22 in August.

Will we say “Oh my and a boo-hoo”?

She even turns “Hushabye Mountain” sound into a torch song.

https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2016/07/julie-london-and-cry-me-river-essay-by.html

“Cry Me a River” was the first track on the first Julie London album and the first track on the first Barbra Streisand album

Interesting. I recently learned the first thing, didn’t know the second. Also just learned that the guy who wrote the song was an unknown until she asked him to write a few songs for a Jack Webb picture. He was a friend of hers from high school, her prom date. Some of this is in that link.

Isn't there some ilm thread about songs that were last minute additions to an album that then became the big hit from it? "Cry Me a River" fits, according to that essay.

Maybe. Probably.

Author of that article/letter says in his book

Nothing Julie London did during this period of her career, including Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, was ever as cringe inducing as Frank Sinatra’s embarrassing attempt to turn Paul Simon’s “Mrs. Robinson” into a swinger.

A link to our friends over at
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/julie-london-album-by-album-1967-1969-nice-girls-dont-stay-for-breakfast-to-yummy-yummy-yummy.455250/

xp No argument here. However, Sinatraphilic writer Will Friedwald has praised the “audacity” and humor of Frank’s vocal on that number.

I see Julie (not Marlene) on my wall everyday

https://i.imgur.com/aNGJNUJ.jpg

Has anyone heard any of those three 1967-68 albums? I have not.

No but planning to listen at some point.

I see Julie (not Marlene) on my wall everyday

Listening to the 1959 André Previn-produced Your Number Please now.

xpost Why does that warrant a "shocked" signifier, exactly

Doesn’t really. Just couldn’t think of how to respond. Also I wasn’t familiar with the song you were referring to, had to look it up.

Oh okay, thought for a minute I'd made some kind-of strange faux-pas but couldn't figure out what it could possibly be.

Sorry for the confusion. I keep forgetting Richard Lester is still alive and post a ! every time Josefa reminds me of that.

Listening to the 1959 André Previn-produced _Your Number Please_ now.

Ah there is no Julie London song called “Nice girls don’t stay for Breakfast to Yummy Yummy Yummy”

Sage advice, though…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N1NDNy61L4