Julie London

[~landgirl~]

Hi everyone

I just watched a programme about Julie London on BBC Four, I hadn't heard of her before. Wow I really like her music and wasn't she just beautiful!

What does everyone else think?

 

[BegintheBeguine]

I have some vinyl records

Always have loved her.

 

[catsmeow]

Hi everyone

I just watched a programme about Julie London on BBC Four, I hadn't heard of her before. Wow I really like her music and wasn't she just beautiful!

What does everyone else think?

I love Julie London. I have a few of her albums. Julie has a lovely voice. My mum remembers listening to her when she was in England in the 60's.

 

[DancingSweetie]

I like her too.

 

[Classydame]

And, if you don't already know she played the nurse Dixie in the very popular 70's tv show Emergency. She was a pretty good actress too! I love her cover of "Cry me a River". Its really great!

 

[Viviene]

This is the same Julie London that played the part of Dixie McCall on the TV show "Emergency" back in the 1970s. She was married to Jack Webb of Dragnet fame for 5 years and then to Bobby Troup, who was her co-star on Emergency and quite an accomplished musician for 39 years. He wrote the song "Route 66." Julie died in October of 2000.

Here is a bit from Wikipedia.org about her.

Born in Santa Rosa, California, as Gayle Peck, she was the daughter of Jack and Josephine Peck, who had a vaudeville song-and-dance team. When she was 14, they moved to Los Angeles. Shortly after that, she began appearing in movies. She graduated from the Hollywood Professional High School in 1944.

She was married to Jack Webb of Dragnet fame. Her widely-regarded beauty and poise (she was a pinup girl prized by GIs during World War II) contrasted strongly with his pedestrian appearance and stiff-as-a-board acting technique (much parodied by impersonators). This unlikely pairing arose from his and her love for jazz music; their marriage lasted from July 1947 to November 1953.[1] They had two daughters, one who was killed in a traffic accident in the 1990s and one who survived her. In 1954, having become somewhat reclusive after her divorce from Jack Webb, she met jazz composer and musician Bobby Troup at a club on La Brea Blvd.[2] They married on December 31, 1959; only his death in February 1999 ended their marriage. Together, they had one daughter and a set of twin sons.

She suffered a stroke in 1995, and was in poor health until her death in Encino, California, at the age of 74, survived by four of her five children.

What a classy dame!

 

[Viviene]

Well! I cross posted with Classydame. Nice to know I'm not the only one that remembers her from Emergency.

 

[~landgirl~]

I've never seen Emergency!

I must get some of her LPs now.. I have a new LOVE!

 

[Liz]

I've been a fan of hers for several years. She was a great singer, a beautiful lady and was born on September 26, just like me! I have many of her LPs -- luckily, they're not too hard to find.

 

[Madison Paige]

I love her! She's absolutly one of my favorites. What an amazing voice! I have a small collection of her lps, and its slowly growing, she's awfully hard to find on lp for some reason, but I definetly recommend keeping your eye out for the albums "Julie is Her Name" and "Your Number Please" she does a excellent version of "Makin' Whopee" on that last album. I have quite a bit of her music on mp3 as well, if any of you are interested...

I would if I knew how, but someone should move this thread over to the Radio Forum! I'm sure the fellas would have a thing or two to say about her.

 

[Fletch]

I've been a fan of hers for several years. She was a great singer, a beautiful lady and was born on September 26, just like me!

Quite a day for music...also the birthdate of George Gershwin and Ted Weems. (A friend who was born that day - a frustrated actor-singer - told me so.)

My favorite Julie cover...usually the hands strike 12, this time it was the feet...

 

[~landgirl~]

I am going to ask OH to look out for her at the Record Fayres! You can normally pick up a bargain there!

 

[Salv]

She also played herself in the Jayne Mansfield film The Girl Can't Help It as Tom Ewell's last great discovery. Ewell would get drunk and she'd appear in a succession of cocktail gowns, singing Cry Me A River and tormenting the poor drunken slob. Forget Mansfield - Julie London sets my pulse racing every time I see the film...

EDIT: there are currently nine Julie London LPs on UK eBay, seven of them from the same seller and finishing tomorrow, prices currently range from £4.99 to £21.00.

 

[~landgirl~]

Cheers for the e-bay info Salv!

 

[Fletch]

I am going to ask OH to look out for her at the Record Fayres!

Record Fayre? Is that where they sell the cardboard sleeves slathered with rubbery ham and bland cheese, and there's no actual records to buy except at Sunday lunchtime?

 

[The Reno Kid]

Cry Me a River is the definitive torch song. I get shivers every time I hear her sing it. Her early albums especially are just wonderful. Very spare arrangements and you can almost see the cigarette smoke rising from your turntable/CD player.