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Julie London

Julie London told Life Magazine in 1957 that she had "only a thimbleful of a voice, and I have to use it close to the microphone. But it is a kind of over-smoked voice, and it automatically sounds intimate." Her vocal style has been described as being sultry, sexy, "come-hither", intimate, breathy, warm, smoky, haunting, husky, sullen, sad, suggestive and seductive.

The majority of her album covers were graced by sultry, yet sophisticated pictures of Julie - the cover of her first album, Julie is Her Name, being, at the time, thought of as so sexy that it was described as "...generating enough voltage to light up a theater marquee". The album Calendar Girl is graced with 12 "cheesecake" photos of Miss London - one for each month of the year, with an additional large photo for the "thirteenth" month on the inside of the foldout cover.

Julie London was born Julie Peck on September 26, 1926 in Santa Rosa, California, to Jack and Josephine Peck, a song and dance team in vaudeville and radio. In 1929, the family moved to San Bernardino, where Julie's parents had a radio show, on which she occasionally appeared. In 1941, they moved to Los Angeles, where Julie left school and went to work as an elevator operator in a department store. She began singing during this time with the Matty Malnech Orchestra. In Los Angeles, she met Jack Webb, then in the Marine Corps, and Sue Carol, an actor/agent and wife of Alan Ladd. Carol obtained a screen test for Julie, which started her on a movie career. Julie's roles during the first few years were bit parts. She soon reached star status by playing leading roles in such movies as A Question of Adultery, Task Force, and The Fat Man.

In 1947 she married Webb, who was just breaking into dramatic acting on radio. With marriage, she temporarily gave up her movie career to become a full-time wife and mother, and they had two daughters, Stacy and Lisa. Jack Webb was also a jazz fan and cornet player. He was best known for his role as Seargeant Friday in Dragnet on both radio and television, also began Mark VII Productions, producing, writing and directing many television programs.

In November, 1953, London and Webb divorced. With the breakup of her marriage, Julie entered a brief period during which, she said, she had a lack of self confidence. In 1954 this changed when she met Bobby Troup, a jazz musician and songwriter, best known for his hit by Nat “King” Cole, “Route 66”. Under his guidance she began a serious singing career in 1955. Her first singing engagement was the 881 Club in Los Angeles. In 1955 she cut her first album, Julie is Her Name. Included on this LP was her most successful hit: Cry Me a River. Over three million copies of the album and single were sold. The single remained on Billboard charts for 13 weeks, and the LP for 20. Julie was voted one of the top female vocalists of 1955, 1956, and 1957. On New Year's Eve, 1959, she and Bobby Troup married.

At the same time as her singing career took off, Julie's movie career was also "resurrected". In 1956 she starred as an alcoholic singer in the film The Great Man. From there, she went on to star, or co-star in more movies for United Artists and MGM, including: Man of The West, Voice In The Mirror, The Wonderful Country, The George Raft Story, and The Third Voice. During the film Voice in the Mirror, Julie became a songwriter, composing the title song for the movie.

Julie London recorded 32 albums. One of her most famous singles Cry Me a River was written by her high school classmate Arthur Hamilton and produced by her husband Troup. The song was featured in the 1956 film The Girl Can’t Help It. This became a million-selling single after release in April 1957 and also sold on re-issue in April 1983 from the attention brought by a Mari Wilson cover. The song gained recent attention being featured in the films Passion of Mind (2000) and V for Vendetta (2006). Other hit singles include Making Whoopee, Blue Moon and It Had to be You. Songs such as Go Slow epitomized her career style: her voice is slow, smoky, and sensual. Aside from her music, the notably suggestive portrait photos used on London's album covers made lasting impressions even on the tone deaf. The song Yummy Yummy Yummy was featured on the HBO series Six Feet Under and appears on its soundtrack album.

During the late 50's and into the 60's, Julie did some international tours in such locales as Brazil and Japan. While in Japan, she recorded a Japanese-only television program with Bobby Troup and his band. Many of her records were also released in Japan.

Julie London also appeared on numerous television shows as both actress and singer. In 1971, she began playing one of her best-known roles as Nurse Dixie McCall on the tv show, Emergency, which also featured Bobby Troup, as Dr. Joe Early. After Emergency, Julie did one last film: Survival On Charter #220 before retiring from show business.

Julie essentially quit recording when the Liberty label folded in 1968, but her last recording was in 1981, for the movie Sharky's Machine, in which she performed My Funny Valentine for the soundtrack.

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. On her death in October 2000, Julie London was interred in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.

In Bobby Troup's words about his wife: "She is not a Julie London fan. She honestly doesn't realize how good she is. She's never really been a performer. She doesn't have that need to go out and please an audience and receive accolades. She's always been withdrawn, very introverted. She hated those big shows. I couldn't wait to do them, and she was only glad when they were over."

Appearances What's My Line? (three episodes) (1957-1961) Rawhide (one episode) (1960) The Eleventh Hour (one episode) (1963) The Big Valley (one episode) (1967) The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (two episodes, "The Prince of Darkness Affair," Part 1, Part 2, (1967), re- released as the feature film, The Helicopter Spies (1968) Emergency! (1972"1979) series regular Adam-12 (one episode, Lost and Found) as Dixie McCall Tattletales! (game show hosted by Bert Convy, 1974"1978) Emergency: Survival on Charter #220 (1978) Films Nabonga (1944) Diamond Horseshoe (1945) (bit part) On Stage Everybody (1945) A Night in Paradise (1946) (bit part) The Red House (1947) Tap Roots (1948) Task Force (1949) Return of the Frontiersman (1950) The Fat Man (1951) The Fighting Chance (1955) The Girl Can't Help It (1956) Crime Against Joe (1956) The Great Man (1956) Drango (1957) Saddle the Wind (1958) Voice in the Mirror (1958) Man of the West (1958) Night of the Quarter Moon (1959) The Wonderful Country (1959) A Question of Adultery (1959) The Third Voice (1960) The George Raft Story (1961)
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Go Slow: The Life of Julie London

by Richard J Salvucci
June 30, 2017

Go Slow. The Life of Julie London Michael Owen 296 Pages ISBN: 9781613738573 Chicago Review Press 2017 “Vinyl Viagra" “Mainly I'm a lyric reader." “Mickey Mouse...she can even make that sexy." “I'm not a singer. If all her movie footage over the years were put together, “there still wouldn't be enough to add up to one presentable part."

Book Excerpts

Go Slow: The Life Of Julie London

by Michael Owen
June 30, 2017

The following is an excerpt is from “Chapter 12: For the Night People" of Go Slow: The Life of Julie London by Michael Owen (Chicago Review Press, 2017). All Rights Reserved. In 1965, after three years of largely recording pop tunes under Liberty Records' hit-making producer Snuff Garrett, Julie London was eager to return to the types of songs--and the style of singing--which had brought her fame and success a decade earlier with her debut album, Julie ...

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Album Review

Julie London: About The Blues

Read "About The Blues" reviewed by Jim Santella

by Jim Santella
September 1, 2002

All sixteen tracks on this album have been issued previously on the Liberty label; however, the first twelve appeared on one album, while the others appeared on other vinyl releases. Julie London interpreted the blues in her own sweet way, and this collection brings them together. What makes About The Blues so special, however, is the impact Bobby Troup had on the music. Each arrangement, while focusing on her smooth contralto delivery, partners London with a well-balanced orchestra that swings ...

Video / DVD

Julie London Turns Winter to Summer

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 18, 2024

JazzWax readers know I traditionally feature Julie London on Christmas Day, but today I wanted to take a beat to let you know what a great singer she is any time of year. To me, London is a consummate jazz singer—from her tone to her phrasing. Like Anita O'Day, London had an understated hipness built into her delivery along with a dry airiness that all but eliminated any trace of vibrato. I also love that she never quite fit in, ...
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Video / DVD

Julie London's Holiday Album, 2022

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
December 25, 2022

Once again, it's time for Julie London's Christmas album that never was. I started this tradition eight years ago because, for whatever reason, the singer never recorded an album of holiday favorites, just one side of a Liberty 45 in 1957. Why she'd release a single side but not a full-blown LP remains puzzling, to say the least. So in 2014, I assembled all of her seasonal tracks for a faux streaming release of my own. As JazzWax readers know, ...
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Recording

Recent Listening: Lyn Stanley Revisits Julie London

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
February 5, 2020

Los Angeles singer Lyn Stanley frequently appears in L.A. with a big band of Swing Era veterans. However, in the recording we are sampling today, her accompanists are six of Southern California’s busiest veteran players of modern jazz. Called for this album, the Jazz Mavericks, they are guitarist John Chiodoni, pianists Otmaro Ruiz and Mike Lang, bassist Chuck Berghofer and drummer Aaron Serfaty, with Luis Conte on additional percussion. The album follows Stanley’s earlier tribute to singer Julie London on ...
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Video / DVD

Doc: The Nocturnal Julie London

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
November 9, 2018

Recently over a weekend, I posted a few video clips of Julie London singing and appearing on the TV game show What's My Line? Many of you unfamiliar with London wrote to me fully understanding why I would write that she's my favorite female vocalist of the 1950s and '60s. As I noted, London's voice is the hippest, the coolest and the most detached and nocturnal. Forget her cinema looks. More important was her artistic integrity, her humility and her rejection ...
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Video / DVD

Julie London: A Good Cry

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
December 31, 2015

Julie London sang Cry Me A River several times on TV over the years after she made the song her own in 1956. Written by Arthur Hamilton in 1953 for Ella Fitzgerald to sing in the film Pete Kelly's Blues (1955), the song was dropped in 1954 during production. Cry Me a River was then offered to singer Peggy King, but Mitch Miller, Columbia's head of A&R at the time, didn't like the word “plebeian" in the lyric and nixed ...
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Recording

Julie London's Holiday Album

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
December 24, 2015

As most readers know, Julie London is one of my favorite female vocalists. She had a captivating, cool singing style. Her satiny delivery was nocturnal and relaxed, and she took on tough songs and aced them with a proud, detached strength and maturity. You may recall that last year, I wondered why London only released one holiday single—I'd Like You for Christmas (1957). Was keeping the Yule at arm's length London's call (too square?) or Liberty's (not a good space ...
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Recording

Julie London's Holiday Album

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
November 24, 2014

It will always be a mystery to me why singer Julie London did not record a Christmas album. Someone at Liberty, her label, must have suggested it, but clearly London passed. Perhaps it was a personal thing. Or maybe she felt that a holiday album would be too square and run counter to her cool, nocturnal image. Whatever the reason, London recorded only one holiday side—I'd Like You for Christmas—and that's it. So what I've decided to do here is ...
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TV / Film

Documentary: Julie London

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
April 26, 2012

Singer Julie London was the first video vocalist. I don't mean that she was the first to appear in film. Plenty of others came before her. But she was the first to fully understand how to use the camera to enhance her delivery and capture hearts. And unlike Marilyn Monroe, her contemporary, she did this without ever over-playing the minx card. London had a dry, cool and urbane tone—singing a song as though she had just fled the clutches of ...
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Video / DVD

The Julie London Show

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
December 16, 2011

You're in for a treat. Since my post two days ago on singer-songwriter and pianist Bobby Troup, I've been bombarded by emails from readers—some who are long-time fans of Troup and others who are new to him. All of those email writers also said they were fans of singer Julie London, who was married to Troup. By any measure, London was special. In someways, her recordings don't really do her justice. As the following video clip demonstrates, London really had to be ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Julie London

Source: Michael Ricci
September 26, 2009

All About Jazz is celebrating Julie London's birthday today!

JAZZ MUSICIAN OF THE DAY Julie London

Julie London told Life Magazine in 1957 that she had “only a thimbleful of a voice, and I have to use it close to the microphone. But it is a kind of over-smoked voice, and it automatically sounds intimate... more

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