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<DIV>“Cry Me a River” – Julie London (1955)</DIV>
<DIV>Added to the National Registry: 2015</DIV>
<DIV>Essay by Michael Owen (guest post)*</DIV>
<DIV>Julie London</DIV>
<DIV>Julie London</DIV>
<DIV>An unknown song…an unknown singer…an unknown label. Not an ideal
combination for</DIV>
<DIV>a hit</DIV>
<DIV>record.</DIV>
<DIV>Julie London was born Nancy Gayle Peck in Santa Rosa, California, in 1926.
As a child,</DIV>
<DIV>London was surrounded by music. Her parents were singers who often
performed on the</DIV>
<DIV>radio</DIV>
<DIV>and at nightclubs in San Bernardino, California, and she soaked up songs
and a relaxed</DIV>
<DIV>vocal</DIV>
<DIV>style that matured into a uniquely throaty purr as she reached
adulthood.</DIV>
<DIV>At the age of sixteen, London was discovered by an agent who spotted her
running</DIV>
<DIV>an elevator at</DIV>
<DIV>an upscale men’s clothing store on Hollywood Boulevard. She appeared in 11
movies</DIV>
<DIV>during the</DIV>
<DIV>1940s and 1950s--among them supporting roles opposite Edward G. Robinson
and Gary</DIV>
<DIV>Cooper</DIV>
<DIV>--but with little success, and retired at the age of 25 to raise a family
with her</DIV>
<DIV>husband, actor Jack</DIV>
<DIV>Webb (“Dragnet”). After the couple’s divorce two years later, London
intended to</DIV>
<DIV>resume her</DIV>
<DIV>acting career, when fate arrived in the person of songwriter Bobby Troup
(“Route</DIV>
<DIV>66”).</DIV>
<DIV>Troup encouraged London to sing professionally from the moment they met.
The natural,</DIV>
<DIV>unaffected qualities in her voice set her apart from other female vocalists
of the</DIV>
<DIV>day, he reasoned,</DIV>
<DIV>and would help her regain a footing in show business. While London often
sang around</DIV>
<DIV>the</DIV>
<DIV>house--she described herself as a “living room singer”--with friends who
gathered</DIV>
<DIV>around her</DIV>
<DIV>piano at the end of the evening, she had no interest in singing for her
supper. Undeterred</DIV>
<DIV>by her</DIV>
<DIV>fierce reluctance, Troup’s contacts in the music business soon brought
London a booking--</DIV>
<DIV>without an audition--at a small Hollywood nightclub in the summer of 1955.
Accompanied</DIV>
<DIV>solely by the influential jazz guitarist Barney Kessel and double-bassist
Ray Leatherwood,</DIV>
<DIV>who</DIV>
<DIV>succeeded Ralph Peña midway through the engagement, London’s intimate
performances</DIV>
<DIV>of</DIV>
<DIV>standards from the Great American Songbook were immediately successful
among the</DIV>
<DIV>Hollywood cognoscenti.</DIV>
<DIV>Two weeks of shows became ten. One night, Troup sent Si Waronker, the owner
of a</DIV>
<DIV>new Los</DIV>
<DIV>Angeles-based independent record label, to see London perform. Impressed by
the uniquely-</DIV>
<DIV>individual sound London made with just guitar and bass, and the visceral
effect her</DIV>
<DIV>physical</DIV>
<DIV>presence had on audiences, Waronker signed her as one of the first artists
on Liberty</DIV>
<DIV>Records.</DIV>
<DIV>“Cry Me a River,” the song that cemented London’s reputation, came out of
the blue</DIV>
<DIV>and was a</DIV>
<DIV>last-minute addition to her first recording sessions. Arthur Hamilton, a
high school</DIV>
<DIV>boyfriend of</DIV>
<DIV>London’s, had been working as a songwriter for the production company of
her ex-husband,</DIV>
<DIV>Jack</DIV>
<DIV>Webb. (She had helped Hamilton land the job.) In 1955, Webb was making
“Pete Kelly’s</DIV>
<DIV>Blues,” a movie set in the 1920s with appearances by singers Peggy Lee and
Ella Fitzgerald.</DIV>
<DIV>The lyrics for one of Hamilton’s songs intended for Fitzgerald included the
word</DIV>
<DIV>“plebeian,”</DIV>
<DIV>which Webb told the songwriter no one would believe her singing. Hamilton
was unwilling</DIV>
<DIV>to</DIV>
<DIV>change the word. Webb dropped the number from the picture.</DIV>
<DIV>A few nights later, Hamilton played the song for London at her house. She
immediately</DIV>
<DIV>fell in</DIV>
<DIV>love with its haunting melody and coolly defiant lyrics, hearing echoes of
her troubled</DIV>
<DIV>relationship with Webb. Hamilton said “yes” when London asked if she could
record</DIV>
<DIV>it. As with</DIV>
<DIV>all of the arrangements for London’s early performances, “Cry Me a River”
was very</DIV>
<DIV>quickly</DIV>
<DIV>sketched out in a head arrangement by the singer and her accompanists.
Guitarist</DIV>
<DIV>Barney Kessel</DIV>
<DIV>and bass player Ray Leatherwood had never heard or seen the music to “Cry
Me a River”</DIV>
<DIV>when</DIV>
<DIV>London suggested it in the last few minutes of a recording session at
Western Recorders.</DIV>
<DIV>It</DIV>
<DIV>would be the one new song added to the collection of standards taken from
her nightclub</DIV>
<DIV>act that</DIV>
<DIV>had already been laid down. Captured in just a few takes, Kessel’s chords
and Leatherwood’s</DIV>
<DIV>descending bass introduction set the stage for London’s coolly-detached
performance</DIV>
<DIV>that kept</DIV>
<DIV>the slow pace of Hamilton’s original and allowed his lyrics to come through
with</DIV>
<DIV>the precision</DIV>
<DIV>they required.</DIV>
<DIV>Test pressings of the album were sent to disc jockeys around the country,
and they</DIV>
<DIV>found “Cry</DIV>
<DIV>Me a River” as intriguing and unique as its singer did. The whispered,
murmured sound</DIV>
<DIV>of “Cry</DIV>
<DIV>Me a River” was unlike anything they’d heard in recent years. London’s
soft-sell</DIV>
<DIV>approach, and</DIV>
<DIV>the understated quality of the record, was a sharp contrast to contemporary
hits</DIV>
<DIV>such as “Love Is</DIV>
<DIV>a Many-Splendored Thing” and “I Hear You Knockin’.”</DIV>
<DIV>Liberty Records released the song as a single in Fall of 1955. Aided by
television</DIV>
<DIV>appearances</DIV>
<DIV>on Perry Como’s popular variety program and Steve Allen’s “Tonight” show,
“Cry Me</DIV>
<DIV>a River”</DIV>
<DIV>began an unlikely five month run on the pop singles chart. It was Liberty’s
first</DIV>
<DIV>hit and the</DIV>
<DIV>company had difficulty fulfilling the demand for orders from record
distributors.</DIV>
<DIV>The release of</DIV>
<DIV>London’s first album, “Julie Is Her Name,” which topped industry charts,
soon followed.</DIV>
<DIV>London had rejected the idea of recording her first record in front of a
live audience,</DIV>
<DIV>rightly</DIV>
<DIV>judging that her “thimbleful of voice” would be drowned out by the
clattering of</DIV>
<DIV>dishes and</DIV>
<DIV>conversation.</DIV>
<DIV>Audio engineer John Neal</DIV>
<DIV>recognized that London lacked the ability to project her</DIV>
<DIV>voice, and asked her to move in as closely as she could to the sensitive
Telefunken</DIV>
<DIV>microphone,</DIV>
<DIV>which accurately captured the intimate sound of London’s breathing on the
recording</DIV>
<DIV>tape. The</DIV>
<DIV>addition of a subtle echo gave a near three-dimensional presence to her
voice that</DIV>
<DIV>encouraged</DIV>
<DIV>listeners to come ever closer to their speakers.</DIV>
<DIV>Shocked by her unexpected success, London’s New York nightclub debut in
January 1956</DIV>
<DIV>was</DIV>
<DIV>another major milestone, and her appearance in the hit movie musical “The
Girl Can’t</DIV>
<DIV>Help It,”</DIV>
<DIV>in which she sang “Cry Me a River” as an ethereal presence haunting actor
Tom Ewell,</DIV>
<DIV>helped</DIV>
<DIV>cement her relationship to the song. London remade the song, complete with
strings</DIV>
<DIV>and a</DIV>
<DIV>tinkling cocktail piano, for a 1959 single. For the remainder of a career
that took</DIV>
<DIV>her around the</DIV>
<DIV>world, from nightclubs in Rio de Janeiro to Tokyo, to a long series of
engagements</DIV>
<DIV>at the</DIV>
<DIV>Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas, London sang to audiences that could never get
enough</DIV>
<DIV>of her first</DIV>
<DIV>hit.</DIV>
<DIV>“Cry Me a River” is now a standard and has been covered by many artists in
a wealth</DIV>
<DIV>of diverse</DIV>
<DIV>styles. Barbra Streisand included the song on her 1963 debut album, while
Ray Charles</DIV>
<DIV>and Joe</DIV>
<DIV>Cocker delivered soulful renditions in 1964 and 1970, respectively. In
1993, it was</DIV>
<DIV>released as</DIV>
<DIV>the first single by the lounge revival act Combustible Edison, and was
returned to</DIV>
<DIV>its roots by</DIV>
<DIV>Canadian jazz/pop vocalist Diana Krall eight years later.</DIV>
<DIV>But there can only be one first recording, one chance to make something of
nothing.</DIV>
<DIV>Although</DIV>
<DIV>Julie London released more than 350 recordings during her career as a
singer (1955-1981),</DIV>
<DIV>“Cry</DIV>
<DIV>Me a River”–-with its subtle, and uniquely-suitable, guitar and bass
accompaniment--remains</DIV>
<DIV>her</DIV>
<DIV>most popular, a signature tune that set a standard few have ever
equaled.</DIV>
<DIV>Michael Owen is an archivist, writer, researcher, and librarian. A
Consulting Archivist</DIV>
<DIV>to the</DIV>
<DIV>Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trusts, he is also the webmaster at
www.gershwin.com, and</DIV>
<DIV>the</DIV>
<DIV>Managing Editor of Words Without Music, a publication of the Trusts. He is
a member</DIV>
<DIV>of the</DIV>
<DIV>Editorial Board of the George and Ira Gershwin Critical Edition. A
historian of popular</DIV>
<DIV>music</DIV>
<DIV>and culture, he is currently completing a biography of Julie London. He
lives in</DIV>
<DIV>the San</DIV>
<DIV>Francisco Bay Area with his wife and their cat.</DIV>
<DIV>*The views expressed in this essay are those of the author and do not
necessarily</DIV>
<DIV>represent the views of the Library</DIV>
<DIV>of Congress.</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000"><BR><BR>Bob
Ringwald piano, Solo, Duo, Trio, Quartet, Quintet <BR>Fulton Street Jazz Band
(Dixieland/Swing)<BR>916/ 806-9551<BR>Amateur (ham) Radio Station
K6YBV<BR><BR>"The most terrifying words In the English language are:<BR>I'm from
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