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Julee Cruise
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Julee Cruise was an American singer and actress, born in 1956 in Creston, Iowa. She studied French horn at Drake University, worked in theatre in Minneapolis and then moved to New York. There she came into contact with the composer Angelo Badalamenti. In 1985 Badalamenti wrote, for David Lynch's film Blue Velvet, a song in the style of Song to the Siren. The rights to the original had become too expensive. Lynch wrote the lyrics and Badalamenti recommended Cruise, because the song needed an ethereal, ghostly voice. This is how Mysteries of Love came about.
Music and breakthrough
Badalamenti and Lynch then made more songs for her, which appeared on her debut album Floating into the Night (1989). The best known became Falling. An instrumental version became the theme tune of the TV series Twin Peaks, in which she also appeared herself as a singer in a bar. Falling won a Grammy in 1991 for best pop instrumental composition. Later came The Voice of Love (1993), The Art of Being a Girl (2002) and My Secret Life (2011). In the 1990s she also performed with the B-52's, as a stand-in for Cindy Wilson.
Influence
Her sound is slow, floating and dreamlike, with a very light voice above synthesizers and a soft orchestra. She made the atmosphere of Lynch's work audible and gave the Twin Peaks music a human voice. Julee Cruise died in 2022.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- The Dream Factory: Film Reel 8NL Reader