David Lynch on Julee Cruise: 'Great Singer and a Great Human Being'

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Julee Cruise was a singer who performed the theme to “Twin Peaks” as well as appearing on the show. "I can. Hardly walk. And now it's difficult to stand," she wrote at the time, noting "the pain is so bad I cry and snap at people." Cruise divulged on Facebook in 2018 that she had been struggling with systemic lupus erythematosus, the autoimmune disease that causes the immune system to attack its own tissues. In projects for the director David Lynch, she brought an eerie, otherworldly style to “Falling” and other songs. She had been suffering from lupus for several years before her death, and had problems with drugs and alcohol.

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Julee Cruise’s angelic voice guided us through David Lynch’s American hell - The Guardian

Julee Cruise’s angelic voice guided us through David Lynch’s American hell.

Posted: Fri, 10 Jun 2022 07:00:00 GMT [source]

A cause of death was not disclosed, but Grinnan wrote, “She left this realm on her own terms. She is at peace.” Cruise disclosed in 2018 that she suffered from systemic lupus. She was launched into the spotlight through her partnership with the composer Angelo Badalamenti and the film director David Lynch, with whom she first worked on Lynch’s film Blue Velvet (1986). Lynch and Badalamenti conceived the song Mysteries of Love for the soundtrack when they were unable to afford the rights for This Mortal Coil’s version of Tim Buckley’s Song to the Siren. The result was a mesmerising, slow-motion masterpiece, its tapestry of strings and synthesisers hanging in space as Cruise’s voice haunted the arrangement like a distant ghost.

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Cruise’s delicate vocals provided a dreamy and eerie counterpoint to the lush orchestrations of Angelo Badalamenti, the composer who was a chief collaborator of film director David Lynch. Cruise’s association with Badalamenti and Lynch defined her career, providing her with her breakthrough hit in “Falling” — a variation of Badalmenti’s instrumental “Twin Peaks” theme — and steady work until the end of her life. Cruise also toured on occasion with the B-52's, filling in for an absent Cindy Wilson. Julee Cruise, a singer who brought a memorably ethereal voice to the projects of the director David Lynch — most famously “Falling,” whose instrumental version was the theme for Mr. Lynch’s cult-favorite television show, “Twin Peaks” — died on Thursday in Pittsfield, Mass.

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The result of their collaboration was the original track "Mysteries of Love," in which Cruise's dreamlike vocals are set to a slow-moving fog of romantic synths and strings. The trio worked together on the 1989 album Floating into the Night, with Lynch writing the lyrics and Badalamenti composing the music. The LP included Falling and other songs that would go on to feature in Twin Peaks the following year. Despite her stint with the New Wave band from Georgia, Cruise was best known for her collaborations with Lynch, first working with the director on the 1986 feature film Blue Velvet.

David Lynch Remembers Julee Cruise: ‘Great Singer and a Great Human Being’ - Rolling Stone

David Lynch Remembers Julee Cruise: ‘Great Singer and a Great Human Being’.

Posted: Fri, 10 Jun 2022 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Taylor Swift Posts Responses to ‘Tortured Poets Department’ Reviews Using Album Lyrics

She toured with The B-52’s as Cindy Wilson’s stand-in from 1992 to 1999, and performed with Bobby McFerrin’s improvisational vocal group Voicestra/CircleSong. In 1991, she covered Elvis Presley’s “Summer Kisses, Winter Tears” for the soundtrack of Wim Wenders’ Until the End of the World. Her third album, The Art of Being a Girl, didn’t come out until 2002. Inspired, the trio worked together again on Floating into the Night, Cruise's solo debut.

Coachella and Stagecoach sound guy Dave Rat reveals the secrets to keeping the music crystal clear

Cruise’s husband Edward Grinnan announced Cruise’s death Friday on social media; no cause of death was provided, but she had recently been battling systemic lupus. The series premiered on ABC in April 1990 and became a sensation, sweeping Cruise into the spotlight. “Falling,” the vocal variation of Badalamenti’s haunting theme song, reached charts in the U.K. And Europe, while “Floating Into the Night” became a cult hit in the U.S. Cruise often appeared on “Twin Peaks,” singing in the biker bar the Roadhouse, her soft, gentle presence providing a compelling contrast to the roughneck setting.

Cruise’s second album, The Voice of Love (1993), was a further collaboration with Lynch and Badalamenti, much in the same vein as its predecessor. It was not until 2002 that she recorded another solo album, The Art of Being a Girl, this time collaborating with the producer JJ McGeehan, who co-wrote some of the material. Its mix of lilting jazz and cabaret styles with a discreet side order of electronica proved that Cruise was capable of far more than being a mouthpiece for Lynch and Badalamenti. Other songs from the album were used in Twin Peaks and also in Lynch’s Industrial Symphony No. 1, an avant-garde concert performance staged in 1989 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, in which Cruise appeared with the actors Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern and Michael J Anderson.

Recommended by Badalamenti, with whom she had worked in the New York City theater scene, Cruise was recruited by Lynch to sing “Mysteries of Love”, the lovely, vaguely funereal song that ends the film. Before releasing her 2002 album, The Art of Being a Girl, Cruise sporadically toured with the B-52’s, filling in for Cindy Wilson. She also sang alongside Pharrell Williams on Handsome Boy Modeling School’s 2004 song “Class System.” She released a final studio album, My Secret Life, with Deee-Lite’s DJ Dmitry in 2011. Cruise’s long association with Lynch and Badalamenti began in 1986 when Lynch was looking for a song to accompany a scene in his bizarro classic Blue Velvet. The instrumental version of Cruise's "Falling" was the title music for Lynch's "Twin Peaks" series.

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She would appear onstage and occasionally collaborate in the studio with a host of other musicians — most prominent of these was an appearance on “White People,” the 2004 album by Handsome Boy Modeling School — but new music from her was rare. She released “The Art of Being a Girl,” her first album of self-penned material, in 2002, then waited nearly a decade to issue “My Secret Life,” a 2011 album produced by DJ Dmitry from Deee-Lite. In 2004, Cruise provided vocals alongside Pharrell on Handsome Boy Modeling School’s song “Class System.” Cruise’s final album was 2011’s My Secret Life, a collaboration with Deee-lite’s DJ Dmitry. Born Dec. 1, 1956 in Creston, Iowa, Cruise was known for her unusual vocal presence, so intensely calm and collected that it could be unsettling — which found a receptive audience in Lynch and score composer Angelo Badalamenti. For the 1986 film Blue Velvet, the two were looking to mimic the effect of This Mortal Coil's version of "Song to the Siren" by Tim Buckley, whose rights proved too costly to clear.

She toured with the B-52’s in the ‘90s, filling in for singer Cindy Wilson. Julee Cruise, the singer, multi-instrumentalist, actor, and longtime collaborator of David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti, died yesterday by suicide, Cruise’s husband Edward Grinnan tells Pitchfork. She is at peace.… I played her [the B-52’s song] ‘Roam’ during her transition. Now she will roam forever.” Speaking on the phone with Pitchfork, Grinnan remarked, “She was the most creative person I ever met, and I think I married her for that creativity.” Julee Cruise was 65 years old.

Cruise often appeared on “Twin Peaks,” singing in its biker bar, the Roadhouse, her soft and gentle presence providing a compelling contrast to the roughneck setting. When Sinead O’Connor pulled out of “Saturday Night Live” as a protest over guest host Andrew Dice Clay in May 1990, Cruise stepped in as a last-minute musical guest. “Mysteries of Love” kicked off a period of extended collaboration between Cruise, Badalamenti and Lynch, a partnership that spanned records, stage and screen. The core of the collaboration was the original songs Badalamenti and Lynch wrote for “Floating into the Night,” the 1989 debut album from Cruise.

Those post-millennium albums, she said, were something of a reaction to time spent in what she called a "boy's club." Lynch shared a video on YouTube when he heard the news about Cruise’s death Friday. A native of Creston, Iowa, Julee Cruise was born on Dec. 1, 1956. Cruise was drawn to the arts at an early age, acting and playing the French horn while in high school.

Cruise’s best-known song was Falling – its instrumental, written by Angelo Badalamenti, was used as the theme to Twin Peaks, Lynch’s iconic TV show that debuted in 1990. Lynch wrote lyrics for Cruise’s vocal version, which reached No 7 in the UK charts, was a hit across Europe, and topped the Australian singles chart. It was included on her debut album Floating Into the Night, released in 1989. The former featured the song “Falling,” the instrumental of which would serve as the opening theme music for the Twin Peaks TV series.

After graduating from Drake University, she spent time with the Des Moines Symphony but felt pulled toward the theatrical stage. Leaving behind the French horn, she moved to Minneapolis where she became part of the Guthrie Theater and by the early 1980s, she was a member of the Children’s Theatre Company. Beyond those collaborations, she also toured with the B-52s, filling in for Cindy Wilson in the 1990s, and performed with Bobby McFerrin. Cruise struggled to find a suitably ethereal vocalist, so decided to have a go at singing the track herself. Cruise first collaborated with Lynch after working as a talent scout for composer Angelo Badalamenti, who had been asked to work on the song Mysteries of Love for the Blue Velvet soundtrack. She also performed on the soundtrack to his 1986 film Blue Velvet.