Julee Cruise

Julee Ann Cruise (December 1, 1956 – June 9, 2022) was an American singer and actress, known for her collaborations with composer Angelo Badalamenti and film director David Lynch in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In 1985, Badalamenti was composing the score for David Lynch's Blue Velvet, as well as serving as the vocal coach for the film's star, Isabella Rossellini.

A key scene in Blue Velvet was intended to feature This Mortal Coil's version of "Song to the Siren" by Tim Buckley, with lead vocal by Elizabeth Fraser.

When it proved prohibitively expensive to obtain rights to use the song, it was suggested that Badalamenti compose a pop song in the same style, with lyrics written by Lynch.

Because the song required a vocalist with a haunting, ethereal voice, Badalamenti recommended Cruise, who had sung in a New York theater workshop Badalamenti had produced.

The result of their initial collaboration was "Mysteries of Love", which figures prominently in Blue Velvet's closing scenes and gained a cult following.

She released four albums beginning with 1989's Floating into the Night.

Cruise is best known for her 1989 single "Falling"; an instrumental version was used as the theme song for the television series Twin Peaks in which she appeared in a recurring role as a roadhouse singer.

Badalamenti and Lynch went on to write and produce additional songs for Cruise, most of which were featured in her debut album, Floating into the Night (1989).

The album was released on September 12, 1989, by Warner Bros. Records, and charted on Billboard the following year.

It also provided musical material for Lynch's Industrial Symphony No. 1, in which Cruise performed while "floating" from a harness dozens of feet above a stage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

The second, more significant project was the soundtrack to Lynch's Twin Peaks, for which Badalamenti composed the original score.

She was also featured in Lynch and Badalamenti's avant-garde 1990 theater production Industrial Symphony No. 1, which was filmed and released on home media.

Other notable singles included "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart" (1990) and "If I Survive" (1999) by the band Hybrid, which featured her vocals.

In the 1990s, she was a touring member of the B-52's, filling in for Cindy Wilson.

"Rockin' Back Inside My Heart", the second single from Floating into the Night, was released in 1990 and was also featured in an episode of Twin Peaks along with "The World Spins"; in the episode, several of the main female characters are shown lip-synching to "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart".

Cruise reinterpreted and sang the theme song for an episode of the USA Network show Psych.

The episode, "Dual Spires", was about a secluded town full of secrets and skeletons while they investigate the murder of a girl.

It aired 20 years to the day after Laura Palmer's murderer was revealed.

Cruise appeared on Saturday Night Live on May 12, 1990, filling in along with Spanic Boys on short notice when scheduled performer Sinéad O'Connor refused to appear on the same show as guest host Andrew Dice Clay.

Cruise performed "Falling".

The following year, Cruise recorded a Lynch- and Badalamenti-produced cover of the Elvis Presley song "Summer Kisses, Winter Tears" for the soundtrack of Wim Wenders's Until the End of the World.

The song "Falling", which became the orchestral theme for the television series, caused a minor sensation, winning a Grammy at the 33rd Annual Grammy Awards in 1991 for Best Pop Instrumental.

The Twin Peaks soundtrack, featuring Cruise on the songs "Into the Night" and "The Nightingale" as well as on the vocal version of "Falling", eventually went gold (500,000+ copies) in the U.S., a rare feat for a television soundtrack.

She reprised the role in the 1992 movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (which also featured her music), and in the 2017 revival series Twin Peaks: The Return.

Cruise made a number of appearances on Twin Peaks as a singer at a local bar, and was prominently featured in both the show's landmark pilot episode and the episode where Laura Palmer's murderer is revealed, as well as in 1992's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

Afterward, Cruise maintained a relatively low profile until her second album, The Voice of Love, was released in 1993.

An instrumental version of "She Would Die for Love" was used as the main theme for the movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

"She Would Die for Love" was also covered by alternative metal band Fantômas on their The Director's Cut album as "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me".

Cruise's early collaborations with Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch were closely related to Lynch's film work, which was reflected in the lyrics.

For example, "Into the Night" begins with the whispered words "Now it's dark", a line which was repeatedly spoken by Frank Booth, Dennis Hopper's character, in Blue Velvet.

Lynch also photographed Cruise for the liner notes of Floating Into the Night and The Voice of Love, and created the sculptures featured on the covers of both albums.

Cruise's long-delayed third album, The Art of Being a Girl, was released in 2002.

Cruise was also a stage actress and appeared in the off-Broadway musicals Return to the Forbidden Planet and Radiant Baby in 2004.

Her final album, My Secret Life, was released in 2011.

Born in Creston, Iowa, Julee Ann Cruise was the daughter of John Cruise, the town dentist, and Wilma Cruise, who was his office manager.

She studied French horn at Drake University and performed as a singer and actress in Minneapolis with the Children's Theater Company (notably in the role of Jinjur in stage adaptations of L. Frank Baum's Oz books).

She moved to New York and played Janis Joplin in a revue called Beehive, while also working with Angelo Badalamenti.

In 2017 she appeared in Part 17 of the new Twin Peaks season performing "The World Spins".

Cruise released the EP Three Demos in 2018, containing the original demo versions of "Floating", "Falling", and "The World Spins".