JULIE Facts 8

Within weeks of the phenomenal success of the newly-released Cry Me A River single, JULIE accepted a short-term singing engagement at the Cameo Room in New York City. Backed by the Bobby Troup Trio, she opened on Thursday January 5, 1956. Her only previous nightclub experience was at Johnny Walsh’s 881 Club in Beverly Hills. She’d been booked there for two weeks, stayed for ten, and when Si Waronker came to hear her, she was immediately tapped for the fledgling Liberty Records label. Cry Me A River, backed with George and Ira Gershwin’s ’S Wonderful, had been the first of her records to be released by Liberty.

As more and more radio stations played her haunting rendition of Arthur Hamilton’s bluesy lament, JULIE LONDON became one of the most talked-about and sought-after of singers; the JULIE Is Her Name album was released shortly thereafter and her popularity soared.

Ray Wilson, writing a review of JULIE’s opening night at the Cameo for the January 9, 1956 edition of the New York Enquirer, remarked that patrons and the press had turned out in droves; some of the columnists had to stand up in order to let JULIE take her many well-deserved bows.

"She can sing and in a voice charged with enchanting warmth.” The sophisticated New York press raved; JULIE LONDON was the hottest singing sensation Manhattan had seen in years.

When asked about her New York debut, JULIE recalled, “Just about ten minutes before I was to go on before the opening night audience, I walked to an alcove which gave me a full view of the incoming first-nighters taking their seats. As I watched the Cameo fill to capacity, I began to shiver all over; it was at that moment that I wanted to run. It was my first performance before a New York audience and I was petrified. My only previous singing engagement had been at a nightclub in Beverly Hills. But this was New York! As I watched the people coming into the club, I began to experience one of the most agonizing cases of stage fright I’ve ever had in my life. Then someone said, ‘You’re on, JULIE,’ and I walked shakily to the stage. I was sure everyone could hear my knees knocking!”

Wilson noted that the Bobby Troup Trio, also making their New York debut with JULIE, “offer a real treat for progressive music lovers. For those unfamiliar with West Coast music-makers, the trio dishes out sophisticated jazz. This fine instrumental group [Bobby Troup, Howard Roberts, Don Heath, and Red Mitchell] is definitely a symbol of contemporary, progressive music without the drastic sounds of jazz.”

“The entire group is presenting something new and refreshing in vocal and instrumental entertainment in New York night clubs --- something I predict will put all Manhattan on a new merry-go-round.”

The Enquirer referred to JULIE as the country’s newest singing discovery and declared her a “smash hit.” Reviewers enthused about the blue-eyed beauty,

Dressed in a white gown, her tawny blonde hair flowing around her shoulders, JULIE opened the show with one of her favorite numbers, ’S Wonderful. By the end of the song, she had the sophisticated New York audience in the palm of her hand; a mere forty minutes later, she was being hailed as one of the most appealing and inventive singers in years. One reviewer noted, “This London girl not only looks like a million dollars, but her voice is packed with a warmth which captivates an audience. All she does is sit on a stool on stage and sing. No wild arrangements. No swinging of arms and head. And no shouting of lyrics. She’s always on key and she phrases the music like an instrument. Her hit record, Cry Me A River, was no fluke. This girl can sing.”

And indeed she could.