Julee Cruise

Julee Cruise infused the cinematic universes shaped by director David Lynch and composer Angelo Badalamenti in Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks with emotional depth through her ethereal vocals, later expanding into more autonomous and stylistically diverse work. Although she viewed herself primarily as a Broadway belter, the fragile and otherworldly delivery she supplied for “Mysteries of Love” in Lynch’s 1986 film Blue Velvet uncovered previously untapped qualities in her instrument. That track’s evocative fusion of dream pop, jazz, and the guileless romanticism of 1950s and early-’60s pop prompted the 1989 release Floating into the Night and the 1993 follow-up The Voice of Love; both records shaped subsequent dream-pop aesthetics and tied Cruise to additional Lynch–Badalamenti endeavors, most prominently Twin Peaks, whose use of her single “Falling” turned the track into a worldwide success in 1990.

Even so, Cruise devoted considerable energy across her career to exploring contrasting facets of her artistry. She demonstrated her range as a touring vocalist with the B-52’s, joined forces with Pharrell, and scored chart entries alongside Hybrid on the 1999 single “If I Survive” and with Khan on the 2002 release “Say Goodbye.” Her later projects, the 2002 album The Art of Being a Girl and the 2011 set My Secret Life, merged dance and lounge textures with jazz-tinged singing that underscored both the scope of her talent and her resolve to record on her own terms.

Cruise entered the world in Creston, Iowa, where her musical path opened with French-horn instruction during childhood; as a teenager she also pursued flying lessons and ultimately earned a pilot’s license. After completing a French-horn degree at Drake University in Des Moines, she chose instead to pursue singing and acting professionally. Relocating to Minneapolis, she spent several years with the Children’s Theater Company before moving to New York City in the early 1980s, where she appeared in off-Broadway stagings of Little Shop of Horrors, A Little Night Music, and the revue Beehive, portraying Janis Joplin.

Her participation as a chorus member in a country-and-western musical introduced her to Angelo Badalamenti, and the two formed a lasting friendship. While Badalamenti scored David Lynch’s Blue Velvet in 1985, the prohibitive cost of licensing This Mortal Coil’s “Song to the Siren” led Lynch and the composer to write the comparably haunting “Mysteries of Love.” Badalamenti’s search for a suitable singer concluded when Cruise, then employed as his talent scout, volunteered; applying the precision and lightness she had developed on French horn, her translucent vocals suited the song perfectly. Its atmospheric blend of synthesizers, strings, and her voice became a cult favorite and established the template for further Lynch–Badalamenti collaborations.

Cruise’s debut album, Floating into the Night, arrived in September 1989 and contained “Mysteries of Love” plus nine additional Badalamenti-composed, Lynch-penned tracks. The record’s dream-pop and jazz amalgam drew limited notice until Lynch and Mark Frost’s series Twin Peaks adopted an instrumental reading of the Floating single “Falling” as its theme upon its April 1990 premiere. Buoyed by the show’s popularity, the album later reached number 74 on the Billboard 200, charted in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden, and earned silver certification from the British Phonographic Industry in the U.K. Cruise’s own version of “Falling” topped the Australian singles chart, entered the U.K. Top Ten, and peaked at number 11 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay tally. She also took a recurring role in the series as the Roadhouse singer, and the Twin Peaks soundtrack—featuring three Floating tracks alongside Badalamenti’s score—attained gold status in the U.S.; its instrumental “Falling” additionally received the 1991 Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental. Further Floating material surfaced in Lynch’s 1990 avant-garde production Industrial Symphony No. 1, where Cruise appeared suspended eighty feet above the stage as the Dreamself of the Heartbroken Woman.

The cultural saturation of Twin Peaks generated additional openings. In May 1990 Cruise substituted on Saturday Night Live after Sinéad O’Connor withdrew in objection to host Andrew Dice Clay. The following year she rejoined Lynch and Badalamenti for a cover of Elvis Presley’s “Summer Kisses, Winter Tears” on the Until the End of the World soundtrack and performed in the off-Broadway Return to the Forbidden Planet, a production that prompted the B-52’s to enlist her as Cindy Wilson’s touring replacement from 1992 to 1999. She continued her Twin Peaks association with a 1992 appearance in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and by recording her second album, The Voice of Love, issued in October 1993, which sustained the atmospheric mood of her debut and incorporated songs featured in Fire Walk With Me, Industrial Symphony No. 1, and Wild at Heart; she also sang with Bobby McFerrin’s Voicestra/CircleSong.

In 1996 Cruise contributed “Artificial World (Interdimensional Mix)” with the Flow to the Scream soundtrack, foreshadowing her later electronic explorations. 1999 brought collaborations with DJ Silver on tracks for Don’t Panic!, vocal and lyric work on Hybrid’s Wide Angle (including the U.K. charting “If I Survive”), and material on Khan’s 1-900-Get-Khan, initiating an enduring creative partnership. The next year she recorded a version of Cliff Richard’s “Wired for Sound” with B(if)tek that charted in Australia and appeared on two tracks from Supa DJ Dmitry’s Scream of Consciousness, among them a cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” In 2001 she supplied songs for the An American Nightmare soundtrack and reunited with Khan for No Comprendo, whose single “Say Goodbye” became a European hit. 2002 saw further singles with Moodswings and Eric Kupper plus the August release of The Art of Being a Girl, produced by Khan, Mocean Worker, and J.J. McGeehan; its sultry chill-out and exotica palette reflected sounds encountered while touring with Khan, while its lyrics drew from her B-52’s tenure and experiences as a female artist.

Cruise’s subsequent decade remained wide-ranging. She appeared in the 2003 musical Radiant Baby, assuming multiple roles including Keith Haring’s mother, a nurse, a Sontag-esque critic, and Andy Warhol. That same year she began working with Pluramon’s Marcus Schmickler on Dreams Top Rock. Additional collaborations included the 2004 Handsome Boy Modeling School track “Class System” with Pharrell and “Everyday” with Atmo. Brtschitsch on Change Your Life. In 2006 she contributed to Time of Orchids’ Sarcast White and Kenneth Bager’s Fragments from a Space Cadet, the latter honored by the Danish Arts Foundation. 2007 brought vocals on Ror-Shak’s Deep and further work with Schmickler on Monstrous Surplus. She resurfaced in 2010 to perform the theme on the Psych episode “Dual Spires,” a Twin Peaks homage, and issued her fourth album, My Secret Life, in 2011, featuring production by DJ Dmitry and a cover of Donovan’s “Season of the Witch.” Afterward she toured with Khan and Kid Congo Powers.

As systemic lupus increasingly limited her mobility and caused chronic pain during the 2010s, new projects diminished. Nevertheless, she returned in 2017 for part 17 of Twin Peaks: The Return, delivering “The World Spins,” later included on Twin Peaks [Music From the Limited Event Series]. Sacred Bones issued Three Demos in 2018, assembling early recordings of “Falling,” “Floating,” and “The World Spins.” Cruise died on June 9, 2022, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, at age 65.