Singer from ‘Twin Peaks’
JULEE CRUISE, 1956 – 2022
Julee Cruise, the ethereal singer who performed the theme song “Falling” for David Lynch’s surrealistic 1990s soap opera “Twin Peaks,” died June 9. She was 65.
According to a Facebook post from her husband, Edward Grinnan, Cruise “left this realm on her own terms. No regrets. She is at peace.” Grinnan told NPR that Cruise died by suicide and had struggled with “lupus, depression and alcohol and drug addiction.”
Cruise’s delicate vocals provided a dreamy, eerie counterpoint to the lush orchestrations of Angelo Badalamenti, the composer who was a collaborator of director Lynch. Cruise’s association with Badalamenti and Lynch defined her career, providing her with her breakthrough hit, “Falling” — a variation of Badalmenti’s instrumental “Twin Peaks” theme — and steady work until the end of her life. Cruise also toured occasionally with the B-52’s, filling in for an absent Cindy Wilson.
Upon learning of Cruise’s death, Lynch posted a tribute to the singer on YouTube: “I just found out that the great Julee Cruise passed away. Very sad news. So it might be a good time to appreciate all the good music she made and remember her as a great musician, great singer and great human being.”
Duncan Jones, son of David Bowie, tweeted, “dad would put [Cruise’s album] ‘Floating Into the Night’ on almost every night as ‘dinner music.’ A staple.”
A native of Creston, Iowa, Cruise was born Dec. 1, 1956. She was drawn to the arts at an early age, acting and playing the French horn while in high school. After graduating from Drake University, she spent time with the Des Moines Symphony, then moved to Minneapolis, where she became part of the Guthrie Theater and, by the early 1980s, was a member of the Children’s Theatre Company.
By the mid-1980s, Cruise had relocated to New York. She appeared as Janis Joplin in a production called “Beehive” prior to joining a theatrical workshop from Badalamenti. At the time, the composer was scoring Lynch’s postmodernist noir film “Blue Velvet.” Lynch intended to set a scene to This Mortal Coil’s spectral cover of Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren,” but when the music rights proved too expensive, he asked Badalamenti to write an original song in a similar style. Badalamenti suggested Cruise as the singer for the resulting “Mysteries of Love,” which featured lyrics by Lynch.
“Mysteries of Love” kicked off a period of collaboration between Cruise, Badalamenti and Lynch that spanned records, stage and screen. The core of the collaboration was the original songs Badalamenti and Lynch wrote for “Floating Into the Night,” Cruise’s 1989 debut album. Much of this music was featured in “Industrial Symphony No. 1,” a Lynch theatrical production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music featuring Cruise, but it found a much wider audience when it appeared in “Twin Peaks.”
The series premiered on ABC in April 1990 and became a sensation, sweeping Cruise into the spotlight. “Falling” 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.
When Sinead O’Connor pulled out of “Saturday Night Live” in May 1990 as a protest over guest host Andrew Dice Clay, Cruise stepped in as a last-minute musical guest.
Cruise maintained a fruitful collaboration with Lynch and Badalamenti into the mid-1990s.
She is survived by her husband, Grinnan.
In the farewell note he posted on Facebook, Grinnan wrote, “I played her [the B-52’s song] ‘Roam’ during her transition. Now she will roam forever. Rest in peace, my love.”