julee cruise twin peaks song

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Julee Cruise

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Julee Cruise was an American singer, songwriter, actress, and musician who appeared as herself in Twin Peaks , Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me , and the series' 2017 revival .

In the original series, she performed the songs " Falling " and " The Nightingale " in the pilot and " Rockin' Back Inside My Heart " and " The World Spins " in Episode 14 . Her song " Into the Night " is also heard in Episode 5 . In the 2017 series, she performed "The World Spins" in Part 17 . All of these songs were originally released on Cruise's 1989 album Floating into the Night .

In the film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me , Cruise performed the song " Questions in a World of Blue ". The song appeared on the film's soundtrack album and on Cruise's 1993 album The Voice of Love . The latter album also included a vocal version of the song "The Voice of Love", which appeared in an instrumental version in the film and on the soundtrack album.

Cruise first worked with Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch on Blue Velvet , for which she performed the prominently-featured song "Mysteries of Love." 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. They also collaborated for two albums: Floating into the Night and The Voice of Love which included songs written for Blue Velvet , Twin Peaks , and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me .

Other notable singles included "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart" (1990) and "If I Survive" (1999) by the band Hybrid, which featured her vocals. She recorded several memorable covers over the years, including Cliff Richard's "Wired for Sound" with B(if)tek, R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" with Eric Kupper, Eurythmics's "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" with DJ Silver, Elvis Presley's "Summer Kisses, Winter Tears", and David Bowie's "Space Oddity" with Supa DJ Dmitry.

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. Cruise died on June 9, 2022, aged 65; her death was a suicide.

Discography [ ]

• Floating into the Night (1989)
• The Voice of Love (1993)
• The Art of Being a Girl (2002)
• My Secret Life (2011)

External links [ ]

• 2 Dale Cooper
• 3 Audrey Horne

How Julee Cruise Captured The Essence of ‘Twin Peaks’ With a Single Song

The iconic dream pop singer Julee Cruise tragically passed away on Friday . Cruise was beloved among film fans for her collaborations with surrealist filmmaker David Lynch and his composer Angelo Badalamenti . The three artists worked in tandem to create unique, unconventional soundtracks. Lynch provided the memerizing visuals and Badalamenti delivered the haunting overtones, but it was Cruise who found the beauty amidst the darkness. What’s scary about Lynch’s work isn’t that he’s showing a world without hope; he takes the time to spotlight moments of beauty, and show how they are corrupted.

Lynch’s 1990 series Twin Peaks changed the history of television forever. The entire concept of the “Golden Age of Television” in some way derived front the precedent that Lynch set; Twin Peaks was a week-to-week narrative that brought the craftsmanship of television productions up to a new level. Although it was initially the mystery of Laura Palmer’s ( Sheryl Lee ) death that entranced viewers, Twin Peaks is a deeper tragedy than it initially appears to be. There is no end to the cycle of violence that is bound to continue. Agent Dale Cooper’s ( Kyle MacLachlan ) investigation won’t bring Laura any justice, but by continuing to search for her, he’s keeping the beauty of her memory alive.

These themes of tragedy and lost beauty are most evident during a pivotal sequence in the Season 2 episode “Lonely Souls.” Various characters are drawn together at The Roadhouse. As Cooper hears a message from The Giant ( Carel Struycken ), the identity of Laura’s killer is finally revealed. Her father, Leland ( Ray Wise ), was possessed by the demonic entity BOB ( Frank Silva ). The truth does not set anyone free; under BOB’s control, Leland murders Laura’s identical cousin, Maddie Ferguson (Lee). “It’s happening again,” The Giant says to Cooper.

What makes this moment so much more heartbreaking is Cruise’s song “Falling,” which plays throughout the intertwined sequences. Cruise’s bittersweet vocals capture the inherent tragedy of Twin Peaks ; just as one beautiful thing is set free, another one is taken away. The words reflect that while there are wondrous occurrences in nature, “something is different.” Does loving something, or someone, make it even crueler when it’s stolen away? Or is love the only thing that draws in violence to begin with? It’s one of the most profound moments in all of Twin Peaks , and it wouldn’t have been nearly as effective without Cruise’s work.

Twin Peaks is inspired by classic noir, which put it at odds with virtually every other “procedural” detective series on network television at the time. Lynch wasn’t interested in “moving on” to a new case each week; the procedural structure seemingly provided “closure” to these mysteries, and did not take the time to contemplate the victims’ lives. To “move on” from one murder to another would only normalize it. Like the classic noir cases of Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, the Twin Peaks characters took time to reflect on the cruelty of the world. Cruise’s music was integral to capturing the jazzy atmosphere of a 1940s nightclub.

RELATED: 'Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me': Why the David Bowie Scene Remains so Terrifying

The Roadhouse frequently draws together characters from the Twin Peaks universe for these important moments of contemplation. There’s an aura of tragedy that haunts the location, and Cruise’s music is frequently heard in the background. “Lonely Souls” featured the most extended musical number in the show thus far. It marked a true turning point in the show’s narrative, even if it wasn’t the one that Lynch had originally intended.

Lynch had never planned to reveal the identity of Laura’s killer, but network interference from ABC forced him to give the mystery the type of “wrap up” that he’d wanted to avoid. “Lonely Souls” transitioned Twin Peaks from a show just about Laura to a series about the town itself. Laura’s death only revealed the darkness that had been brewing beneath the town’s semblance of idealism. In order to make this shift apparent, Twin Peaks had to take a moment to reflect on the past. Lynch knew that Cruise’s song was the perfect way to do so.

“Falling” had been the series’ theme song from the beginning, but “Lonely Souls” was the first time viewers got to hear the full version with lyrics. The critical moment was solidified by Cruise herself, who appears during The Roadhouse sequence in a cameo role. This was the first time that Cruise had acted in the series since the pilot episode.

Anytime that Cruise graced Twin Peaks with a personal appearance, viewers knew it was an important moment where the saga would change directions. Cruise reprised her role in Lynch’s 1992 prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me , which explores the events leading to Laura’s death from her perspective. When Cruise begins singing on stage, Laura begins her descent into darkness when she starts talking to two men. It was the beginning of her end.

Cruise reprised her moment once more in Lynch’s 2017 sequel series Twin Peaks: The Return . In “Part 17,” Cooper travels back in time to literally “save” Laura from her death, thus rewriting history and spiraling the universe into chaos. Any good intentions he had are immediately subverted; Laura is confused and terrified. As the episode closes, Cruise appears on stage again to indicate that Laura will never escape her fate. Cruise is accompanied by The Chromatics for a performance of “The World Spins.” It was a great generational moment, as the music of The Chromatics provided the same atmosphere for The Return that Cruise had provided for the original series.

Lynch himself delivered a heartfelt video tribute to Cruise’s legacy, where he called her “a great musician, great singer, and a great human being.” The Twin Peaks cast has been similarly respectful, and MacLachlan also paid tribute to Cruise in a touching social media post . Her impact on Twin Peaks remains a significant reason why the series became the cultural game changer that it was.

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Remembering Julee Cruise With 5 Essential Tracks

By Quinn Moreland

The word “ethereal” is frequently overused as a descriptor for songs that have gauzy vocals and a hint of the otherworldly. But if any musician truly deserved the adjective, it’s Julee Cruise . Born in Iowa in 1956, Cruise had a colorful career that included time spent studying the French horn, performing off-Broadway, filling in for the B-52’s singer Cindy Wilson, and recording an album with DJ Dmitry of the dance music group Deee-lite. But she was undoubtedly best known for her collaborations with composer Angelo Badalamenti and director David Lynch, including songs for Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet . Cruise’s soft-hued sadness has endured for decades, and it can be heard in the music of Lana Del Rey, Sky Ferreira, and Beach House, and more. “They sing like sexy baby girls,” she once said of her musical offspring. “They all have their own personality.”

Cruise passed away yesterday at the age of 65 . “She left this realm on her own terms. No regrets. She is at peace,” Cruise’s husband, Edward Grinnan wrote in a Facebook post. Since the news broke, tributes to the late singer have celebrated her ability to conjure dreams and nightmares. “It might be a good time to appreciate all the good music she made and remember her as being a great musician, great singer, and a great human being,” Lynch said in a video message. In that spirit, here are five songs that honor Cruise’s artistry.

“Mysteries of Love” (1986)

Lynch had originally wanted to use This Mortal Coil’s rendition of “Song to the Siren” in his 1986 film Blue Velvet , but after the rights proved to be too costly, he needed to find an equally spellbinding replacement. The director tasked songwriter Angelo Badalamenti with transforming a few of his abstract scribblings into something cohesive. Lynch’s directions for the sound were equally vague: “Oh, just make it like the wind, Angelo,” Badalamenti later recounted . “It should be a song that floats on the sea of time. Make it cosmic!”

Badalamenti had previously worked with Cruise on several projects and asked her for vocalist recommendations. When none of those potentials worked out, Cruise decided to give the song a try herself. But the singer—who had previously played Janis Joplin in a theatrical revue —was not “ comfortable singing real soft or real pretty.” Cruise had to adjust her entire vocal persona to capture the ballad’s intended softness; she later said she thought of it as “singing like the soloist in a boys’ choir.”

“Falling” (1989)

“Mysteries of Love” began a long-standing collaboration between Badalamenti, Lynch, and Cruise. The two men would go on to compose the music and lyrics for Cruise’s 1989 debut album, Floating Into the Night , which furthered her reputation as a dream pop icon. Several of that record’s tracks appeared in Lynch’s television series Twin Peaks, with an instrumental version of the haunting ballad “Falling” becoming the show’s theme. While the song’s opening notes immediately established Twin Peaks ’ eerie tone, Cruise’s radiant vocals elevated the track into a moment of transcendence. Her spine-tingling performance of the track in the Twin Peaks pilot became one of the show’s most iconic moments.

“Summer Kisses, Winter Tears” (1991)

By Anna Gaca

By Matthew Strauss

In between work on Twin Peaks , Badalamenti, Lynch, and Cruise collaborated on a cover of Elvis Presley’s “Summer Kisses, Winter Tears” for Wim Wenders’ sci-fi film Until the End of the World . There was always an element of nostalgia within the trio’s partnerships, so covering a song from 1960 about the fleetingness of romance was bound to succeed. Cruise’s spin on the classic transforms heartache into an existential question of cosmic significance.

“Questions in a World of Blue” (1992)

After the release of the 1992 prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me , the trio returned to the studio with the intention of transforming songs from that film and 1990’s Wild at Heart into new material for Cruise. The result would be Cruise’s second album, The Voice of Love . On the penultimate track, “Questions in a World of Blue,” Cruise reflects on the ambiguous end of a relationship atop a quietly tragic arrangement: “How can love die? Was it me? Was it you?” Her return to The Roadhouse stage in Fire Walk With Me resulted in another beguiling, unforgettable moment.

“The Art of Being a Girl” (2002)

Cruise spent much of the ’90s filling in for the B-52’s Cindy Wilson, who took time away from the band to focus on raising her children. In 2002, Cruise released her third studio album, The Art of Being a Girl . In a sense, it was first solo work, made without contributions from Lynch and Badalamenti. The Art of Being a Girl ’s sonic shift towards trip-hop shows that Cruise’s interests went well beyond her reputation as an ingenue in the Lynchian universe. Talking about the album in 2018 , she said, “It’s about how we’re perceived as women and also how we love women. It’s about how I watched my predecessors fight: Madonna, Kim Gordon, Kate Pierson—who is a god and a force to be reckoned with. We’re not followers, we’re front-runners. I came out of the womb with my fists.” The Art of Being a Girl ’s strange and seductive title track satirizes feminine wiliness with lyrics like, “Use teardrops gently/But always get your way.”

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Julee Cruise, otherworldly crooner on 'Twin Peaks,' dies at 65

Lars Gotrich

In the '90s, Julee Cruise filled in for The B-52s member Cindy Wilson on tour. The singer is best known for her work with David Lynch on Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet . Ted Town/Toronto Star via Getty Images hide caption

In the '90s, Julee Cruise filled in for The B-52s member Cindy Wilson on tour. The singer is best known for her work with David Lynch on Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet .

Julee Cruise, the singer best known for her collaborations with director David Lynch and The B-52s , died Thursday. Her husband, author Edward Grinnan, confirmed to NPR that Cruise died by suicide, and had struggled with "lupus, depression and alcohol and drug addiction" in the past. She was 65.

"She left this realm on her own terms," Grinnan wrote of Cruise in a Facebook post Thursday evening. "No regrets. She is at peace. I played her [the B-52s song] Roam during her transition. Now she will roam forever. Rest In Peace, my love, and love to you all."

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. 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.

Inspired, the trio worked together again on Floating into the Night , Cruise's solo debut. Released in 1989, the album includes songs from Blue Velvet and others that would be featured in Lynch's concert film Industrial Symphony No. 1 and, most famously, the early '90s touchstone Twin Peaks .

An instrumental version of "Falling" was used as the theme song for the ABC television series, and onscreen, Cruise became a regular feature at The Roadhouse, a home for the show's bikers and crooners. She would return for the series' later incarnations, the feature film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and the 2017 limited series Twin Peaks: The Return .

"In the ruckus of beers flying through the air at The Roadhouse, we have Julee singing a beautiful, slow-tempo song, and it's so outrageous," Badalamenti shared with the academic journal Series in 2016 . "You would never have that kind of song in a place like that. The songs with Julee serve a two-fold purpose: They contrast the visuals and they set the tone for the show."

Cruise worked again with Lynch and Badalamenti for her 1993 album The Voice of Love , but after that she wouldn't release music again until The Art of Being a Girl (2002) and My Secret Life (2011). Those post-millennium albums, she said, were something of a reaction to time spent in what she called a "boy's club."

"It's not really about David or Angelo," Cruise told Pitchfork in 2018 . "It's about how we're perceived as women and also how we love women. It's about how I watched my predecessors fight: Madonna , Kim Gordon , Kate Pierson — who is a god and a force to be reckoned with. We're not followers, we're front-runners. I came out of the womb with my fists."

In addition to singing, Cruise was also a Broadway actress, a pilot and a dog trainer. In the '90s, she filled in as a touring member of The B-52s while Cindy Wilson — another tough singer drawn to blurring the lines between kitsch and fine art — focused on raising a family. It was "the happiest time of her performing life," Grinnan writes in his post. "She will be forever grateful to them. When she first stepped up to the mic with Fred [Schneider] and Kate she said it was like joining the Beatles. She will love them always and never forget their travels together around the world."

At the end of that Pitchfork interview, Cruise mused about her late father and her family's cemetery plot in Minneapolis. "We have our own great graveyard there," she said, "but I'm not gonna get buried. I'm going to have my ashes mixed in with my dogs. They're gonna spread my ashes across Arizona, and Arizona is going to turn blue."

If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (En Español: 1-888-628-9454; Deaf and Hard of Hearing: 1-800-799-4889) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.

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The World Spins By Julee Cruise: Live Versions, Covers And More

Julee Cruise ‘s The World Spins , composed by Angelo Badalamenti and written by David Lynch , is arguably one of the most emotional songs on the Twin Peaks soundtrack and will forever send shivers down the spine of every fan, simply because it’s the song that plays right after  that scene.

That scene in season two’s Episode 14  (“Lonely Souls”) where “ it is happening again… ” and we find out who killed Laura Palmer . The giant disappears, leaving Dale Cooper —much like everyone who just witnessed the previous scene— completely floored. The elderly room service waiter from The Great Northern walks up to Coop and says…

I’m so sorry.

That episode aired for the first time 24 years ago tonight, so let’s watch its  final minutes again. Without the horror.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bAIjzeymyU

The World Spins in David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti’s Industrial Symphony No. 1

Fan-made video for The World Spins using Twin Peaks footage

Julee Cruise performing The World Spins live at the Twin Peaks UK Festival in 2010

Rebella – The World Spins

Aseptic Void – The World Spins (The Other Twin Peaks)

The World Spins was also used in Robert Altman’s The Company (2003)

The World Spins (Lyrics by David Lynch)

Moving near the edge at night Dust is dancing in the space A dog and bird are far away The sun comes up and down each day Light and shadow change the walls Halley’s comet’s come and gone The things I touch are made of stone Falling through this night alone

Love Don’t go away Come back this way Come back and stay Forever and ever

Please stay

Dust is dancing in the space A dog and bird are far away The sun comes up and down each day The river flows out to the sea

The world spins.

What's your response to this?

I luv Julee Cruise ! Her voice is seductive, haunting and gentle.

Hi. Good article, as always. But The Company is a 2003 film, not 2013! Bye!

Thanks for spotting the typo!

Lonely Souls was episode 7, not 14, right?

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Julee Cruise’s voice floated out of ‘Twin Peaks’ and into reality

The late singer’s dreamlike music feels inextricable from David Lynch’s vision. Can we hear it on its own terms?

We hardly give it any thought, but one of the most astonishing things music can do is step across the line that separates fiction and reality. Whenever a character in a film or a television show sings a song in their world, it instantly becomes a song in ours. There’s no transforming or transposing required. It’s in there. Now it’s out here. Amazing, right? This isn’t like reciting your favorite “Seinfeld” joke at dinner or dressing up like Darth Vader for Halloween. Fictional characters — and all the wonderful, horrible things they say and do — cannot join us in reality. Music can.

When the hypnagogic lullabies of Julee Cruise started leaking out of David Lynch’s metaphysical soap opera “Twin Peaks” in 1990, the border between make-believe and the real world felt more porous than usual. In the show, Cruise — who died on Thursday at 65 — played an enigmatic roadhouse singer with a voice both small and big, stylish and spacey, intimate and distant, as if she’d been ousted from a Brill Building girl-group and tasked with imitating a children’s choir on the moon.

As for the songs, they were as immersive and imprecise as dreams, difficult to remember and impossible to forget — “ Falling ,” “ Into the Night ,” “ Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart ,” “ The Nightingale ,” “ The World Spins ” — each written and produced by Lynch and his soundtrack composer Angelo Badalamenti, and released on Cruise’s exquisite debut album, “Floating Into the Night,” roughly seven months before “Twin Peaks” changed how everyone watched television.

I suppose that release schedule complicates the fictionality of Cruise’s music. In their public infancy, these songs got to do a little living outside of Lynch’s vision, and as difficult as it might be, we should try to hear them on their own terms today. Cruise obviously didn’t want to live in “Twin Peaks” forever. Shortly after the show first went off the air in 1991, she signed on as a touring member of the B-52’s where she filled in for Cindy Wilson and was deputized with, among other things, delivering the “tin roof ... rusted” line during “Love Shack.” (When Lynch rebooted “Twin Peaks” for a third season in 2017, Cruise appeared in the penultimate episode, singing “The World Spins” alongside the Chromatics, one of countless bands influenced by her dreamy chic.)

Is it even possible to hear “Floating Into the Night” on its own terms? Or on ours? Seven years ago, I decided I was tired of seeing red curtains in my mind’s eye whenever a Julee Cruise song reached my mind’s ear. So I cued up her music on a breathtaking road trip through West Texas, hoping to rewire the associations in my brain. It worked and it didn’t. Now when I hear Cruise’s voice, I see prickly-pear cactuses growing out of checkered floors.

It’s not unlike one of those double-exposure dissolves that Lynch is so fond of, or maybe something even better. Instead of moving back and forth between fiction and reality, Cruise’s music can live fully in both.

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Twin Peaks Icon Julee Cruise Dead at 65

Michael ausiello, president & editorial director.

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Singer Julee Cruise , best known for her collaborations with David Lynch , most notably via  Twin Peaks , has died. She was 65 . TV Stars We Lost in 2022 View Gallery 82 Images

Cruise’s death was confirmed by her husband Edward Grinnan on Facebook, according to The Guardian . “She left this realm on her own terms,” he wrote. “No regrets. She is at peace.”

In 2018, Cruise announced that she was battling Systemic Lupus. “I can… hardly walk,” she wrote on Facebook . “And now it’s difficult to stand… The pain is so bad I cry and snap at people.”

Featuring music by Angelo Badalamenti and lyrics by Lynch, an instrumental version of Cruise’s haunting 1989 track “Falling” was used as the theme to Twin Peaks.

Cruise made occasional appearances in the original, early ’90s  Twin Peaks  on ABC as a singer at local watering hole The Roadhouse, a role she reprised in the 2017 Showtime revival Twin Peaks: The Return . She also turned up in the 1992 film  Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me .

Cruise also collaborated with Lynch and Badalamenti on the former’s 1986 film Blue Velvet , which features her song “Mysteries of Love.”

“It’s like I’m his little sister: you don’t like your older brother telling you what to do,” Cruise reportedly said of her working relationship with Lynch. “David’s foppish. He can have these tantrums sometimes. And have you ever seen his temper? Anybody can look funny when they get mad. But I love him.”

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“ He said one day / ‘I’ll meet you’ / Our hearts will fly / With the nightingale / The nightingale / He told me / One day / ‘You will be with me’” You are a wonderful piece to the delightfully misshapen Lynchian puzzle. Sleep well, Julee.

Don’t forget that she also reinterpreted and sang the Psych theme song (Dual Spires episode).

She also filled in extensively for Cindy Wilson on tour with the B-52s in the 90s when Wilson left the band.

I still listen to Floating. A sad loss but she’s in a better place.

Sad to hear she was ill for her last years. I still listen to her CD, Floating into the Night, several times each year, as well as the original Twin Peaks soundtrack and her other albums. RIP, Julee.

Twin Peaks is truely perfection, Julee is a massive part of it. I know shes more than a tv show but twin peaks was my first introduction to her tallent . RIP

Possibly my all-time favorite theme song. I thought it was hauntingly beautiful. Sorry to read this news.

This is such sad news, I’m sorry she suffered so! As great as Twin Peaks is, it certainly would have been less so without her ethereal, haunting voice. R.I.P.

She was amazing. “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart” is a personal favorite that I still listen to often. What a unique talent. She will be missed but forever immortalized in the works of David Lynch.

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Falling Back Into, and Floating With, the Dreamy Musical Sound of ‘Twin Peaks’

It’s been 35 years since FBI Agent Dale Cooper ( Kyle MacLachlan ) entered the weird little Pacific Northwest town of Twin Peaks on Feb. 24, 1989, within the context of the story in David Lynch ’s classic, even weirder little series Twin Peaks , which premiered on ABC on April 8, 1990.

I loved the surreal feel of the show when I tuned in that night, but found even back then, as the series continued through its first season in April-May ‘90, and then in a second season that began in the fall, that its attempt to develop a plot to resolve the initial “Who killed Laura Palmer?” mystery made things weaker.

A lot of people were certainly expecting, if not demanding, an answer to that question, but I would have enjoyed Twin Peaks without a plot, even if it had only been a series of the sorts of dreamlike images that Lynch can conjure up so well. I think perhaps that Lynch might have preferred that, as well, and maybe audiences were not ready for something like that at the time.

But during its brief initial run, Twin Peaks did look fantastic, and those images were enhanced by an equally impressive musical sound courtesy of composer Angelo Badalamenti , a frequent Lynch collaborator, and singer Julee Cruise .

As soon as I heard this classic opening theme to the series, I was hooked on its sound:

And there were other great instrumental moments from Badalamenti in the series, like “Laura Palmer’s Theme” and “Love Theme from Twin Peaks ”:

I bought the Twin Peaks soundtrack album to hear more, and then I also discovered that a few of the songs featured in the series had appeared on Cruise’s album called Floating Into the Night , which had been released a year earlier, in 1989.

After tracking that CD down, buying it (via a lot of legwork visiting various record stores) and giving it a listen, I was even more blown away by its tracks, which combined Cruise’s vocals, Badalamenti’s music and Lynch’s lyrics into what is still one of the most ethereal, dreamy-sounding albums that I’ve ever heard.

CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images

Julee Cruise performs “Falling” in the Twin Peaks pilot episode

Among the songs on that album was “Falling,” the vocal version of the show’s theme song, which Cruise also performed in a role as a road house singer in the April 8, 1990, pilot episode, called “Northwest Passage”:

Cruise also performed the lovely song “The Nightingale” in that episode, another tune found on Floating Into the Night :

The later Season 1 episode “Cooper’s Dreams,” which aired May 10, 1990, did not feature Cruise in person, but did include her Floating Into the Night track “Into the Night” on its soundtrack during a key moment:

Also on the album were two songs  — “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart” and “The World Spins” — that Cruise sang on the show when she returned as the bar singer in the Season 2 episode called “Lonely Souls,” which aired Nov. 10, 1990:

There is other greatness on Floating Into the Night that wasn’t featured in Twin Peaks , like “Mysteries of Love,” which had been used in Lynch’s 1986 film Blue Velvet , and a song called “Floating,” which you can hear Lynch and Cruise working out during a recording session in this cool and fascinating film clip from 1989:

A few songs off of Floating Into the Night — as well as other original content — did also become part of an interesting, avant-garde concert piece that Lynch, Badalamenti and Cruise collaborated on (along with Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern , who around that time had also starred in Lynch’s Wild at Heart ) called Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Broken Hearted .

It looks like this was performed live a couple of times in ’89, then was released on video in ’90 (directed with Lynch’s unmistakable style). You can check it out here:

In addition to other projects over the years, Badalamenti and Cruise revisited the world of Twin Peaks with their music and, in Cruise’s case, again in person as the road house singer, in Lynch’s 1992 movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and then in the 2017 Showtime limited series Twin Peaks: The Return .

Both musical artists sadly passed away in 2022; Badalamenti at age 85, Cruise at 65.

But their masterful work in contributing to the sound of Twin Peaks in particular continues to live in my mind and soul as among the things that, over the past three decades, I have frequently found myself re-listening and briefly zoning out to via CD or YouTube clips, or by simply replaying it in my head, since it appears to have gotten burned into my brain in 1990.

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Julee Cruise returns to ‘Twin Peaks’: ‘I will always be proud of this’

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As David Lynch prepared last year to shoot a musical performance that would help close out his revival of “Twin Peaks,” his direction to singer Julee Cruise was simple. “He said, ‘Julee, you are a child full of wonder,’” recalls Cruise, a longtime musical collaborator with Lynch. “And he meant it. If he means it, then I’m going to do it.”

During Sunday’s two-episode finale to Showtime’s “Twin Peaks: The Return,” Cruise performed “The World Spins,” a dreamy, mournful, hopeful song known to fans of the original series. With music composed by Angelo Badalamenti and lyrics by Lynch, she sang in hushed, ethereal tones: “Moving near the edge at night / Dust is dancing in the space / A dog and bird are far away.”

In the show’s fictional rural town of Twin Peaks, Cruise was back onstage at the Roadhouse, the only return engagement from the original series of 1990-91. For most of the revival’s 18 episodes, Lynch featured a live performance of a full song at the Roadhouse (also identified by an exterior neon sign as the Bang Bang Bar), where the artists have included Nine Inch Nails, Eddie Vedder, Au Revoir Simone and the Chromatics. For Cruise, it meant once again performing a song that has helped define her idiosyncratic career and the recognizable sound texture of many Lynch films. “It gives me goose bumps: ‘Dust is dancing in the space,’” she says of the lyrics. “How many times have we seen that but haven’t been able to write it? That is a beautiful lyric. It’s that life goes on — it does .”

In the original series, Cruise performed the same song at the Roadhouse in a climactic second-season episode that revealed the killer of troubled prom queen Laura Palmer. That episode was directed by Lynch, and Cruise’s performance captured its feeling of tragedy, sadness and revelation. On Sunday, “The World Spins” emotionally connected the new series with the original, signaling the passage of time.

“I will always be known as this,” Cruise says of her work with Lynch, “and I will always be proud of this.” The song predates the debut of “Twin Peaks,” originating on the singer’s 1989 debut album, “Floating Into the Night,” produced in New York City by Lynch and Badalamenti. The collaboration created the sonic blueprint for the series. An instrumental of the album’s “Falling” became a recognizable theme of the show, reflecting Lynch’s taste for what he has described as the “low and slow.”

“I worked with these guys for an entire year and a half,” Cruise recalls of those pre-digital recording sessions. “It was analog, and the synth would break down. I was frightened every single song, bringing my head voice down.”

Cruise met Lynch during the production of the filmmaker’s 1986 breakthrough feature, “Blue Velvet.” When Lynch was unable to secure the rights to This Mortal Coil’s recording of “Song to the Siren,” Cruise was recruited to sing on a replacement song that aimed to capture the same mysterious flavor: “Mysteries of Love,” written by Lynch and soundtrack composer Badalamenti. The ethereal nature of the song was a new challenge for Cruise, who previously had been enough of a belter to once play Janis Joplin in a stage revue.

The sound the trio created together defined the rest of her career. “I must have taken it from listening to what my mom and dad loved — low, low, bluesy-type music, like Shirley Bassey. But I sing this like a classical French horn player,” she says now. “There is no baby-ness to it. There is no girlishness to it. If you listen to it, and all the harmonies that I did make for it ... are like a French horn quartet. And that is the way Angelo would want it, and loved how I phrased things. And David was quite a good trumpet player.” Lynch’s presence was essential to that sound. “Leave it up to just Angelo and me performing? No, it just wouldn’t have the magic.”

To shoot her performance for Sunday’s episode of “Twin Peaks: The Return,” Cruise flew to the Roadhouse interior set in Pasadena in February 2016. Lynch asked her to dress in what she would normally wear for a concert. After two takes, she was done. Cruise stayed on set long enough to watch another Lynch regular, Rebekah Del Rio, perform “No Stars,” with Moby on guitar behind her, for a different episode of the series. “She did two takes,” recalls Cruise. “It was amazing.”

Cruise tours less often now, but she is contemplating some live performances around the world, including in Australia and Europe. After “Twin Peaks” became a sensation during its first season, her own career took off. She recorded a second solo album with Lynch and Badalamenti, 1993’s “The Voice of Love,” and she starred in a one-hour musical film, “Industrial Symphony No. 1,” released in 1990 by Warner Bros. Records.

“It was so much fun to be part of something that just went ba-boom!” Cruise says. “You really didn’t know it was going to do that. What a nice surprise life takes you on.”

Over the years, she’s recorded other albums with different producers, has filled in for the B-52s’ Cindy Wilson on tour and has performed frequently with Bobby McFerrin, but she still identifies herself most strongly with her work with Lynch. It has sometimes made her feel possessive of the director, she says with a laugh.

“I heard somebody say, ‘Oh, there’s a new Julee Cruise,’” she says with mock horror. “That’s all it took. I don’t know what singer it was. I get very possessive. David is mine. How could they?”

She recognizes the influence her work with Lynch has had on a new generation of singers and musicians, and she has become friends with some of them, including Sky Ferreira. She has never met chanteuse Chrysta Bell, a current Lynch muse whose debut solo album was produced by the filmmaker. Bell also appears as FBI agent Tammy Preston in the revival, and she recently released a version of “Falling,” originally recorded by Cruise.

“It was good. I’ve seen her do other things that just blew me away,” Cruise says of Bell. “She’s got a very womanly voice. She’s like a true alto. I’m a mezzo-soprano. I’m surprisingly high.”

Now both share a world created by Lynch. But one fan who didn’t plan on tuning in Sunday was Cruise, who has yet to watch a single episode of “The Return.” She has her reasons. “I won’t watch the show yet. It’s got to be on my terms. I have to watch it in an intimate setting by myself,” she says, explaining that she will watch it as the marathon 18-hour film Lynch has described the new limited series as. “It’s very personal.”

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Julee Cruise, Vocalist of ‘Twin Peaks’ Fame, Dies at 65

In projects for the director David Lynch, she brought an eerie, otherworldly style to “Falling” and other songs.

By Neil Genzlinger

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. She was 65.

Her husband, Edward Grinnan, said the cause was suicide. He said she had struggled with depression as well as lupus.

Ms. Cruise was building a career off Broadway in the early 1980s when serendipity struck: She met the composer Angelo Badalamenti when they worked on a show together.

“I was in this country-and-western musical in the East Village,” she told The San Francisco Chronicle in 1990. “I was a chorus girl with a big skirt and a big wig, singing way too loud. Angelo was doing the music for the show, and we became friends.”

A few years later, Mr. Badalamenti was engaged by Mr. Lynch, who was still early in his career, as a vocal coach for Isabella Rossellini in the 1986 Lynch movie “Blue Velvet” and ended up writing the score for that film as well. Mr. Lynch and Mr. Badalamenti had written a song for the film that needed a vocalist.

“Angelo asked me to find someone to sing a song for the soundtrack called ‘Mysteries of Love,’ but he didn’t like any of the singers I recommended,” she told The Chronicle. “He wanted dreamy and romantic. I said, ‘Let me do it.’”

Ms. Cruise had always thought of herself as “a belter,” as she often put it (she had once played Janis Joplin in a musical revue called “Beehive”), but the voice she came up with for “Mysteries of Love” was something else entirely, enigmatic and wispy. It suited that and other Lynch-Badalamenti compositions perfectly. One writer called her style “angel-on-Quaaludes vocals.”

The three were soon collaborating on Ms. Cruise’s first album, “Floating Into the Night,” which featured songs by the two men, including “Mysteries of Love” and “Falling.” They also collaborated on a stage production called “Industrial Symphony No. 1,” performed at the New Music America festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in November 1989, with Ms. Cruise performing amid an elaborate set that included an old car.

“Often, Ms. Cruise floated far above the stage, like a prom-gowned, bleached-blond angel,” Jon Pareles wrote in his review in The New York Times. “At one point, her body plummeted to the floor and was packed into the car’s trunk by helmeted workmen; later, she re-emerged to face a video camera and sing ‘Tell your heart it’s me,’ as 10 chorus girls in gold lamé danced next to her image on television screens.”

National exposure came the following April when “Twin Peaks” premiered on ABC, with an instrumental version of “Falling” serving as its theme. Ms. Cruise appeared in the pilot and subsequent episodes as a roadhouse singer.

The show quickly became the talk of television, and in May 1990 it led to an appearance by Ms. Cruise on “Saturday Night Live.” She wasn’t in the original lineup, but the controversial comic Andrew Dice Clay (he called himself “the most vulgar, vicious comic ever to walk the face of the earth”) was the scheduled host, which led to protests from at least one cast member, Nora Dunn, who refused to appear in that episode, and caused the original musical guest, Sinead O’Connor, to drop out at the last minute.

Ms. Cruise was one of two acts summoned to replace her. Mr. Grinnan said in a telephone interview that Ms Cruise, who was still not well known, was working as a waitress at the time and had to skip out on her job. But, he noted, she didn’t call in sick.

“She said that she called in famous,” he said.

Though “Twin Peaks” brought Ms. Cruise wide exposure, Mr. Grinnan said she found a stint touring with the B-52’s in the 1990s to be particularly enjoyable. She replaced Cindy Wilson, an original member, when Ms. Wilson took a break from the band.

“It was probably the happiest performing of her life,” Mr. Grinnan said.

Julee Ann Cruise was born on Dec. 1, 1956, in Creston, Iowa, to Wilma and Dr. John Cruise. Her father was a dentist, and her mother was his office manager.

Ms. Cruise was something of a musical prodigy on the French horn, her husband said, and received a music degree in the instrument from Drake University in Iowa. He said she had applied the delicacy and phrasing of classical French horn to the voice she came up with for the Lynch projects.

But once she graduated, she thought that acting and singing would be more appealing than playing in an orchestra. She went to Minneapolis, a good city for theater, and spent several years performing with the Children’s Theater Company there before moving to New York in about 1983.

After “Twin Peaks,” Ms. Cruise made another album with Mr. Lynch and Mr. Badalamenti, “The Voice of Love” (1993). She also continued acting. Mr. Grinnan said it was her performance in an Off Broadway musical, “Return to the Forbidden Planet,” in 1991 that caught the attention of the B-52’s. Mel Gussow, reviewing that show for The Times, said she stood out.

“Only Julee Cruise invigorates the show with musical personality,” he wrote. “Well remembered for her singing on ‘Twin Peaks,’ she is spunky as well as amusing, although the script unwisely keeps her offstage for most of the first act.”

Ms. Cruise later toured with Bobby McFerrin and worked with electronic musicians like Marcus Schmickler. In 2003 she fulfilled a longtime goal of performing at the Public Theater in New York when she was cast in the musical “Radiant Baby,” about the graffiti artist Keith Haring.

It was a demanding assignment. As The Times wrote , she played “Andy Warhol, Haring’s mother, a demonic nurse and a critic who resembles Susan Sontag.”

Which of the roles was most difficult, a reporter asked?

“The costume changes,” she said. “I’m the oldest person in this cast.”

Ms. Cruise alternated between homes in Manhattan and the Berkshires. In addition to her husband, whom she married in 1988, she is survived by a sister, Kate Coen.

Ms. Cruise reprised her “Twin Peaks” role in “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,” Mr. Lynch’s 1992 film, and, a quarter-century later, in an episode of Showtime’s reboot of the TV series. In an interview with The Los Angeles Times in 2017, she reflected on her long “Twin Peaks” ride.

“It was so much fun to be part of something that just went ba-boom!” she said. “You didn’t know it was going to do that. What a nice surprise life takes you on.”

Neil Genzlinger is a writer for the Obituaries desk. Previously he was a television, film and theater critic. More about Neil Genzlinger

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Julee Cruise, ‘Twin Peaks’ Theme Song Singer, Dies at 65

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• Twin Peaks (1990)

Musician Julee Cruise , who was best known for her collaborations with filmmaker David Lynch and composer Angelo Badalamenti, has died at the age of 65.

The news was broken today by Cruise’s husband, Edward Grinnan, who, according to  Guardian , commemorated his late wife on Facebook, sharing, “She left this realm on her own terms. No regrets. She is at peace … I played her [B-52’s song] Roam during her transition. Now she will roam forever. Rest in peace, my love”. The singer-songwriter had been battling systemic lupus and the chronic pain it caused her to feel for the past several years.

Cruise first broke onto the scene collaborating with Badalamenti and Lynch to create the song “Mysteries of Love” for Lynch’s 1986 neo-noir mystery thriller film  Blue Velvet , marking the beginning of what would become a successful, career-defining partnership. Some of the songs the three went on to create together helped to make up Cruise’s 1989 studio album, Floating into the Night , on which “Falling” appeared as the lead single. The instrumental version of the song became the theme music for Lynch’s cult classic mystery-drama series  Twin Peaks   and won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental. She also notably appeared on the series in a minor but impactful role as a roadhouse singer.

One of my favorite scenes of all time amplified so much by Julee Cruise’s beautiful music. RIP to a legend. pic.twitter.com/NaA0ldgJTZ — Jared (@Name112a7) June 10, 2022

Cruise continued to be entangled with  Twin Peaks  for years, even after the show’s short-lived stint on ABC from 1990 to 1991. Songs from her second studio album, The Voice of Love , were featured in Lynch’s 1992 psychological horror film  Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me , and she also appeared in the closing credits of  Twin Peaks ‘ 2017 revival, Twin Peaks: The Return ‘s penultimate episode to perform “The World Spins”.

A bright star floats into The Great Unknown. Always kind & gracious to me. A beautiful soul, a soulful voice. Her career had a tremendous influence on my life. Bless you, Julee Cruise, the voice of love. Thank you for the path you paved. I am forever grateful and reverent. pic.twitter.com/y8cuQv5RUG — Chrystabell (@Chrysta_Bell) June 10, 2022

Julee Cruise, forever inside our hearts. ❤️ Goodnight to the great singer whose ethereal voice is forever woven into the haunting sonic texture and mood of David Lynch's most evocative films. Here she is performing "Questions in a World of Blue" in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME. pic.twitter.com/IeiMcMBMgT — Criterion Collection (@Criterion) June 10, 2022

This breaks my heart. I can't imagine Twin Peaks without Julee Cruise, the voice of an angel. She will be forever missed. 💔 pic.twitter.com/76xJYHZC9w — Ivan Rosenfield (@underthefan119) June 10, 2022

R.I.P. Julee Cruise “Ladies & gentlemen, direct from the roadhouse in Twin Peaks, USA, Miss Julee Cruise.” Cruise filled in for Sinead O’Connor on SNL when O’Connor refused to appear with host, Andrew Dice Clay on May 12, 1990. Cruise performed “Falling.” pic.twitter.com/2zbhbDBCjp — Chicago’s Best Bartender (@MikeVanderbilt) June 10, 2022

Outside of her collaborations with Lynch and Badalamenti, Cruise is known for her 2002 and 2011 studio albums, The Art of Being a Girl and My Secret Life , as well as for performing off-Broadway in jukebox musical  Return to the Forbidden Planet , touring on and off with The B-52’s as a stand-in for Cindy Wilson between 1992 and 1999, performing in Keith Haring’s 2004 bio-musical  Radiant Baby , and singing “Falling” on a 1990 episode of Saturday Night Live .

Rest in peace, Julee Cruise. You and your voice will be missed.

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Julee Cruise obituary

Julee Cruise, who has taken her own life at the age of 65 after a long period of illness and depression, was famed for the spectral calmness of her voice, as demonstrated on the four solo albums she made between 1989 and 2011 and by her many collaborations with a variety of other artists.

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.

The trio reconvened to record Cruise’s debut album Floating Into the Night (1989), a skilful mix of retro 1950s-style influences with dreamy and mysterious textures, all focused around Cruise’s shimmering vocals. The track Falling, with its ominous electric guitar twangs, became a cult phenomenon after Lynch used an instrumental version of it as the theme for his groundbreaking TV show Twin Peaks in 1990. As Falling went to No 7 and No 11 in the UK and US singles charts respectively, Cruise, who was working as a waitress at the time, suddenly found celebrity thrust upon her, not least via an invitation to appear on the TV show Saturday Night Live.

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. Her part called for her to hang 80ft above the stage wearing a prom dress.

Cruise made an appearance in the Twin Peaks’ pilot episode singing Falling, and featured in later instalments as a singer in the Roadhouse bar. She would also appear in its later iterations, the feature film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) and Twin Peaks: The Return (2017). “In the ruckus of beers flying through the air at The Roadhouse, we have Julee singing a beautiful, slow-tempo song, and it’s so outrageous,” Badalamenti said of her role. “The songs with Julee serve a two-fold purpose: they contrast the visuals and they set the tone for the show.”

She told the NME: “The way I see it is David [Lynch] is very talented and he’s formed a company of actors around him which he uses over and over again … I see myself as the musical wing of that company.”

Born in Creston, Iowa , she was the daughter of John Cruise, the town dentist, and his wife, Wilma, his office manager. “I was a kinda late bloomer, I didn’t go out with boys at high school,” she said. “I was the most popular girl in school, but I was one of those girls that wasn’t easy, so nobody would go out with me.”

She took a music degree in the french horn at Drake University in Des Moines. After graduation she opted to pursue a career in singing and acting rather than classical music. Moving to Minneapolis, she spent several years performing with the Children’s Theater Company before relocating to New York in the early 80s. She played Janis Joplin in a revue called Beehive, and appeared in productions of Little Shop of Horrors and A Little Night Music. She first met Badalamenti after she was cast in a country and western musical. “I was a chorus girl with a big skirt and a big wig, singing way too loud,” she recalled. “Angelo was doing the music for the show, and we became friends.”

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.

Almost a decade passed before she made her final album, My Secret Life (2011), a collaboration with DJ Dmitry from Deee-lite. Alongside hip-hop beats and electronic treatments, her voice retained its ethereal mystique.

Among numerous other projects across her career, Cruise (with Lynch and Badalamenti) recorded a version of Elvis Presley’s Summer Kisses, Winter Tears for the soundtrack of Wim Wenders’ film Until the End of the World (1991), and she toured with the B-52’s for most of the 90s while their vocalist Cindy Wilson took a sabbatical – a period which, according to her husband, the author and publisher Edward Grinnan, was “the happiest time of her performing life”.

She also performed regularly with Bobby McFerrin’s vocal group Voicestra, and other artists she collaborated with included Moby, Pharrell Williams, the Welsh electronic band Hybrid and the ambient duo Delerium. Her music has been used in TV shows including CSI: Miami and House.

She had been suffering from lupus for several years before her death, and had problems with drugs and alcohol. She is survived by her husband.

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• Pop and rock

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Wednesday, May 1, 2024 – Mike Pinder, The Moody Blues & Julee Cruise

The Moody Blues's Mike Pinder Remembered and Julee Cruise on Echoes.

On the next Echoes, the ghost of Julee Cruise . Before her death in 2022, the Twin Peaks singer recorded a song with producer Tim Saul for his album, Thresholds . Now that song has been released as a single with remixes. We will also remember Mike Pinder, keyboardists for The Moody Blues, who left the planet on April 24 at the age of 82. Read John Dilibertos Remebrance . John Diliberto brings us an echo from Julee Cruise on Echoes from PRX.

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