Julie London - Julie Is Her Name Vol. 2 - Hybrid Stereo SACD

Hybrid Stereo SACD plays in both CD and SACD players, as well as all SACD-compatible DVD players

She was the sultry film starlet-turned-torch singer-come-TV actress whose dusky alto captivated a generation. Julie London was "discovered" while running a department store elevator in Hollywood.

Just three years earlier the bountiful 15 year old, born Julie Peck to her parents, a song-and-dance duo of the vaudeville era, was singing on her parents' radio show. When she started working in the movies in the 1940s, she changed her name to London. During the course of a celebrated career in acting and music, she made more than 30 albums.

The sultry-voiced actress, who was once married to "Dragnet" producer-star Jack Webb, had a hit record with the 1950s single "Cry Me a River." The single debuted in 1955, sold three million copies and remained in demand into the 1960s.

Analogue Productions has brought back Julie Is Her Name Volume 2, making it an undeniable classic in every sense of the word. Remastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, and presented here on Hybrid Stereo SACD, the result is a memory-stirring masterpiece.

Julie Is Her Name — Volume Two, has all the sincerity and warmth of her professional album debut, the best-selling Julie Is Her Name, from Liberty. An untested singer with uncompromising musical faith, an unknown record company, sophisticated, tastefully presented standards presented simply backed by just a bass and guitar — Julie Is Her Name faced long odds of success. Yet it soared to become a best-selling hit. Julie London rose to the Top 10 of every list of female vocalists.

London appeared in nearly two dozen motion pictures during the 1940s and '50s; she was best known to TV audiences as nurse Dixie McCall on the 1970s hospital drama "Emergency!" She was hired on "Emergency!" by Webb," her then-former spouse, to co-star with her second husband, jazz musician Bobby Troup. Troup, who composed the iconic musical hit "Route 66" played a doctor on the show and it was he who helped sign Julie to the Liberty record label.

Describing her smoky vocal style, London once said, "It's only a thimbleful of a voice, and I have to use it close to a microphone. But it is a kind of over-smoked voice, and it automatically sounds intimate." A style inimitable, in our estimation.