My favorite Julee Cruise song is “Questions in a World of Blue” from David Lynch’s 1992 masterpiece, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. The song would later appear on Cruise’s 1993 album, “The Voice of Love.” There is something hauntingly beautiful about this song, and Julee’s heartfelt performance makes me emotional every time I hear it. While the song was never officially released in the United States as a single, Warner Music Spain, S.A. produced a 7-inch vinyl single for Spanish radio stations. Long on my list of things I wanted for my music collection, I’m exploring a recently acquired copy from Discogs for Julee in June.
WHAT IS WARNER MUSIC SPAIN, S.A.?
Warner Brothers Records, Inc was founded on March 19, 1958 as the recorded music division of the American film studio Warner Bros. Warner Music Spain, S.A. was a regional division based in Spain. From 1991 until 2009, they used the “Warner Music Spain, S.A.” label on releases. Today, the company is known as Warner Records Inc. following a 2019 name change. According to a May 28, 2019 article by Jem Aswad in Variety, the company was renamed for for both legal and imaging reasons:
“The announcement notes that when Warner Music Group was sold by Time Warner in 2004 to a group of investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr., it was agreed that Warner Bros. Records, which was founded in 1958 as a division of Warner Bros. Pictures, would continue to use the Warner Bros. name and logo for 15 years. The rebranding also allows the company, which was acquired by Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries in 2011 and has undergone dramatic changes in leadership and artist roster over the past couple of years, to make a fresh start.”
Wikipedia has an extremely lengthy article about Warner Music in case you wanted to know more.
TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME SOUNDTRACK | AUG. 11, 1992
The Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me soundtrack was released on Aug. 11, 1992. An article in “Radio & Records” published on July 24 provided details as to what Twin Peaks fans could expect. Strangely, the article mentions Dennis Hopper appearing the the motion picture, despite it debuting at the Cannes Film Festival on May 16 and showing in theatres throughout Japan and France.
The article also speculated singles might be released from the album – “A Real Indication” by The Thought Gang (Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch’s experimental band), Cruise’s “Questions in a World of Blue” or perhaps an edited version of “The Theme to Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.”
A video shot in 1992 for The Thought Gang’s song was included in 2008’s “David Lynch: The Lime Green Set,” which was described as follows.
“Filmed on Hi-8 in 1992, this DIY music video is a rare visual document of Lynch & Badalamenti’s ‘Thought Gang.’ An esoteric jazz side-project born amidst the landscape of Twin Peaks, ‘Thought Gang’ featured several talented players in a mostly improvisational setting with Badalamenti providing vocal duties.”
Sacred Bones Records would release this video when the long-awaited Thought Gang album was finally released in 2018.
While the “Theme To Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” wasn’t released as single, it did appear on “Pure Moods, Vol. 1” released in 1994.
As for Julee’s “Questions,” it appears the only country to have released the single was Spain, but only to radio stations for airplay. More on that in a moment.
WHEN WAS QUESTIONS IN A WORLD OF BLUE RECORDED?
According to the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me shooting diary from Charlotte Fraisse first published on Dugpa.com, Julee’s scene at the Roadhouse was shot on the 32nd day of filming, Monday, October 14, 1991.
Monday, October 14 – 32nd Day
Set: The Roadhouse nightclub. A bar, tables, chairs and a small stage where a singer performs in a pale gray tulle dress with ruffles. Julee Cruise, the singer, who has made a name for herself, already appeared in the pilot. In this scene, she sings a very pretty, yearning and ingenuous song (a Badalamenti tune on David’s lyrics), which makes Laura breaks into tears.
The Roadhouse was constructed at City Studios in Van Nuys, California known today as Occidental Studios.
In Scott Ryan’s new book “Always Music in the Air: The Sounds of Twin Peaks,” he provides a quote from Julee about when she performed the song. The excerpt is from a CBC interview in 1992:
“Julee Cruise: I did a song, a real tear-jerking song, in the Roadhouse, where I am wearing a blue formal. Why I would be wearing a blue formal in a biker roadhouse? I don’t know why. I am in it and singing a beautiful song called ‘Questions in a World of Blue,” which will be the next single off the next soundtrack.”
Interestingly, Julee mentions “Questions” being considered as the next single.
Scott shared more details from Julee in his book.
“I was in a play, and I had to be flown out and record [‘Questions in a World of Blue’],” explained Cruise. “You don’t miss Broadway, but it was David Lynch, so they let me. On that song, I did the harmonies as a French horn quartet. This one, I had to be real careful with my vowels, I sued a European accent when I sang it.”
On Sept. 27, 1991, Julee starred in the Off-Broadway production of “Return to the Forbidden Planet.” Written and directed by Bob Carton, Julee played a spaceship science officer, Mrs. Gloria Prospero
The play also starred Louis Tucci which Cruise would co-write “In My Other World,” the only song she wrote for “The Voice of Love.” According a Daily News article from Oct. 13, 1991, the play opened that Sunday night in a new venue at the Variety Arts Theater located at Third Ave. and 14th St. in New York City.
This meant Julee performed in the rock musical on Sunday and then flew to Van Nuys, California the next day to shoot her scenes for Lynch’s film. I actually found a Newsday article from Oct. 11, 1991 that stated she would fly Seattle after her performance on Sunday night. On Monday morning she was supposed to “work with David Bowie and Chris Isaak” on Lynch’s new film. The challenge is that Bowie and Isaak’s scenes were completed in September in Seattle and Snoqualmie Valley. The Roadhouse scenes were shot in Southern California.
Most likely, the reporter pulled previous filming Washington state filming reports from September and combined all sorts of information.
Julee only performed one day of work for Lynch’s film as she returned to the stage on Tuesday, Oct. 15 to appear in “Planet.” This behind-the-scenes shot show David Lynch giving direction to Julee between takes.
According to the liner notes from “The Voice of Love,” here are the musicians who play on this track:
- Keyboards: Angelo Badalamenti, Kinny Landrum
- Electric and Bass Guitars: Vinnie Bell
- Acoustic Bass: Buster Williams
- Drums: Grady Tate
- Tenor Sax: Al Regni
The film credits for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me present different folks on screen at the Roadhouse including
- Roadhouse Singer: Julee Cruise
- Band at Roadhouse: Steven Hodges [Drums]
- Band at Roadhouse: William Ungerman [Saxophone]
- Band at Roadhouse: Joseph “Simon” Szeibert [Keyboards]
- Band at Roadhouse: Gregory “Smokey” Hormel [Guitar]
- Band at Roadhouse: Joseph L. Altruda [Bass]
It’s unclear when exactly this song was written by Lynch and Badalamenti or formally recorded by Julee in a studio. We know that the first draft of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me by David Lynch and Robert “Bob” Engles was completed on July 3, 1991. A revised draft from Aug. 8, 1991 was used for shooting.
The Roadhouse scene (#128) mentions the Roadhouse and a “Singer”
128. INT. ROADHOUSE – NIGHT
LOTS OF BIKERS and the usual gang. On stage a SINGER sings.
The scripted action is different with Laura crying to Julee’s performance after meeting Buck and Tommy. On screen, she cries before making eye contact with Jacques Renault and meeting the two gentlemen.
Perhaps Julee lip synched her performance on screen as it’s unclear when she would have had time to properly record the song during her brief visit from New York to Los Angeles.
QUESTIONS IN A WORLD OF BLUE – 7-INCH VINYL SINGLE FROM SPAIN | FRONT COVER
The 7-inch vinyl single front cover for “Questions in a World of Blue” contains three images – Laura Palmer, Bobby Briggs and a Red Room angel.
The text reads, “Tema Extraido De La Nueva Banda Sonora Original De Twin Peaks Parte 11,” which roughly translates to, “Theme Taken From The New Original Twin Peaks Part 11 Soundtrack.”
The image of Laura is from a publicity photo Sheryl Lee as Laura Palmer sitting on the bed in Room 6 at the Red Diamond City Motel.
The angel image was taken from packaging used for the cassette release of the soundtrack in the United States.
The angel is a similar shot from the end of the film where she just begins to fold her hands. With the angle of the shot, my gut says the still photographer Lorey Sebastian took the image during production.
The same Bobby Briggs image on the vinyl album is also found in the cassette liner notes.
The photo appears to be a very cropped image of Dana Ashbrook in the scene with Sheryl Lee and Moira Kelly outside Twin Peaks High School. The image graininess is probably because it was shot on film and several cropped for the packaging.
QUESTIONS IN A WORLD OF BLUE – 7-INCH VINYL SINGLE FROM SPAIN | BACK COVER
The back cover for this seven-inch vinyl provides a catalog number of 1.574 and production credits:
- Question In a World of Blue written by David Lynch from the album “TWIN PEAKS FIRE WALK WITH ME”
- Produced by David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti
- Copyright 1992 Warner Music International / 1992 Warner Music Spain, S.A.
- In bold, “EJEMPLAR GRATUITO PROHIBIDA SU VENTA” which roughly translates to “FREE COPY, SALE PROHIBITED.”
QUESTIONS IN A WORLD OF BLUE – 7-INCH VINYL SINGLE FROM SPAIN | SIDES A & B
Side A of the seven-inch vinyl contains Julee Cruise’s “Questions in a World of Blue” with a run time of 4-minutes and 50-seconds.
Side be contains the same exact song with the same run time. To paraphrase Carl Rodd from the Fat Trout Trailer Park, that’s two “Questions in a World of Blue.” Weird, huh?
QUESTIONS IN A WORLD OF BLUE – 7-INCH VINYL SINGLE FROM SPAIN RELEASED?
So when was this single released? That’s a great question. I’ve searched endlessly for any kind of release date for Lynch’s film in Spain. Some sites list that the film appeared in theatres in 1992 but I’m thinking they were referencing the overall North American release on Aug. 28.
DavidLynch.es provided a listing when episodes first aired in Spain, which the final two episodes were shown on Oct. 1, 1991. The Telecinco broadcast the show again in Jan. to Aug. 1993. So it’s quite possible Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was played in theatres in late 1992. Perhaps a reader can confirm if a date is known for Spain.
I also didn’t find much information as to when (or if) “Questions” was ever played on air in Spain.
On ebay, I found a listing for this album that states it’s a rare 7″ Spanish promo single only issued in Spain and only for radio station airplay. The seller claims there are less than 200 copies of the album made. I found no additional information about when it was presented to radio stations. But it must have been at some point after Aug. 11, 1992.
I was suspicious of this description about a “Rare 7″ Spanish Promo” so I searched the term using Kagi.com. As it turns out, the seller uses this language on many 7-inch promos. So it’s unclear if this was common practice for Warner Music Spain, S.A. or if there is an entire market out there for 7-inch Spanish promos.
All said, adding this album to my Twin Peaks collection is real treat. I’m glad both sides contain the same song as I could listen to it on repeat endlessly.
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