Did you know that Julee Cruise’s first single from her 1989 “Floating Into the Night” album was not the main theme to Twin Peaks set to vocals? Her iconic song “Falling” would be released on a single on June 12, 1990 following a last minute performance on Saturday Night Live on May 12 and continued excitement around David Lynch and Mark Frost’s first season of their new series. But in fall 1989, Cruise’s nod-to-the-1950s, “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart,” was selected as the album’s first single. As part of the Julee in June takeover on Twin Peaks Blog, here is a deep dive into this song.
‘FLOATING INTO THE NIGHT’ IS RELEASED ON SEPT. 12, 1990
On Tuesday, Sept. 12, 1990, Julee Cruise’s debut album with music by Angelo Badalamenti and lyrics by David Lynch was released in the United States. At the time, new music could be found on Tuesdays in records stores. Nine days earlier on Sept. 3, audiences attending the Telluride Film Festival had their first look at the Twin Peaks pilot episode during a 4:00 p.m. screening in the Sheridan Opera House, an 8:15 p.m. screening at the Community Center, and an 11:00 p.m. screening at Nugget Theatre. While Julee appeared in that first episode as the Girl Singer in the Roadhouse, it would take another seven months for her ethereal vocals to become synonymous with the wonderful and strange show.
Most audience goers only new Cruise from Lynch’s 1986 film Blue Velvet where she provided the original song “Mysteries of Love” mostly because the legendary director couldn’t afford to license This Mortal Coil’s “Song to the Siren.”
In production toward the end of 1988, Cruise’s “Floating” contained 10 tracks, some of which would appear in both Lynch’s Industrial Symphony No. 1, performed twice at 8:15 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 10, 1989 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and later the Twin Peaks series.
On Friday, Sept. 15, 1989, Kent Zimmerman from “The Gavin Report” provided one of the first reviews of Cruise’s new album stating, “Played extremely loud, l found the music both spooky and angelic. Turn it up for the scary sax solos, the abrupt changes and the twangy guitar from Mars. One to take home and lose yourself with.”
A review in “The Indianapolis Star” from Sept. 27, 1989 noted Cruise’s “Rockin'” calling it a “compellingly eerie fireside country song sung by a ghostly Cruise – a banshee singing lullabies, if you can imagine.” The reviewer concluded that “despite [Cruise’s] overdoes vocal effect and single-minded lyrics, the sheer unconventionalism of [her] album makes it more than worthwhile.”
Cruise would later tell David Lynch biographer Kristine McKenna in a Los Angeles Times article on Nov. 5, 1989, that she was delightfully surprised by the critical reviews of her album.
“I can’t believe how well the record’s doing (critically) … People have described it as refreshing and brilliant,” Julee remarked.
INDUSTRIAL SYMPHONY NO. 1 ON NOVEMBER 10, 1989
On Nov. 10 at 8:15 and 9:30 p.m., David Lynch, Angelo Badalamenti and Julee Cruise performed Industrial Symphony No. 1. Described as a “triple-exposure dream,” the story was a dream of the broken hearted, a dream about floating and falling and rising upward. The concert was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music 1989 NEXT Wave Festival and Julee Cruise was the star. While there is a longer article about this show in development, I wanted to call out this show as it may be the first time that “Rockin'” was performed publicly.
The footage captured that night would later be used in a video for the first single that was aired on VH1 beginning in early Jan. 1990.
‘ROCKIN BACK INSIDE MY HEART’ ON NIGHT MUSIC AND IN U.K. – NOVEMBER 1989
The night after the Industrial Symphony No. 1 performance on Nov. 11, Julee turned up on an episode of Michelob Presents Night Music, recorded at Chelsea Studios, in New York, NY. This late-night television show aired for two seasons between 1988 and 1990 as a showcase for jazz and eclectic musical artists. It was hosted by saxophonist David Sanborn.
Cruise performed “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart” backed by Debbie Lyons (most likely Deb Lyons) and Terry Blaine. This syndicated show aired across the United States which means this was the first time a non-paying audience saw Julee perform this new tune.
A second video shows Cruise performing “Rockin'” on the BBC2’s The Late Show hosted by Sarah Dunant sometime in 1989. I have, however, been unable to confirm the date when this performance took place. The YouTube caption reads it took place “approximately one year before ‘Twin Peaks’ was first broadcast on UK TV” which means it would have aired around Nov. 1989 (as the UK began airing Twin Peaks on Nov. 22, 1990).
“ROCKIN’ BACK INSIDE MY HEART” ON VH1
Around Dec. 22, 1989, Julee Cruise floating to VH-1 with a video of her song “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart” (incorrectly titled “Rockin’ Back Inside My Head” on a much-later VH-1 Classic rebroadcast). See the video HERE on Daily Motion.
The video uses recorded concert footage from the “Rockin'” segment in Lynch’s Industrial Symphony No. 1. This must have been one of the strangest and unexpected videos on the network to close out the 1980s.
I based the airing date on this short article from “Radio & Records” (R&R) on Jan. 12, 1990. Under the “Arrested Development” section, it lists Cruise’s video being on the air for three weeks. This means it must have shown up around Dec. 22 (or possibly before that date).
The Detroit Free Press included the video in their summary of the VH-1 playlist for the week of Jan. 22, 1990.
Reporter Jim Farber wrote about Cruise’s video for the Daily News on Jan. 28, 1990.
“Cruise is another left fielder putting a kick inside the video machine. She recently had her first album and performance piece produced by David (“Blue Velvet”) Lynch, and now her first video, also directed by Lynch, has turned up on VH-1, of all places.
I guess the network picked up on the thing because the song is kinda quiet and the images are undeniably artful. But beneath the surface the piece is anything but the usual VH-1. Like “Blue Velvet,” the clip cannily juxtaposes normalcy and dementia.
For starters, while Cruise is lighted like some Hollywood conception of an angel, she sings the song inside a rusty car trunk, suggesting some cruel twist on the old “Born in a Trunk” show tune. Mean-while, images of the singer are projected onto TV monitors bracketing a troupe of ballet dancers and a chorus line of Vegas showgirls. For a sense of grit beneath the glitz, all this takes place in some satanic factory peopled by what appear to be coal miner/ film makers.
The effect is heightened by the eerie, ambling music that suggests a kind of pop Philip Glass, and by Cruise herself, who exaggerates the sort of showbiz neediness that puts one in mind of Liza Minnelli.
Add to that some captivatingly putrid cinematography – tinting everything a sooty urine color and you end up with just the thing for VH-1 viewers.”
“ROCKIN’ BACK INSIDE MY HEART” ON THE RADIO | PROMO CD
It’s unclear when exactly radio stations began playing “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart.” I found a short review by Diane Rufer and Ron Fell for the radio industry trade magazine “The Gavin Report.” On Feb. 2, 1990, they wrote, “Hardly rockin, this ballad is loaded with oddly appealing texture. Ms. Cruise’s credentials as an actress shouldn’t be held against her. She knows how to sing. Expect phones with the first play.”
This could mean that radio stations began receiving the Warner Bros. Records promotional CD (PRO-CD-3934) for “Rockin.” The front image of Julee on the all black cover was taken by David Lynch.
The back cover contains a second image of Julee by Lynch with the number 16096. This promotional CD contained two tracks – “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart” (Edit) at 4-minutes and 4-seconds and “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart” (LP Version) at 5-minutes and 45-seconds. The pink-colored text also notes the song was provided by David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti and was available on LP, Cassette and Compact Disc from Cruise’s full album, ‘Floating Into The Night.’
This is how the compact disc appeared for this promotional only copy.
The song was recorded at Excalibur Sound, New York. and mixed at The Hit Factory, New York by Jay Healy.
Once Twin Peaks aired on the ABC Television Network, folks couldn’t get enough of Julee Cruise and the dreamy music from the show. A blurb on page 27 of another radio industry trade magazine, Network 40, from April 27, 1990 suggested playing Cruise’s song as it would be a “Top Five Phones in Twin Peaks” hit.
“As most of adult America now refuses to leave home Thursday night for fear of missing the latest episode of David Lynch’s historical, hysterical mystery series “Twin Peaks,” we can’t think of a cooler way to cash in on the fever than by playing Julee Cruise. With the term “haunting” an under-statement, Cruise appeared in the first episode. And the music, inspired by Lynch’s associate Angelo Badalamenti, has surrounded viewers like a poltergeist in every episode since.”
The song would not appear in Twin Peaks until the David Lynch-directed episode 2.007 which aired on Nov. 10, 1990. Julee Cruise sang the song on The Roadhouse stage. The fact that Lynch included it in this episode and it was Cruise’s first single from her debut album must have been an intentional choice by late director.
More than 35 years later, I can’t help by snap my fingers along to the beat when I heard it.
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