I recently shared how Julee Cruise’s first single from her “Floating Into The Night” album was ‘Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart,” a modern song with a nod to the 1950s that famously played in Twin Peaks episode 2.007. A video for the song would begin playing on VH-1 in North America around Dec. 22, 1989, followed by some radio airplay in January and February 1990. For listeners in the U.K., Cruise’s song wouldn’t see a proper single release until the end of January 1991.
WHEN WAS JULEE CRUISE’S ‘ROCKIN’ BACK INSIDE MY HEART'” U.K. SINGLE RELEASED?
Julee Cruise’s “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart” was released as a single in the U.K. on Monday, Jan. 28, 1991. The date was included as a footnote in David Gritten’s article for “Telegraph Weekend Magazine” on Jan. 26. At the time, music releases in the United Kingdom took place on Mondays whereas North American releases happened on Tuesday. Years later, a global release date of Fridays was established in 2015.
Unlike the United States, Cruise’s “Rockin'” was the second single from “Floating Into the Night. The first was “Falling” which was released on Oct. 22, 1990, a day before BBC2 began airing David Lynch and Mark Frost’s show. The song was so popular in the U.K. that Cruise landed on the “Top Of The Pops” on Nov. 22.
JULEE CRUISE’S ‘ROCKIN’ BACK INSIDE MY HEART'” U.K. SINGLE | CD COVER
The cover for the 5-inch CD single of Julee Cruise’s U.K. release of “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart” contains a photo of her taken by David Lynch. The front of the double-sided paper cover is printed in gold and contains a drawing of a plant. The version I have has a label from France (WE 739). Other catalog numbers include W0004CD / 9362-40013-2
The small folder over contains the track names included on this release:
- Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart (Tibetan Mix)
- Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart (Edit)
- Mysteries of Love
It’s interesting they included “Mysteries of Love” which was Cruise’s first song with David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti for the 1986 film Blue Velvet. I’m guessing it’s because most folks would have recognized this hypnotic ballad.
The cover’s backside contains a continuation of the plant drawing. Track names are listed along with production credits. There is another image of Julee’s dress taken by David Lynch. There is also a small photo of the album cover to Cruise’s 1989 release.
JULEE CRUISE’S ‘ROCKIN’ BACK INSIDE MY HEART'” U.K. SINGLE | CD
The CD contains more of the plant drawings found on the cover. The single was engineered and mixed by Peter Arata with additional engineering by Sylvia Massey.
The “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart (Tibetan Mix)” was produced and remixed by Greg “Gregski” Royal for Gregski Productions. This remix would appear on other releases such as “Peaks Mania EP” produced for the Japanese market.
The CD also contains some additional production credits from Sylvia Massey, Peter Arata and Kevin Laffey.
WHO IS SYLVIA MASSEY?
According to her bio, Sylvia Massey worked at Larrabee Sound Studios in Los Angeles, California around 1988. Her big break came by producing Green Jello’s debut album featuring the radio hit “Three Little Pigs”. This led to her recording the first two Tool records for Zoo/BMG Records. In the 1990s, Sylvia worked mostly out of her room in Sound City Studios, on the Neve 8038 recording console that became an important ingredient to her signature sound.
WHO IS PETER ARATA?
Peter Arata also worked Larrabee Sound Studios at the time. He would providing engineering and mixing support. He has credits for numerous albums in the late 1980s and 1990s. I found his photo above at 4 Max Post’s website.
WHO IS KEVIN LAFFEY?
Kevin Laffey served as executive producer for Julee’s album. According to his bio, he worked in the music business for 30 years, fourteen of those years in A&R at Warner Bros. Records. During that time, he produced numerous soundtrack albums for Krush Groove, Twin Peaks, and Twister. He also contributed songs for cues in Wayne’s World, Cool World, Until The End of The World … “basically, any film with the word ‘World’ in it (and more)!”
During his time at A&R, he also signed David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti who introduced him to Julee Cruise. Laffey also provided the score’s metal motif for David Lynch’s Wild At Heart as performed by Powermad.
WHO IS GREG “GREGSKI” ROYAL?
Born July 27, 1962, Greg H. Royal, also known as Greg “Gregski” Royal, was a U.S. electronic and hip-hop producer, mixer and recording engineer from Long Beach, California.
With nearly 350 credits on his Discogs page, Royal worked on a number of R&B albums in the late 1980s and early 1990s including Bobby Brown, Paula Abdul, Pebbles, Luther Vandross and so many more. A YouTube playlist contains numerous remixes of songs he made.
REVIEWS OF “ROCKIN’ BACK INSIDE MY HEART” U.K. SINGLE
Critic Paul Bayes from the Rossendale Free Press wrote about Cruise’s “Rockin'” on Feb. 1, 1991 saying it was his favorite single of the week.
“When it comes to choosing my favourite single release of the last seven days it would have to be Julee Cruise’s wonderful Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart,” wrote Bayes. “The single is the second track from her Floating into The Night album which inexplicably seems to have been largely ignored by the British record-buying public.”
On Feb. 7, 1991, David Owens from “South Wales Echo” gave Cruise’s song four out of five stars: “Petite peroxide chanteuse and all-round lovable goofball is our Julee. Lucky, then, that rasping soprano vocals you could easily get lost in make this a more-than-suitable follow up to the haunting Falling.”
You can download high-resolution images of this release on my Flickr account – https://www.flickr.com/photos/aloha75/albums/72177720326919142/
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