Singer Julie Budd Sheds Early "Barbra Streisand 2.0" Label To Fashion Enviable Career
The petite powerhouse overcame that early-perception road bump to create a decades-long musical and acting track with multiple lanes.
Comparisons are inevitable in show biz. Bob Dylan was heralded as the “new Woody Guthrie,” Bruce Springsteen had both the mantles of “the next Bob Dylan” and “the future of rock’n’roll” to overcome, and many drew an early parallel between Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand.
While some of these media-contrived comparisons are benign and easily traversed, some artists have found their given millstone nigh unto impossible to toss off (see Elliott Murphy and Willie Nile, both saddled, at one time or other, with “the next Dylan” tag).
Julie Budd, however, was labeled, early on, as either a Streisand clone or a throwback belter ala Garland or Ethel Merman. What could’ve blocked a lesser talent’s ambition only served to strengthen the resolve of Julie to make it, maybe not because of, but in spite of.
Throughout her career of over 5 decades, Julie has shared stages with such legendary performers as Frank Sinatra, Joan Rivers, George Burns, Bob Hope, Don Rickles, and Liberace.
Spotlight on Julie Budd
“When I first heard her sing, I knew that here was this generation’s big young star.”
Born in Brooklyn in 1954, Edith Erdman discovered her singing voice early on, at age 12 in 1966, entering a talent show at a Catskills resort. Record producer and arranger, Herb Bernstein (Laura Nyro, Tina Turner, The Four Seasons, The Monkees, Dylan, Lesley Gore, and others), was present, and was impressed to the point of becoming her personal manager and musical director, a relationship that lasted three decades.
“When I first heard her sing,” Bernstein told the Newburgh, New Jersey Evening News in 1969, “I knew that here was this generation’s big young star.”
Bernstein also described Julie’s voice as “having the impact of the early Judy Garland.” For the record (and a little-known factoid), Julie wowed Herb and her listeners that night with standards “Moon River” and “Who Can I Turn To?”.
After arranging for voice-coaching for Edith, Bernstein, working on a 1966 Merv Griffin album for MGM Records, invited her to a session, and during a break, asked Merv to listen to Edith sing.
By this time, Bernstein had her record a demo, and already enjoying a working relationship with MGM, procured a three-year contract for her.
Merv was immediately wowed by the pint-sized belter, but suggested she change her name from the antiquated (for show-biz, anyway) “Edith,” while adding that a shortened “Edie” might bring confusion with Eydie Gorme and Edie Adams, both popular singers at the time.
Enter one of Bernstein’s associates, Bud Rehak (who, with Bob Crewe and Eddie Rambeau, wrote “Navy Blue” for 17-year-old Diane Renay three years before, and minus Crewe, her “Kiss Me Sailor”).
According to Julie in Bob Leszczak’s 2015 book, From Small Screen to Vinyl, it was Rehak whose first name inspired her new moniker. She didn’t have long to mourn the “loss” of Edith Erdman. Two days later, the newly-sprouted Julie Budd was guesting on The Merv Griffin Show, and received an enthusiastic standing ovation.
Ensuing Media Blitz
This appearance started a veritable “tour” of talk and variety shows, as Julie became a popular and sometimes repeat guest on shows like The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Virginia Graham’s Girl Talk, The Carol Burnett Show, and The Jim Nabors Hour.
She made several appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. On this one from May 31, 1970, Julie had just turned 16 three weeks before! This was two years after signing her first record deal:
Julie, For the Record
By the time her first album arrived, it was thought, Julie would already be well-known to a wide variety of potential record-buying fans, due to her many successful TV appearances. Here’s a sparsely-distributed (at the time) audio interview with Julie from late 1968, when she was 14 1/2:
Julie released her debut MGM album, Child of Plenty, in 1968, just as she was landing a gig as a regular on NBC’s summer replacement series, Showcase ‘68, still only 14.
Her lead single off that album was “Yesterday’s Sunshine,” produced, arranged, and conducted by Bernstein, who co-wrote it with the aforementioned Bud Rehak, with Julie specifically in mind.
A sticky-sweet confection of unabashed sunshine pop, it’s certainly age-appropriate, and might’ve fit neatly on a Partridge Family or Sunshine Company album:
Despite the three-year MGM contract, Julie (with her three-octave range) only released one other album for the label, her second, Wild and Wonderful, in 1969, with a level of sophistication understandably missing from her first album, offering a promise of the maturity and vocal growth still to come.
Here’s a video of her 1969 performance at age 15 on The Ed Sullivan Show. Also on the bill that night were The Muppets, and fellow singers Neil Diamond and Sergio Franchi. Here, Julie sings Johnny Mercer’s and Hoagy Carmichael’s “Skylark,” accompanied by noted jazz pianist, Hank Jones:
A Brief Departure: After Standards, a Foray Into Rock
Two years later came her third album, Julie Budd, on RCA Records. In 1973, RCA released the LP in Argentina (and possibly other Latin markets), and while calling it Te Vere En Septiembre (“See You in September”), curiously, the songs were not re-recorded in Spanish.
From day one, Herb Bernstein had guided Julie into the decidedly “adult” musical world of Broadway, the Great American Songbook, and standards, a similar tune-track in which Streisand had gained her ‘60s notoriety. While certainly appropriate for her voice, timbre, and range, Julie was garnering no hits, while Babs was giving a grateful Columbia Records more than her share of chart action.
Julie’s self-titled third album was released in 1971, and displayed a striking departure from her orchestra-laden torch songs and Broadway belters, and abruptly moved way over into the rock lane…without signaling, I might add. Interestingly, so did Streisand with her Stoney End LP, also released in ‘71, as Columbia was expressly interested in “modernizing” their star’s repertoire.
With Richard Perry manning the board for Stoney End, he chose songs not so much from the rock world (although they were rock artists), but from the burgeoning singer-songwriter period that began to monopolize FM rock radio playlists in the early ‘70s: Laura Nyro, Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Carole King, Harry Nilsson, and the little-known Barbara Keith.
While Stoney End was recorded during the last six months of 1970, it’s possible, if not likely, that Bernstein had heard the album prior to stepping into the studio with Julie, and decided to let that album dictate the direction Julie Budd should take, figuring that if Barbra could take that daring genre plunge…..
In fact, so far removed from Bernstein’s general musical bailiwick was the album, that RCA enlisted the talents of the Petula Clark hitmaker, Tony Hatch, who not only produced, but did the arranging and conducting usually handled by Herb.
Hatch (and singer-songwriter/actress/wife, Jackie Trent) wrote “Don’t Take Your Love Away,” one of the album’s single releases:
But, predictably, with a decade filled with world-wide name recognition from films and hit records, Stoney End, while playing to mixed reviews, is now known as one of Streisand’s most successful albums, whelping, as it did, three hit singles (the title track, “Time and Love,” and “Flim Flam Man”).
In fact, the album peaked at #10 in the US, and was her first to reach the Top 10 in five years, selling over a million copies in the United States alone!
Naturally thrilled, CBS insisted she go back to that rock well, and indeed, that album’s follow-up, Barbra Joan Streisand, reprised the rock/singer-songwriter direction (even including a John Lennon song “Love”), again with Perry producing. That album’s three singles didn’t fare nearly as well as Stoney End’s, but the album, nevertheless, managed to go gold (500,000 units sold) in the US, Belgium, and Sweden.
Julie, with only a half-decade of professional singing under her belt (and nowhere near Streisand’s global name recognition), saw her 1971 third album flounder at retail, with only a couple of tunes seeing the light of day as singles, both failing to dent the charts.
In between Julie’s MGM and RCA albums, she made a peculiar, but impressive one-off single for Bell Records in 1970, “Then He Kissed Me,” the Phil Spector/Ellie Greenwich/Jeff Barry classic originally recorded by the Crystals in 1963, reaching #6 in the US. Another Bell act, Britain’s Hello, recorded a cover of the song in 1976.
Clearly a Spector fan, Bernstein manages to faithfully re-produce the Spector-ish drums, backing vocals, and strings, deftly arranging it all. All that’s missing is what should be, understandably, missing: Phil’s trademark “Wall of Sound,” the manic propulsion of the original, and Spector’s meter-pinning, “fill the grooves” volume:
Another musical left turn came a couple years later when, in 1972, she recorded the title song for the sequel to the 1966 Academy Award winning film, Born Free, Living Free for RCA, with Bernstein again missing from the studio proceedings.
Columbia Pictures likely wanted to have control over the music for the film, enlisting the talents of Sol Kaplan to produce and conduct, while also sharing the songwriting chores with Freddy Douglass.
Julie’s title song recording was played as a bed under the film’s opening and closing credits:
From Recording Studio to Stage
In between 1969’s Wild and Wonderful LP and 1971’s self-titled album, Julie, 16 at the time, became the youngest opening act, ever, for Frank Sinatra, as she proudly shared the stage with “The Chairman of the Board” at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
“Frank would set up a chair for me in the wings when I was done singing, and I'd watch his show every night from there.”
In 1998, she told the Chicago Sun-Times that she learned “the theatrical side of singing” by observing Sinatra:
“Frank would set up a chair for me in the wings when I was done singing, and I'd watch his show every night from there. Then he'd come off and ask me for observations. And he was totally serious about it.
“One night I asked him about all the tape marks all over the floor when he sang. And he asked the lighting guy to bring up the lights one by one and I saw how they ‘hit the marks’. Frank just walked over to me and explained how lighting will enhance musical moments.”
Her Caesar’s engagement began an exciting run of even more nightclub bookings as she turned 18, in 1972: Julie became an even more frequent performer in Vegas, often opening for Liberace, George Burns, or Bob Hope, joining other young female nightclub performers of the day, Lola Falana and Joey Heatherton, who, like Julie, also appeared often on the talk show circuit.
At various times in her career, Julie has sung at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and in Atlantic City.
Meanwhile, Back in the Studio, A Step Toward Disco
In 1975, Julie signed a recording contract with RCA affiliate Tom Cat Records, founded that year by producer Tom Catalano, best known for his work with Neil Diamond, Anne Murray, Helen Reddy, Peggy Lee, and Bill Medley.
Her first release for the label was another girl group cover, “One Fine Day,” a Carole King/Gerry Goffin-penned Top 5 hit for The Chiffons in 1963. Julie’s version actually holds the distinction of being the first cover of that song to chart in the US, as hers reached #93 in 1976. Interesting side note: Obviously a fan of the newly-inducted Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame legend, Julie recorded Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend” in 1972.
Produced by Bernstein, “One Fine Day” was arranged by one Harold Wheeler, a prodigious disco arranger at the time. His arrangements and orchestrations are found on literally hundreds of disco records throughout the late ‘70s.
Holding true to the musical trend of the day, it’s a disco arrangement with performer credit going to an otherwise mysterious “Julie.” And, yes, an extended 12” disco single was released by RCA, with clubs, discos, and radio stations being suitably serviced.
So as not to confuse Julie’s growing base of fans of her cabaret material and standards, the decision to drop the “Budd” for this record was also an attempt to garner new fans that would now have to judge her solely on her sound and the music of this single, and not any preconceived “easy listening” notions.
As Julie told the Nashua (NH) Telegraph in 1976, “I’m a ballad singer; at least, that’s what I did first. The disco is something new [for me], and I’m not sure if I like it, but I’ll give it a try. Herb thinks I need a new image.”
The 1978 film, The Driver (starring Bruce Dern and Ryan O’Neal), featured Julie’s “One Fine Day”:
Meeting Julie and Herb
Hot on the heels of “One Fine Day,” Julie (billed on this single as “Julie Budd”) recorded “Music to My Heart” in 1976. Another stab at the disco market, this was also produced by Bernstein, and written by Irwin Levine and Gary Knight.
It was at this time that I caught up with Julie and Herb, as they were traveling through Houston on a press tour to tub-thump the new single. My brother had an interview show on the University of Houston campus radio station (KUHF), which I produced, and Julie was a guest. More about that period in time can be read here:
After Clint’s interview with Julie at the station, she and Herb invited us to their hotel suite, nearby. There, amidst general patter, Herb and Julie both signed the sleeves to our copies of “Music to My Heart.”
In 1979, Julie appeared in Neil Simon’s Tony Award-winning musical, They’re Playing Our Song at the North Shore Musical Theatre in Beverly, MA.
Back on screen, Julie starred opposite Elliot Gould in 1981’s The Devil and Max Devlin for Walt Disney Productions. There she met Marvin Hamlisch, who, with Carole Bayer Sager, wrote three songs for Julie to sing in the film, including its theme “Roses & Rainbows.”
Meanwhile, A Short-Lived “Comic”
Julie didn’t see a recording studio again until 1988, after she starred in the ill-fated Broadway musical, Late Nite Comic, the year before. Lasting just 17 performances, a cast album seemed unlikely, but along came Original Cast Records, purveyor and curator of short-lived and/or little-known musicals. Julie appeared on five of the album’s 19 tracks.
With music and lyrics by Brian Gari, Julie’s voice is gloriously all over the map (and musical staff), as she effortlessly glides through “When I Am Movin,’” replete with a stunning, ear-opening, closing “money note” (yes, it’s Julie singing, despite Gari credit on the Spotify play element! Brian can’t hit that note!):
Into the New Millennium
The next three decades found Julie making good use of studio time, as the focus became not so much on the pop charts and trying to dent them, but simply recording songs she liked, with ones that also tipped a proverbial hat in the direction of her favorite writers and fellow singers.
1997 brought us Pure Imagination, with such well-known standards like the title track, “Never Never Land,” “Let’s Fall in Love,” Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” and nine others.
If You Could See Her Now…
Julie followed Pure Imagination three years later, beginning the new millennium with 2000’s If You Could See Me Now, filling it with more familiar old and newer standards, including another Ellington (with Harry James, Johnny Hodges, and Don George) chestnut, “I’m Beginning to See the Light,” and two Barry Manilow favorites: “When October Goes” (unfinished by Johnny Mercer, who wrote the lyrics; Manilow matched them up a decade later to his original melody), and “Weekend in New England,” penned by Randy Edelman.
The New Classics (2005) continued Julie’s “back to basics” approach, as she recorded the Bacharach/David classic, “A House is Not a Home,” the hit from Broadway’s Wicked, “Defying Gravity,” and Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Someone to Light Up My Life” (having discofied her 1977 arrangement of the song, here she returns it to its sublime bossa nova feel), and six others.
In 2008, Julie landed a key film role in the Joaquin Phoenix/Gwyneth Paltrow romantic drama, Two Lovers.
They Wrote the Songs saw the light of day in 2014, as Julie beautifully took on an Anthony Newley medley, the Beatles’ “Love Me Do,” the Paul Anka/Sammy Cahn classic, “Let Me Try Again,” and “Home” from The Wiz.
On 2015’s Remembering…Mr. Sinatra, Julie takes us back to her late ‘60s beginnings, when The Chairman of the Board took her under his wing and gave Miss Budd a spot opening for him for many nights at Caesar’s/Vegas.
Included are such Sinatra stalwarts as “All the Way,” “The Best is Yet to Come,” “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” and “Come Rain or Come Shine.”
Epilogue:
Julie’s still working, doing occasional club dates, booking private parties and convention appearances, and even giving Master Class singing lessons! Feel free to access her website, and give her a shout-out on social media!
