I'd retired for about six or seven years. Coming back to the business, I found that I was sort of not quite a has-been, and it wasn't a new career, it was just kind of difficult to crack the nut, so to speak.

Early life
Julie London was born Gayle Peck in Santa Rosa California in 1926 the daughter of Jack and Josephine Peck who were a vaudeville song-and-dance team. In 1959 London married jazz composer and musician Bobby Troup and they remained married until his death in 1999. They had one daughter Kelly Troup who died in 2002 and twin sons Jody and Reese Troup.

She achieved continuing success in the TV medical drama Emergency! (1972–1979) co-starring her real-life husband Bobby Troup and produced by her ex-husband Jack Webb in which London played the female lead role of nurse Dixie McCall. She released 32 albums of pop and jazz standards during the 1950s and 1960s with her signature song being the classic "Cry Me a River" which Julie London introduced in 1955.