Julie Ann Felix (June 14, 1938 – March 22, 2020)[1] was an American-British folk singer and recording artist who achieved success, particularly on British television, in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
[1] Felix was born in Santa Barbara, California, to a father of Mexican and Native American origin and mother of English and Welsh ancestry.
After studying speech and drama at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Felix worked as a sports mistress at a school for disabled children.
She began her music career by singing at night in coffee shops in her native Los Angeles, where she met a young David Crosby.
After saving up $1000 from her job, she left the United States in June 1962 and travelled extensively around Europe for around two years, often playing in bars and coffee shops to earn extra money.
It was during her stay on the Greek island of Hydra that she met Leonard Cohen, who at this time had become part of the 'salon' that formed around expatriate Australian writers George Johnston and Charmian Clift.
In 1966, on the way to the launch party for her debut album, Felix had a chance meeting with comedian David Frost in the elevator of her Chelsea apartment building.
In 1967, with strong support from Frost (with whom she had a long-running romantic relationship), Felix was hired to host and perform in her own musical variety shows on BBC2, which ran from 1967 to 1970.
She invited her old friend Leonard Cohen to appear in 1968, marking his British TV debut, and Led Zeppelin lead guitarist Jimmy Page gave a rare solo performance, playing "White Summer" and "Black Mountain Side".
[4] Felix relocated to Norway for several years in the late 1970s, but she grew disenchanted with the direction her career was taking and returned to her native California, where she took a break from music to study yoga and other spiritual practices.