16 Biggest Hits

These songs are taken from her successful years recording for Columbia in teh 1950s after leaving the Tony Pastor Orchestra (and her sister) but before switching to RCA Victor in 1957. Included on the play list are all four of her Number 1 singles, "Come on-a My House," "Half as Much," "Hey There," and "This Ole House." There is also the Oscar winning song "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," recorded with Harry James and His Orchestra as well as "Sophisticated Lady," done with Duke Ellington and His Orchestra.

The main thing here is that these are all songs that show the strengths of Rosemary Clooney as a lyric interpreter of song. With her it is the phrasing more than the singing. For that reason I have always enjoyed listening to Clooney sing rather than watching her in a film, because the drama was always in the singing and not the way she looked (invariably cool, calm, and collected). This is one of the reasons why, like Frank Sinatra, she could continue to sing effectively for audiences even after her voice started to decline.

--The GOOD: "This Ole House" still holds up as a lively FUN novelty number. 'Come On-A-My-House'' is the silly 1951 song Clooney balked at recording until Columbia honcho Mitch Miller threatened to fire her. So she recorded it, it was a huge hit and made her a star. She makes it good with her verve and humor punching every silly word.--The GREAT: 'Mangos', a wonderful, beautiful tune where each word and note is given pizzazz, sensuality and humor. In "Tenderly" and "Hey There" she displayed her respect for lyrics and notes. In "Mambo Italiano' Clooney's zest, turns a zippy song into a throatily erotic and good humored classic worth several listenings. When she ends it with a"That's-a-nice!" and the all-male chorus gives a final "UHHH!" we agree. In "Sophisticated Lady' With the Duke Ellington orchestra she shows the potential realized in later years. Special treat: a super show-biz sounding version of Cole Porter's"From This Moment On," previously unreleased in the US -- with a great smash ending.--The UGLY: No question. " Botch-A-Me'. Clooney is very enthusiastic doing this entry in her best-selling Italian novelty song series forced on her by Columbia's Miller. But the song's truly excruciating lyrics (and tune) make you suspect she's really thinking: "I can't believe I'm singing this..."

This CD deserves five stars due to its great variety (literally something for everyone), orchestrations, production quality...and ALMOST deserves a star (or two!) taken off for the pain inflicted on listeners by Botch-A-Me...but let's not blame that on Rosey! If you're just discovering Clooney due to news stories about her recent death (and her relation to a certain popular actor) this CD will delight you enough so that you'll want to order her more recent, critically acclaimed CDs.

From 1951 to 1960 she chalked up 28 hit singles as a solo artist or in conjunction with other artists like Guy Mitchell [her first hit in 1951 - You're Just In Love], Marlene Dietrich [Too Old To Cut The Mustard in 1952]; and Gene Autry [The Night Before Chrismas Song in 1952]. Before that she sang with Tony Pastor & His Orchestra. along with her sister Betty, and appeared on several of his big hits.

Although this CD contains several of her hits, including the wonderful You'll Never Know done in 1953 with the late, great Harry James, I bought it for one item: Memories Of You. Billed to The Benny Goodman Trio with Rosemary Clooney, and from the hit movie The Benny Goodman Story, this made it to # 20 early in 1956 and is one of the hardest to find of all her hits. In fact, try and find it anywhere else!

Normally I wouldn't assign 5 stars to any CD without liner notes, nor one that states "16 Biggest Hits" and then includes several songs that failed to chart [In The Cool, Cool, Cool Of The Evening, The House Of Singing Bamboo, Sophisticated Lady, and From This Moment On]. But hey, this is Rosie. Besides, the afore-mentioned songs SHOULD have charted, and as far as liner notes go, the track listings inside are comprehensive enough to compensate.

Get it while you can.

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