Rosemary Clooney

Iconic American vocalist of the 1940s and '50s blurred the line between pop and jazz.
Before the rock & roll revolution, Rosemary Clooney was one of the most popular female singers in America, rising to superstardom during the golden age of adult pop. Like many of her peers in the so-called "girl singer" movement - Doris Day, Kay Starr, Peggy Lee, Patti Page, et al. - Clooney's style was grounded in jazz, particularly big-band swing. She wasn't an improviser or a technical virtuoso, and lacked the training to stand on an equal footing with the greatest true jazz singers. However, she sang with an effortless, spirited swing, and was everything else a great pop singer of her era should have been…

Collectables Records' two-fer CD Ring Around Rosie/Hollywood's Best, credited to Rosemary Clooney "& Friends," combines the singer's first and last album projects for Columbia Records. Hollywood's Best, which paired her with Harry James' trumpet, was first released as an eight-song, 10" LP in 1952 (it was later expanded to a 12-track, 12" LP). Ring Around Rosie, from 1957, matched her up with the jazzy vocal group the Hi-Lo's. These two albums also were Clooney's only ones to reach the Billboard pop charts during the 1950s: Hollywood's Best peaked at number three in 1953, and Ring Around Rosie went to number 14 four years later. As a 24-track, 70-minute CD, the collection is a mixed bag…

Two of Clooney's late-'50s/early-'60s RCA Victor albums on one CD. Clap Hands! Here Comes Rosie! is an upbeat session from 1960 on which Clooney, superbly fronting a band conducted by Bob Thompson, tackles standards like "Give Me the Simple Life," "Bye Bye Blackbird," and "Makin' Whoopee." Fancy Meeting You Here is a 1958 duet album with Bing Crosby on which the duo runs through a set of place-themed songs ("Calcutta," "Hindustan," "It Happened in Monterey") with a band splendidly conducted by Billy May. Two of Rosie's best on one disc - a real bargain.

Thanks for Nothing was Rosemary Clooney's only album recorded for Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records. (Love, released by Reprise in 1963, actually had been recorded for RCA Victor in 1961.) It was also her last full-length LP project until she began recording for Concord Records in 1977. In his discography included in Clooney's autobiography, Girl Singer, Michael Feinstein notes that Clooney "isn't very fond of this album because the stresses of her personal life are audible on many of the tracks." But those very stresses, which included marital discord and a dependence on prescription drugs, may have contributed favorably to the final product on an album devoted to songs of love gone wrong, much in the mold of Sinatra's Only the Lonely…

This is an odd release by Rosemary Clooney, who's accompanied by keyboardist Buddy Cole and an unidentified rhythm section. Although the singer is in great form, Cole's extremely corny arrangements and his very dated sound on both organ and piano (which are frequently overdubbed, often in unison) threaten to make the entire session more of a nostalgia trip than something that will appeal to jazz collectors. Still, Clooney's pure swinging vocals on standards such as "'Deed I Do," "Blue Moon," "Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me," and "This Can't be Love" are very rewarding, in spite of Cole's uninspiring backgrounds.

Although Rosemary Clooney had a major part in the famous film White Christmas back in 1954, this was her first full Christmas album and it was a big seller when it was released late in 1996. From the jazz standpoint, there is not much here, as Clooney is accompanied by a huge orchestra conducted and mostly arranged by Peter Matz. Although there are a few brief solos from altoist Gary Foster, tenor saxophonist Dan Higgins, trombonist Chauncey Welsch and trumpeter Warren Luening, the music is essentially nostalgic middle-of-the-road pop with Clooney joined on several numbers by the Earl Brown Singers (who also take brief a cappella versions of some veteran Christmas tunes); one tune apiece features appearances by Michael Feinstein and Rosemary's brother Nick Clooney. But jazz content aside, Rosemary Clooney is in good voice, and the heartfelt emotions that she expresses on these Yuletide favorites communicate quite well.

As one of the most loved jazz vocalists, modern jazz heroines, and prolific vocalists, Rosemary Clooney gives a very beautiful and feminine side to Brazilian jazz on Brazil, a sensitive musical feeling of 16 ripe standards. This wonderful collection is dedicated to Antonio Carlos Jobim, Frank Sinatra, and Nelson Riddle through her amazing ambience of sensitive phrasing, lovely nuance, and splendid rhythmic shadings. Rosemary Clooney is joined by the lovely Diana Krall on "Boy from Ipanema" in a stunning vocal duet accompanied by Oscar Castro-Neves on guitar. John Pizzarelli sings "Wave," with the light, airy brilliance of a light kept burning throughout the night, and duets with Clooney on "Desafinado," "One Note Samba," "Let Go," "Dindi," and the reprise of the title track, "Brazil"…