I'm Listening to Rosemary Clooney...

[Teasing the Korean]

...and I realize I left the Wayne Newton adapter in the "on" position before I hit the play button.

Friends, please don't make the mistake that I just made.

[JSngry]

Clark Burroughs & Gene Puerling, all-time great comedy team even w/o making a sound.

[duaneiac]

Rosemary Clooney was one of the most "natural" performers I've ever seen. I got to see her in concert twice in her later years, the last time being just a couple of weeks before what was recorded and released as her final concert. Granted, her vocal range had diminished some in her later years and even moreso by the time of that final concert, yet she was such an engaging presence and such an excellent interpreter of lyrics, that one was more than willing to overlook any vocal shortcomings. She did a lot of banter between numbers, probably to catch her breath and give her singing voice some rest, but whether it was tale about meeting the Pope, driving through the streets of San Francisco with Bing Crosby behind the wheel or a story about one of her grandkids, she was warm and funny and "real".

Two of my favorite songs by her from her later years --

http://youtu.be/R7NWxLUHFlA

A wonderful version as one would expect from an Irish lass. Whether you are Irish or not, take a few minutes to listen to that and visit your own private Glocca Morra.

http://youtu.be/Db1dt7pqioQ

Any of you 20-something wannabe jazz singers, please do NOT attempt this song. You haven't lived enough to sing it yet.

[mjzee]

If you can, try to hear the album For The Duration. It totally turned my head about these songs that, if I gave them any thought, I just thought of them as standards. The songs that were popular during WWII had a deep resonance for those living through the war, or sending their loved ones off to fight. A really powerful "concept album," as we used to say.

[JSngry]

Probably not top-shelf lyrics here (or maybe they are?), but you'd not know it by the way she sings them.

I love it when a performer can let you feel a story instead of having you listen to a song, willful loving seduction instead of guilt-tripping prostitution ritual, real strength instead of simple powerthugging.

[GA Russell]

I had no idea she recorded for Reprise. Was that in the mid-'60s?

[mjzee]

I had no idea she recorded for Reprise. Was that in the mid-'60s?

From Wikipedia: Clooney left Columbia Records in 1958, doing a number of recordings for MGM Records and then some for Coral Records. Finally, toward the end of 1958, she signed with RCA Victor Records, where she stayed until 1963. In 1964, she went to Reprise Records, and in 1965 to Dot Records.

Also from Wikipedia: Clooney sang a duet with Wild Man Fischer on "It's a Hard Business" in 1986

[GA Russell]

Thanks, Michael!

[JSngry]

Her first album for Reprise, Love, was recorded for RCA but not released by them..something to do with it being uncommercial or something. Sinatra bought the tapes from them when he signed Clooney and then released it himself. AFAIC, it's her masterpiece, and one of Riddle's as well, one of a handful.

The one after, that, Thanks For Nothing is a very mixed bag, but there's some good stuff on it. It's not as deep as Love, though, but to be fair, very little in that realm was/is.

Other than that, I know she did some Reprise Repertoire Company (or whatever it was called) performances, and I don't know what, if anything, else. Singles, maybe? She was heading downhill that whole time.

Here's my two favorites from the Thanks...album, fwiw:

Wounded Bird reissued it a few years ago, and I bought it. To be honest, those two are the only cuts of it I'd go out of my way to ever buy again.

But Love, oh my goodness...

[crisp]

I also had the pleasure of seeing her live in London a few years before she died. She performed seated throughout at a major concert hall (maybe the Royal Festival, I can't recall) and was superb, just as Duane says above. A true legend.

[mr jazz]

She and Riddle had a long affair that (like most affairs) went nowhere and hurt Clooney deeply. One reason Love is a great recording I think. I recently picked up the Japanese remaster of Blue Rose and while the original sounded good, this is significantly better, IMO.