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Rosemary Clooney

The distinctively unpretentious, deep, rich, and smooth voice of Rosemary Clooney earned her recognition as one of America's premiere pop and jazz singers. According to Clooney's record company press biography, Life magazine, in a tribute to America's “girl singers” named her one of “six preeminent singers ... whose performances are living displays of a precious national treasure ... their recordings a preservation of jewels.” First-class crooner Frank Sinatra stated, as was also reprinted in Clooney's press biography, “Rosemary Clooney has that great talent which exudes warmth and feeling in every song she sings. She's a symbol of good modern American music.”

The singer noted for her decades-long mastery of American popular song started life amid the poverty of small-town Maysville. Her childhood was a difficult one; Clooney and younger siblings Betty and Nick were shuttled among their alcoholic father, Andy, their mother, Frances—who traveled constantly for her work with a chain of dress shops—and relatives, who would take turns raising the children. When Clooney was 13 her mother moved to California to marry a sailor, taking Nick with her but leaving the girls behind. Her father tried to care for Rosemary and Betty, working steadily at a defense plant, but he left one night to celebrate the end of World War II—taking the household money with him—and never returned. As Clooney described in her autobiography, This for Remembrance, she and Betty were left to fend for themselves. They collected soda bottles and bought meals at school with the refund money. The phone had been disconnected, the utilities were about to be turned off, and the rent was overdue when Rosemary and Betty won an open singing audition at a Cincinnati radio station. The girls were so impressive, in fact, that they were hired for a regular late-night spot at $20 a week each. “The Clooney Sisters,” as they became known, began their singing career in 1945 on WLW in Cincinnati.

This work brought them to the attention of bandleader Tony Pastor, who happened to be passing through Ohio. In 1945 The Clooney Sisters joined Pastor's orchestra. They toured with Pastor as featured singers until 1948, at which point Betty decided to return to Cincinnati and her radio career. Rosemary continued as a solo vocalist with Tony Pastor for another year. Then, in 1949, deciding she needed to expand her professional career, she left the band; at age 21 Clooney struck out on her own and headed for New York City.

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Radio & Podcasts

I Wished on the Moon and The Jitterbug Waltz - Celebrating Rosemary Clooney and Fats Waller

Read "I Wished on the Moon and The Jitterbug Waltz - Celebrating Rosemary Clooney and Fats Waller" reviewed by Mary Foster Conklin


The Memorial Day weekend broadcast included new releases from trumpeter Carl Saunders, guitarist Henry Robinett, vocalist Leslie Beukelman, pianist Carolina Calvache, groups DreamRoot and Ajoyo, plus birthday shoutouts to Rosemary Clooney (pictured), Jackie Cain, Fats Waller and Bob Dylan. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by purchasing their music in this time of lockdown. Playlist Carl Saunders “Pick Yourself Up" from Jazz Trumpet (Summit) 00:00 Rosemary Clooney “I Wished on the Moon" from From ...

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Album Review

Rosemary Clooney: Rosie Solves The Swingin' Riddle

Read "Rosie Solves The Swingin' Riddle" reviewed by David Rickert


Rosemary Clooney declared her love affair with Nelson Riddle “the best blending of my job and my personal life that I've ever had." While it ended their respective marriages, it also resulted in some excellent music. Riddle will be familiar to most as the guy who orchestrated the great Sinatra records for Capitol; that is, if he's familiar at all. Suffice it to say that he was one of the greatest arrangers of all time, creating backgrounds ...

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Album Review

Rosemary Clooney: Jazz Singer

Read "Jazz Singer" reviewed by Jim Santella


Columbia’s compilation of vintage Rosemary Clooney gems comes with superb support. Throughout her career, the jazz singer always had that kind of expertise surrounding her. Jazz Singer starts off with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in an excerpt from Blue Rose. Clark Terry, Harry Carney and Jimmy Hamilton rip off delightful solos to complement the buoyant singer. Then, from Tenderly, Clooney sings a soothing ballad: one of her most welcomed trademarks. The sound of her voice and the balance from supporting ...

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Album Review

Rosemary Clooney: The Last Concert

Read "The Last Concert" reviewed by Jim Santella


In Honolulu, with a huge orchestra honoring her with their lush support, Rosemary Clooney performed for an equally vast audience at the Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall. Her latest album, Sentimental Journey, had just been released. Communicating with her audience on several levels, “The Girl Singer” presents songs from her recent album along with a few surprises. Her dialogue with the audience is captured in its entirety, which makes this album quite special. Matt Catingub’s big band and the Honolulu ...

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Album Review

Rosemary Clooney: Sweet Melody

Read "Sweet Melody" reviewed by Jack Bowers


What can I say about Rosemary Clooney that I’ve not said hundreds of times before — that she is one of the most charming and intelligent interpreters of popular song that it has ever been my pleasure to hear and appreciate. These fourteen examples of Rosie’s uncommon artistry, recorded between 1949 and ’56, include four from her own favorite album from that era, on which she is accompanied by the marvelous Duke Ellington Orchestra. The earliest selection, “Oh, You Beautiful ...

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Album Review

Rosemary Clooney: Let It Snow: Christmas with Rosemary Clooney

Read "Let It Snow: Christmas with Rosemary Clooney" reviewed by Dave Hughes


Here’s a baker’s dozen of previously released Christmas material by Rosemary Clooney, issued on the North Star label. The fine print indicates that this “compilation” is copyright Concord Records. However, this program seems to be 13 of the 21 songs on Clooney’s Concord CD, “White Christmas.” So, naturally, I would recommend choosing the Concord CD in order to get the remaining eight songs.

Packaging concerns aside, if you love Rosie, you’ll love this. All of her stylistic traits are here. ...

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Album Review

Rosemary Clooney: Let It Snow

Read "Let It Snow" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Released by North Star, this album of Christmas favorites by the fabulous Rosemary Clooney was compiled by Concord Records, presumably from more than one of the many albums she has recorded for that label over the years. Anyone who has read more than a handful of this writer's reviews will be aware of his fondness for Rosie whose distinctive voice and easygoing style have always struck a responsive chord. She is, quite simply, one of the most wonderful pop singers ...

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Video / DVD

Half-Dozen Rosemary Clooneys

Half-Dozen Rosemary Clooneys

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Rosemary Clooney was a bandleader's singer. On record, she could swing, she had intonation and she sounded extraordinarily relaxed and comfortable with herself, which is partly why Bing Crosby loved her so much. The other part is she seemed fun to be around. But it was on television where the rest of the nation fell in love with her. Clooney was jolie laide, or unconventionally beautiful (leave it to the French to find a phrase for it). She was the ...

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Recording

Rosemary Clooney: CBS, 1955-61

Rosemary Clooney: CBS, 1955-61

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

I never fully got Rosemary Clooney. I always felt she sounded a little too stuffy—like someone who lives at home and on Saturday nights belts from the window of her family apartment in the old neighborhood. Her voice was a bit too husky and sincere for me—like Judy Garland with a cold. Yet arrangers, musicians and star singers loved her, which I never quite understood. What was I missing? Then I heard The Rosemary Clooney CBS Radio Recordings 1955-61, a ...

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Award / Grant

Bette Midler Withdraws in Favor of Rosemary Clooney

Bette Midler Withdraws in Favor of Rosemary Clooney

Source: All About Jazz

The Associated Press today reported that Bette Midler, who this year received a Grammy nomination for her tribute to Rosemary Clooney, may withdraw her name from the race in favor of the real thing (check out full story below). Rosemary Clooney is nominated in the same category as the Midler for The Last Concert, her last recorded public appearance.

In her lifetime, Rosemary Clooney never received a Grammy Award.

The Last Concert, which captured the “girl singer" with the Honolulu ...

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Obituary

Rosemary Clooney: Highly Regarded Pop-Jazz Singer Dies at 74

Rosemary Clooney: Highly Regarded Pop-Jazz Singer Dies at 74

Source: All About Jazz

Born May 23, 1928, Rosemary Clooney was a popular singer who overcame great personal problems to re-emerge as fine interpreter of the repertoire of writers like Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, George and Ira Gershwin, Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen, and Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Although she always refused to be categorised as a jazz singer, much of her later work involved collaborations with jazz musicians, including a number of records on the Concord Jazz ...

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