Uploaded on Nov 30, 2008
Rosemary Clooney sings "Let It Snow!"
Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American
singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the
novelty hit "Come On-a My House" written by William Saroyan and his cousin Ross Bagdasarian (better known as David Seville, the father figure of Alvin and the Chipmunks), which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me" (a cover version of the Italian song Ba-Ba-Baciami Piccina by Alberto Rabagliati), "Mambo Italiano", "Tenderly", "Half as Much", "Hey There" and "This Ole House",
although she had success as a jazz vocalist.
Clooney's career
languished in the 1960s, partly due to problems related to depression
and drug addiction, but revived in 1977, when her White Christmas co-star Bing Crosby
asked her to appear with him at a show marking his 50th anniversary in
show business. She continued recording until her death in 2002. She was
the aunt of Academy Award winning actor George Clooney.
| Rosemary Clooney | |
|---|---|
 Rosemary Clooney performing in 1977 |
|
| Background information | |
| Born | May 23, 1928 Maysville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Died | June 29, 2002 (aged 74) Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
| Genres | Traditional pop, vocal jazz |
| Occupations | Singer, Actress |
| Years active | 1946–2001 |
| Labels | Columbia MGM Coral RCA Victor Reprise Dot United Artists Concord Jazz |
| Website | Rosemary Clooney Palladium website |
Early life
When Clooney was fifteen, her mother and brother, Nick, moved to California. She and her sister, Betty, remained with their father.[citation needed] The family resided in the John Brett Richeson House in the late 1940s.
Rosemary, Betty and Nick all became entertainers. In the next generation, some of her children, including Miguel Ferrer and Rafael Ferrer, and her nephew, George Clooney, also became respected entertainers. In 1945, the Clooney sisters won a spot on Cincinnati, Ohio's radio station WLW as singers. Her sister Betty sang in a duo with Clooney for much of her early career.
Career
In 1951, her record of "Come On-a My House", produced by Mitch Miller, became a hit. It was her first of many singles to hit the charts—despite the fact that Clooney hated the song passionately. She had been told by Columbia Records to record the song, and that she would be in violation of her contract if she did not do so. Clooney recorded several duets with Marlene Dietrich and appeared in the early 1950s on Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town series on CBS.
In 1954, she starred, along with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Vera-Ellen, in the movie White Christmas. She starred, in 1956, in a half-hour syndicated television musical-variety show The Rosemary Clooney Show. The show featured The Hi-Lo's singing group and Nelson Riddle's orchestra. The following year, the show moved to NBC prime time as The Lux Show Starring Rosemary Clooney but only lasted one season.
The new show featured the singing group The Modernaires and Frank DeVol's orchestra. In later years, Clooney would often appear with Bing Crosby on television, such as in the 1957 special The Edsel Show, and the two friends made a concert tour of Ireland together. On November 21, 1957, she appeared on NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, a frequent entry in the "Top 20" and featuring a musical group called "The Top Twenty." In 1960, Clooney and Crosby co-starred in a 20-minute CBS radio program aired before the midday news each weekday.
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.
Upon her recovery from a nervous breakdown in 1968, Clooney signed with United Artists Records in 1976 for two albums.
Beginning in 1977, she recorded an album a year for the Concord Jazz record label,[2] which continued until her death. This was in contrast to most of her generation of singers who had long since stopped recording regularly by then. In the late-1970s and early-1980s, Clooney did television commercials for Coronet brand paper towels, during which she sang a memorable jingle that goes, "Extra value is what you get, when you buy Coro-net.
" James Belushi later parodied Clooney and the commercial while as a cast member on NBC's Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s. Clooney sang a duet with Wild Man Fischer on "It's a Hard Business" in 1986, and in 1994 she sang a duet of Green Eyes with Barry Manilow in his 1994 album, Singin' with the Big Bands.
She guest-starred in the NBC television medical drama ER (starring her nephew, George Clooney) in 1995; she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.
On January 27, 1996, Clooney appeared on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion radio program. She sang "When October Goes" – lyrics by Johnny Mercer and music by Barry Manilow (after Mercer's death) – from Manilow's 1984 album 2:00 AM Paradise Cafe, and discussed what an excellent musician Manilow was.[3]
In 1999, Clooney founded the Rosemary Clooney Music Festival, held annually in Maysville, her hometown.[4] She performed at the festival every year until her death. Proceeds benefit the restoration of the Russell Theater in Maysville, where Clooney's first film, The Stars are Singing, premiered in 1953.
She received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.
Source: Wikipedia
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