Rosemary Clooney - 16 Biggest Hits (16 tracks) +Album Reviews

Great hit collection by a zesty singer

Joel L. Gandelman | San Diego, CA USA | 07/27/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This a GREAT CD for both young people just interested in great American singing and Clooney as well as for Clooney's longtime fans. Anyone who has liked or just discovered that he/she likes Rosemary Clooney will play a lot of it over and over. It is not a mere nostalgia piece. Most of it holds up quite well. In fact, you could call it The Good, the Bad (in the modern sense as "GREAT") and the ugly (as in "UGLY.").

The CD, comprised of 16-pristine 1950s recordings, contains Clooney's biggest commercial hits from Columbia and a few bonuses. It artfully displays not only the commercial Clooney who could take a silly song shoved down her talented throat and turn it into a hit -- but foreshadows the later critically acclaimed Comeback Clooney, whose career was tragically cut short by her death from cancer. Here are a few of the songs that fall into categories such as:--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."

The elegant and dramatic vocal phrasings of Rosemary Clooney

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 04/24/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

""16 Biggest Hits" is a misnomer as a title because these are not, literally, the 16 biggest hits in the music career of Rosemary Clooney. Two of her Top 10 hits, "Beautiful Brown Eyes" and "The Night Before Christmas Song," are not included, which proves the point. But it is still a solid collection with a couple of tracks you might not have in your music library that would well be worth the adding. My top choice would be the duet "Sisters," the Irving Berlin song from the classical holiday film "White Christmas," which Rosemary sings with her sister Betty Clooney. 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."

Sublime---BRAVO, ROSEMARY CLOONEY !!!

Matthew G. Sherwin | last seen screaming at Amazon customer service | 03/21/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sixteen (16) Biggest Hits is a very strong Rosemary Clooney CD that showcases Rosemary in excellent form during the 1950s. Each track has excellent sound quality and the artwork is very well done.

"The Ole House" starts the album with Rosemary singing better than ever; and her excellent timing and diction bolsters her performance. The backup vocals help the song along but make no mistake about it--this is Rosemary's number, not anyone else's! The musical accompaniment makes good use of the guitar and percussion. "Tenderly" features Rosemary singing a much slower, romantic tune that she makes timeless with her sublime interpretation of this ballad. The strings enhance the beauty of "Tenderly" and I really like "Tenderly" a lot. It's perfect for slow dancing with your sweetheart in your living room!

"Half As Much" is another charming romantic number that showcases Rosemary's excellent vocal range; she sings this so well it sounds like I'm listening to silk! The strings help to carry the song along very well. Listen also for "Hey There;" Rosemary makes this a masterpiece in her capable hands. This love song shines like gold and I could never tire of hearing Rosemary Clooney singing "Hey There." "In The Cool, Cool, Cool Of The Evening" also gets a fine treatment from Rosemary who delivers this peppy little tune with panache--great brass, too!

"Come On-A My House" has a stunning arrangement; and Rosemary never misses a beat! "Blues In The Night" with Percy Faith & His Orchestra sounds beautiful when Rosemary sings this song, too. "Botch-A-Me (Ba-Ba-Baciami Piccina)" is a playful tune that doesn't take itself too seriously--it's not as bad as some may say. I love that keyboard sound--I think it's a harpsichord.

"Mambo Italiano" never came off better than when Rosemary sang it; she delivers this like the pro she always was! The Mellomen make a great backup group for Rosemary on "Mambo Italiano," too. Sophisticated Lady is yet another huge hit when Rosemary sings it; the musical arrangement uses the brass and strings to great advantage. The album ends with a marvelous version of "From This Moment On;" Rosemary sings this Cole Porter song with grace--not to mention all her heart and soul. It's an excellent ending for this album.

Rosemary Clooney rightly deserves much credit for being one of the greatest entertainers of the twentieth century. This fine CD gives us a great sampling of her vocal talents. Casual fans will be enchanted by this album; and people who enjoy classic pop vocals will also appreciate this CD. Diehard fans may want to consider box sets instead of this album; two suggestions are the box set entitled The Songbook Collection and Songs From The Girl Singer-A Musical Autobiography.

"

Early fifties pop

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 10/30/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rosemary's music of the early fifties reflected the times in which they were recorded, featuring some truly brilliant songs culled from a variety of sources interspersed with the occasional silly song..

The set includes five of Rosemary's seven UK hits, the omissions being Man and Where will the baby's dimple be, but neither of them matter in a collection like this. The five UK hits included here are This ole house, Mambo Italiano (both number hits), Half as much, Hey there (both top five hits) and Mangos (a minor hit). This ole house, the song most readily identified with Rosemary by UK fans, returned to the very top of the UK charts when revived by rock'n'roll revivalist Shakin' Stevens in 1981.

In America, Rosemary had many more hits but although this is an American compilation, some big hits are omitted to make way for less obvious but welcome recordings. The really big hits are all here including the number one hits Come on a my house, This ole house, Hey there and Half as much, together with the number two hit Botch-a-me, a novelty song that really doesn't stand the test of time well but the public must have loved it at the time to take it that high.

The biggest omission is a Christmas song that made the top ten, but I'm happy with that. I love Christmas music but I prefer it to be kept separate from other recordings, especially where the singer has recorded enough Christmas songs to fill at least half a CD. This particular recording is on Rosemary's CD, Songs from White Christmas and other yuletide favorites. The next biggest hit missing is Beautiful brown eyes, which almost made the top ten on Billboard, peaking at eleven. It might have made the top ten in another American chart. While this omission is more of a disappointment, it can be found on the more recent compilation Country Rose. That set includes twenty-one tracks from the early fifties, drawing on Rosemary's country-influenced recordings. This ole house and Half as much (both of which were originally country songs) are also to be found on that set, but they are the only duplicates. So you can rectify those two omissions by purchasing Songs from White Christmas and Country Rose.

Rosemary eventually became a highly respected jazz singer and clues to her later success can be found here via the inclusion of her covers of In the cool cool cool of the evening, Sophisticated lady and Blues in the night. But mainly, this is about Rosemary's early pop hits.

While this is not a definitive hits collection, the essential hits British and American hits are all here so it's a good starting point. If you wish to explore Rosemary's music from this period further, there are plenty of other CD's available, a couple of which I've mentioned."

"Your Face Beams In My Dreams In Spite Of All I Do. . . Ever

Rebecca*rhapsodyinblue* | CA USA | 10/26/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This gem of a CD from my collection is classified as "My Parents Music." I have been replicating my late parents' collection of long playing records (Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Doris Day, Rosemary Clooney, Kitty Kallen, to name a few) in CD formats and it's been an on-going project for me and a very enjoyable one.

When I was growing up, my sisters and I just loved to sing-along with "Mambo Italiano," "Come-On-A-My-House" and "Sisters." Oh how we loved these songs by Rosemary Clooney back then and we absolutely enjoyed listening and singing along with so much gusto! ;)

This marvelous collection features sixteen of her biggest hits of all-time. My favorites include "You'll Never Know," with Harry James and His Orchestra, two beautiful songs arranged and conducted by Percy Faith - "Tenderly" and "Half As Much," and "Hey There," a selection from the Broadway musical "The Pajama Game."

And my very highlight is a song that she recorded in 1955 with the Benny Goodman Trio and charted as #20 for eight straight weeks at the Billboard. The Trio's superb accompaniment complements Rosemary Clooney's lovely classic voice.

"Memories Of You"

~ Words & Music by Eubie Blake & Andy Razaf ~

Waking skies at sunrise, every sunset, too

Seems to be bringing me memories of you

Here and there, everywhere, scenes that we once knew

And they all just recall memories of you

How I wish I could forget those happy yesteryears

That have left a rosary of tears

Your face beams in my dreams in spite of all I do

Everything seems to bring memories of you.

Add this wonderful CD to your collection and let Ms. Clooney take you back in time and enjoy her greatest and biggest hits of all-time."

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