Date With The King/On Stage/Tenderly

Performer: Rosemary Clooney
Producer: Dan Rivard (Compilation)
Distributor: Gotham Distributing Corp.

Notes: 3 LPs on 1 CD: DATE WITH THE KING (1956)/ON STAGE (1956)/TENDERLY (1955). Originally released on Columbia 10" LPs. Personnel: Rosemary Clooney (vocals). Liner Note Author: Al Fichera. This discount-priced reissue CD combines the contents of three 10" LPs associated with Rosemary Clooney and originally released by Columbia Records in 1955 and 1956. Ten-inch LPs usually contained eight songs, but these three only contained six each, for a total of 18 tracks in about 57 and a half minutes. The three present different sides of Clooney. Date With the King (tracks 1-6) isn't really a Rosemary Clooney solo collection; it's a Benny Goodman album on which Clooney sits in for three numbers. Goodman wanted to record Cole Porter's clever "It's Bad for Me" in 1955, and Columbia insisted that Clooney join in for added commercial appeal; she and Goodman share vocal duties on the song. Then the label wanted an album in addition to the single, so Goodman obliged with some sextet numbers and even let Clooney sing on "Memories of You" (with only a trio) and "Goodbye." The result is a nice little jazz set. Tracks 7-12 made up On Stage, supposedly a Clooney live album cut at the London Palladium, though annotator Al Fichera, pointing to the recording dates, questions whether it is really a treated studio recording with applause dubbed in. Whatever it is, there are some excellent Clooney performances, especially a version of Porter's "It's Delovely" preceded by an introduction in which she discusses her method of picking material for a concert. Tenderly (tracks 13-18) was actually a compilation of tracks recorded between 1949 and 1953, starting with the title song, said to be a gold single for Clooney. She mixes up ballads with rhythm numbers like "Blues in the Night" (also a chart hit for her) and handles both well. Although the three original LPs take different approaches, when joined together they give a well-rounded portrait of Clooney in her prime. ~ William Ruhlmann

An iconic American vocalist, Rosemary Clooney often blurred the line between pop and jazz, occasionally even venturing into country and international styles. She started out as a singer with the Tony Pastor band in the 1940s, and her solo career started taking off at the end of the decade. Under the stewardship of Mitch Miller, she had numerous novelty-oriented '50s hits, but later on she dedicated herself to more serious, jazzier work, making some of her finest albums, like 1956's BLUE ROSE. Clooney was also active in films and TV (for a time she had her own television show), and continued performing and recording tirelessly until her death in 2002.

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