Ballads, Blue Songs, Hits and Jazz, 1949 - 1958

Smile while you're singing - the listener can hear it! was Rosemary Clooney's advice to a young singer. It was a maxim which she applied to herself, and it helped in a recording career which lasted some five decades. Born in Maysville Kentucky in 1928, she was the eldest of three children. One of her younger siblings was Betty, with whom she would form a singing act. Her childhood was hard. Her mother had already left the family when, one night, her father went out drinking and didn't return. The girls collected empty bottles, using the refunds to buy school meals. In spring 1945, Rosemary and Betty entered a talent show on Cincinnati's WLW Radio. They won. Better, the station hired the girls to sing on own late night show at a weekly salary of $20.00 each. Not long after, they started touring with the Tony Pastor band. In 1946, they cut several discs for the Cosmopolitan label. Columbia moved in and signed Rosemary. In 1949, the sisters split amicably to pursue solo careers. Columbia started backing Rosemary with studio orchestras. Her first session for them included The Four Winds And The Seven Seas which attracted attention nationwide. The next session produced Don't Cry Joe and Why Don't You Haul Off And Love Me. Both were hits. In 1950 Mitch Miller joined Columbia. Rosemary would prove to be one of his most successful artists. In March 1950 she was teamed with Percy Faith to record Me And My Teddy Bear. The record was a sensational hit. From this time she was a billtopper. This collection documents the first ten years of her epic career, backed by studio bands, and by formations of the caliber of Duke Ellington, Harry James and Benny Goodman. She's also in the company of stars like Frank Sinatra, Guy Mitchell, Gene Autry and Marlene Dietrich. And of course, there's her perennially popular White Christmas collaboration with Vera Ellen, Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby.