Listen Here #19: Rosemary Clooney's "Girl Singer"
Hello friends,
I’ve been thinking about the music known as jazz (for a variety of reasons). I’m perennially interested in how artists choose to interpret classic songs.
So, I’m doing something a little new and novel this week - I’m going through the songs of an entire album. An album that I’ve adored since my dad brought it home from the library at some point in the 00’s. I then strong-armed him into giving it to me for Christmas the next year. It’s (drumroll please) the 1992 LP “Girl Singer” by Rosemary Clooney.
This is an album of stone-cold classics, interpreted by an absolute master of the craft. I won’t put the whole album (14 songs, 50 minutes long, available here on Spotify) onto the Listen Here playlist, but I will put my two hands-down faves on it. Guess you’ll have to go to the playlist to see which ones made the cut ;)
See you again in 2 weeks (or maybe sooner, who knows!)
<3 Lauren
GIRL SINGER (1992) by Rosemary Clooney
"Nice 'n' Easy" (Alan Bergman, Lew Spence, Marilyn Keith)
Right away, we are kicking off with Clooney’s 64-year-old voice assuring us that we are in ever-so-capable hands. Listener, you are in for a treat! Nothing strenuous, nothing hard. We’re taking it nice ‘n’ easy all the way through. It’s a beautifully self-referential choice for the first track of this record.
"Sweet Kentucky Ham" (Dave Frishberg)
Clooney sounds worn, road-weary, nostalgic. Perfect for a song that, while ostensibly about ham, is of course, not about ham at all (Alex, sentences I never thought I’d write for $400, please!).
"Autumn in New York" (Vernon Duke)
Her delivery of “Autumn in New York / is often mingled with pain” in a deliberately laboured tone… I’m gone. Rosemary! Stab me in the heart, it’d be kinder!
"Miss Otis Regrets" (Cole Porter)
A sprightly, jaunty murder tune! Clooney, with youthful verve, takes great delight in detailing the whole sordid tale.
"Let There Be Love" (Lionel Rand, Ian Grant)
Listen. Let there be oysters. Under the sea. I can’t stress how important it is for there to be oysters under the sea. And an incredible backing choir. Very, very important.
"Lovers After All" (Richard Rodney Bennett, Johnny Mandel)
Again, we hear Clooney sing with a very speaking sort of tone, in a way that emphasizes her age (and by age, I also mean her wisdom, musicality and experience). A world-weariness permeates her gentle narrative of two old lovers, reunited after years apart. And we, the listeners, know… It’s you and the music, Rosemary.
"From This Moment On" (Porter)
Careening from a beautiful nostalgia-laden ballad to this big band fanfare… She has the range.
"More Than You Know" (Vincent Youmans, Billy Rose, Edward Eliscu)
Many jazz standards come from 1920’s-40’s musicals, which means they have recitative-esque introductions that transition the action of the story into the actual song. Most singers neglect to sing the intro of classic songs, for a variety of reasons (the rest of the tune is more famous, or more fun, or maybe the intro is weird in a 1920’s way… take your pick). Anyhow, it’s always lovely to hear an intro of a song gets as loving and tender a treatment as Rosemary gives this.
"Wave" (Antonio Carlos Jobim) – 3:46
She’s just so nimble.
"We Fell In Love Anyway" (Mike Reid, Naomi Martin) – 3:12
Gonna be honest, this might be my least favorite tune on the record, but it’s still gorgeous. By the end of the track, I’m still enchanted!
Duke Ellington Medley: "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)"/"I'm Checking Out, Goodbye" (Duke Ellington, Irving Mills)/(Ellington, Billy Strayhorn)
I like it, your honor. I like the fast ones.
"Of Course It's Crazy" (Mike Reid, Mack David)
I also like the slow ones :) It’s a dance-in-the-kitchen kind of tune, this one.
"Straighten Up and Fly Right" (Irving Mills, Nat King Cole)
The intro to this recording is from a 1945 tape of Clooney and her sister Betty. It’s really charming to hear the scratchy ‘40’s recording give way to a clean ‘90’s hifi sound. Likewise, the Clooney sisters, while they have beautiful tone, aren’t exactly putting a lot of personality into the song. 1992 Clooney has known many a buzzard, and this song seems personally addressed to all of them.
"The Best Is Yet to Come" (Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh)
Ah! Clooney’s worn, familiar alto reassuring us that things will get better with time! It’s a beautifully restrained rendition of this song, which I think pulls out the latent sadness and regret in the tune. It’s another delightfully self-referential tune to end the record. It may be the end of the album, but Clooney is far from done! She’d go on to record a whooping 9 more albums in the ten years of life that were left to her. I salute you, madam!