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Rosemary Clooney: Legacy of Song - Original Recordings
The best of the albums is Clap Hands! Here Comes Rosie where RCA recognizes Clooney's affinity for the jazz genre by hooking up her with Don Fagerquist, Jimmy Rowles and Ted Nash backed by Bob Thompson's solid charts. "Makin Whoopee" and "Give Me the Simple Life" from that album have been included on this disk. The other main RCA album represented here is Rosie Solves the Swingin' Riddle. Clooney gets the Nelson Riddle treatment with his inimitable arrangements resulting in still another good set. "You Took Advantage of Me" with a good bass trombone and a swinging, jazz version of the otherwise pedestrian Tin Pan Alley product, "Shine on Harvest Moon", and a romantic "How Am I to Know?" with an anonymous saxophonist filling in behind Clooney come from that album. Clooney and Riddle go for a swinging Basie with vocalist like version of "April in Paris" with an unidentified trumpet player, probably Don Fagerquist, doing an imitation of delicate butterfly fluttering with the trumpet. This is one of the best tracks on an album filled with good tracks. There's a cool duet with Bing Crosby smoothing the icing on the cake. The one disappointment is that for some the reason, the producers of the album chose to include an out of place, turgid, mournful "Danke Schön". Shades of Mitch Miller!
Forty minutes of Rosemary Clooney's journey to the top of the vocalist heap is well worth having and listening to. Recommended.
Track Listing
I Get along without You Very Well; Bye Bye Blackbird; Give Me the Simple Life; How Am I to Know?; I Ain't Got Nobody (and Nobody Cares for Me); I Can't Get Started*; You took Advantage of Me; It Could Happen to You; April in Paris; Mean to Me; Makin' Whoopee; Sway#; Shine on Harvest Moon; Danke Sch
Personnel
Rosemary Clooney
vocalsRosemary Clooney, Bing Crosby* - Vocals; Nelson Riddle, Bob Thompson, Billy May, Perez Prado#, Dick Reynolds - Conductors; Pete Candoli, Don Fagerquist - Trumpet; Milt Bernhart - Trombone; Ted Nash, Ronnie Lang, Bud Shank - Sax; Jimmy Rowles - Piano
Album information
Title: Legacy of Song - Original Recordings | Year Released: 2001 | Record Label: Green Hill