Customer Reviews

Girl Singer: An Autobiography

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In her closing night performance last October ('99) at the Regency Hotel in NY, Ms. Clooney offered that "Girl Singer" was written in a more disclosive voice than her earlier autobiography. She went on to admit that she could take that liberty since most of the folks she's writing about are no longer around to protest! The audience roared!

Reading the well-crafted "Girl Singer" does not, however, leave you with the feeling that you are an after-the-fact voyeur to her well publicized tribulations of the past. While her frankness about personal and professional relationships is stunning, it is done with a complete lack of bitterness and histrionics. You are left convinced that difficult times aside, Ms. Clooney life has always centered around love of her family and her music. Her honest self-criticism is admirable.

"Girl Singer" will leave you with the feeling that you just spend hours reading a diary you discovered by chance on a lonely bench in Central Park. You begin, not sure whether you should intrude so boldly upon someone's privacy but quickly find that you cannot put it down... all the time afraid it's owner might return looking for it and admonish you for being so nosy.

Go ahead... read it. She left it there for you.

The most amazing thing about this book is its utterly non-judgmental tone---one feels that Ms. Clooney is truly at peace with the events and people in her past, and delighted to be in the present. Though it's obvious that her biological parents neglected her and her siblings (and her half-siblings as well), her life nevertheless unfolds as an engrossing story, peopled sometimes with family and friends who were perhaps not without their faults, but were utterly human. I must admit I did not always agree with her viewpoint; I would have preferred that she refrain from commenting on how her children felt about her apparently drug-related psychosis and its fallout,rather than stating that it didn't affect most of them very much. This, for me, was the one tear in the fabric of the book's complete credibility; it's not that I want to know about this, I just don't believe it could be true of any child. But the rest of it, particularly the childhood vignettes involving her, her sister Betty, and her brother Nicky, were compelling in their drama, tenderness, and especially their humor. I couldn't stop giggling at the pictures some of them presented. The whole book was a series of colorful mind-pictures, making the photographs almost unnecessary. And the details concerning the history of pop music in her time were woven in seamlessly, providing interesting tidbits without derailing the book's purpose.I've been a fan since childhood, but I think even non-fans would like this book for its candor, humor, and sense of the strength ( and challenges) a family can give.

Rosemary Clooney was brave to write such a wonderful book. I appreciate her frankness and her ability to share her most intimate feelings, even though it's really none of our business. And she is so forthcoming in revealing her own errors in judgement. I cried, as I didn't want the book to end, just as I never want her to leave us. Her book is a treasure for which I learn how to live my own life. What an example of recovery and how to travel the road toward peace. Don't walk, but RUN and get this book!

I've always been crazy about Rosemary Clooney! I have all her albums and CD's---she deserves a long overdue Grammy or two! Her book written with Joan Barthel is wonderful--funny, engrossing and like her extraordinary singing--addictive! Highly recommended!

Rosemary Clooney's life wasn't all a picnic in the Park. Her autobiography is straightforward - like herself, it is not grandiose, but it is no shrinking violet, either. While reading this book, I also got "Songs from the Girl Singer: a musical autobiography " a 2 CD set. Like Girranimals, the similarly titled companion pieces have the same picture on the front so that the purchaser will know that they go together. Buy `em both, they won't disappoint!

Her life and music are all here - without gloss or pretension. And from her debut with sister Betty, with a local Cincinnati big band, to her meteoric rise to solo national celebrity for "Come On-a My House," a song she never really liked, to sing with Bing in "White Christmas," to the ascension of Rock & Roll (which, she said at the time "wiped out music as we know it,") to her resultant (?) breakdown and triumphant "comeback," to her introduction to a new TV viewing generation as the Coronet Paper Towel lady, to her appearance with nephew George Clooney on ER, Rosemary never learned to read music!

More pictures (including one of the Great Dane, Cuddles,) would have been nice, but the set is a treat. Get it! God Bless You, Rosemary. 5/23/28 - 6/30/2002

I found this book to be a poignant description of the life of an entertainer. She tells it like it is from the beginning to the end. I did not see any sign of egoism as I've found in many biographies written. Your money is well spent in buying this book. You will be touched.

This book delights on many levels! It's a must-read for any Clooney fan, full of rich detail and honest reflections on her life, both personal and musical. But it also works as an illuminating history of the eras in which she lived, from big band to the golden age of Hollywood to the rise of rock and roll to the resurgence of swing. Most of all, the voice her audiences love comes through loud and clear.

Call it charm,wit or simply gift,but the fact is that Rosemary Clooney have a extremely likeable personality.I was not even born when she had her golden-period on pop charts,but I understand clearly why she was so popular - with her girl-next-door looks and fresh voice she must appear like somebody you would love to hang out with.The voice that speaks from this pages is friendly,funny,honest and warm - with her sense of humour she describes ups and downs of career in ever-changing pop music.Her stories about Billie Holiday,Frank Sinatra,Bing Crosby et all are priceless.Perhaps the best thing about this book is her clear perspective about tragedies in her past - now she can face them with humour and make them sound actually funny. Which gives me some hope that one day I can do the same :))

Anyone who has every heard Rosemary Clooney sings knows there is no one else quite like her. And so it would follow that her memoir would follow suit, and it most certainly does. I cried, I laughed, I loved this book more with every page I turned. Kudos to Barthel for bringing Rosie's voice to the page, and rendering poetry from such a soulful, remarkable life.

We lost a tremendous talent and treasure this past summer with the death of Rosemary Clooney. I am so glad that I read this book before her death, because I felt as if I got to know her. Ms. Clooney told her story, from her tulmultous childhood, to her heyday as a "girl singer" and recording star, and to her breakdown in the late 1960s. In the last 10 years, she was known more as George's aunt than her own talent. This book solidified for me that she was a great talent, and a very interesting person. Nothing is glossed over.