Customer Reviews

Songbook Collection

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Rosie recorded several songbook albums between 1980 and 1990 - six of them are collected together in this beautifully packaged box set. There are not many up-tempo songs here, but it does not matter because Rosie was such a great ballad singer.

The first CD focuses on the lyrics of Ira Gershwin. George composed the music for all except two of the songs, the exceptions being Long ago and far away (Jerome Kern) and The man that got away (Harold Arlen). Perhaps the best-known songs here are Fascinating rhythm and Nice work if you can get it.

Rosie raided Cole Porter's catalog to get the songs for the second CD. Perhaps I get a kick out of you is the best-known, but several of the others are not far behind.

The third CD covers the music of Harold Arlen. The most famous songs here are Ding, dong, the witch is dead (from Wizard of Oz) and Stormy weather.

The fourth CD is a tribute to Irving Berlin, which includes Cheek to cheek, There's no business like show business and Let's face the music and dance, together with several less well-known songs.

For the fifth CD, Rosie sings some of Johnny Mercer's great songs. By far the most famous here is I remember you, with which Australian singer had considerable success in the sixties (it was a number one in Britain).

Richard Rogers is the focus of the last CD, with lyrics by Hart or Hammerstein, of which The lady is a tramp is the most famous.

Of course, anybody with any knowledge of the Great American songbook will recognise a lot more songs than those I mentioned, but Rosie did not always record the obvious songs, so most people will find songs here that they haven't heard before. This is a truly magnificent collection which is essential for anybody interested in the Great American Songbook.

Concord Jazz presents a major event from America's "girl singer", an enduring icon of traditional pop music, Rosemary Clooney entered a new artistic renaissance when she signed with Concord Records in the late '70s. Among Rosemary's many acclaimed recordings on the Concord label, where she continues to record to this day - is a special series of new-classic "songbook" albums. Six of those treasured albums are presented here, in their entirety, spotlighting Clooney's timeless vocal rendition of evergreen standards from the pens of great American composers - Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer and Rodgers, Hart and Hammerstein. In their utter musicality, this collection occupies a plateau shared only with Ella Fitzgerald's "Songbooks" and Billie Holiday's legendary late-thirties performances with Teddy Wilson.

To spend more time with her family resulted in Clooney going into semi-retirement, but returned with a renewed power and confidence while making swinging-tour-dates around the country with her combo for Concord Records, and sounding better than ever. This collection is a treasurey of the greatest songwriters of our time, with the presence of a great interpreter, the "girl singer" - ROSEMARY CLOONEY!

Concord Jazz CCD6-4933...(6CD-Box-Set)...(2000)

When I ordered this I was rather reserved since it was something that I had not heard all in one box set. There are 6 CD,s to this set and each one is the music of a different Song writer. What a plesure to sit down one Sunday morning and listen to this CD. Again, there is not enough room to tell you all the great songs, but if you like Rosemary Clooney, you'll love this one. She really is at her top form.

This is a wonderful and inexpensive way to package a 6 CD set of most of Rosie's songbook collections. Rose is wonderful of course but I am most impressed at the affordability of large a large collection. I commend Concord Jazz for making this material more readily available as most 6 CD box sets can cost over [money] with it's fancy packaging and booklets.

There are some standouts in the Clooney's Songbook Collection, "When October Comes" and "P.S. I Love You" from the Johnny Mercer CD, for example. Her exurberant rendition of "It's De-lovely" from the Cole Porter Songbook and the tender rendition of Irving Berlin's "Better Luck Next Time" are also standouts and may be the best renditions of those songs ever recorded. But the whole collection is solid. Even if you prefer another interpretation of some of the songs, or, like me, do not want to EVER hear anyone sing "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" (and, to my astonishment, serious artists insist on recording it), Clooney's versions are always at least good and there are treasures throughout the collection. I highly recommend it.

Rosemary Clooney was one of the greatest singers of the great American jazz and pop standards. This collection features her work from 1979 to 1989, with some of the best songs of Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer, Rogers and Hart, and Rogers and Hammerstein...some of the best American song writers of the past century.

The sessions feature outstanding musicians that really make the music come alive. The recordings have that "Concord" sound: you feel as if it is a live performance and you are sitting just a few feet from the band.

Rosemary Clooney brings the experience of a lifetime to her interpretations of this music, making even the oldest songs in the collection seem new again. This is simply one of those "Desert Island" collections that every fan of the "Great American Songbook" must have.

Great interpretations of the standards and shows what a wonderful singer she truly was. If you like "Sinatra" music, give this a try; it's the female equivalent. Forget "C'mon a my house" and see what she could really do.

I was in my high school and college when the great female (and male) singers were providing real music. This is a wonderful collection of songs by the master song writers. To the writer who complained about the format of the song I suggest going out and finding a 45 rpm record and listen to the way it was done. To this day we are stuck with the 3 min. song that was the capacity of a 78 rpm record. Sometimes a song would be done on two records because of this limit. This is a WONDERFUL set and I wish they had ones for Kay Starr, Peggy Lee and others. It is only since the CD that this limit gets broken, but those probably won't get air play because the playlists are often set around the old length song.

Rosemary Clooney was one in a million and she did great honour to these songwriters by singing their songs. Everything she did was perfection and we all miss her very much. Not only did she sing like an angel but now she actually is one and we're the poorer for her los but heaven is richer.

I bought this collection as I first got into the Standards genre. I really wanted to like it, but it seemed like she hardly sang in any of the songs within. Each song (and I do mean every single number) consisted of one or two short verses, followed by a very long instrumental, and ended with a short closing chorus.