‘Girl Singer’s’ talent should be ageless
Published 12:00 am Friday, January 7, 2000
In a fit of nostalgia – well at least fondness for "the good old days"- I bought an album from a singer whose movies and songs I have enjoyed for years, but whose fame is linked to another generation.
Friday, January 07, 2000
In a fit of nostalgia – well at least fondness for "the good old days"- I bought an album from a singer whose movies and songs I have enjoyed for years, but whose fame is linked to another generation.
I have always loved Rosemary Clooney, mostly because of her melodious voice, but also because of the person she has become as she has aged.
I didn’t even realize until a few years back that it was her character in the movie, "White Christmas," that I loved so much, or that she is the person who sang "White Cliffs of Dover."
In fact, I really did not realize the breadth of her work until I started listening to "The Autobiography of a Girl Singer," what some of her contemporaries called her when she first started her career, and the name of her latest album.
And as I listened to the music and read Ms. Clooney’s tales from her life and loves, I realized that she has grown, not just as a singer, but as a woman. Her wisdom as a woman came from the mistakes of her youth.
Just as her beautiful voice gained maturity, so, too, did her observations of life, marriage, children and fame.
Her musings are as interesting as her songs. She brings to life an age that most of us did not have a chance to share. She tells tales of her former husband Jose Ferrer and her duet with Frank Sinatra. She adds a human side to Bing Crosby and tells the truth about what it is like to be a starlet in Hollywood.
As I read her stories and listened to her songs, I realized how temporal artistry really is.
While I have just enough connection to her work to remember, as the decades pass, future generations will see the 1950s as a time equivalent to the dinosaurs.
They will think the 1980s are classic rock and will only be cursorily familiar with the 1960s and ’70s.
The work of people like Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney will be lost to them like the movies and songs from stars of the 1920s and ’30s are a mystery to us.
That is the sad consequence of the passage of time.
As I listened to Ms. Clooney’s latest recording, I realized how rare it is to find someone with her talent and versatility.
There are good singers around today, but few have the style and grace of Ms. Clooney. And, not too many have the same high quality leading men or songwriters.
Her songs represent a time when audiences demanded more than a svelt body and a bunch of writhing around on a stage. This "girl singer" had to rely on talent to get the attention she deserved.
The "divas" of today could learn a lot from Rosemary Clooney – and maybe even save themselves from a few of her mistakes, too.
For the rest of us, the album is simply a chance to follow a singer’s journey from girl to woman.
If you love beautiful arrangements and lyrics that mean something, you ought to listen to "Girl Singer." It will take you back to a time when a quality song and a good script were their own rewards.
Renee Carey is the managing editor of The Ironton Tribune.