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Rosemary Clooney‘s success as a singles artist with a string of hits, including the chart-toppers “Come On-A My House” and “Half as Much,” convinced Columbia Records that the time was right for her first LP, on which the rising star was paired with a faltering labelmate, trumpeter and bandleader Harry James, on an album consisting of eight of the 18 songs that won the Academy Award between 1934 and 1951. In essence, Clooney serves as the girl singer for Harry James & His Orchestra on this disc, with James’ trumpet serving as a duet partner. His distinctive playing leads off the collection on a version of the 1943 Oscar-winner “You’ll Never Know” before she comes in, sounding much more as she did singing in a legato style with Tony Pastor in the 1940s than as the comic dialect personality of “Come On-A My House.” Clearly, this is intended as music for grownups, not for the novelty-happy hit-parade crowd. Often, these familiar songs also have familiar interpreters, and it can’t be said that Clooney and James were going to make anyone forget Judy Garland’s take on “Over the Rainbow” or Bing Crosby’s on “Sweet Leilani” and 1951’s “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening.” But the album delivered exactly what it promised in the singer’s clearly enunciated matter-of-fact phrasing and the instrumentalist’s characteristically broad tone on some well-loved material. The album reached number three in the Billboard pop albums chart, while “You’ll Never Know” spent a week in the pop singles chart (AllMusic Review by William Ruhlmann, https://goo.gl/u4BxcU).

Track listing:

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Released: October 10, 1952
Duration: 34:41
Recorded: February 17, 1947 – May 2, 1953