Rosemary Clooney: A singer remembered

• Rosemary Clooney died in 2002 at age 74
• She has performed duets with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett%2C and sang with the Duke Ellington and Count Basie orchestras
• The late jazz singer is the sister of broadcaster Nick Clooney and aunt to actor George Clooney

How about a dame called Rosemary Clooney?

That's what Bing Crosby said searching for his "White Christmas" female co-star in 1954.

And that's what jazz lovers essentially have said for years, according to the new biography "Late Life Jazz: The Life and Career of Rosemary Clooney" (Oxford University Press; $29.95).

Authors Ken Crossland and Malcolm Macfarlane deliver a thorough analysis of her career and declare: "Rosemary Clooney was arguably the most versatile popular singer in history."

The Maysville, Ky., native, who died in 2002 at age 74, recorded big band, mambo rhythms, rockabilly, country, children's songs, Christmas tunes and novelty hits. She made Billboard's weekly charts 20 times, including four times at No. 1 and another three in the top 10.

"She could schmaltz and schmooze with Crosby in one scene in 'White Christmas,' and become a sultry siren in the next," they wrote.

What other singer, they asked, performed duets with Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Perry Como and Cosby; sang with the Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Nelson Riddle orchestras; and later jazzed it up with John Pizzarelli and Scott Hamilton?

"Late Life Jazz" also details the personal life of Clooney, older sister of broadcaster Nick Clooney and aunt to actor George.

Even readers here may gain new insights from their accounts of Rosemary singing at age 3 in Maysville; debuting at 16 with younger sister Betty (13) on WLW-AM in 1945; touring with the Tony Pastor Band; starring with Tony Bennett on TV's "Songs for Sale" (1950); marrying actor Jose Ferrer; and living on Beverly Hills' famous North Roxbury Drive by Jack Benny, Lucille Ball, Ira Gershwin, James Stewart, and later Peter Falk and Diane Keaton.

The biographers also detail her depression and descent into drug abuse after being in the Ambassador Hotel when Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, and her triumphant comeback in the 1970s touring with old pal Bing and releasing Concord jazz albums.

Very early on, Clooney caught the ear of music critics. "Sooner or Later," from her first recording session with Pastor in 1946, was called "the nearest thing to Ella Fitzgerald that we've ever heard," wrote a reviewer.

The book's impressive indexes list all guests for her national TV variety series (1956-58), but her vocal career clearly takes center stage in the 323-page book.

The authors devoted more pages to her "Blue Rose" album with Ellington and Billy Stayhorn in 1956 than to filming "White Christmas" with Crosby, Danny Kaye and Norwood native Vera-Ellen (Rohe).

Recording with Ellington, the "girl singer" from Maysville said, "validated me as an American singer. My work would not fade with my generation."

And it hasn't.