Chapter 11: Pop Music in the 1940s and 1950s
Rosemary Clooney (1928–2002) was one of the most beloved female vocalists of the postwar era, celebrated for her warm, expressive voice and relatable, down-to-earth charm. Born in Maysville, Kentucky, Clooney began her career remarkably early, singing alongside her sister Betty Clooney on WLW, a major Cincinnati radio station. Their local success led to a three-year touring stint with Tony Pastor’s big band, where the sisters refined their skills on the national swing circuit.
Branching out as a solo artist, Rosemary Clooney achieved her breakthrough in 1951 with the quirky, Armenian-flavored novelty song “Come-on-a My House.” Featuring an unusual harpsichord accompaniment, the song was written by William Saroyan and Ross Bagdasarian (also known as David Seville, creator of “Alvin and the Chipmunks”). Despite initially disliking the song and recording it under pressure from Columbia Records, Clooney’s rendition became a massive hit, selling over a million copies and catapulting her to instant stardom.
The song also reflected a broader trend in early 1950s pop music toward exoticism, an appetite among American audiences for tunes that evoked faraway places and unfamiliar cultures. These songs often relied on vague or stereotypical references to the Middle East, Asia, or Latin America, blending novelty with a sense of escapism. In particular, the rumba and other Latin-inspired dance styles, most notably the mambo, swept through American popular culture in the early 1950s. The mambo craze, which lasted from 1949-1955 and driven by bandleaders like Pérez Prado, brought infectious Afro-Cuban rhythms into dance halls, nightclubs, and jukeboxes across the country. Prado’s 1955 hit “Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White” topped the charts, and the popularity of the mambo influenced everything from orchestration in pop records to Hollywood musicals and suburban dance classes. This wave of interest in Latin music shaped the soundscape of the decade and intersected with novelty songs like “Come-on-a My House,” which similarly offered listeners a mix of fantasy, non-classical rhythm, and cultural stylization
However, this trend toward musical exoticism also raised significant cultural issues. It frequently involved the appropriation and distortion of non-Western musical styles, presenting them through a lens of Western fantasy rather than authentic representation. These songs often reinforced reductive or caricatured images of other cultures, flattening complex traditions into playful or sensual tropes for American consumption. While they entertained audiences, they also contributed to a broader pattern of cultural stereotyping and erasure that would later come under critical scrutiny.
Rosemary Clooney soon followed the success of “Come-on-a My House,” with a string of hit recordings, including:
“Beautiful Brown Eyes” (1951)
“Tenderly” (1952)
“Hey There” (1954)
“This Ole House” (1954)
By the mid-1950s, Rosemary Clooney had become a household name for her music and also for her screen presence. She starred alongside Bing Crosby in the classic holiday film White Christmas (1954), further solidifying her place in the popular culture canon. In 1956, she launched The Rosemary Clooney Show, a television variety program broadcast on over 100 stations nationwide. The show combined music, comedy, and guest appearances, helping Clooney maintain a prominent place in American living rooms during the early years of television.
Despite her success, Clooney faced significant personal and professional challenges. Her career declined in the late 1950s and early 1960s, influenced by changing musical tastes and personal struggles, including mental health issues and a high-profile divorce from actor José Ferrer, with whom she had five children. Nevertheless, she made a major comeback in the late 1970s with a series of critically acclaimed jazz recordings for Concord Records. Her later albums focused on the Great American Songbook and featured collaborations with artists such as Woody Herman and Diane Schuur.
In her later years, Clooney was widely celebrated for her lasting contributions to American popular music. She received numerous honors, including the Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002, shortly before her passing.