Rose Marie

Rose Marie - still with us - was already a well known entertainer more than 80 years ago, when she was appearing on stage as "Baby Rose Marie". (You can see her young self here.)

Closer to the present day, she was a welcome presence on US television, first as a comedy writer on The Dick Van Dyke Show, later on other sitcoms and game shows.

Frankie and Rose Marie

Today we're concerned with her in-between career as a nightclub entertainer. Starting in the 1940s, she had a combination music and comedy act in some of the better locales.

This 10-inch LP documents that phase of her stage experience. It comes from circa 1952, when she was on Broadway in Top Banana with Phil Silvers, and it was probably issued in an attempt to cash in on that appearance. The recordings themselves, however, were made by Mercury as singles from 1946 to about 1948.

Rose Marie's first single was "Chen-A-Luna," a version of a song that goes back at least as far as the 1830s and Rossini's "La Danza".

Oh, you don't believe that Gioachino Rossini would have originated a song that implores lazy Mary to get up because we need the sheets for the table? Well, consider that "Chen-A-Luna" is a phonetic version of the first line of the song, "C'è la luna in mezzo al mare", and the first line of Rossini's song is "Già la luna è in mezzo al mare." (Rossini's version did not invoke lazy Mary, however.) You can hear Enrico Caruso in "La Danza" here.

I am digressing, but the song has a complicated history (including versions by Lou Monte, Louis Prima and an unlikely paisan, Rudy Vallee). I'll soon explore it in more depth in an upcoming post on Buster's Swinging Singles.

Rose Marie's repertoire at the time - at least as displayed here - was mainly novelty songs, but she nonetheless was quite a good vocalist, singing in a strong alto with excellent rhythm and considerable personality. At least some of the accompaniments here are by Dick (later Richard) Maltby. The sound is good, but the LP transfer was quite sharp, which I have adjusted here.