Rosemary Clooney

Her sister Betty sang in a duo with Clooney for much of her early career. Read Less

Beginning in 1977, she recorded an album a year for the Concord Jazz record label, which continued until her death. This was in contrast to most of her generation of singers who had long since stopped recording regularly by then. In the late-1970s and early-1980s, Clooney did television commercials for Coronet brand paper towels, during which she sang a memorable jingle that goes, "Extra value is what you get, when you buy Coro-net." James Belushi later parodied Clooney and the commercial while as a cast member on NBC's Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s. Clooney sang a duet with Wild Man Fischer on "It's a Hard Business" in 1986, and in 1994 she sang a duet of Green Eyes with Barry Manilow in his 1994 album, Singin' with the Big Bands.

She guest-starred in the NBC television medical drama ER (starring her nephew, George Clooney) in 1995; she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. On January 27, 1996, Clooney appeared on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion radio program. She sang "When October Goes" – lyrics by Johnny Mercer and music by Barry Manilow (after Mercer's death) – from Manilow's 1984 album 2:00 AM Paradise Cafe, and discussed what an excellent musician Manilow was. Read Less