At the risk of voicing a cliché,
Rosemary Clooney is delightful and delicious on this live album, from beginning to end. Although she was a little nervous over the informality of some English audience members, you'd never know it from what we hear here -- she sounds not only bold and confident, but she makes it seem easy, and she's got the audience in the palm of her hand as much as the music, which encompasses everything from "Tenderly" and "It's Delovely" to the obligatory "Come On-A My House" (done in a quotation of a little more than a minute's running time, all that is needed). Every nuance of her work is beguiling and seductive, and when she introduces
Buddy Cole -- who pulled all of the musical strings to make this tour work for
Clooney, and also supplied the bass voice for "This Ole House" (then a current hit in the U.K.) -- she's so gracious that you just want to hug her on behalf of every accompanist who ever went out on-stage. All of that said, it's beyond reason why Columbia Records -- which had
Clooney's contract at the time -- didn't release this live album intact. Ever. Philips gave it an airing with all 12 songs in England, but otherwise it's been one of the rarer items in
Clooney's LP discography for 50 years, and -- except for an abbreviated six-song Columbia 10" version titled
On Stage, released in 1956 -- has only been available on compact disc as part of Bear Family's
Memories of You eight-CD box.