1954 Rosemary Clooney: This Ole House

'This Ole House' was written by Stuart Hamblen after he allegedly stumbled across a shotgun shack in the mountains that had the owner lying dead among the ruins. Hence: "This ole house is gettin' feeble, this old house is needin' paint. Just like me it's tuckered out, but I'm a-gettin' ready to meet the saints". Morbid stuff maybe, but I've never heard a downbeat version of this and Clooney's own take is a pop/rockabilly crossover with fuel injection. Clooney herself is pushed to the fore and roars along with gusto, but she never manages to sound like she's really enjoying herself; there's a hesitancy here that implies a desire to give the lyric a greater respect than reducing it to the sound of a barn dance. The interjection of a male bass vocal on the 'Ain't gonna need this house no longer' is good value, but Clooney's ultimate starchiness stops the party getting out of hand and there's not half as much fun as Shakin' Stevens would come to wring out of it.