It's been almost 60 years since Rosemary Clooney first sang into a microphone at the WLW studios in downtown Cincinnati. She's made a boat-load of records since, and all of them remain in print on dozens of releases.

        For the truly fanatical, Germany's encyclopedic Bear Family Records has three boxed sets of her music — in all, 22 CDs of round-the-clock Rosie.

        Here, looking over her incredible body of work, is my single disc's worth of her best.

        1. “Half as Much,” her 1952 No. 1 cover of Hank Williams' earlier hit remains a silvery blend of country and pop ballad singing.

        2. “Mambo Italiano” — The best of her novelty hits, sung with real gusto and a sense of fun.

        3. “Blue Rose” — The title song of her 1956 LP with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, it features this master of the lyric wordlessly conveying the feeling of the music. A magical performance.

        4. “You Took Advantage of Me” — Recorded with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, great singing, great arranging, great band.

        5. “Someone to Watch Over Me” — Delicately yearning, this superb vocal performance comes from a Clooney-Riddle collaboration recorded late in their love affair. But even without subtext, it shimmers.

        6. “I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry” — Ms. Clooney and Hank Williams made a great team. Here, she sings one of his most beautiful ballads for RCA in the early '60s, gorgeous music that, unfortunately, was out of fashion at the time.

        7. “I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good” — One of her best torch performances (written by Duke Ellington), recorded for her Grammy-nominated tribute to her former lover and longtime collaborator, Dedicated to Nelson.

        8. “You're in Kentucky” — The Maysville girl gets down-home, literally and figuratively, from Dedicated to Nelson.

        9. “When October Goes” — A beautifully mature performance, ripe with regret, from her Johnny Mercer collection on Concord Jazz.

        10. “How Deep is the Ocean” — From her Still on the Road CD, simply another great version of a great song.

        11. “Taking a Chance on Love” — Hope springs eternal, as Ms., Clooney swings with the silvery cornet of Warren Vache, from her Showtunes CD.

        12. “These Foolish Things Remind Me of You” — A song of longing and loneliness from a different wartime, from her For the Duration tribute to the music of World War II.

        13. “I've Got a Crush On You” — At once girlish and womanly, coyly sexy, from her Everything's Coming Up Rosie comeback album.

        14. “I'm Beginning to See the Light” — Effortless swing, backed by the Woody Herman Orchestra.

        15. “White Christmas” — Recorded for 1995's Demi-Centennial, this is the classic, mature Rosemary Clooney, one of the finest examples of her artistry on record: true to the melody, faithful to the lyric, but the added poignancy of her own deeply felt emotions transforms this into something far more than a Yuletide evergreen.

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