| Come On-a My House | |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Rosemary Clooney |
| B-Side: | "Rose of the Mountain"[1] |
| Released: | 1951 |
| Recorded: | [2] |
| Genre: |
|
| Length: | 2:02 |
| Label: | Columbia |
| Producer: | Mitch Miller |
| Prev Title: | The Lady Is a Tramp |
| Prev Year: | 1951 |
| Next Title: | Find Me |
| Next Year: | 1951 |
"Come On-a My House" is a song written by Ross Bagdasarian and William Saroyan and originally released by Rosemary Clooney in 1951. Cousins Bagdasarian, a songwriter, and Saroyan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, wrote the song while driving across New Mexico in the summer of 1939. The melody is based on an Armenian folk song, and the lyrics reference traditional Armenian customs of hospitality.
The song was first performed during a 1950 off-Broadway production of The Son, and did not become a hit until the release of Clooney's recording. It is Saroyan's only known effort at popular songwriting and one of Bagdasarian's few successes from prior to his adopting the stage name David Seville, under which he found success with the song "Witch Doctor" and as the creator of Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Clooney's version of the song was the first of a number of dialect songs she did. She recorded it in early 1951 with Mitch Miller leading an ensemble of four musicians including harpsichordist Stan Freeman. The single reached number one on the Billboard charts for six weeks.
Clooney also sang the song in the 1953 film The Stars Are Singing.
Although she performed "Come On-a My House" for many years, Clooney later confessed that she hated the song and only recorded it because Miller said that she would be fired if she did not. In a 1988 interview, Clooney said that she could hear anger in her voice from being forced to sing the song.[4] [5]
In 1974, Sparks titled their third album Kimono My House as a pun on the song's title.
The 1978 M*A*S*H episode "Major Topper" features "Boot" Miller (Hamilton Camp) singing the song.[8]