Come On-a My House  "Come on-a My House" is a song performed by Rosemary Clooney and originally released in 1951. It was written by Ross Bagdasarian and his cousin, Armenian American Pulitzer Prize winning author William Saroyan, while driving across New Mexico in the summer of 1939. The melody is based on an Armenian folk song. The lyrics reference traditional Armenian customs of inviting over relatives and friends and providing them with a generously overflowing table of fruits, nuts, seeds, and other foods. It was not performed until the 1950 off-Broadway production of "The Son". The song did not become a hit until the release of Clooney's recording. It was probably Saroyan's only effort at popular songwriting, and it was one of Bagdasarian's few well-known works that was not connected to his best-known creation, Alvin and the Chipmunks. Bagdasarian, as David Seville, went on to much fame with his Chipmunks recordings. The song was first performed during 1950 in an off-Broadway production of "The Son", but did not become a hit until the release of Clooney's recording. A major hit for Clooney in 1951, it was the first of a number of dialect songs she did. She recorded it in the early part of 1951, with Mitch Miller leading an ensemble of four musicians, including harpsichordist Stan Freeman. It reached #1 on the "Billboard" charts, staying in the top position for six weeks. Clooney sang the song in the 1953 film "The Stars Are Singing", in a scene where she ended up mocking it, remarking that no one would listen to it. Although she performed "Come on-a My House" for many years, Clooney later confessed that she hated the song. She said she had been given a practice record of it and had told Miller it wasn't for her. Miller gave her an ultimatum: record the song or be fired. During a 1988 interview, Clooney said that whenever she listened to the recording she could hear the anger in her voice from being forced to sing it. The song was covered by Ella Fitzgerald, as one side of a single whose other side was also a cover of a Clooney hit, "Mixed Emotions," on Decca Records (catalog number 27875). Louis Prima covered it (with an Italian spin) alongside Keely Smith on "Sing Loud", released in 1960 by Coronet Records.