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Biography
(1) Rose Murphy (May 7, 1913, Xenia, Ohio, USA – November 16, 1989, New York City, USA.) was a pianist and vocalist most famous for the song 'Busy Line'.
Rose Murphy was known as “the chee chee girl” thanks to her habit of regularly singing the phrase “chee chee” in many of her numbers. She began her musical career in the late 1930’s, playing intermission piano for such performers as Count Basie, and achieved strong popularity in both the US and UK in the late 1940’s. Despite being a very talented pianist, she is best known for her high pitched singing style, which incorporated a range of jazz style ad lib scat, giggling, and percussive sound effects. ‘Busy Line’, one of her most well known songs, made use of perhaps her most famous vocal sound effect: the ‘brrp, brrrp’ of a telephone ring. A version of the song was later used in 1990 by BT (British Telecom) in one of their television adverts. The advert was such a success that RCA reissued Rose’s original recording of the song.
