ANDY WILLIAMS: "Two Time Winners"

Original released on LP Cadence CLP-3026 (mono)

(US, 1960)

In February 1959, Andy Williams reached the Top Ten with his revival of the 1926 copyright "The Hawaiian Wedding Song," and it inspired the concept behind this album. The title of "Two Time Winners" refers to songs that have been successful twice. The idea allowed Williams and Cadence Records head Archie Bleyer (here doubling as orchestra conductor) to include Williams' covers of some recent hits, among them "Sail Along Silv'ry Moon" (Top Five for Billy Vaughn, 1957, and for Bing Crosby, 1937), "Twilight Time" (number one for the Platters, 1958, and Top 20 for the Three Suns, 1944), "So Rare" (Top Five for Jimmy Dorsey, 1957, and for Gus Arnheim, 1937), "Blueberry Hill" (Top Five for Fats Domino, 1957, and number one for Glenn Miller, 1940), "Love Letters in the Sand" (number one for Pat Boone, 1957, and Top Ten for Ted Black, 1931), "My Happiness" (Top Five for Connie Francis, 1959, and for Jon & Sandra Steele, 1948), and "Near You" (Top Ten for Roger Williams, 1958, and number one for Francis Craig, 1947). But not all of the 12 tracks fit the concept exactly, and there was evidence that Williams and Bleyer may have started out to do an album of Hawaiian music before changing gears. The only person to score a hit with "Blue Hawaii" had been Bing Crosby in 1937 (though Elvis Presley would revive it a couple of years after this album was recorded). Crosby alone had also been responsible for another Hawaiian hit, "Sweet Leilani," though one could perhaps stretch a point and say it was a "two time winner" in the sense that it was both a chart success and an Academy Award Best Song recipient. Anyway, Williams continued to prove himself an effective and versatile singer capable of bringing off such lightly rocking or exotic revivals. (William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)

ANDY WILLIAMS - "Born Free"

Original released on LP Columbia CS 9480

(US 1967, April 10)

For the sixth year in a row, Andy Williams greeted the spring with a new album keyed to the Academy Award Best Song nominations, and his audience rewarded him yet again with a Top Ten placing and a gold record. For the fifth time in six years, the album was titled after the Oscar winner (the only exception being 1965, when he bet on "Dear Heart" instead of "Chim Chim Cheree") and also featured other movie songs, in this case "Somewhere, My Love" from Dr. Zhivago, "Strangers in the Night" from A Man Could Get Killed, "I Will Wait for You" from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and "Alfie." And, as usual, Williams took for his own songs popularized by his fellow male pop singers, Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" and Al Martino's "Spanish Eyes." But "Born Free" marked a notable contemporization of the Williams formula. On his most recent albums, "The Shadow of Your Smile" and "In the Arms of Love", he had leaned toward Brazilian sounds, recording more obscure material and several standards from the interwar period. "In the Arms of Love", released only four months before "Born Free", had sold disappointingly. Williams reacted by dropping the bossa nova and the oldies and looked more to the recent pop charts for covers like Bobby Hebb's "Sunny." He even recorded "I Want to Be Free" (aka "I Wanna Be Free") from the Monkees' first album. And he scored a Top 40 hit with a pop/rock arrangement of "Music to Watch Girls By," the tune that originated on a Diet Pepsi commercial and had been an instrumental hit for the Bob Crewe Generation. At a time when non-rock pop singers were beginning to be marginalized, Williams successfully threaded the needle, reassuring his older listeners while proving adaptable to current trends. (William Ruhlmann in AllMusic) 

Andy Williams Goes To The Movies

Original released on LP Columbia 

CL 1809 (mono) / CS 8609 (stereo)

(US, 1962)

The singles chart hit versions of composer Henry Mancini and lyricist Johnny Mercer's "Moon River," the theme song for the film "Breakfast at Tiffany's", were by Jerry Butler and by Mancini himself. But Andy Williams made his own claim to the song by using it as the title to this LP of movie themes, which, not coincidentally, was released in the week before Williams was scheduled to sing "Moon River" at the 1962 Academy Awards ceremony. He does a masterful version with the song, and also does well with the rest of the songs, which include some recent fare ("Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing," "A Summer Place," "The Exodus Song," "The Second Time Around"), but also old favorites like "As Time Goes By." "Maria" and "Tonight" are the big ballads from "West Side Story", which began life as a Broadway musical before it went on to be the big movie hit of 1961, justifying the use of the music here. Williams has fun with "Never on Sunday," even including the Greek lyrics. The LP, a highlight in the singer's career, makes a case that the early '60s constituted a renaissance period for movie themes. (Spurred on by Williams' 1962 Oscar Night performance of "Moon River" and its victory in the Best Song category, "Moon River & Other Great Movie Themes" went on to spend 176 weeks in the Billboard LPs chart, peaking at number three and going gold. Notwithstanding the earlier hit single versions by others, "Moon River" became Williams' signature song for the rest of his career.) (William Ruhkmann in AllMusic)

ANDY WILLIAMS' "Dear Heart"

Original released on LP Columbia 
CL 2338 (mono) / CS 9138 (stereo)

(US, 1965)

By 1965, a spring Andy Williams ballad album keyed to movie theme songs had become a 1960s tradition, and "Dear Heart" was the fourth in the series. Like its predecessors, "Moon River & Other Great Movie Themes" (1962), "Days of Wine and Roses" (1963), and The Academy Award Winning "Call Me Irresponsible" (1964), it featured the latest Henry Mancini movie song, in this case "Dear Heart," which had already become a Top 40 pop and Top Five easy listening hit for the singer. There were also other movie themes: "Almost There," from "I'd Rather Be Rich", another previous chart entry; "I'm All Smiles" from "The Yearling"; and "Emily" from "The Americanization of Emily". Most of the other selections were Williams' covers of songs that had been hits recently for other male pop singers: "Red Roses for a Blue Lady" (Vic Dana); "Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me" (Tony Bennett); and "You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You" and "Everybody Loves Somebody" (Dean Martin). The album was filled out by a few choice oldies: "It Had to Be You"; "I Can't Stop Loving You"; "Till." (There was also a performance of an early Kenny Rankin song, "My Carousel.") Williams applied his usual warm, smooth vocal style to all the songs, with string-filled arrangements that emphasized the melodies; not for him was the bluesy approach of Ray Charles on "I Can't Stop Loving You" or the '50s rock & roll rhythm of Dean Martin's "Everybody Loves Somebody." The album was a well-assembled collection of contemporary material in what had become Williams' patented style. It became his fifth consecutive gold-selling Top Ten LP. (William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)

ANDY WILLIAMS - "Lonely Street"

Original released on LP Cadence CLP 3030 (mono)

(US 1959, November 30)