The Great Songs from "My Fair Lady" and Other Broadway Hits

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The Great Songs from "My Fair Lady" and Other Broadway Hits
Williams-Lady 2.jpg
Studio album by
Released1964
Recorded1964
Genre
Length33:37
Label Columbia
Producer Robert Mersey [2]
Andy Williams chronology
The Academy Award-Winning "Call Me Irresponsible" and Other Hit Songs from the Movies
(1964)
The Great Songs from "My Fair Lady" and Other Broadway Hits
(1964)
Andy Williams' Dear Heart
(1965)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [1]
Billboard Spotlight Pick [3]

The Great Songs from "My Fair Lady" and Other Broadway Hits is the fifteenth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams and was released in September 1964 by Columbia Records, [3] one month before the premiere of the film version of My Fair Lady starring Audrey Hepburn. [4]

Contents

The album made its first appearance on Billboard magazine's Top LP's chart in the issue dated September 26 of that year and remained on the album chart for 33 weeks, peaking at number five. [5] The album received Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America on September 17, 1965. [6]

The single from the album, "On the Street Where You Live", debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 in the issue of the magazine dated September 12, 1964, eventually reaching number 28 during its eight-week stay. [7] The song performed even better on the magazine's Easy Listening (or Adult Contemporary) chart, reaching number three during its eight weeks there. [8]

The album was released on compact disc for the first time as one of two albums on one CD by Collectables Records on March 23, 1999, the other album being Williams's Columbia album from the spring of 1964, The Academy Award-Winning "Call Me Irresponsible" and Other Hit Songs from the Movies . [9] This same pairing was also released as two albums on one CD by Sony Music Distribution in 2000. [10] The Collectables CD was included in a box set entitled Classic Album Collection, Vol. 1, which contains 17 of his studio albums and three compilations and was released on June 26, 2001. [11]

Reception

Billboard magazine wrote, "A sure-fire winner results from the combination of Andy Williams and selections from My Fair Lady during the season when the Warner Bros. film treatment of the Broadway hit musical will go into national release. This is further buttressed with a half dozen top tunes from other Broadway shows." [3]

Track listing

Side one

Songs from My Fair Lady:

  1. "On the Street Where You Live" (Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe) – 3:12
  2. "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" (Lerner, Loewe) – 3:07
  3. "I Could Have Danced All Night" (Lerner, Loewe) – 2:18
  4. "Get Me to the Church on Time" (Lerner, Loewe) – 1:58
  5. "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" (Lerner, Loewe) – 2:30
  6. "Show Me" (Lerner, Loewe) – 2:02

Side two

  1. "Hello, Dolly!" from Hello, Dolly! (Jerry Herman) – 2:58
  2. "Where or When" from Babes in Arms (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) – 2:35
  3. "Begin the Beguine" from Jubilee (Cole Porter) – 3:15
  4. "Once Upon a Time" from All American (Lee Adams, Charles Strouse) – 3:30
  5. "People" from Funny Girl (Bob Merrill, Jule Styne) – 3:32
  6. "The Sweetest Sounds" from No Strings (Richard Rodgers) – 2:44

Song information

"Begin the Beguine" had its most successful chart performance as an instrumental recording by Artie Shaw & His Orchestra that spent six weeks at number one in 1938, sold one million copies, and returned to the charts in 1942, peaking at number 20. [12] "Where or When" had two separate trips to the top five: Hal Kemp & His Orchestra spent a week with the song at number one that same year with Bob Allen on vocal, [13] and Dion and the Belmonts took the song to number three in 1960. [14]

The biggest chart success for "On the Street Where You Live" was the recording by Vic Damone that reached number four that same year. [15] Louis Armstrong's recording of the title song from the 1964 musical Hello, Dolly! spent a week at number one on the pop chart [16] and nine weeks as the number one Easy Listening recording in the U.S. [17] The song also earned Armstrong the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Male, [18] while songwriter Jerry Herman received the Song of the Year Grammy. [19] Barbra Streisand's single of "People" gave her a number five hit on the Billboard Hot 100, [20] three weeks at number one on the Easy Listening chart, [21] and the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Female. [18]

Personnel

From the liner notes for the original album: [2]

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References

  1. 1 2 "The Great Songs From "My Fair Lady" & Other Broadway Hits". allmusic.com. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 16 August 2010.
  2. 1 2 (1964) The Great Songs from "My Fair Lady" and Other Broadway Hits by Andy Williams [album jacket]. New York: Columbia Records CS 9005.
  3. 1 2 3 "Album Reviews". Billboard . 1964-09-19. p. 48.
  4. "My Fair Lady (1964) – Release Info". imdb.com. Amazon.com. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  5. Whitburn 1985 , p. 405.
  6. "Gold & Platinum". riaa.com. Retrieved 27 March 2017. Type Andy Williams in the Search box and press Enter.
  7. Whitburn 1999 , p. 702.
  8. Whitburn 1993 , p. 256.
  9. "Call Me Irresponsible/My Fair Lady". allmusic.com. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
  10. (2000) Album notes for Call Me Irresponsible/My Fair Lady by Andy Williams, [CD booklet]. New York: Sony Music.
  11. "Classic Album Collection, Vol. 1 - Andy Williams". allmusic.com. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  12. Whitburn 1986 , pp. 383–384.
  13. Whitburn 1986 , pp. 253–254.
  14. Whitburn 1999 , p. 178.
  15. Whitburn 1999 , p. 157.
  16. Whitburn 1999 , p. 21.
  17. Whitburn 1993 , p. 18.
  18. 1 2 O'Neil 1999 , p. 91.
  19. O'Neil 1999 , p. 90.
  20. Whitburn 1999 , p. 626.
  21. Whitburn 1993 , p. 231.

Bibliography