The Shadow of Your Smile (Andy Williams album)

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The Shadow of Your Smile
Williams-Shadow-2.jpg
Studio album by
Andy Williams
ReleasedApril 1966
Recorded1966
Genre
Length34:18
Label Columbia
Producer Robert Mersey [2]
Andy Williams chronology
May Each Day
(1966)		The Shadow of Your Smile
(1966)		 In the Arms of Love
(1966)

The Shadow of Your Smile is the eighteenth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams, released in April 1966 by Columbia Records. [1] The album includes covers of "Michelle" and "Yesterday", the same pair of Beatles ballads that labelmate Johnny Mathis recorded for his 1966 album of the same name. For Williams these selections initiated a trend away from the traditional pop formula that his album output at Columbia up until this point had adhered to.

Contents

The release debuted on Billboard magazine's Top LP's chart in the issue dated May 14, 1966, remaining on the chart for 54 weeks and peaking at number six. [3] It debuted on the Cashbox albums chart in the issue dated May 7, 1966, and remained on the chart for 29 weeks, peaking at number nine. [4] It entered the UK charts in July and spent four weeks there, reaching number 27. [5] The album received a Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America on September 27, 1966. [6]

The single, "Bye Bye Blues", bubbled under Billboard's Hot 100, reaching number 127, [7] and got to number 18 on the magazine's Easy Listening chart. [8]

The album was released on compact disc as one of two albums on one CD by Collectables Records on March 23, 1999, along with Williams's 1965 Columbia album, Andy Williams' Dear Heart . [9] It was also released as one of two albums on one CD by Sony Music Distribution on December 28, 1999, paired this time with Williams's 1962 Columbia album, Warm and Willing . [10] The Shadow of Your Smile was included in a 2001 box set entitled Classic Album Collection, Vol. 1, which contained 17 of his studio albums and three compilations. [11]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [1]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [12]
Record Mirror Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [13]

William Ruhlmann of AllMusic wrote that this album "had a slower, more languorous feel than earlier Williams albums, and it had more vocal risk-taking." He described "notable changes in Williams' approach" that included the Beatles tracks and covers of two bossa nova songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim that "indicated that Williams was not content to simply turn out the same sort of album over and over, and that he was paying attention to the changes in popular music around him." [1]

Variety wrote that "Williams' way with a ballad is spotlighted on number like "Meditation", a bossa nova accompanied by guitarist-composer Antonio Carlos Jobim who's also present on "How Insenaitive". [14] Billboard magazine described the album as "well produced and well performed." [15] Record World referred to it as a "romantic package" [16] Cashbox described the album as "a wonderfully pleasing listening experience" noted he does an equally sweet job on recent tunes the likes of “Yesterday” and “Michelle" [17] Record Mirror described the album as "a nice late-night album." [13]

Track listing

Side one

  1. "The Shadow of Your Smile (Love Theme from The Sandpiper)" from The Sandpiper (Johnny Mandel, Paul Francis Webster) – 3:04
  2. "That Old Feeling" from Vogues of 1938 (Lew Brown, Sammy Fain) – 2:51
  3. "Meditation" with Antônio Carlos Jobim (Norman Gimbel, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Newton Mendonça) – 3:06
  4. "Try to Remember" from The Fantasticks (Tom Jones, Harvey Schmidt) – 2:55
  5. "Michelle" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 3:25
  6. "Somewhere" from West Side Story (Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim) – 3:00

Side two

  1. "The Summer of Our Love" (Marty Paich, Paul Francis Webster) – 2:38
  2. "Peg O' My Heart" from Ziegfeld Follies (Alfred Bryan, Fred Fisher) – 2:24
  3. "How Insensitive " with Antonio Carlos Jobim (Vinícius de Moraes, Norman Gimbel, Antonio Carlos Jobim) – 2:40
  4. "Yesterday" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 2:50
  5. "Bye Bye Blues" (David Bennett; Chauncey Gray, Frederick Hamm, Bert Lown) – 2:43
  6. "A Taste of Honey" (Ric Marlow, Bobby Scott) – 2:47

Charts

Chart (1966)Peak

position

US Top LPs (Billboard) [3] 6
US Cashbox [4] 9
UK Albums Chart [5] 27

Grammy nominations

This album brought the sixth and final Grammy nomination that Williams received over the course of his career, this time in the category for Best Vocal Performance, Male. This nomination did not focus on the performance of a particular song but rather Williams's performance of the album as a whole. The winner was Frank Sinatra for the single "Strangers in the Night", a song that Williams went on to record for his 1967 album Born Free . [18]

Personnel

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

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Andy Williams – The Shadow of Your Smile". AllMusic. Retrieved August 24, 2010.
  2. 1 2 (1966) The Shadow of Your Smile by Andy Williams [album jacket]. New York: Columbia Records CS 9299.
  3. 1 2 Whitburn 2010 , p. 844.
  4. 1 2 Hoffmann, Frank W (1988). The Cash box album charts, 1955-1974. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press. p. 406. ISBN   0-8108-2005-6.
  5. 1 2 "Andy Williams". Official Charts. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Gold & Platinum". riaa.com. Retrieved March 27, 2017. Type Andy Williams in the Search box and press Enter.
  7. ↑ Whitburn 2009 , p. 866
  8. ↑ Whitburn 1993 , p. 256.
  9. ↑ "Dear Heart/The Shadow of Your Smile". AllMusic. Retrieved August 18, 2010.
  10. ↑ "Warm and Willing/The Shadow of Your Smile". AllMusic. Retrieved September 6, 2010.
  11. ↑ "Andy Williams – Classic Album Collection, Vol. 1". AllMusic. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
  12. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. p. 1498. ISBN   9781846098567 . Retrieved August 22, 2024.
  13. 1 2 Jones, Peter; Jopling, Norman (August 6, 1966). "new albums reviewed by Norman Joplin and Peter Jones new albums reviewed by Norman Joplin, Chris Montez's new album makes him sound likea male of Astrud Gilberto" (PDF). New Record Mirror . No. 282. p. 8. Retrieved September 29, 2024.
  14. ↑ "Variety Album Reviews: Andy Williams, Kate Smith's Anni, Chas. Singers, Peggy Lee, Gentrys, Welk-Hodges, Patti Labelle Top LPs". Variety . Vol. 242, no. 10. April 27, 1966. p. 56.
  15. ↑ "Album Reviews". Billboard . May 7, 1966. p. 72.
  16. ↑ "Album Reviews: Albums Picks of The Week" (PDF). Record World . Vol. 22, no. 1065. April 30, 1966. p. 1. Retrieved September 5, 2025.
  17. ↑ "Cashbox Album Pop Picks Reviews: The Shadow Of Your Smile". Cash Box . Vol. 27, no. 39. April 30, 1966. p. 48.
  18. ↑ O'Neil 1999 , p. 117.

Bibliography

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