The Wonderful World of Andy Williams | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1964 | |||
Recorded | January 13, 1963 November 1, 7, 27, 1963 December 3, 1963 [1] | |||
Genre |
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Length | 33:31 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Producer | Robert Mersey [3] | |||
Andy Williams chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [2] |
Record Mirror | [4] |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [5] |
The Wonderful World of Andy Williams is the thirteenth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams and was released by Columbia Records to coincide with the December 31, 1963, broadcast of The Andy Williams Show . [6] Various tracks were recorded with members of his family, including The Williams Brothers, who joined him for a remake of his first top 10 hit, "Canadian Sunset", from 1956. [7]
The album made its first appearance on Billboard magazine's Top LPs chart in the issue dated January 25 of that year and remained there for 24 weeks, peaking at number nine. [8] it also debuted on the Cashbox albums chart in the issue dated January 25, of that year, and remained on the chart for 37 weeks, peaking at number 8 [9] It received Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America on August 17, 1964. [10]
The single from the album, "A Fool Never Learns," made its debut on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on January 11, 1964, eventually reaching number 13 during its 10-week stay. [7] It performed even better on the Easy Listening chart, peaking at number four. [11]
The album was released on compact disc for the first time as one of two albums on one CD by Collectables Records on January 22, 2002, the other album being Williams's Columbia album from February 1962, Danny Boy and Other Songs I Love to Sing . [12] Collectables included this CD in a box set entitled Classic Album Collection, Vol. 2, which contains 15 of his studio albums and two compilations and was released on November 29, 2002. [13]
William Ruhlmann of AllMusic said that the album "consisted of familiar ballads, dating back to the 1940s for Johnny Mercer's "Dream" (another choral performance not unlike the Pied Pipers' hit version) and coming up to the present for Williams versions of hits like Tony Bennett's "This Is All I Ask" and Jack Jones' "Wives and Lovers." "Softly, As I Leave You" was a good piece of material" [2]
Cashbox notes "Williams family, the songster gives top-notch readings of such lyrical goodies as "Canadian Sunset," "Wives And Lovers" and "Pennies From Heaven", [14] calling the album "First-rate listening enjoyment" [14]
Record Mirror gave the album a postive review "saying it "features a collection of very differently styled favourite" [4]
From the liner notes for the 2002 Collectables CD: [1]
From the liner notes for the original album: [3]
Lonely Street is the fifth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams, released in late 1959 through Cadence Records. This, his fifth LP of new material for the label, is described by William Ruhlmann on AllMusic.com as "an album full of songs of lost love and loneliness that found Williams using more of the Mel Tormé-like foggy lower register of his voice." The liner notes on the back of the album jacket read, "The selections in Lonely Street, Andy confides, are those for which he feels a special affection. Every vocalist has a few personal favorites... and it is quite clear to the listener that this collection presents songs which Andy Williams believes, feels -- and loves."
Andy Williams Sings Rodgers and Hammerstein is the second studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams and was orchestrated and conducted by Alvy West. It was released in February 1958 by Cadence Records and focuses upon songs composed by Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.
Danny Boy and Other Songs I Love to Sing is the eighth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams. It was released in early 1962 by Columbia Records. This was his first project after leaving Cadence Records, where his albums each had a specific theme. Additionally, it was his first in a series of LPs that covered songs established on stage, screen, and other hits from the pop chart and the Great American Songbook. This trend would not be interrupted until his 1966 album, The Shadow of Your Smile, hinted at a shift toward contemporary material with its inclusion of songs first recorded by the Beatles.
Warm and Willing is the tenth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams and was released in 1962 by Columbia Records. Allmusic's William Ruhlmann explained that Williams and producer Robert Mersey "followed the Sinatra concept-album formula of creating a consistent mood, in this case a romantic one, and picking material mostly from the Great American Songbook of compositions written for Broadway musicals in the 1920s and '30s by the likes of George and Ira Gershwin, then giving them slow, string-filled arrangements over which Williams could croon in his breathy, intimate tenor voice."
Days of Wine and Roses and Other TV Requests is the eleventh studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams and was released in April 1963 by Columbia Records following his first season as host of his variety series, The Andy Williams Show. The LP has a studio recording of the closing theme from the show, "May Each Day", and continues the format of his previous Columbia releases by including songs from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.
The Academy Award-Winning "Call Me Irresponsible" and Other Hit Songs from the Movies is the fourteenth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams and was released in the spring of 1964 by Columbia Records. Williams had already had great success with his albums named after Henry Mancini's Oscar winners from 1961 and 1962, "Moon River" and "Days of Wine and Roses", and was asked to sing Mancini and Johnny Mercer's title song collaboration from the 1963 film Charade at the Academy Awards on April 13, 1964, after it was nominated for Best Original Song, but the winner that year was the other song that Williams performed at the ceremony, "Call Me Irresponsible".
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, one month before the premiere of the film version of My Fair Lady starring Audrey Hepburn.
Andy Williams' Dear Heart is the sixteenth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams and was released in the spring of 1965 by Columbia Records and was the last of his Columbia releases that remained exclusively within the realm of traditional pop. After covering two Beatles hits on his next non-holiday studio album, The Shadow of Your Smile, he would try out samba music on In the Arms of Love, aim for a much younger crowd with "Music to Watch Girls By" on Born Free, and focus more on contemporary material on subsequent albums.
The Shadow of Your Smile is the eighteenth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams and was released in April 1966 by Columbia Records and included 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.
In the Arms of Love is the nineteenth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams and was released on December 19, 1966, by Columbia Records and was the last of twelve consecutive Williams studio LPs produced by Robert Mersey.
Born Free is the twentieth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams and was released on April 10, 1967, by Columbia Records and includes half a dozen songs associated with movies or musicals. Two of these tracks, however, originated in the scores of the films indicated on the album jacket but had lyrics added later: the melody for "Strangers in the Night" was written for A Man Could Get Killed, and "Somewhere My Love" began as "Lara's Theme" from Doctor Zhivago.
Love, Andy is the twenty-first studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams, released on October 16, 1967, by Columbia Records to coincide with the NBC special of the same name, which aired on November 6. The LP had a mix of covers of old and recent hits that included two songs from the 1940s that also had chart success in 1966 via Chris Montez: "The More I See You" and "There Will Never Be Another You".
The Andy Williams Show is the twenty-sixth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams that was released in the fall of 1970 by Columbia Records. In his review on AllMusic.com, William Ruhlmann writes that "The Andy Williams Show LP was not a soundtrack recording from the TV series, and it was not really a live album, although it gets categorized as such. What appears to be the case is that Columbia Records took a group of Williams' studio recordings, most of them made during the summer of 1970 and consisting of his versions of recent soft rock hits, and added a lot of canned applause along with some of the kind of musical interludes used to usher numbers on and off on the show, including bits of its "Moon River" theme music at the start and the finish."
Love Story is the twenty-seventh studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams that was released on February 3, 1971, by Columbia Records. This was another in his series of cover albums, but the title track, subtitled "Where Do I Begin", was the one song included that he originated.
The Way We Were is the thirty-second studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams, released in the spring of 1974 by Columbia Records and was a return to singing songs that his audience was already familiar with after Solitaire, his previous LP that was less reliant on covers of recent pop hits, did not perform well.
Two Time Winners is the third studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams and was released in the spring of 1959 by Cadence Records. This, his third LP for the label, is composed of songs that had been successful on two previous occasions or in two different ways.
Andy Williams' Best is a compilation album by American pop singer Andy Williams that was released late in 1961 by Cadence Records. This second album to compile the singer's material features 10 songs that made the Billboard Hot 100 along with two of their corresponding B-sides.
Million Seller Songs is a compilation album by American pop singer Andy Williams that was released in the fall of 1962 by Cadence Records. This third album to compile the singer's material features some of the most successful songs Williams had recorded to date.
Canadian Sunset is a compilation album by American pop singer Andy Williams that was released in the spring of 1965 by Columbia Records. The cover bears the phrase "formerly titled Andy Williams' Best" underneath the title, suggesting that the same songs can be found here that were on that 1961 release by Cadence Records, but his number one hit "Butterfly" and its top 10 follow-up "I Like Your Kind of Love" that were included on the Cadence album were replaced on this release with the B-sides of two of the other songs here.
Andy Williams' Newest Hits is a compilation album by American pop singer Andy Williams that was released early in 1966 by Columbia Records and was the first LP to compile the singer's Columbia material. Seven of the 12 tracks had reached the charts in Billboard magazine, and another had been released as a single in the UK. Three album cuts were also included along with a recent B-side.