Search - Andy Williams :: Collector's Edition

Not Bad ... But There Are Better Options

10/02/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When I saw that this 2-CD set had no reviews, despite being on the market since 2000, I figured many came to the volume, saw Madacy as the distributor (notorious for cheap re-makes), and simply moved on. Adding to the negativity, there are neither liner notes nor discography, but on the plus side the selections are all original renditions and the sound quality is excellent.



As for the contents, you get 16 of his 17 Cadence hit singles, with the only omission being 1960's Do You Mind? - a minor # 70 Billboard Pop Hot 100 entry that summer from the British film Let's Get Married. You also get two B-sides to those hits. Since I've Found My Baby backed Baby Doll, the title song from the 1956 film which reached # 33 Billboard Pop Top 100 that December and in early 1957, while the Hank Williams tune I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry was the flip of The Village Of St. Bernadette, # 7 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in late 1959/early 1960 (note that the Top 100 became the Hot 100 sometime in late 1958).



The other hits here are: Walk Hand In Hand (# 54 Top 100 in spring 1956 and his first hit); Canadian Sunset (# 7 Top 100 in late summer 1956); Butterfly (# 1 - for 3 weeks - Top 100/#@ 14 R&B in early spring 1957); I Like Your Kind Of Love (# 8 Top 100 in early summer 1957 with Peggy Powers providing the female voice); Lips Of Wine (# 17 Top 100 in fall 1957); Are You Sincere? (# 3 Top 100 in early spring 1948); Promise Me, Love (# 17 Hot 100 in late summer 1958); The Hawaiian Wedding Song (# 11 Hot 100/# 27 R&B early in 1959); Lonely Street (# 5 Hot 100/# 20 R&B in fall 1959); Wake Me When It's Over (# 50 Hot 100 in spring 1960 from the film of the same name); You Don't Want My Love (# 64 Hot 100 in December 1960/January 1961 - some pressings showed it as In The Summertime [You Don't Want My Love]); The Bilbao Song (# 37 Hot 100 in late spring 1961); and Twilight Time (# 86 in December 1962 and released by Cadence a year into his Columbia contract). All of his Cadence hits were backed by Archie Bleyer & His Orchestra.



It's interesting to note that, not only did Andy Williams successfully withstand the British Invasion of 1964 by getting his share of chart time, he also did something most of them, including The Beatles, could never do, and that's have a R&B cross-over, in his case four, the three mentioned above and one from his Columbia years (Can't Get Used To Losing You). Not too shabby."