Show / Love Story / Song For Y

This is a really good package of albums for anyone who loves a great voice singing great songs. Andy Williams could take well known numbers, and with the purity and range of his voice, transform them into something aesthetically memorable, moving well outside the limits of MOR and into something lasting in its richness and beauty. Notable songs where he does this on these albums are Joanne, Snowbird, Leaving On A Jet Plane, If, For All We Know, Someone Who Cares, If You Could Read My Mind, and The Last Time I Saw Her, all of his covers being far superior to the original versions. There are very few average songs on the first three of these albums, but the fourth album has always been a bit of a dud in Andy Williams' studio canon, raised a little above that here with the US inclusion of Home Lovin' Man.

You can only expect class from Andy Williams and you have got it from these four album's well worth the money.

Very bad audio and CD sound. Total unacceptable.

One of my old favourites

Great Artist

Great product

Continuing its welcome reissue of Andy’s Columbia albums, BGO Records devotes its latest double-disc set to four of the singer’s early Seventies albums. Long gone was Andy’s dip into The Great American Songbook and Broadway show songs for inspiration with only occasional current movie themes mixed in with mainly contemporaneous material tailored to fit his vocal skills as his recorded career entered the final phase of his Columbia Records tenure.THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW (1970) is not the “live” album it appears to be and despite the added applause, station breaks, musical bridge segments etc. and orchestral MOON RIVER closing theme., it’s easy to perceive the deception and realise the ten included songs were actually studio recorded. Having accepted as such, it’s easy to enjoy the singer’s versions of contemporary songs that were hits for others. The Carpenters hit THEY LONG TO BE CLOSE TO YOU, Anne Murray’s SNOWBIRD and others ideally reflect Andy’s easygoing vocal approach; and it’s likely HELLO YOUNG LOVERS and SPANISH HARLEM were out-takes from previous album sessions, with the new film theme WHAT ARE YOU DOING THE REST OF YOUR LIFE ? from THE HAPPY ENDING nowadays approaching standard status.The album title of the US release LOVE STORY (1971) strangely became HOME LOVIN’ MAN when released in the UK with merely the title numbers switched accordingly and the track listing remained identical. Herewith, BGO has chosen the alternative UK issue of LOVE STORY which apart from that film-theme title song contains an entirely different selection of previously unheard material and some “B” sides of singles. IF YOU COULD READ MY MIND, HE AIN’T HEAVY HE’S MY BROTHER etc. are among songs which were hits for others. WHISTLING AWAY IN THE DARK (from the film DARLING LILI) and the lovely ballad AUTUMN are also highlights.Another 1971 foray into covers, released in the USA as YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND written by Carole King was re-titled A SONG FOR YOU in the UK, with amended but otherwise identical album graphics, the songs include RAINY DAYS AND MONDAYS, IF and IT’S TOO LATE, FOR ALL WE KNOW and HERE COMES THAT RAINY FEELING AGAIN make this album very listenable.Gilbert O’Sullivan’s wistfully sad ALONE AGAIN (NATURALLY) was chosen as the title for Andy’s 1972 released album with its fine line-up of contemporaneous material which ranged from DAY BY DAY through THE FIRST TIME I EVER I SAW YOUR FACE, SONG SUNG BLUE, THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD, AMAZING GRACE and the dramatic leanings of the Bacharach/Hal David ballad written for the screen musical LOST HORIZON.As always, BGO Records provides excellent remastered sound and effusive liner notes and original album cover graphics concerning each album in the twenty-page booklet. Standard CD case with slip case adding to the de-luxe packaging

If you believed ‘The Andy Williams show’ (autumn 1970) contained live television performances, you’d be wrong. This fake concept was cobbled together from various studio sessions, and ‘canned’ applause was added later. The deceptive sleeve design reinforced the idea that this album was recorded live.The actual music on ‘The Andy Williams show’ is hard to fault. It captures the spirit of 1970 like lightning-in-a-bottle. ‘Spanish Harlem’ and ‘Hello young lovers’ (from a 1968 session) don’t quite belong in this context. The best moment is the 1967 hit ‘never my love’ (by the Association). The latter was covered by the Casuals (of ‘Jesamine’ fame). It is pleasing to hear the country-flavoured ‘Joanne’ from Michael Nesmith’s first solo LP.The UK version of ‘Love story’ (1971) consists of odds & ends, but mostly it works well. The earliest song ‘Autumn’ dates back to 1965! The most impressive track: ‘Whistling away the dark’ (Mancini/Mercer) was originally used as a non-album B side for ‘Home loving man’ in 1970.Other enjoyable moments include Linda Ronstadt’s ‘Long, long time’, Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘If you could read my mind’ and the album opener ‘Someone who cares’. ‘What am I living for?’ was originally a B side (coupled with ‘A woman’s way’). Andy’s cover of ‘He ain’t heavy (he’s my brother)’ faced stiff competition from the Hollies, the Osmonds and Neil Diamond.‘A song for you’ is based on the music scene of 1971 (the Carpenters, Carole King etc.). Andy’s outstanding version of ‘Rainy days & Mondays’ matches the quality of the Carpenters hit. The arrangement of Carole King’s ‘It’s too late’ is less successful (compared with the ‘Tapestry’ original or a 1982 take by Lesley Gore). The Jackson 5’s ‘I’ll be there’ is duplicated here (from ‘Love story’).The September 1972 release ‘Alone again (naturally)’ is new to me. It includes the hit title-song by Gilbert O’Sullivan. Andy wanted to record Gilbert’s composition ‘We will’, but he didn’t understand the lyric: “I bagsie being in goal!”The album features a version of ‘Day by day’ (from ‘Godspell’). To my mind, Cilla Black’s recording of the latter is hard to beat (as is ‘Aquarius’ and ‘I don’t know how to love him’). The 1972 success of Roberta Flack inspired Andy to cover ‘Where is the love?’ and ‘the first time ever I saw your face’.The lesser-known content includes ‘I need you’ by the folk-rock trio America, a Three dog night hit (Pieces of April) and an obscure Bacharach/David composition (If I could go back) from a panned 1973 movie. ‘Home loving man’ is repeated from the UK album of the same name.I already owned a 2002 ‘Collectables’ import of ‘The Andy Williams show’ / ‘A song for you’ (known as ‘You’ve got a friend’ in America). This BGO reissue (2018) offers improved sound quality and detailed, comprehensive sleeve-notes.

I love these old songs! He has such a great voice.

Good product

Drei dieser vier Alben von Andy Williams gibt bzw. gab es schon auf CD.Der Clou dieser Zusammenstellung ist das Album "Love story", diese UK-Version, die sich wirklich total von der US-Version unterscheidet,wurde hier zum ersten Mal überhaupt auf CD veröffentlicht. Ein Meisterstück, besser geht es nicht. Und das kann nun jeder für sich so interpretieren, wie er möchte, entweder auf das Album selbst bezogen oder auf BGO-records, die den Durchblick hatten und hier allen Andy Williams-Fans diese große Freude bereiteten.Das US-Album "Home lovin'man" (UK-Album "Love story")auf der tatsächlich "Love story" nicht enthalten ist, dafür eben "Home lovin' man" hat BGO records zusammen mit "Can't help falling in love" auf CD veröffentlicht. Außerdem gibt es eine weitere amerikanische CD- Ausgabe von "Love story", auf der nun "Home lovin'man" ersetzt wurde durch "Love story"....Stax&Stones vielen Dank für Ihren Hinweis!

Great memories from these 4 CD's, packaged well.

This was my Dad’s music that I grew up on. Nothing is more comforting and puts a smile on your face like Andy Williams. Delivery was timely.