Rating:
Genre:
Vocal Music
Release Date: 09/12/2000
Collectables Records' two-fer reissue of the
Andy Williams albums
Andy Williams' Best (1962) and
Under Paris Skies (1961) presents the best of the singer's early years in two different senses.
Andy Williams' Best was
Cadence Records'
Williams greatest-hits LP, assembled from his biggest hit singles and recent singles releases after he departed for major label
Columbia Records in 1961. It contains all seven of the Top Ten hits he scored on
Cadence, 1956-1960, a stylistic mixture that includes lightly rocking numbers like
"Butterfly" and
"I Like Your Kind of Love" as well as the religious number
"The Village of St. Bernadette" and the Hawaiian standard
"The Hawaiian Wedding Song." The remaining five tracks consist of
Williams' last three
Cadence singles and two of their B-sides, none of them big hits, while some modest hits are missing, but this is still a good survey of
Andy Williams the 1950s singles artist. By the end of his tenure at
Cadence,
Williams had evolved into an album-oriented balladeer, and
Under Paris Skies, a concept album of French and French-oriented songs actually recorded in Paris, was his best
Cadence release.
Quincy Jones handled the baton at the sessions (which are amusingly described in
Nat Hentoff's liner notes), giving the music a
jazzy feel.
Williams is no
jazz singer, but he had done his homework on his interpretations and even his French accent (though most of the album is in English). The only thing wrong with pairing these two records on one CD is that there is such a leap from the reluctant
rockabilly of
"I Like Your Kind of Love" to the Gallic sophistication of
"La Valse Des Lilas." Just think of it as two separate albums that together give you the best of the early
Andy Williams, and it will be fine.
~William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
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