A friend’s thoughts on the passing of Andy Williams:
Andy Williams is gone and who out there under 65 gives a scratch. Well for some unknown reason to me, I do. He was everything that is nauseating about music. The clothes, the covers of whatever was the big song of the day, the whole Branson, Missouri thing that I’m pretty sure he created. But I can’t help myself every time I hear the guy sing but to stop and listen. I could never help myself every time I saw one if his records lying in the dollar bin. Now as a result I have 30 or so Andy Williams records and an embarrassing knowledge of what’s on them. And finally, truth be told, if I had to choose my favorite song I’ve ever heard, after not going a day since I was 5 without sitting by a stereo for at least an hour, I’d choose A Time for Us. Thanks Andy. I’d say see you in hell but you just spent the last 30 years doing 2 shows a night in Branson.
“A Time For Us”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1aPEL__96U&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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In my opinion you have nothing to apologize for or be embarrassed about. I think it’s a good sign when someone hangs on to the music of their youth, or the music of their father, or the music of times past that they never even lived in. And who can say today’s music is superior to that of the besweatered Christmas Special-Having Crooner? It’s complicated. And if I revealed some of the stuff I have a soft spot for, the potential for embarrassment would be huge. But I know you’d say, “It’s all good”, or words to that effect. Because it is. Music is all good for something. Complicated human beings have many moods and emotions that must be paired up with it at different times.
Hope you get down this way soon pal, cause there’ll be a bed and a beer with your name on it. And I happen to have a double-disc Andy Williams compilation to pass a couple of hours to.
p.s. I’ll need you to be there for me when Engelbert Humperdinck goes…
Every Moment Has A Song 