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The family headed west in early 1944 and the Williams Brothers soon got two big breaks in Hollywood: Bing Crosby hired them to do the backing vocals on his 1944 hit “Swinging on a Star” and MGM signed them to a contract. They had similar success after moving to Chicago in 1941, and later Cincinnati.
With their father as their manager and “driving force,” the Williams Brothers landed a 15-minute show every weekday morning on a Des Moines radio station in 1936 when Andy was 8.
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“The very first time he heard his four sons harmonize together, my dad became a man with a dream and a mission in life, convinced that we had a future as professional singers,” Williams wrote in his 2009 memoir “Moon River and Me.” As a boy, he began singing with his three older brothers - Bob, Don and Dick - in the local Presbyterian church choir. The son of a railroad mail clerk, Williams was born Dec.
He continued to turn out hits in the 1960s and ‘70s, including “Can’t Get Used to Losing You,” “Dear Heart,” “Charade,” “Music to Watch Girls By” and “(Where Do I Begin) Love Story.” The Iowa-born Williams began singing professionally as a boy with his three older brothers in the 1930s, and he went solo when the quartet broke up in the early 1950s.Īfter becoming a regular featured singer on Steve Allen’s “Tonight” show in 1954, Williams had hits with songs such as “Canadian Sunset” and “Butterfly.” He returned annually to host Christmas specials for many years and later presented Christmas shows in theaters around the country.
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The Christmas shows were so popular that when the weekly series went off the air, “we got thousands of pieces of mail” asking us to come back, Williams later said.
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Williams also regularly showcased the Osmond Brothers, who were billed as “a youthful barbershop harmony group from Ogden, Utah” when they debuted on the show in 1962.Ī popular feature of the TV program was the annual Christmas special, which invariably showed Williams surrounded by his family. “The Andy Williams Show” featured established entertainers such as Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Jonathan Winters and Phyllis Diller as well as newer talents such as Linda Ronstadt, the Mamas and the Papas, Elton John and the Jackson 5. It’s just there and people find it pleasant and like it, and they go out and buy the albums.” “I think it’s because the music is kind of soft and easy and it’s not jamming down anybody’s throat. “In some cases, people who go on television, their record sales drop off mine seemed to go up,” Williams told the Orlando Sentinel in 1991.
The singer hosted “The Andy Williams Show” on NBC from 1962 to 1967, then did occasional specials before again taking the series weekly from 1969 to 1971. His next record label, Columbia, hurriedly sent him to the studio to record “Moon River.” “So Mancini and Mercer played this song for me, which I thought was great,” he said, but his record company at the time “was really into singles then, and they said: ‘I don’t think phrases like “my Huckleberry friend” will make it with the kids - they won’t know what it means.’”
#Andy williams theatre movie#
“I was having dinner with Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer, who had just finished recording the movie ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s,’ with Audrey Hepburn singing ‘Moon River’ out on the balcony with a guitar. “You wouldn’t believe how ‘Moon River’ became a hit,” he told the Chicago Tribune in 1989. Williams said he never tired of singing “Moon River,” whose melody he considered “beautiful” and whose lyrics he called “timeless.” “The Andy Williams Show,” which was taped at NBC in Burbank, won three Emmy Awards, and its casual host received two Emmy nominations.
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