2003-11-24 - 12:22 p.m.

Andy Williams, a Standards Singer

Last night, on �Biography,� A&E aired a two-hour bio of Andy Williams, one of my � our � favorite singers. Sister and I listened to his show all the time. (But she didn�t sing along, because she can�t sing.) Even Husband, who began describing him as �the one you like,� grudgingly admitted that he was �pretty good.� He is without a doubt one of the best Standards singers of the last sixty years.

Most of us felt we knew a lot about Andy because we used to watch his Christmas shows. Annual guests always included his parents, his three brothers, his wife and his kids. And the Osmond family. (It�s no accident that Andy�s father discovered the Osmond Brothers; they were like a copy of the four Williams brothers of a generation before.)

As it turns out, I really didn�t know all that much. We knew that Andy and his brothers had sung together, but not how long. They were children when they started, beginning with singing hymns at church. And when a fifth child died in infancy, they sang hymns at the funeral parlor for two months to pay for their brother�s funeral.

I don�t think most people realized just how much good training they had gotten: movies, recording (with Crosby, among others) night clubs, early television (though the television wasn�t very good). When the group disbanded and Andy went out on his own, he used everything he had learned to make his career.

I looked at some early footage that might have been television or movie shorts, and I watched Andy using the cameras as he sang. Many years later, Jay Osmond used to smile at the camera the same way, following the red light, and the audiences thought he was just adorable. Now we know where he learned it!

The �Biography� piece expounded on the fact that no one does variety shows any more like the Andy Williams Show, but I don�t think they really got into why. A star can�t sustain a regular program if he only sings his own songs, no matter how many hits he had. (Well, maybe Elton John could do thirteen weeks singing just his own hits.) He � or she � needs some other material. And that goes back to Carl Hampton�s definition of American standards � a song that has stood the test of time, so that the emphasis is on the lyrics and the melody instead of on the performer.

You won�t find it on television, so I�m going to recommend once more that you visit to the website for �Music of Your Life. You can find a radio station in your area that carries that programming, and you can listen online if that�s what you like. And even if you don�t care for it, stop and think about people you know. Your parents. Your boss. A neighbor. You�d be doing them a big favor.

Current Reading: Founding Brothers - Ellis
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