Easy

Between 1971 & 1974 veteran easy listening star Andy Williams was mining a particular rich seam of form. Three of the albums he put out on the Columbia label during this period ('Love Story', 'Solitaire', and 'The Way We Were') form something of a trilogy his fans not only bought by the shed load (they all went Billboard Top 10) but were also critically well received.

His choice of material (Williams was a great interpreter of others work as well as having bespoke stuff written for him) was razor sharp: he was equally at home with a tight band format as he was with lush, string heavy, orchestral arrangements he was known for. On 1973's Solitaire, for instance, among the musicians credited were Klaus Voorman on bass, Nicky Hopkins on piano and Jim Keltner on drums.

I could wax lyrical about all the songs on each of these albums (buy me a drink next time you see me and I'll probably do precisely that). In the meantime I'm just going to pin the tail on the the donkey and give you one cut from each which probably encapsulates the essence of what the albums were all about.

1971's Love Story is middle of the road nirvana. Rose Garden and (Where Do I Begin) Love Story sit check by jowl with James Taylor's Fire and Rain and George Harrison's Something and My Sweet Lord. However, I've gone with a typically jaunty version of I Think I Love You which had put David Cassidy and the Partridge Family on the map earlier that year. 

   

Solitaire was  probably his most diverse album including as it did material from Nilsson, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder. I've gone for his interpretation of another George Harrison song - That is All (from George's Living in the Material World) a love song addressed to a woman and/or a deity (typical George) that Williams expertly wraps his vocal chords around.

The Way We Are from 1974 is probably the seminal Williams platter (it was in my parents' record collection and I'm guessing that's where a lot of people came across it. And who was the mystery woman locked in his embrace? My money was always on the oriental girl on the Mastermind board game box). As well as the title track, Killing Me Softy and Touch Me in the Morning, it was the mid 70s and maybe Williams could see that the tide was turning; with disco fast approaching, Williams rather adventurously covered the vocal version of Love Unlimited Orchestra's soul and funk workout 'Love's Theme'. A master stroke.

Williams was never fashionable, never cool. He never fitted the Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett crooner tag and always got lumped in with yer Matt Monroes and yer Mel Tormés. But as a practitioner of popular song he was in a league of his own. He was and probably still is filed under 'Easy'. I can live with that.

★

Andy Williams (1927-2012)