Legendary crooner Andy Williams dies

With a string of gold albums and the signature Moon River, Andy Williams — who has died at the age of 84 — was a voice of the 1960s in America, although not the ’60s people usually hear about now.

“The old cliché says that if you can remember the 1960s, you weren’t there,” the singer once recalled. “Well, I was there all right, but my memory of them is blurred — not by any drugs I took but by the relentless pace of the schedule I set myself.”

Williams’s plaintive tenor, boyish features and easy demeanour helped him outlast many of the rock stars who had displaced him and fellow crooners as Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. He remained on the charts into the 1970s and continued to perform in his 80s.

In November 2011, when Williams announced that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer, he vowed to return to performing the following year, his 75th in show business.

Williams died on Tuesday night at his home following a year-long battle with the disease, his Los Angeles-based publicist, Paul Shefrin, said.

Williams became a major star the same year as Elvis Presley, 1956, with the Sinatra-like swing Canadian Sunset, and for a time he was pushed into such Presley imitations as Lips of Wine and the No 1 smash Butterfly. But he mostly stuck to what he called his “natural style”. Music to Watch Girls By was another one of his hits.

In 1970, when even Sinatra had given up and (temporarily) retired, Williams was in the top 10 with the theme from Love Story, the Oscar-winning tearjerker. He had 18 gold records and three platinum, was nominated for five Grammy awards and hosted the Grammy ceremonies for several years.

Movie songs became a speciality, from Love Story and Days of Wine and Roses to Moon River. The longing Johnny Mercer- Henry Mancini ballad was his most famous song, even though he never released it as a single because his record company feared such lines as “my huckleberry friend” were too confusing and old-fashioned for teens.

The song was first performed by Audrey Hepburn in the beloved 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but Mancini thought Moon River ideal for Williams, who recorded it in “pretty much one take”.

Although Moon River was covered by countless artists, Williams made the song his personal brand. In fact, he insisted on it.

“When I hear anybody else sing it, it’s all I can do to stop myself from shouting at the television screen, ‘No! That’s my song’!” Williams wrote in his 2009 memoir, titled, fittingly, Moon River and Me.

The Andy Williams Show, which lasted in various formats on television through the 1960s and into 1971, won three Emmys and featured Williams alternately performing his stable of hits and bantering casually with his guest stars.

His wholesome image endured one jarring interlude. In 1976, his ex-wife, former Las Vegas showgirl Claudine Longet, shot and killed her lover, skiing champion Spider Sabich. Also in the 1970s, Williams was frequently seen with Ethel Kennedy, Robert’s widow, but he denied any romantic involvement.

Retirement was not on his schedule. In 2001 he said: “I’ll keep going until I get to the point where I can’t get out on stage.”