I know I stand in line until you think you have the time

Continuing my trip back through the 1968 album charts.

14/07/68 : Love, Andy - Andy Williams

What?  I missed this the first time around because I assumed it was the same as the one I met four days ago - but no, it's a different one!  I can assure you, however, that my expectations are considerably lower than they were last time around.

Yeah, it's pretty similar to last time really - although maybe a bit more old-fashioned with it mostly being crooning and strings.  It starts strongly enough with "Somethin' Stupid" but mostly kinda blurs into mediocrity after that.  We get our second version of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" from this year (Engelbert's was very similar) and it joins the list of tracks we've seen three times overall (with Lauryn's being way ahead of the pack).  His version of "God Only Knows" is actually quite interesting - it feels a lot slower than the original, but I suspect it's just the simplicity that makes it so different and it suits it, although Andy doesn't do a great job with it.  All in all, there's nothing to drag me back here though.

We're at a frankly astonishing #3 in the charts this week on his eleventh week of a 22 week run with it having peaked at - yes, you guessed it, #1.  WHAT were people thinking?!?  The rest of the top five were The Small Faces, Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac and Scott Walker (one we'll be coming too very soon), the highest new entry was John Mayall (#19) and there are no new women involved in the charts this week.

Wikipedia tells us that the songs are a mix of old (going back to the 40s) and new - apparently it's slightly more old fashioned than his previous album (I assume people complained).  It also tells us that he has charted with "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" twice as a single in the UK - once in 1968 and once in 2002 as a duet with Denise Van Outen.  Obviously.  And that's your lot on the album!

"Customers also listened to" Richard Chamberlain, Perry Como, Matt Monro and Jack Jones - rock and roll, baby!!  As with our previous visit, a whole album of Andy is about nine tracks too much - he has a nice voice when he's not trying to do too much with it, but a lot of this is just very bland.

07/07/68 - An intriguing album
21/07/68 - A very odd album

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