Born Free (Andy Williams album)

Born Free (Andy Williams album)
Studio album by Andy Williams
Released	1967
Recorded	1967
Genre	AM pop, Traditional pop, Vocal pop, Film music, Soundtracks[1]
Length	33:39
Label	Columbia
Producer	Nick DeCaro
Andy Williams chronology
In the Arms of Love (1966) Born Free (1967) Love, Andy (1967)
Collectables reissue
Born Free portion of cover

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
Billboard	[3]

Born Free is an album by American pop singer Andy Williams that was released in the spring of 1967 by Columbia Records.^[1] It made its first appearance on Billboard's Top LP's chart in the issue dated May 13, 1967, and remained on the album chart for 79 weeks, peaking at number five.^[4] The album received Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America on July 6, 1967.^[5]

The single released from the album, "Music to Watch Girls By", was released two months earlier and first appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the issue of the magazine dated March 25, eventually reaching number 34 over the course of eight weeks.^[6] The song performed even better on the Easy Listening (or Adult Contemporary) chart after debuting in the issue dated April 1 and spending a week at number two during a 13-week stay.^[7] It debuted on the U.K. charts shortly thereafter, on May 6, and stayed around for six weeks, peaking at number 33. The song was reissued there in 1999 and spent another six weeks on the chart, this time reaching number nine.^[8]

The album was released on compact disc for the first time as one of two albums on one CD by Collectables Records on March 23, 1999, the other album being Williams's Columbia release from the fall of 1967, Love, Andy.^[9] It was also released as one of two albums on one CD by Sony Music Distribution on May 14, 2001, paired this time with Williams's Columbia album from December 1966, In the Arms of Love.^[10] The original album covers are displayed side by side on the front of these CD reissues, and it is clear that the color of the Born Free cover has been enhanced considerably for the Collectables release, as Williams's suntanned face from the original LP cover shown on the Sony release now has a more psychedelic orange glow.

Contents 1 Track listing 2 Song information 3 Personnel 4 Notes 5 References

Track listing

1. "Born Free" (John Barry, Don Black) – 2:27
2. "Somewhere My Love" (Maurice Jarre, Paul Francis Webster) – 2:38
3. "Spanish Eyes" (Bert Kaempfert, Charlie Singleton, Eddie Snyder) – 3:04
4. "Strangers in the Night" (Bert Kaempfert, Charlie Singleton, Eddie Snyder) – 2:32
5. "Sherry!" (James Lipton, Laurence Rosenthal) – 2:27
6. "Music to Watch Girls By" (Sid Ramin, Tony Velona) – 2:38
7. "I Want to Be Free" (Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart) – 3:20
8. "Alfie" (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) – 2:55
9. "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye " (John D. Loudermilk) – 2:37
10. "Sunny" (Bobby Hebb) – 3:16
11. "I Will Wait for You" (Jacques Demy, Norman Gimbel, Michel Legrand) – 2:42
12. "You Are Where Everything Is" (Nick DeCaro) – 3:06

Song information

• "Born Free" is the title song from the 1966 film, in which it was sung by Matt Monro.^[11] His recording "bubbled under" the Hot 100, reaching number 126, and got to number 35 on the Easy Listening chart in October of that year.^[12] Pianist Roger Williams and his unnamed chorus had the most success with the song, appearing first on the Easy Listening chart in the issue of Billboard dated July 30, 1966, and a month later on the Hot 100 in the issue dated August 27. Their rendition spent 24 weeks on the Easy Listening chart, with six of those weeks at number one, and 21 weeks on the pop chart, where it peaked at number seven.^[13][14] The pianist and The Young Americans performed the song at the Oscar ceremony in April 1967, and "Born Free" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song that evening, beating out "Alfie", which Williams (the singer) also recorded for this album.^[15]

• The music for "Somewhere, My Love" originated as part of the Academy Award-winning score for the 1965 film Doctor Zhivago.^[16] Lyrics were written after the film's release, and the vocal recording by Ray Conniff & The Singers debuted on the charts of Billboard magazine in June 1966, eventually reaching number nine on the pop chart and spending four weeks as the number one Easy Listening song in the U.S.^[17][18] Conniff and company received a Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Chorus, and the song was also nominated for a Grammy in the category of Song of the Year.^[19]

• Al Martino's recording of "Spanish Eyes" first appeared on the Easy Listening chart in the issue of Billboard dated November 27, 1965, and eventually spent four weeks at number one there during its 17-week stay.^[20] Its Hot 100 debut came one week later, on December 4, and it reached number 15 there over the course of 12 weeks.^[21]

• "Strangers in the Night" made its first chart appearance in the issue of Billboard dated April 30, 1966, as an Easy Listening entry courtesy of Frank Sinatra, who spent 20 weeks there, seven of which were at number one.^[22] His recording entered the Hot 100 on May 7 and eventually reached number one for one week during a 15-week stay.^[23] The May 7 issue also saw the debut of an instrumental version of the song by Bert Kaempfert & His Orchestra on the Easy Listening chart that made it to number eight.^[24] Kaempfert received a Grammy nomination in the Song of the Year category as one of the credited songwriters, but it was Sinatra who was the victor in the Record of the Year and Best Vocal Performance, Male categories for his rendition.^[25]

• "Sherry!" shares its title with the 1967 Broadway musical from which it came and was a number eight Easy Listening hit for Marilyn Maye that same year.^[26][27]

• Before Williams had success with "Music to Watch Girls By", it was an instrumental hit for The Bob Crewe Generation, entering the charts in December 1966, reaching number 15 pop, and spending two weeks at number two Easy Listening.^[28][29] Trumpeter Al Hirt "bubbled under" the Hot 100 in January 1967 at number 119 with it and reached number 31 Easy Listening.^[30]

• "I Want to Be Free" originated as the more casually-titled "I Wanna Be Free" on the 1966 eponymous debut album by The Monkees, which spent 78 weeks on Billboard magazine's Top LP's chart and 13 of those weeks at number one.^[31]

• The 1966 film Alfie premiered in the U.K. on March 29, 1966, coinciding with its title song's U.K. release by Cilla Black, which spent 12 weeks on the U.K. singles chart and peaked at number nine.^[32][33] Her debut on the Hot 100 in the Billboard issue dated August 27, 1966, also happened to coincide with the film's August 24 U.S. release, but the U.S. film version of the song by Cher made its pop debut a month earlier, on July 30, and peaked at number 32.^[34] Joanie Sommers had success on the Easy Listening chart with her rendition, which debuted just one week later, on August 6, and eventually reached number nine, and Carmen McRae premiered her version on the Easy Listening chart on August 20 and got as high as number 29.^[35][36] Black's version wound up spending three weeks on the Hot 100, peaking at number 95, and marking her last chart appearance in the U.S.^[37] As mentioned above, "Alfie" lost the Academy Award for Best Original Song to "Born Free", but its performance at the Oscar ceremony on April 10, 1967, by Dionne Warwick proved to be excellent timing.^[15] Her recording of the song debuted on the Hot 100 in the Billboard issue dated April 8 as the B-side of "The Beginning of Loneliness", which had fallen off the chart in that same issue after having been there for three weeks and peaking at number 79, but "Alfie" fared much better, getting to number 15 during a 17-week stay.^[38] Warwick's version also made the Billboard R&B singles chart, spending 12 weeks there and reaching number five.^[39]

• "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye" first made the charts as the lone Top 40 hit for The Casinos, reaching number six on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967.^[40] Eddy Arnold's cover of the song the following year reached number 84 there, went as high as number six Easy Listening, and spent two weeks at number one on the Country singles chart as what would be his last of 28 number-one Country singles.^[41][42][43]

• "Sunny" scored its songwriter Bobby Hebb the biggest hit of his career when the song spent two weeks at number two on the pop singles chart and two weeks at number three R&B after debuting in June 1966.^[44] In the U.K., both Cher and Georgie Fame debuted cover versions of the song that September, eventually reaching positions 32 and 13, respectively.^[45][46]

• "I Will Wait for You" was performed in French for the 1964 film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song but lost to "The Shadow of Your Smile", which was the title song from Williams's album of May 1966.^[47][48]

Personnel

This was Williams's 13th studio album for Columbia Records and the first of those that was not produced by Robert Mersey.

• Andy Williams – vocals
• Nick DeCaro - arranger (except as noted), producer
• J. Hill - arranger ("Strangers in the Night", "I Will Wait for You")
• Eddie Karam - arranger (" Spanish Eyes", "Sherry!")
• Ray Gerhardt - recording engineer
• Bob Cato - photography

Notes

References