I've always had a great fondness and love for the crooning, mellow sounds of the 'Rat Pack' era. Be it Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin or more latterly the likes of Matt Monro, I have never strayed far from those cool, relaxing tones that soothe away the tensions of the day.
I can very happily and easily add Andy Williams into that list and I grew to adore his sound ever since the Welsh football team unofficially took his anthem 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You' as their own in those heady days of 1993 when we came within a whisker of qualifying for the 1994 World Cup.
Years later in the autumn of 2002, Wales reached those almost unreachable heights when we beat Italy 2-1 in the Millennium Stadium in a Euro '04 qualifying match. I vividly recall signing-along from the upper reaches of the stadium to Andy and this wonderful song as it came over the tannoy to celebrate a famous win.
Happy days and happy memories!
But Andy Williams was no one-hit wonder. Here are just a few of the songs from a long-ranging back catalogue which I abolutely adore.
But of all of those mentioned above, including the headlining song of this post, there is possibly one other that, due to the nature of modern advertising, I have fallen in love with and possibly adore above all others.
It's 'The Quest' and Andy Williams' 'Impossible Dream'.
He was an icon of his age and of his profession and a part of my wonderful, musical upbringing.
Thank you and RIP Andy Williams
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