The Great Songs from "My Fair Lady" and Other Broadway Hits

The Great Songs from "My Fair Lady" and Other Broadway Hits
Studio album by Andy Williams
Released	1964
Recorded	1964
Genre	Traditional pop, Cast recordings, Vocal pop, Early pop/rock,[1]
Length	33:37
Label	Columbia
Producer	Robert Mersey[2]
Andy Williams chronology
The Academy Award-Winning "Call Me Irresponsible" and Other Hit Songs from the Movies (1964) The Great Songs from "My Fair Lady" and Other Broadway Hits (1964) Andy Williams' Dear Heart (1965)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Billboard	[3]

The Great Songs from "My Fair Lady" and Other Broadway Hits is an album by American pop singer Andy Williams that was released in September 1964 by Columbia Records.^[3] It made its first appearance on Billboard magazine's Top LP's chart in the issue dated September 26 of that year and remained on the album chart for 33 weeks, peaking at number five.^[4] The album received Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America on September 17, 1965.^[5]

The single from the album, "On the Street Where You Live", debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 in the issue of the magazine dated September 12, 1964, eventually reaching number 28 during its eight-week stay.^[6] The song performed even better on the magazine's Easy Listening (or Adult Contemporary) chart, reaching number three during its eight weeks there.^[7]

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 album from the spring of 1964, The Academy Award-Winning "Call Me Irresponsible" and Other Hit Songs from the Movies.^[8] This same pairing was also released as two albums on one CD by Sony Music Distribution in 2000.^[9] The Collectables CD was included in a box set entitled Classic Album Collection, Vol. 1, which contains 17 of his studio albums and three compilations and was released on June 26, 2001.^[10]

Track listing

Side one

1. "On the Street Where You Live" (Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe) – 3:12
2. "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" (Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe) – 3:07
3. "I Could Have Danced All Night" (Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe) – 2:18
4. "Get Me to the Church on Time" (Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe) – 1:58
5. "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" (Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe) – 2:30
6. "Show Me" (Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe) – 2:02

Side two

1. "Hello, Dolly!" (Jerry Herman) – 2:58
2. "Where or When" (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) – 2:35
3. "Begin the Beguine" (Cole Porter) – 3:15
4. "Once Upon a Time" (Lee Adams, Charles Strouse) – 3:30
5. "People" (Bob Merrill, Jule Styne) – 3:32
6. "The Sweetest Sounds" (Richard Rodgers) – 2:44

Song information

"Begin the Beguine" was first performed in the 1935 Broadway musical Jubilee^[11] and had its most successful chart performance as an instrumental recording by Artie Shaw & His Orchestra that spent six weeks at number one in 1938, sold one million copies, and returned to the charts in 1942, peaking at number 20.^[12] "Where or When", from the 1937 Broadway musical Babes in Arms,^[13] had two separate trips to the top five: Hal Kemp & His Orchestra spent a week with the song at number one that same year with Bob Allen on vocal,^[14] and Dion and the Belmonts took the song to number three in 1960.^[15]

The songs that comprise tracks one through six on this album first became known on the 1956 cast recording of the original Broadway production of My Fair Lady.^[16] The biggest chart success for "On the Street Where You Live" was the recording by Vic Damone that reached number four that same year.^[17] 1962 gave way to "The Sweetest Sounds", which comes from the Broadway musical No Strings,^[18] and "Once Upon a Time", which was introduced in another musical, All American.^[19] Louis Armstrong's recording of the title song from the 1964 musical Hello, Dolly! spent a week at number one on the pop chart^[20] and nine weeks as the number one Easy Listening recording in the U.S.^[21] The song also earned Armstrong the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Male,^[22] while songwriter Jerry Herman received the Song of the Year Grammy.^[23] Barbra Streisand's single of "People" gave her a number five hit on the Billboard Hot 100,^[24] three weeks at number one on the Easy Listening chart,^[25] and the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Female.^[26]

Personnel^[2]

• Andy Williams – vocals
• Robert Mersey – conductor, producer
• Bob Cato – cover photo

Notes

References