HUCKLEBERRY FRIEND

Moon River Crooner Andy Williams Dies

By Elizabeth C.

ANDY WILLIAMS, THE SINGER WHO LEFT AN INDELIBLE MARK ON POP CULTURE WITH HIS EVOCATIVE RENDITION OF the classic Moon River, died Tuesday night after a battle with cancer. He was 84.

Williams was a leading figure of the “golden age of easy-listening pop music,” which included the iconic voices of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. He was a “throwback to the days when singers were judged by how well they actually sang — not how many body parts they could expose,” ThePhantom commented at the New York Daily News. “RIP and thank you!”

Williams grew up singing with his brothers in the Williams Brothers quartet before going solo in 1953. A year later, he was guest-hosting on the Tonight Show for Steve Allen. From 1962 to 1972, he hosted a Sunday night variety show that showcased new musical acts and loopy sketch performances.

But it was for his soulful expression of Henry Mancini’s Moon River that the crooner was best known. Her performed the song at the 1962 Academy Awards where it won for Record of the Year. The song also won the Oscar for the best original song in 1961.

About growing old, he said: “I think everybody feels, ‘Where did it go?’ because it goes fast,” Williams told Larry King on CNN in 200. “But I have done a lot of things that I love.”

YOu can read a full accounting of his William’s loves and life in his New York Times obituary.