An American institution and described by President Ronald Reagan as having a voice that is a National Treasure, the nostalgic sound of Andy Williams has seen performing over the years with such celebrities as Michael Jackson, Elton John, Ray Charles and Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.

Born on December 3^rd 1927 in Wall Lake, Iowa, Andy Williams first found his passion for singing and entertaining when he performed with a children’s choir at his local Presbyterian church. By the late 1930’ Andy and his three older brothers, Don, Bob and Dick formed a quartet and named themselves The Williams Brothers.

After Andy graduated from West Hills High School in Cincinnati the Brothers went on to follow their recording career and appeared on the Bing Crosby record ‘Swinging on a Star’ in 1944. This soon saw their careers blooming into nightclub entertainers until Andy’s brothers broke away from the group in 1952 and Andy began to pursue his own solo career.

With several attempts at a song that would hit the charts his final top ten hit came with the song ‘Canadian Sunset’ in 1956 and more hits followed, including "The Hawaiian Wedding Song," "Are You Sincere," "The Village of St. Bernadette," and "Lonely Street," at which point Williams took his talents to Columbia Records. The 1960’s saw Andy becoming one of the biggest recording artist with more gold albums than any other performer with the exception of Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis and Elvis Presley.

In 1961 Andy met and married Claudine Longet with whom he had three children. The marriage ended in 1969 and in 1976 Longet was charged with fatally shooting her boyfriend, skier Vladimir "Spider" Sabich during which time Williams showed non stop support for her during her trial.

By the mid 1970’s Williams had achieved 18 gold albums and his hits from that period included, Moon River, Days of Wine and Roses (number one for 16 weeks in mid-1963), The Andy Williams Christmas Album, Dear Heart, The Shadow of Your Smile, Love, Andy, Get Together with Andy Williams, and Love Story.

Moon River soon became Andy’s theme song and actually featured in an episode of Sex and the City when Big, Chris Noth, left the single for Carrie, Sarah Jessica Parker, in his empty apartment and the show ended with 'Moon River' playing over the closing credits.

Andy Williams became a close friend of Robert F Kennedy over the years and sand ‘Ava Maria’ and ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’ at his funeral.

In the late sixties he became the presenter of his own weekly star studded show, The Andy Williams Show, on which he established the careers of The Osmond Brothers which also spawned the solo career of Donny Osmond.

Williams also managed to woo a teenage audience with his rendition of ‘Cant get Used to Losing you’, ‘Happy Heart’ and the theme to the movie starring Ryan ONeal and Ali MacGraw, ‘Love Story’, ‘Where do I Begin’.

By the 1990’s Andy all but retired from touring and concentrated on his own theater in Missouri, ‘Moon River Theater’.

In 1991 Williams married for the second time to Debbie Haas and they currently split their time between Branson, Missouri and La Quinta, California.

Following the use of his song ‘ Music to Watch Girls Go By‘ in a UK advert William’s began a sell out UK tour after which he re-released ‘Cant Take My Eyes Off You’ in which he duetted with Denise Van Outen.

Barry Gibb and his brother Robin Gibb originally offered their song ‘How Can You Mend a Broken Heart’ to Williams to record but finally recorded it themselves and achieved their first US number one billboard hit with the song.

2007 saw Andy appearing in three episodes of ‘As the World Turns’ where he played himself.

ABB