Wednesday 26 September 2012

Moon River and me

The singer Andy Williams who has died aged 84 is probably best known for the song Moon River.

Like most people, I associate Moon River with the original version sung by Audrey Hepburn in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's. Williams, though he sang it at the Academy Awards and on his TV show, never actually charted with the song.

Although Williams is categorised by that most untrendy of labels Easy Listening, a lot of his music is closer to the jazz-pop standards of Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett. Politically, he seems to have been all over the show: a lifelong Republican, he was friends with Bobby Kennedy and supported the anti-Vietnam War Democrat George McGovern for President in 1972 before describing Barack Obama as "following Marxist theory" and letting the right-wing radio presenter Rush Limbaugh use his song Born Free.

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