Quote by Barry about Andy Williams in Desert Sun

[Suzan]

I'll post the entire article below, but here is the section mentioning Barry:

"Palm Springs resident Barry Manilow said in 2009, “Nobody does Christmas like Andy Williams.” And, while Jones couldn’t think of another singer that could be directly linked to Williams on the pop music family tree, Manilow himself said Williams was a significant influence.

Williams told The Desert Sun in 2009 Manilow saluted him at the 2008 Society of Singers ceremony in Los Angeles when Williams received the prestigious Ella Award.

“I wrote what (Manilow) said,” Williams recalled. “On the stage, he said, ‘I owe everything to Andy Williams. I owe my phrasing. I just studied everything he did — key changes and all that stuff.’ It was very flattering.”

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http://www.mydesert.com/ article/20120927/LIFESTYLES0101/309260032 (remove space)

Andy Williams put his stamp on Palm Springs area

In the Coachella Valley in the 20th century, the measure of superstardom was not just ratings or sales figures. It also was whether or not you had a golf tournament.

Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore — they were all at the top of the box office or record charts, and had significant golf events.

Andy Williams, who died late Tuesday at his summer home in Branson, Mo., was the last of the Coachella Valley superstars to measure up to that criteria.

Williams, 84, was a three-time Emmy Award winner, the face of the Grammy Awards as emcee for the first seven years of its televised broadcast, and host of his own Andy Williams San Diego Open PGA Tour from 1968-1988.

A La Quinta resident since 1965, he also was named honorary mayor of the city before it was incorporated in 1982.

“He was the most widely known singer — I don’t think there’s any country that speaks any language that doesn’t know who Andy Williams is,” said singer Jack Jones, a friend and fellow La Quinta resident. “He’s the epitome of a super superstar.”

Jones was performing at Williams’ Moon River Theatre in Branson when he received word that Williams had died just 20 minutes after Jones had left the stage.

He was planning to continue the engagement with Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo of the Fifth Dimension, who were only added to his show when it became apparent Williams wouldn’t be able to perform.

Jones said he also was the first person Williams asked to substitute for him when Williams had to check into a Mayo Clinic in 2011 with what turned out to be bladder cancer. Jones wasn’t able to fulfill that favor because his musicians weren’t available, but his show includes video clips of the two buddies singing together on “The Andy Williams Show” on NBC in the 1960s.

“There’s this whole medley we did,” Jones said. “As well as singing ‘Moon River’ and those wonderful romantic melodic songs, he was one hell of a closet jazz singer. I never thought of him as a hard-swinging singer, but boy, when we got together he was swinging good.”

Williams started his career as a harmony singer with his three brothers in Iowa in the 1930s, but became best known for his holiday programs later in life. He began singing Christmas numbers on his television show and did his first Christmas special, “The Andy Williams Christmas Show,” on NBC in 1973.

He performed his first Christmas show at the McCallum Theatre in 1993 as a benefit for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Coachella Foundation. It became a holiday tradition before Williams took it to The Show at the Agua Caliente Resort Casino in 2010 — because, he said at the time, he didn’t want to perform at the McCallum two years in a row.

Mitch Gershenfeld, McCallum president and CEO, considered Williams part of the McCallum family, often coming to see friends perform there during the seasonal months when Williams wasn’t in Branson.

“What he did for the desert was really provide that Christmas tradition that everybody really craves during the holidays,” said Gershenfeld. “There are certain iconic Christmas presentations, one being ‘The Nutcracker’ and the other being Andy Williams, and I think the fact that he did perform that show at the McCallum many times, and that he loved the McCallum, we really feel he had a home here.

“But it was so nice to not just have the relationship between him and the McCallum but the fact that he had a home in La Quinta and felt that this was one of the places he loved to be, I think that made it all the more special for the community when he performed here.”

Williams began performing at the McCallum when his friend Mark Simon asked him to do a benefit for the new La Quinta Boys & Girls Club. Jim Ducatte, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Coachella Foundation, said that turned into a fundraiser for the broader Boys & Girls Club foundation, which Williams continued at the McCallum in 2001. Then he did several Christmas variety shows at the McCallum.

“One of the great things about Andy Williams is he was not only a really great singer and performer, but he always brought a lot of variety,” said Gershenfeld. “A lot of artists aren’t as generous as he was with other artists. You certainly look at the Osmond family, which he gave a start to in the business. Even the last time he played here, he had some younger people on the show that he was kind of mentoring. That’s one of the great things to remember about Andy Williams.”

Ducatte said Williams also appeared at the Boys & Girls Clubs benefit auctions almost every year, donating all-expense-paid trips for four to Branson to see his shows, dine and play golf. He hosted a cocktail party at his La Quinta Country Club home for donors of $10,000 or more and was someone Ducatte said he could always count on for special projects. He said Williams raised at least $300,000 for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Coachella Foundation.

“For more than 20 years, Andy Williams was a celebrity among us who generously gave of his time, talent and support to benefit the youth of the Coachella Valley,” said Ducatte. “He was so approachable and personally involved in our Boys & Girls Club. He truly is our champion of youth. We lost a great friend today.”

Local charity activist Gloria Greer said Williams also donated Branson packages to her ACT for MS organization’s Christmas Tree Lane benefit. As a local Santa Claus, she said, “He was incredible.”

Williams met La Quinta Mayor Don Adolph while playing in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, one of many celebrity golf events Williams participated in. Adolph said the La Quinta City Council once considered naming a street after Williams, but decided, “It was something we said we didn’t want to set a precedent for.”

Williams gained national fame in the 1940s when he and his brothers recorded the 1944 Academy Award-winning recording of “Swinging On A Star,” a hit with Bing Crosby. Choreographer Kay Thompson — Liza Minnelli’s godmother — turned them into a well-honed nightclub act that toured the major showrooms until Andy Williams decided to go solo in 1953.

He became part of the ensemble of Steve Allen’s original “Tonight Show” in 1954, but had trouble breaking into the Billboard charts as a solo artist. He said in his 2009 autobiography, “Moon River and Me,” he found the key to popular success by trying to synthesize his style with the newly emerged Elvis Presley. That resulted in a string of hits that landed him a television special in 1959 and then a television series.

“He had a tremendous commercial ear,” said Jones. “I think Andy had a Perry Como approach but with real thinking behind the words. He had that relaxed quality, but he was really selling a song with intellectual ability.”

Williams became one of the few singers from the big band era — Sinatra, Como and Dean Martin were perhaps the only other ones — who continued to have hits in the 1960s and ’70s. He made the top 10 with songs such as “Can’t Get Used to Losing You,” “Happy Heart,” and “Where Do I Begin,” the theme song from the 1970 blockbuster film “Love Story.” Oddly, his theme song, “Moon River,” never charted because it wasn’t released as a single. It became a sensation after Williams sang it on the 1962 Academy Awards telecast.

His other theme song, which he used to open his Christmas shows, was “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”

Palm Springs resident Barry Manilow said in 2009, “Nobody does Christmas like Andy Williams.” And, while Jones couldn’t think of another singer that could be directly linked to Williams on the pop music family tree, Manilow himself said Williams was a significant influence.

Williams told The Desert Sun in 2009 Manilow saluted him at the 2008 Society of Singers ceremony in Los Angeles when Williams received the prestigious Ella Award.

“I wrote what (Manilow) said,” Williams recalled. “On the stage, he said, ‘I owe everything to Andy Williams. I owe my phrasing. I just studied everything he did — key changes and all that stuff.’ It was very flattering.”

[marvin]

> Williams told The Desert Sun in 2009 Manilow saluted him at the 2008 Society of Singers ceremony in Los Angeles when Williams received the prestigious Ella Award.
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> “I wrote what (Manilow) said,” Williams recalled. “On the stage, he said, ‘I owe everything to Andy Williams. I owe my phrasing. I just studied everything he did — key changes and all that stuff.’ It was very flattering.”

Barry was sincere in owing his style of singing to Andy Williams. Although I think Barry is more theatrical in concert than Andy was- the staging of New York City Rhythm, It's A Miracle and Copacabana were choreographed in a very different way than Andy Williams would do them- and I can't picture Andy doing Copacabana at all- there were many similarities to Barry and Andy regarding the romantic ballads.
I hear Andy's emotional phrasing of the song "More" being done similarly by Barry in the song "Even Now" and "Looks Like We Made It". Andy was superb at expressing emotion and holding long notes like Barry has and had hit songs in a rock and roll era just like Barry had. Andy used to sing to women in the audience on a one-to-one basis on his weekly TV shows, just like Barry did in Can't Smile Without You. Like Andy, Barry has a clean cut image and both were romantic ballad singers that were distinct for their eras. Given that Barry only learned to become a professional singer after Mandy was recorded, it was wise for Barry to regard Andy Williams as the performer he emulated.
I know many of us never cared for Barry's cover songs, but Barry excelled in his recordings of all the songs Andy Williams made famous- Moon River, Where Do I Begin and Happy Holiday from Barry's Christmas albums. Marvin