Moon River and Me by Andy Williams

Author:Andy Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

By now I had sold millions of records for Cadence and Columbia Records, and when I heard a rumor that Archie Bleyer was selling Cadence, I called him to ask if the rumors were true and whether he would be willing to sell me the masters of my old Cadence recordings. The Cadence catalog included not only my own early work but that of such artists as the Everly Brothers, Lenny Welch, the Chordettes, Johnny Tillotson, and a then unknown singer-songwriter named Jimmy Buffett. Archie was thinking of selling Cadence to Pickwick Records, a cut-rate company that sold to drugstores and supermarkets, and didn’t want to start splitting off parts of it. I’d have to take all of the Cadence catalog or none of it. When he told me the price he was asking, I said I would buy it.

Being a man of few words, Archie just said, “Okay, Andy, you’ve got it.”

A jazz label named Candide also came as part of the deal. It had some great jazz and blues artists, such as Charles Mingus, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Phil Woods, Coleman Hawkins, and Memphis Slim, but it wasn’t really my field, so I sold it to an English company, Phonoco, that specialized in jazz. However, I added another artist to my new stable by purchasing Ray Stevens’s master records from Monument. Ray had appeared on my television show several times; we became good friends, and I loved his work. He was a genius at making his particular style of records—musical, very funny, and completely different from anything else that was being put out at the time. Ray also happened to be managed by my brother Don, and when Don mentioned that Ray was ready to make a move from Monument and that it might be possible to buy the catalog, I didn’t hesitate.

At first I began reissuing some of my old Cadence material, such as the “Hawaiian Wedding Song” and “Canadian Sunset,” at Columbia, but then I set up Barnaby Records, named after my dog, and put out future releases on that label. The early Barnaby releases included a double album of the Everly Brothers and all the old Ray Stevens records, including “Guitarzan,” “Ahab the Arab,” “Mr. Businessman,” and “Along Came James.” I then signed Ray to the Barnaby label, and we recorded new songs with him, including “The Streak” and “Everything Is Beautiful,” which became big hits. We also released the first album by Jimmy Buffett, Down to Earth.

I also felt the Osmond Brothers were ready to record by now, and we released two singles with them, neither of which did much. Then they were approached by Mike Curb, who had his own record company, Curb Records. He recorded “One Bad Apple” with them, which became an instantaneous hit. They then left me and my record label so fast that all I saw was a dust cloud, but I don’t blame them for that; I was glad for their success. They were more than ready to take the

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