Andy Williams Million Seller Songs/To You Sweetheart, Aloha CD

Collectables Records' two-fer Million Seller Songs/To You Sweetheart, Aloha combines two Andy Williams albums from the early '60s originally released on Cadence Records. Million Seller Songs, first issued in 1962 (not 1963 as the annotations state here), is a compilation album assembled after Williams had left Cadence for the greener fields of Columbia Records. Drawing from singles and from the LPs Two Time Winners, Lonely Street, Under Paris Skies, The Village of St. Bernadette, and Andy Williams Sings Steve Allen, it gathers together the singer's interpretations of songs that had million-selling singles for other artists, usually in the 1950s, such as "Twilight Time" (the Platters), "It's All in the Game" (Tommy Edwards), and "Love Letters in the Sand" (Pat Boone), though the Williams hits "Canadian Sunset" (a million seller for Hugo Winterhalter) and "Butterfly" (claimed in the liner notes as a Williams gold record, though never certified as such) are also included. One of the few Williams albums on Cadence not drawn upon for the set was To You Sweetheart, Aloha, which is probably why Collectables matched it with Million Seller Songs. Released in the wake of the success of Williams' 1958-1959 hit "The Hawaiian Wedding Song," it finds the singer trying his hand at more songs of the islands around the time that Hawaii became the 50th state. Many, notably "Blue Hawaii" and "Sweet Leilani," were most closely associated with Bing Crosby, though since then Elvis Presley has claimed the former for his own. The two albums present different sides of Williams' wide stylistic range, and they still come off as two separate albums despite being joined on a single CD. ~ William Ruhlmann

Originally released on Cadence.

Million Seller Songs,To You Sweetheart,Aloha

2 LPs on 1 CD: MILLION SELLER SONGS (1963)/TO YOU SWEETHEART, ALOHA (1960).

Liner Note Author: Hugh Cherry.

Arranger: Archie Bleyer.