Friday, December 3, 2010

"Music to Watch Girls By" featuring Andy Williams & The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

As Niamhy pointed out in her blog, today is Andy Williams' birthday. Mr. Williams was very much a part of my childhood. When I was really little he was still hitting the charts (the Sixties weren't all Beatles and Rolling Stones) and he still had a TV show on in primetime. After his show went off the air, he still had an Christmas special on annually for many years. Quite simply, even if you were a toddler in the Sixties, there was no escaping Andy Williams.

For me the song that most brings to mind Andy Williams is not "Moon River," perhaps his most famous work, but instead his 1967 hit "Music to Watch Girls By." Here I must point out that Mr. Williams' cover of the song was not the original. In fact, it had its origins as an instrumental written for a Diet Pepsi commercial in 1967. The Bob Crewe Generation did their own version of this Pepsi instrumental, going all the way to #15 on the Billboard chart with it. Later that year Andy Williams did his own version of the song, with one major difference. Being a singer, Andy Williams' version had lyrics.

Here is a mash up someone did a while back of Andy Williams' version of "Music to Watch Girls By" and clips from one of my favourite TV shows, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ahh, such fun! A lot of clips from that episode with Janet Leigh (her enjoyment in torturing Illya she scared me badly when I was younger) and a few from the wonderful George Sanders episodes too!

I've seen a few clips of Andy William's show via Get Smart DVDs. Some of the segments with Don Adams are included in the special features!

BTW, Who's your favorite UNCLE agent? Illya? Napoleon? or maybe even April?

Terence Towles Canote said...

I always liked Napoleon, but Illya was always my favourite. While even as a child I had things in common with Napoleon, ultimately I think I was more like Illya, given his intellectual pursuits!

QUB English Society said...

Haha-thanks for the advertisement! ;-P

That song will be stuck in my head all day. Damn it.

And I didn't know an instrumental version was used for a Diet Pepsi ad! This is one of those random facts I can annoy my friends with! Thank you! :-P