But one song would define his career more than any other.
In 1961, composer Henry Mancini and lyricist Johnny Mercer wrote a gentle little song for Audrey Hepburn to sing in the movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Mercer’s words reminded him of his boyhood in Savannah, Georgia and picking huckleberries.
The song was “Moon River.”
It almost didn’t make it. At one point, a studio executive suggested cutting it from the film. Audrey Hepburn would not hear of it.
Good thing. “Moon River” won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and on Oscar night in 1962, it was Andy Williams who stood up and sang it.
From then on, the song was his. He opened every episode of “The Andy Williams Show” with its first eight bars. When he built his own theater in Branson, Missouri, he named it the Moon River Theatre. He even called his life story “Moon River and Me.”
In this 1987 concert, Henry Mancini himself is there on stage as Andy sings “Moon River,” followed by another Mancini and Mercer classic that won the Oscar, “Days of Wine and Roses.”
Andy Williams passed away in 2012 at the age of 84. But every time this song plays, it’s hard not to hear his voice.
Where were you the first time you heard “Moon River”? Tell us in the comments.
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