Call Me Irresponsible

By 1964, Andy Williams was Mr. Movie Theme Song, which may help explain why he performed two of the nominated songs, "Charade" and "Call Me Irresponsible" (from Papa's Delicate Condition) at the Oscar ceremonies on April 13, and why his new album, the full title of which was The Academy Award Winning "Call Me Irresponsible" and Other Hit Songs From the Movies, was in record stores less than two weeks later. Williams had hedged his bet by also recording a third nominated song, "More," from Mondo Cane. (What would have happened if "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" or "So Little Time" had won, we'll never know.) Having established "Moon River" as his theme song in 1962 and topped the charts with Days of Wine and Roses in 1963, it was only logical that Williams would devote this entire album to movie theme songs. His singles (both B-sides) for "Charade" and "Madrigal" (from the just-released film The Chalk Garden) didn't make much noise, but this album still gave him his third consecutive — and fourth out of five — Top Ten LP placing and gold record certification. And it deserved to, since it contains a good selection of the kind of movie themes that had become almost required for films since World War II and which were turned out regularly by such professionals as Sammy Cahn, Livingston and Evans, Henry Mancini, and Johnny Mercer. The songs tended to be evocative of a mood rather than specific, and Williams' warm, yet homogenized approach, backed by sympathetic orchestral arrangements with occasional vocal choruses, brought out their haunting, romantic qualities. Especially impressive here were "Laura," a version of "Gigi" with the introductory verse, and a restrained (well, compared to Mario Lanza) "Be My Love." But the whole album suggested that Williams and movie songs remained perfect partners.