Customer Reviews

You Lay So Easy on My Mind / Other Side of Me

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Collectables Records has given Andy Williams fans everywhere his entire Columbia catalog on these wonderful reissues. The major grips being lack of in-depth "reissue" liner notes, but for the most part the original artwork is included on the many "2fers" they have released in the last 4 years or so. The recent wave of releases are of Andy's 70's works. With the "Moon River" salad days behind him, Andy reached an entirely new audience by doing covers of songs of the day. While many frowned on this practice, Andy took what he could of the ever changing songs and sounds of this era and showed them in a new light, with very good results, more often than not. "A Mi Esposa Con Amor" may seem like an odd vehicle for Andy, but he pulls off the touching song with ease. His reading of the semi-hit for Neil Diamond "Solitaire", (written by Neil Sedaka) is Andy at his absolute finest, putting the emotion on the notes right where it ought to be. "My Elusive Dreams" brings to mind the songs of Bobby Goldsboro, with all their poignancy and beauty. While some of the songs may seem out of place, or just not "coverable" by anyone else (shouldn't "Mandy" only be done by Barry Manilow?)
all in all this collection of two albums is worth the price, as are all the great CDs Collectables has done. They do very good work on all their releases, including this one from one of the great male vocalists of our time. Enjoy!!

At last I have The Other Side Of Me on CD.

I just had to write this quickly as I listen to one of THE all time great tracks. "Quits" is simply so out of character for AW, but it is SO GOOD.

Go buy this CD just, even for that track (it must have a poignancy as I think it was around this time he divorced Claudene Longet). However, the whole album is superb.

For good mesure, You Lay So Easy.... is a fine album, too. You can't lose!

Andy Williams has delighted millions of fans over the years; and the songs on two-fer CDs like this one show us why! Andy is in tremendous command of his repertoire here; he turns out beautiful covers of many special songs, some country and others by Neil Sedaka. In addition, the sound quality is really very good.

We get all of the songs from two of Andy's record albums entitled "You Lay So Easy on My Mind" and The Other Side of Me." I have my favorites as you will, too. I really like "You Lay So Easy on My Mind;" this has a backup chorus but Andy didn't really need it. His talents carry him through every time! "I Love You So Much It Hurts" charms me with its natural beauty; and other gems include "I Honestly Love You;" "A Mi Esposa Con Amore" with that beautiful music as Andy sings; the melancholy "Another Lonely Song;" "I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song" which shines so bright when Andy performs it; "I Love My Friend;" "Cry Softly;" "The Other Side of Me" which amazes me; terrific renditions of "Love Will Keep Us Together" and "My Eyes Adored You;" "Solitaire;" "Sad Eyes;" "In My Eyes;" "Mandy" and the final track "What Happens to You."

Andy Williams' fans should add this to their collections; this is quite a solid album! In fact, this CD has so much great music by Andy that it is one place to start for newcomers just discovering his remarkable talent.

Andy Williams' star was on the wane by the time these two LPs came out (1974 and 1975, respectively), but there's plenty to enjoy here in this bargain two-for. The first half of the CD (You Lay So...) leans heavily toward the country side (and Billy Sherrill, in particular) in covers of hits (C&W and pop) of the day, while the second half finds Andy mostly exploring the latter-day Neil Sedaka catalogue. Some hits, some misses, some middling material, but altogether a welcome addition to the complete collection.

Andy Williams, one of the all-time greatest popular music vocalist, puts forth these two albums in the mid-70's (a pretty mediocre era for pop music) with very good results....Definitely a different variety of songs that his fans were used to....trying to expand his audience. Songs on the album "You Lay So Easy on My Mind" are very mellow, almost country in nature, but are excellent renditions, sung impeccably. The "Other Side of Me" album shows a lot of pain in his life at the time, but again superbly delivered. I have pretty much all of Andy's recordings dating back to his Cadence Record days, and although these two albums were not as commercially successful as most of the others, they are two of my favorites. I was so glad these two were finally realeased on this two-album CD (my 33 RPM vinyls are shot), so that I can again enjoy all of these songs once again.

Luis Mejia - These two mid seventies recording by already then veteran Ady Williams (by the time at his '50s) were the last records before he took a long gap in studio music (except for the '80s "Nashville"). The first is The Other Side Of Me, made up mostly by Neil Sedaka's interpretations. Sedaka usually seems to work out more as a composer due to his interpretations are generally more worthy than his originals, so we start fine from here. It actually produced a hit for Williams with the hit that also made Captain & Tenille famous, "Love Will Keep Us Together", of course very well aranged musically along with the rest of the songs in here; neatly polished and sang in a simple manner by Williams. It delivers a low key popcraft in a ballad manner; each with lush orchestrations, piano and guitar additions and common rythms. It's very enjoyable to listen to the words in "The Hungry Years", a masterful song about love lost along the money, this one I'll say is one of Sedaka's finests and yet not too popular, also the composition by K. Nolan "In My Eyes" paints a sentimental canvas of descriptive lyrics, another top piece in the album's repertory. The version of "Solitaire" most of all known by The Carpenters famous interpretation, it's even better heard sang by Williams, specially because he sings it in first person (rather than the somewhat lame third person original version). Unfortunately more than these high points in The Other Side Of Me are well crafted but nothing notorious.

Then we find You Lay So Easy On My Mind, the record following The Other Side Of Me. It's less memorable than his predecessor, mostly because we find Williams singing rather experimental, uncomfortable songs ("You Lay So Easy On My Mind", "A Mi Esposa Con Amor"), although the last half gets very enjoyable passing through the Olivia Newton John hit "I Honestly Love You". From "Again" to "Cry Softly" it's all a road of slow ballads with brilliant choruses; if it's any better than it's predecessor it is due to the vocal show Williams provide in better form. Maybe "My Elusive Dreams" is the exception. This "Collectibles" compilation joins together two very compatible albums and yet gives an excellent sound quality and a worthy product.