"The old cliche says that if you can remember the 1960s, you weren't there," Williams once recalled. "Well, I was there all right, but my memory of them is blurred — not by any drugs I took but by the relentless pace of the schedule I set myself."
The 84-year-old entertainer, who died Tuesday night at his Branson home following a yearlong battle with bladder cancer, outlasted many of the decade's rock stars and fellow crooners such as Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. He remained on the charts into the 1970s and continued to perform into his 80s.
Williams became a major star in 1956, the same year as Elvis Presley, with the Sinatra-like swing number "Canadian Sunset." For a time, he was pushed into such Presley imitations as "Lips of Wine" and the No. 1 smash "Butterfly."
But he mostly stuck to what he called his "natural style" and kept it up throughout his career. In 1970, when even Sinatra had temporarily retired, Williams was in the top 10 with the theme from "Love Story," the Oscar-winning tearjerker. He had 18 gold records, three platinum and five Grammy award nominations.
Williams was also the first host of the live Grammy awards telecast and hosted the show for seven consecutive years, beginning in 1971.
Movie songs became a specialty, including his signature "Moon River." The longing Johnny Mercer-Henry Mancini ballad was his most famous song, even though he never released it as a single because his record company feared such lines as "my huckleberry friend" were too confusing and old-fashioned for teens.
The song was first performed by Audrey Hepburn in the cherished 1961 film "Breakfast at Tiffany's," but Mancini thought "Moon River" ideal for Williams, who recorded it in "pretty much one take" and also sang it at the 1962 Academy Awards. Although "Moon River" was covered by countless artists and became a hit single for Jerry Butler, Williams made the song his personal brand. In fact, he insisted on it.
"When I hear anybody else sing it, it's all I can to do stop myself from shouting at the television screen, 'No! That's my song!'" Williams wrote in his 2009 memoir titled, fittingly, "Moon River and Me."
At a Wednesday matinee at Williams' Moon River Theatre in Branson, a performer told the crowd that Williams would have wanted the show to go on, and it did. The first show after his death included a moving video of him performing "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You."
"It was very emotional, very sad," said Barbara Cox of Atlanta, who came to Branson on vacation. "We've lost a great man."
Carol and Ruth Harding, sisters who traveled from suburban Denver to attend a second show Wednesday evening, said they've been Williams fans since they were teenagers. The women, both in their early 70s and married to brothers, said they'd seen him perform numerous times, including 10 trips to his Christmas show.
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