Andy Williams--Shadows of the Night

[Gothick]

Fans,

A friend of mine bought a CD of rare recordings by Claudine Longet.  I think some (possibly all) of the material came from TV broadcasts.  He mentioned that there's a track where Claudine covers "Shadows of the Night."

For those who have no idea who I am talking about, Claudine became a celebrity back in the Sixties mainly in her role as the wife of Andy Williams, who would now be described as an "adult contemporary" lounge singer.  Andy had a hugely popular "family friendly" TV series from sometime in the 60s through to the 1970s.  I think Andy Williams is largely forgotten and that is even more the case for Claudine.  Claudine did appear in a 1967 film starring Peter Sellers, THE PARTY.

Claudine did a really spooky cover of the theme song from Rosemary's baby, a kind of Satanic lullaby.  And Claudine later made international headlines due to an unfortunate "accident" involving a ski star named Spider who was her extramarital lover.

I didn't find Claudine's recording of "Shadows of the Night" but I did find this one with husband Andy Williams.  It sounds like the kind of thing you'd have heard in a bus station coffee shop back around 1974 (yes, this is a little in-joke for those of us who are card-carrying members of Halloholics Anon).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RvC4jiKD_g

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Believe it or not, my mom had that LP back in the day and listened to it often. In fact, I still have it around here somewhere. I kept it for sentimental reasons for both my mom and DS...

[Gothick]

That's a sweet memory, MB. 

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

No one is more surprised than me that I was actually able to put my hands right on it.

Here's a scan of part of the front jacket:

And a scan of part of the back:

I did a bit of research on Wikipedia and apparently the LP was released on October 6, 1969, while DS was still doing the 1897 storyline.

And at this point I have no idea who Loadstone were. But how much of a fluke is it that, considering so many seem to confuse Barnabas' name as Barnaby, their record label was Barnaby records...

[Uncle Roger]

I heard the Williams version at least once on the radio back then. He may even have performed it on his variety show. If he did, there doesn't seem to be a clip on YouTube.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

My mom was a faithful viewer of his show every Saturday night and I don't honestly recall hearing him sing it on the show. Though I could have missed it because I wasn't always home every Saturday night. However, if he had sung it, I think my mom would have told me because she was also a DS fan. But hey, that was nearly 50 years - maybe she did tell me and I just don't remember. But the interesting thing is that I've seen where getTV runs a lot of his old shows, so who knows, if I keep track, maybe we'll find out for sure...

[Gerard]

In a box somewhere, I have the LP45 of William's "Shadows of the Night."  I wonder what it's worth (and what's on the flip-side).

Gerard