"Butterfly"- ANDY WILLIAMS

[1975pixie]

love this!!

[lioshenka]

Skinny genes ;)

[AnthonysDen]

A great cover of Charlie Gracie's song,which also went to #1 on the charts in 1957 as Andy's version did.Thanks for getting this!

[cbak12sg]

It didn't in the UK. Charlie Gracie's original reached no 12 on the NME charts and 14 on the Record Retailer. Andy's cover did reach the top of the charts, though.

However, you must be American, as you used the # sign to mean number, so Ipresume you mean Cashbox or Billboard.

[gainsbourg66]

brought back memories of hearing this 78 about 3 years old - wonder, magic, love, happiness

[mkl62]

A Top 5 hit for Andy Williams in 1957. It was kept from the #1 spot by Buddy Knox (Party Doll). Ironically, Charlie Gracie's version of this song also made the Top 5 at the same time. Andy almost sounds like Elvis.

[Jaybird1103]

@mkl62 In an interview I had seen on TV, Andy Williams was asked to listen to some Elvis Presley records because the record company, Cadence, wanted Andy to mimic Elvis for this song. Andy thought he would ruin his voice doing this, but Candence Records (Andy's label in the US) convinced him otherwise, and Andy had a top 5 hit.

[34airflow]

That's fascinating. The reason I asked is that I recently selected tunes for my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. My parents had dozens of 45s from, oh, 1955 on. So, seeing "Butterfly" on a 78 freaked me out. (Okay, somewhat. :-) I believe 78s were available for a little bit as my sister and I had children's records that were on 78s.

[34airflow]

Wow, on a 78? Whacky. I didn't know singles came out on 78s back then. Thanks for posting.

[gramophoneshane]

Here in Australia most "hits" were released on 78 & 45 into 1959. I think the major companies in the USA stopped making 78's in 57??

I think alot of the late 78's made here sound better than the 45's :-)

[lrd9999]

Did you have to equalize this at all? I never expected a Victrola to have this much bass! It sounds better than a lot of the speaker to mike recordings from more modern equipment. Thanks for posting it.

[gramophoneshane]

No, it's just recorded straight from the gramophone to the camera & uploaded. This machine uses a bigger horn than any Victor ever made, with an orthophonic style soundbox, so the bass response is better. The HMV 202 re-entrant is considered the best sounding internal horn acoustic machine ever made. They sound awesome in person.

[lrd9999]

That's a new one on me. I knew that the European rights to the HMV trademark were owned by a different company, but I didn't know that they put it on anything but records. I wonder why Victor (RCA) never tried to match a machine like that, unless they were focused on electronic pickups by that time. That's an amazing machine; it must be worth a king's ransom. And to think that there was a time when these things were hollowed out to make space for books, or maybe an amp and record changer.

[gramophoneshane]

Victor had released the Credenza in Nov 1925, and it took another 2 yrs before HMV bought the rights to use the design from Western Electric. By then, Victor well & truly had the 10-50 on the market, & the radiogram was coming into fashion.

HMV had missed the market with these, and sold had sold less than 300 by 1931, when they decided to get rid of existing stock at half price. One of these with veneer & finish problems, and not working sold last November for close to US$10,000.