In the Arms of Love

By 1966, Andy Williams had scored six consecutive gold-selling Top Ten albums (not counting reissues and compilations). In the Arms of Love, released at the end of the year, broke that string, but Williams re-established it with his very next release, 1967's Born Free, so it's worth wondering why this album was only a modest seller. One reason may be that the market was glutted; In the Arms of Love was Williams' third LP release of 1966, following another three in 1965 and in 1964. But a better reason may just be a question of marketing. The album, with its austere black cover, was released late in the holiday season after Williams' summer single "In the Arms of Love," belatedly topped the easy listening charts in October. The song was written by Henry Mancini, who had meant dollar signs for Williams with such previous movie themes as "Moon River," "Days of Wine and Roses," and "Dear Heart." But this hit, which only made it halfway up the pop charts, came from an unsuccessful film, What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?, and mid-December was no time to start selling a new, non-seasonal release. All that said, In the Arms of Love isn't really one of Williams' better albums. Much of it is even calmer than usual for him, and the focus on foreign material makes you wish he'd just gone ahead and recorded a samba album or one made up entirely of international songs, since those tunes mix oddly with the choices from the Great American Songbook and recent film themes. Williams had indicated his interest in overseas material on his last album, The Shadow of Your Smile, but this one went even further, though without the quality of songs to sustain the direction.