The Wonderful World of Andy Williams is the thirteenth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams and was released by Columbia Records to coincide with the December 31, 1963, broadcast of The Andy Williams Show. Various tracks were recorded with members of his family, including The Williams Brothers, who joined him for a remake of his first top 10 hit, "Canadian Sunset", from 1956. The album made its first appearance on Billboard magazine's Top LPs chart in the issue dated January 25 of that year and remained there for 24 weeks, peaking at number nine. it also debuted on the Cashbox albums chart in the issue dated January 25, of that year, and remained on the chart for 37 weeks, peaking at number 8 It received Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America on August 17, 1964. The single from the album, "A Fool Never Learns," made its debut on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on January 11, 1964, eventually reaching number 13 during its 10-week stay. It performed even better on the Easy Listening chart, peaking at number four. The album was released on compact disc for the first time as one of two albums on one CD by Collectables Records on January 22, 2002, the other album being Williams's Columbia album from February 1962, Danny Boy and Other Songs I Love to Sing. Collectables included this CD in a box set entitled Classic Album Collection, Vol. 2, which contains 15 of his studio albums and two compilations and was released on November 29, 2002.

Reception

William Ruhlmann of AllMusic said that the album "consisted of familiar ballads, dating back to the 1940s for Johnny Mercer's "Dream" (another choral performance not unlike the Pied Pipers' hit version) and coming up to the present for Williams versions of hits like Tony Bennett's "This Is All I Ask" and Jack Jones' "Wives and Lovers." "Softly, As I Leave You" was a good piece of material" Cashbox notes "Williams family, the songster gives top-notch readings of such lyrical goodies as "Canadian Sunset," "Wives And Lovers" and "Pennies From Heaven", calling the album "First-rate listening enjoyment" Record Mirror gave the album a postive review "saying it "features a collection of very differently styled favourite"

Track listing

Side one

Side two

Recording dates

From the liner notes for the 2002 Collectables CD:

Personnel

From the liner notes for the original album: