Part of a generational singing family, these Williams Brothers started out as teen idols. As they grew, so did their musical reputation & respect. Just ask Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty's Heartbreakers.
Love it!! But I’m still going to need “twenty-seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one” to make all the connections....
Head shots? Comin' right up! I actually think the cats' names are on the Fan Club interview disc, which you can hear in the article! I just thought of that after I finished the reply to Mike! I was on, and loved, this album when it came out, and had no idea what the lads had done (like the Plimsouls and T-Bone connections) since their early '70s albums (which I also had....teen pop idolatry was a sub-genre fave as a collectible record set for me!)...that's what's behind my "Video to Vinyl" line you've seen a few pieces on already (Don Grady, Lynda Carter).
The Williams Brothers had a cool 2-CD compilation out around the turn of the century...it was just their 2 early '70s teeny pop albums, but still cool to have on CD! By the end of the day, I'll have my article on FB and its many appropriate rock-oriented groups. I'll also check for a Williams Bros page, as well as separate pages on Andy and David! Would love to chat with one/both.....they're in their mid-'60s, now!
Wow, that was dense with some wily Williams Brothers historical info! I might have to read it again to make sure I was able to follow! Like many of the folks you feature here, I had never heard of Andy and David Williams. Impressive cast of rock legends that they've worked with though! I will say that I like Stevie Nicks version of "Some Become Strangers." She gives the song the gravitas and emotional heft missing from the twins recording. She has a way of doing that.
I feel like your writing is filling in the shades and textures of my musical history knowledge. It's making me see how much bigger the canvas is than I realized.
Your last 2 sentences is why I do what I do! I was blessed and fortunate to have heard literally everything that was released (major labels, anyway) from the late '60s thru the early '80s...Dad's promos from the radio station til the mid-70s when I started earning my own freebies from radio!
While radio was making all the decisions about what they deigned to allow the American public to hear for those years, I was hearing all the records they discarded! My "hits" were created on my turntable, not from somebody else's radio waves.
My gift (as I've discovered over the years) is a trap-like memory for music and the artists who made it (more evidence....my list of do-able karaoke songs was in the hundreds...a list that several people felt compelled to photograph!). And, I got precious little help from radio for "my hits" (to help me remember)!
My 5 years in the Capital City Men's Chorus was made easier by my recording our rehearsals, then listening to our songs at home during the week. I couldn't read music, so I used my "gift" to my advantage. That's how I learned the Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach "Toledo" song, from scratch, for karaoke, recounted here: https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/wholly-toledo-my-long-drive-to-find
As for other (and more famous) artists discovering Andy and David (and eager to play with them, and have the boys join them)--that underscores my insistence that radio play and sales doesn't necessarily equal massive talent, anymore than lack of airplay and/or sales equals LACK of talent (Andy and David, as well as Stephen Michael Schwartz, are two prime artist examples)! Stephen has played and written songs with many Grammy winners and million-sellers.
As I told Ellen this morning, if you keep reading, I'll keep writing! And, thanks again...I love how you get me!! And, I'm happy you're open to learning and hearing music that hasn't been "blessed" by radio airplay!🎶🌟😁👍
Thanks, Teresa....certainly my pleasure! Thanks, also, for joining us here, FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE! We like (and have no problem happily swimming in that pool!) the teen pop idol lane as a fascinating sub-genre to dig into! Feel free to rummage around the FR&B Legacy archives for more articles all but torn from the pages of Gloria Stavers' "16" and Chuck Laufer's "Tiger Beat"!
Stephen Michael Schwartz, who recorded an album in 1974 for RCA Records (he was 20), and has written 20 articles exclusively for FR&B! He was even in a 1978 sitcom (we've written about it...all are in his own words, btw!) called "Please Stand By," where he answered an audition notice for "a David Cassidy type," and got the job! Anyway, after his RCA album was released, he did the teen mag rounds, doing interviews and photo shoots: https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/audio-autopsy-1974-stephen-michael
I also know the names of the 4 cats! But, I thought, "Naw, that'd be just showing off!" Seriously, though, Mike, I see and hear so much during my research, but I can't include it ALL in the piece...but, I don't want to just "throw it away," so I may off-hand drop it into the article, or (likely what you saw) use it in my PR on Notes, etc. I mean, if the boys are sitting poolside, it's likely to assume it was the pool at their home (which I learned in research was Sherman Oaks), and how probable that the family dog would be there, too, just out of camera range?
I saw a video interview (NOT on YT, or I might've included it in the article...it didn't appear easy to "take off" the article it was embedded in) of the boys on a TV show around the time, which was full of facts, some of them I used in the article. I wanted to use some quotes from it, but the article was already ballooning into a full bio, and less the album focus it was supposed to be! It's always about the editing!
When I do research, good tidbits are hard to toss aside! But, if they don't/can't "fit" in the article, I'll use 'em in the promo (or teaser text) on any of the social media sites I put my articles on!
Love it!! But I’m still going to need “twenty-seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one” to make all the connections....
Head shots? Comin' right up! I actually think the cats' names are on the Fan Club interview disc, which you can hear in the article! I just thought of that after I finished the reply to Mike! I was on, and loved, this album when it came out, and had no idea what the lads had done (like the Plimsouls and T-Bone connections) since their early '70s albums (which I also had....teen pop idolatry was a sub-genre fave as a collectible record set for me!)...that's what's behind my "Video to Vinyl" line you've seen a few pieces on already (Don Grady, Lynda Carter).
The Williams Brothers had a cool 2-CD compilation out around the turn of the century...it was just their 2 early '70s teeny pop albums, but still cool to have on CD! By the end of the day, I'll have my article on FB and its many appropriate rock-oriented groups. I'll also check for a Williams Bros page, as well as separate pages on Andy and David! Would love to chat with one/both.....they're in their mid-'60s, now!
I’ll be on the Group W bench with Officer Obie.....
Wow, that was dense with some wily Williams Brothers historical info! I might have to read it again to make sure I was able to follow! Like many of the folks you feature here, I had never heard of Andy and David Williams. Impressive cast of rock legends that they've worked with though! I will say that I like Stevie Nicks version of "Some Become Strangers." She gives the song the gravitas and emotional heft missing from the twins recording. She has a way of doing that.
I feel like your writing is filling in the shades and textures of my musical history knowledge. It's making me see how much bigger the canvas is than I realized.
Your last 2 sentences is why I do what I do! I was blessed and fortunate to have heard literally everything that was released (major labels, anyway) from the late '60s thru the early '80s...Dad's promos from the radio station til the mid-70s when I started earning my own freebies from radio!
While radio was making all the decisions about what they deigned to allow the American public to hear for those years, I was hearing all the records they discarded! My "hits" were created on my turntable, not from somebody else's radio waves.
My gift (as I've discovered over the years) is a trap-like memory for music and the artists who made it (more evidence....my list of do-able karaoke songs was in the hundreds...a list that several people felt compelled to photograph!). And, I got precious little help from radio for "my hits" (to help me remember)!
My 5 years in the Capital City Men's Chorus was made easier by my recording our rehearsals, then listening to our songs at home during the week. I couldn't read music, so I used my "gift" to my advantage. That's how I learned the Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach "Toledo" song, from scratch, for karaoke, recounted here: https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/wholly-toledo-my-long-drive-to-find
As for other (and more famous) artists discovering Andy and David (and eager to play with them, and have the boys join them)--that underscores my insistence that radio play and sales doesn't necessarily equal massive talent, anymore than lack of airplay and/or sales equals LACK of talent (Andy and David, as well as Stephen Michael Schwartz, are two prime artist examples)! Stephen has played and written songs with many Grammy winners and million-sellers.
Like the Williams Bros., the industry knows Stephen's multi- and mega-talented! Exhibit A (for those who haven't read it...I know you have, Steve): https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/musical-storm-the-stephen-michael
As I told Ellen this morning, if you keep reading, I'll keep writing! And, thanks again...I love how you get me!! And, I'm happy you're open to learning and hearing music that hasn't been "blessed" by radio airplay!🎶🌟😁👍
I agree with the other comments, Brad! You are extremely thorough and I am amazed at all you know! Great stuff, as usual 😊.
Thank you, Ellen! Your appreciation is also the best encourager!
Thanks, Teresa....certainly my pleasure! Thanks, also, for joining us here, FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE! We like (and have no problem happily swimming in that pool!) the teen pop idol lane as a fascinating sub-genre to dig into! Feel free to rummage around the FR&B Legacy archives for more articles all but torn from the pages of Gloria Stavers' "16" and Chuck Laufer's "Tiger Beat"!
May I recommend this one "that started it all," my 1975 interview with David Cassidy: https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/in-a-houston-penthouse-with-david
and, there's Leif: https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/inside-tracks-5-the-motors-forget
and, Don Grady from "My Three Sons" (did you know he recorded?): https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/video-to-vinyl-1967-don-grady-from
and....
Stephen Michael Schwartz, who recorded an album in 1974 for RCA Records (he was 20), and has written 20 articles exclusively for FR&B! He was even in a 1978 sitcom (we've written about it...all are in his own words, btw!) called "Please Stand By," where he answered an audition notice for "a David Cassidy type," and got the job! Anyway, after his RCA album was released, he did the teen mag rounds, doing interviews and photo shoots: https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/audio-autopsy-1974-stephen-michael
Welcome again, Teresa, and stay tuned!😁👍
I also know the names of the 4 cats! But, I thought, "Naw, that'd be just showing off!" Seriously, though, Mike, I see and hear so much during my research, but I can't include it ALL in the piece...but, I don't want to just "throw it away," so I may off-hand drop it into the article, or (likely what you saw) use it in my PR on Notes, etc. I mean, if the boys are sitting poolside, it's likely to assume it was the pool at their home (which I learned in research was Sherman Oaks), and how probable that the family dog would be there, too, just out of camera range?
I saw a video interview (NOT on YT, or I might've included it in the article...it didn't appear easy to "take off" the article it was embedded in) of the boys on a TV show around the time, which was full of facts, some of them I used in the article. I wanted to use some quotes from it, but the article was already ballooning into a full bio, and less the album focus it was supposed to be! It's always about the editing!
When I do research, good tidbits are hard to toss aside! But, if they don't/can't "fit" in the article, I'll use 'em in the promo (or teaser text) on any of the social media sites I put my articles on!