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Crooner outshone rock stars

With a string of gold albums, a hit TV series and the signature Moon River, Andy Williams was a voice of the 1960s, although not the '60s we usually hear about.

With a string of gold albums, a hit TV series and the signature Moon River, Andy Williams was a voice of the 1960s, although not the '60s we usually hear about.

"The old cliché says that if you can remember the 1960s, you weren't there," the singer once recalled. "Well, I was there all right, but my memory of them is blurred - not by any drugs I took but by the relentless pace of the schedule I set myself."

Williams' plaintive tenor and wholesome features helped him outlast many of the rock stars who had displaced him and such fellow crooners as Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. He remained on the charts into the 1970s, hosting hugely popular Christmas TV specials, and continued to perform in his 80s at the Moon River Theater he built in Branson, Missouri.

In November 2011, when Williams announced that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer, he vowed to return to performing the following year: his 75th in show business.

Williams died Tuesday night at his home in Branson after a yearlong battle with the disease, his Los Angeles-based publicist, Paul Shefrin, said Wednesday.

He was 84. Williams was born Howard Andrew Williams in Wall Lake, Iowa, on Dec. 3, 1927. He and his three older brothers performed in the church choir and, when Andy was eight, they were signed by a radio station. The brothers used their singing talents for films, joining Bing Crosby in recording the hit Swinging on a Star in 1944 for Crosby's film Going My Way, and took their show to Las Vegas before going their own ways.

As a solo artist, Williams struggled at first but became a major star the same year as Elvis Presley, 1956, with the Sinatra-like swing Canadian Sunset, and for a time he was pushed into such Presley imitations as Lips of Wine and the No. 1 smash Butterfly.

But he mostly stuck to what he called his "natural style," and kept it up throughout his career. In 1970, when even Sinatra had given up and (temporarily) retired, Williams was in the Top 10 with the theme from Love Story, the Oscar-winning tearjerker. He had 18 gold records and three platinum, was nominated for five Grammy awards and hosted the Grammy ceremonies for several years.

Movie songs became a specialty, from Love Story and Days of Wine and Roses to Moon River. The longing Johnny MercerHenry Mancini ballad was his most famous song, even though he never released it as a single because his record company feared such lines as "my huckleberry friend" were too confusing and old-fashioned for teens.

The song was first performed by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's, but Mancini thought Moon River ideal for Williams, who recorded it in "pretty much one take" and sang it at the 1962 Academy Awards.

Although Moon River was covered by countless artists and became a hit single for Jerry Butler, Williams made the song his personal brand. In fact, he insisted on it.

"When I hear anybody else sing it, it's all I can to do stop myself from shouting at the television screen, 'No! That's my song!' " Williams wrote in his 2009 memoir, titled, fittingly, Moon River and Me.

The Andy Williams Show, which lasted in various formats through the 1960s and into 1971, won three Emmys and featured Williams alternately performing his stable of hits and bantering casually with his guest stars.

It was on that show that Williams - who launched his own career as part of an all-brother quartet - introduced the world to another clean-cut act: the original four singing Osmond Brothers of Utah. Their younger sibling Donny also made his debut on Williams' show, in 1963 when he was six years old. Four decades later, the Osmonds and Williams would find themselves in close proximity again, sharing Williams' theatre in Branson.

Williams did book some rock and soul acts, including the Beach Boys, the Temptations and Smokey Robinson. On one show, in 1970, Williams sang Heaven Help Us All with Ray Charles, Mama Cass and a then-little known Elton John, a vision to Williams in his rhinestone glasses and black cape. But Williams liked him and his breakthrough hit Your Song enough to record it himself.

Williams' act was, apparently, not an act. The singer's unflappable manner on television and in concert was mirrored offstage.

But his wholesome image endured one jarring interlude. In 1976, his ex-wife, former Las Vegas showgirl Claudine Longet, shot and killed her lover, skiing champion Spider Sabich.

The Rolling Stones mocked the tragedy in Claudine, a song so pitiless that it wasn't released until decades later. Longet, who said it was an accident, spent only a week in jail. Williams stood by her. He escorted her to the courthouse, testified on her behalf and provided support for her and their children, Noelle, Christian and Robert.

Also in the 1970s, Williams was seen frequently in the company of Ethel Kennedy, Robert Kennedy's widow. The singer denied any romantic involvement.