“Getting Over You” (1973) – Andy Williams * Written by Tony Hazzard * Produced by Richard Perry * UK 45: “Getting Over You” / “Remember (Andy Williams and Noelle)” * LP: Solitaire * Label: CBS * Charts: UK #35
With his Solitaire LP, Andy Williams shook things up a bit by getting in the studio with producer Richard Perry, who had been on a hot streak with hit albums by Carly Simon, Harry Nilsson, and Ringo Starr, among others. The song selection included deeper album tracks along with the usual hit covers, while Williams’s vocal now popped or swirled with new audio effects. The soft-rock flirtation, overall, brought forth three especially effective tracks: a version of George Harrison’s “That Is All,” which rescues it from the vocal-range issues of the former Beatle’s original, a version of Harry Nilsson’s “Remember,” featuring dreamy Nicky Hopkins piano (as did Nilsson’s original), and a song called “Getting Over You” by Tony Hazzard, a British songwriter who’d written some early hits for the Hollies (“Listen to Me”) and Manfred Mann (“Ha! Ha! Said the Clown”). How satisfying it must have been for him to hear his song done by one of pop music’s classic voices, with an arrangement full of such cascading instrumental payoffs (you need to listen all the way; Tom Hensley did these arrangements and took a lifelong gig with Neil Diamond thereafter). Hazzard himself had released a version of “Getting Over You” the same year, as did Hermans Hermits’ Peter Noone, but Williams’ was The One. Not released as a single in the US, it reached #35 in the UK with a B-side that included “Remember” revamped with shared vocals and dialogue with Williams’s daughter Noelle. (This all gets in the way of the sublime arrangement, so stick with the album version of that one.)