Lonely Street is the fifth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams, released in late 1959 through Cadence Records. This, his fifth LP of new material for the label, is described by William Ruhlmann on AllMusic.com as "an album full of songs of lost love and loneliness that found Williams using more of the Mel Tormé-like foggy lower register of his voice." The liner notes on the back of the album jacket read, "The selections in Lonely Street, Andy confides, are those for which he feels a special affection. Every vocalist has a few personal favorites... and it is quite clear to the listener that this collection presents songs which Andy Williams believes, feels -- and loves."
Title track
founder Archie Bleyer describes the album's title track as a "song from Nashville, which I first heard at the Everly Brothers' home on one of my trips to that city." He later conducted Williams's recording of "Lonely Street" on August 23, 1959, and the song was released as a single with another song recorded at that session, "Summer Love", as its B-side. The A-side entered the Hot 100 in Billboard magazine in the issue dated September 7 of that year and stayed on the chart for 16 weeks, peaking at number five. In the October 26 issue it debuted on the magazine's list of 30 Hot R&B Sides, where it lasted for four weeks and reached number 20.
The subsequent album
Once Williams had a hit with "Lonely Street", Ruhlmann suggests that, "in forming an album to exploit its success, he looked to the thematic ballad LPs of Frank Sinatra, such as Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely and In the Wee Small Hours." The liner notes for the original release provide a bit more insight as to how the album came about. "Conceived during a New Orleans engagement late in 1959, the set was molded with the help of Andy's pianist, Dave Grusin, and his guitarist John Abate." Ruhlmann concludes that Williams "didn't have the truly doom-laden style of Sinatra, but he held his own on material not really suited to his usual persona." Lonely Street reached the Top LP's chart in Billboard magazine as of the issue dated January 25, 1960, and remained there for four weeks, peaking at number 38 on a list that had 40 positions at the time. The album was released on compact discfor the first time in 2000 with five bonus tracks after being digitally remastered by Varèse Sarabande. The original LP was also released as one of two albums on one CD by Collectables Records on September 12, 2000, the other album being Williams's Cadence release from early 1960, The Village of St. Bernadette. Collectables included this CD in a box set entitled Classic Album Collection, Vol. 1 that contains 17 of his studio albums and three compilations and was released on June 26, 2001.
Reception
In his review of the album for Allmusic, Cub Koda proclaimed, "Not enough o's in smooth to describe this one. Williams is nothing but spot on in this collection."
