You Lay So Easy on My Mind

You Lay So Easy on My Mind
Studio album by
Andy Williams
ReleasedNovember 1974[1]
RecordedJune 18–19, 1974
September 18–19, 1974 [2]
Genre
Length29:18
LabelColumbia
ProducerBilly Sherrill[4]
Andy Williams chronology
Christmas Present
(1974) 		You Lay So Easy on My Mind
(1974) 		The Other Side of Me
(1975)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[3]
BillboardTop Album Pick[1]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[5]

You Lay So Easy on My Mind is the thirty-fourth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams, released in November 1974 by Columbia Records.[1] The idea for this LP was mentioned in an interview with Williams in the November 3, 1973, issue of Billboard magazine that emphasized his desire to move away from recording albums of Easy Listening covers of hits by other artists, noting that he was "planning an album to be cut in Nashville with Columbia's high-flying country-pop producer, Billy Sherrill." The article coincided with the release of his first attempt to shift directions, Solitaire, which performed poorly. A return to the Easy Listening hits formula, The Way We Were, followed in the spring of 1974 but failed to even chart, so this next attempt to eschew soft rock songs leaned heavily on Country hits.

The album made its first appearance on the Billboard Top LP's & Tapes chart in the issue dated December 28, 1974, and remained there for four weeks, peaking at number 150.[6] The album was released in the UK on February 14, 1975, and on March 1, 1976, the British Phonographic Industry awarded it with Silver certification for sales of 60,000 units.[7]

The first song from the album to be released as a single by Williams was "Another Lonely Song", which entered Billboard magazine's list of the 40 most popular Easy Listening songs of the week in the US in the issue dated September 21, 1974, and stayed on the chart for eight weeks, peaking at number 29.[8] "Cry Softly" entered that same chart in the April 12, 1975, issue and reached number 20 over the course of six weeks,[8] and the title track from the album entered the UK singles chart the following month, on May 31, for a seven-week stay that took the song to number 32.[9]

You Lay So Easy on My Mind was released on compact disc for the first time as one of two albums on one CD by Collectables Records on February 19, 2002, the other album being Williams's Columbia release from the summer of 1975, The Other Side of Me.[10] 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.[11] It was also released as one of two albums on one CD by Sony Music Distribution on June 21, 2004, paired this time with Williams's album from 1980, Let's Love While We Can.[12]

  1. ^ a b c "Top Album Picks". Billboard. 1974-11-30. p. 46.
  2. ^ (2002) Album notes for You Lay So Easy on My Mind /The Other Side of Me by Andy Williams, [CD booklet]. New York: Sony Music.
  3. ^ a b "You Lay So Easy on My Mind - Andy Williams". allmusic.com. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 21 March 2011.
  4. ^ (1974) You Lay So Easy on My Mind by Andy Williams [album jacket]. New York: Columbia Records KC 33234.
  5. ^ Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. p. 1498. ISBN 9781846098567. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  6. ^ Whitburn 2010, p. 844.
  7. ^ "BPI search results". British Phonographic Industry. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  8. ^ a b Whitburn 2007, p. 296.
  9. ^ "Andy Williams". Official Charts. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  10. ^ "You Lay So Easy on My Mind/The Other Side of Me - Andy Williams". allmusic.com. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 21 March 2011.
  11. ^ "Classic Album Collection, Vol. 2". allmusic.com. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 16 October 2010.
  12. ^ "You Lay So Easy on My Mind/Let's Love While We Can". allmusic.com. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 21 March 2011.