I knew the world was a really cool place when one evening in undergrad I first heard The Beat aka The English Beat's cover of "Can't Get Used to Losing You". Applying the goodness of ska to Andy Williams' hit was masterful, slamming and respect.

Andy William's growing up from 2 to 12 from 1965 to 1975 was a huge part of TV and music for the average kid. But even with that being the case, we knew it was a bit weird always with the sweater and pants of the same colour, the over-choreographed dance scenes and always him perched that stool. For the rest of my life I have sat uncomfortably on stools when forced by circumstance wondering how Andy Williams could sit on them not only looking like he was not about to have a lower gastric accident but actually able to sing sweetly. OK, it was dubbed but you can't dub the sitting on that stool thing. Without wires. I'd say Andy Williams was the last vestige of the era that brought the original Ocean's Eleven, Sammy Davis rat packing in sock revealing slacks and the final good days of Jimmy Durante...ha-cha-cha. ["Ha-cha-cha" was one of the funniest things you could say on the school ground at six years old in 1969.] It was a sort of style that one could not imagine lasting past the Sex Pistols of just a few years later until these subsequent times of the great reblandification, back to basics, the moral majoritarian reversion and revision. Like ham dinner, it comforts.