ANDY WILLIAMS - “Butterfly”
(25th May 1957)
To someone like me who’s never much listened to Elvis, it’s once again remarkable how obvious and immediate his vocal influence was. Those short “-uh” breath-stops at the end of each line are all over “Butterfly”, little tongue-shrugs made to mimic pelvic flicks. And it’s worth emphasising how mannered they seem: if you’ve been brought up on the received history that rock’n'roll brought something rawer and more natural to pop performance it’s intriguing to hear how theatrical and odd all those “uh-huh-huh”s sound at a distance. Here the new vocal armoury is deployed on a slight and rather unpleasant song - Andy loves his girl but she keeps hanging around other guys. After oiling around for a verse or two he hits on a solution - “I love you so much / I know what I’ll do / I’m clipping your wings / Your flying is through.” Ah, romance. 3
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