Andy Williams Sings Rodgers and Hammerstein 1", which contains 17 of his studio albums and three compilations and was released on June 26, 2001. In AllMusic, William Ruhlmann wrote that Williams "wasn't really a rocker, even if he sometimes pretended to be one for commercial purposes at the behest of Cadence Records head Archie Bleyer" and that he "was allowed to show his true colors by recording a collection of Rodgers & Hammerstein songs from the musicals "Oklahoma!", "Carousel", "South Pacific", and "The King and I". The result was the birth of the Andy Williams his fans knew from then on." Ruhlmann felt that "Williams revealed
Richard Rodgers he composed some of his first songs. Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, and later collaborator Oscar Hammerstein II all attended Columbia University. At Columbia, Rodgers joined the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity. In 1921, Rodgers shifted his studies to the Institute of Musical Art (now the Juilliard School). Rodgers was influenced by composers such as Victor Herbert and Jerome Kern, as well as by the operettas his parents took him to see on Broadway when he was a child. In 1919, Richard met Lorenz Hart, thanks to Phillip Leavitt, a friend of Richard's older brother. Rodgers and Hart struggled for years in the