Andy Williams dodged the bullet

There are some strange nearly moments in history, and - amongst the strangest - is that Andy Williams was meant to be having dinner with Bobby Kennedy on the night he got killed. Williams felt guilty (and, we suspect, a little relieved - who wouldn't?) about having blown Kennedy out on the night he got blown away, and so said sorry with a tie:

"By the time I got to him, he was already dead... there was blood all over Bobby's clothes, on everything. So I went back to the Beverly Hills Hotel where he was staying, and got him a shirt and suit. But there was no tie. So I took off my own - a black one - and they dressed him in the fresh clothes and my tie for the flight back to New York on Air Force Two.

"And I sang The Battle Hymn Of The Republic at the funeral. We chose that song because he used it on the campaign trail. He had a terrible voice but he loved to sing that song. The only way I got through singing in church that day was by saying, 'This is my job. I can't let emotion get in the way of the song.' I really concentrated on not thinking about him."

Williams chose not to pull an Elton John and release the funeral song as a single, for charity or otherwise.