Golden Hits Of The 60s”
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MASON WILLIAMS
“CLASSICAL GAS”
(Hank Snowball)
Warner Bros. 7190
No. 2 August 3, 1968
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At Oklahoma City University, Mason Williams (b. July 24, 1936, Abilene, TX) studied mathematics
and music. After classes, he played guitar and sang in folk clubs, briefly joining up with the
Wayfarers Trio. Following a stint in the Navy, Mason took up folksinging full-time. At a
coffeehouse in L.A., he met the Limeliters’ GLENN YARBROUGH, who introduced him to Tommy
Smothers. Mason and Tommy became good friends, and eventually shared an apartment together.
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Williams joined the Smothers Brothers’ back-up band, penned tunes for the clean-cut but
controversial duo, and even wrote some comedy material. Johnny Desmond, GALE GARNETT, the
Kingston Trio, and Claudine Longet recorded some of his compositions. Esther and Abi Ofarim’s
cover of his “Cinderella Rockefeller” topped the British charts, and Longet’s work on Mason’s
marvel in 10/4 time, “Wanderlove,” was a siz able seller in Singapore.
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By the release of “Classical Gas”–which he described to Goldmine as “half flamenco, half Flatt &
Scruggs, and half classical”–Williams was a writer for “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” the
highly popular TV program. Before the brothers’ boob-tube demise and Mason’s departure from
the show in 1969 for other creative endeavors, Williams won an Emmy for “Outstanding Writing
Achievement for a Variety Show.” “Classical Gas,” his three-minute classic, garnered three
Grammys: “Best Instrumental Arrangement,” “Best Contemporary-Pop Performance,” and “Best
Instrumental Theme.”
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Over the next year, Warner Bros. did a rather brisk business of selling Williams’ mongrel music.
His first three LPs–The Mason Williams Phonograph Record (1968), The Mason Williams Ear
Show (1968), and Music by Mason Williams ( 1969)–were all best sellers. A few of his singles
dotted the lowest reaches of the Hot 100--“Baroque-a-Nova” (#96, 1968), “Saturday Night at the
World” (#99, 1969), and “Greensleeves” (#90, 1969).
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Mason periodically pops up in the record racks on one label or another. In the meantime, he is
certainly not idle. He has had, at last count, seven books published, including such tomes as The
Mason Williams Reading Matter and The Bus Book, and he has been writting material for Glen Campbell,
Petula Clark, Pat Paulsen, Andy Williams, and the brothers Smothers. For a period in the early
’80s, he was the headwriter for NBC’s “Saturday Night Live:’