S.O.D. "Classical Gas" by Mason Williams

1/31/2016     An instrumental here that became popular fast and was used as the theme for numerous television news programs. The 1968 Classical/Baroque Pop song took home three Grammys in 1969. In 1998 for becoming the #1 instrumental on radio with over 5 million plays, the Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) presented Williams with a Citation of Achievement.  

     The back up band for Williams was The Wrecking Crew, a group of top-flight session musicians that recorded nearly 70 songs for such artists as Frank Sinatra, Simon and Garfunkel, the Beach Boys, Glen Campbell, Barbra Streisand and just about any other band that was popular in that era. They are a story within themselves so I will eventually get to them. Look them up if you can't wait.  In 1968 the song hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks and topped the Easy Listening chart for three weeks.  

     Mason is also an accomplished poet, photographer and comedy writer, writing for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, the Glen Campbell Good Time Hour and Saturday Night Live.  Williams has released just under 50 albums and is still making music at the age of 77, 58 years in the business.  

     While taking up the cause of environmentalism, mainly against a hydroelectric power project, he employed more than 400 songs about rivers which he calls Of Time and Rivers Flowing.  It is one concert all by itself and contains 8 different genres. Check this guy out on the net, he is quite astounding.