This week we’re focusing on instrumental hits and today’s classic instrumental song of the day is one of the biggest instrumental hits of the ’60s. The tune is “Classical Gas” by Mason Williams, released as a single in April of 1968. This one went to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, #1 on the Cash Box Top 100, and #1 on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart. It was also a top ten hit in Australia, Canada, and the UK and won Grammy Awards for Best Instrumental Composition, Best Contemporary Pop Performance, Instrumental, and Best Instrumental Orchestra Arrangement.
Mason Williams is a musician, comedian, and writer who, in 1968, was working as the head writer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. His musical background was useful when working with the Brothers’ music-laced comedy routines, and helped him win an Emmy Award for comedy writing. (He also came up with the brilliant “Pat Paulsen for President” running routine for the show.)
According to Mason Williams’ Classical Gas website, he began composing “Classical Gas” during the summer of 1967 and kept working on it for several months following. Here’s how Mr. Williams remembers it:
“I would work writing bits for the Smothers Brothers show, and after a while would burn out, pick on my guitar and work out parts to ‘Classical Gas.’ It was in between writing parts for Jack Benny, Greer Garson, Janet Leigh, Pete Seeger, George Burns, Herman’s Hermits, Betty Davis, Mickey Rooney, The Who and all of these other acts. It must have taken two or three months to write it in bits and pieces.”
When Warner Bros. Records asked the brothers Smothers if they knew any new artists to add to the label, Tom and Dick recommended their lead writer. That led to Williams’ debut album, The Mason Williams Phonograph Record, and the recording of “Classical Gas.”
That wasn’t the song’s original title, however. The song was originally titled “Classical Gasoline,” but a music copyist shortened the second word and the new title stuck. Williams recorded the tune with members of L.A.’s Wrecking Crew, including Larry Knechtel on piano, Jim Horn on flute, and Jim Gordon on drums. Mason Williams himself played the classical guitar part.
The song’s Grammy-winning arrangement was by Mike Post (who later wrote lots of famous TV theme songs, including the themes for Magnum P.I., Hill Street Blues, Quantum Leap, and The Rockford Files), and it added a lot to the song. In Mr. Williams’ words:
“When I started recording with Warner Brothers, I got together with Mike Post, and he had some really great ideas about how to finish it up. We worked on that last part together. I also asked him to put something of his own in the middle, and he put in that horn part. It was his own contribution to the tune, really a brilliant departure from my theme.”
In fact, the whole idea of the orchestra backing came from Mike Post. Here’s what Mr. Post remembers about it:
“Mason played me this one little song in A minor called ‘Classical Gas.’ And it really was good. He said, ‘I just want to do bass, drums, guitar and piano.’ I said, ‘We need an orchestra for some of the vocal songs on the album, we can do a big, aggressive instrumental thing.'”
Mr. Post’s instincts were on the mark. I think what made “Classical Gas” so popular was that unique blending of classical and pop elements. Mr. Williams has his thoughts on the matter:
“I think the thing that makes ‘Classical Gas’ unique is that most pop songs and instrumentals are in four parts. There’s an intro, a verse, a chorus and an outro. ‘Classical Gas’ has 12 segments. I had some great ideas when I was young, but hadn’t quite figured out how to develop them. So all of the things I had learned in college and music school I put into that song. They were all sort of classical ingredients.”
Of course, it didn’t hurt that Williams got to perform “Classical Gas” several times on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, which was terrific promotion for the tune. One of those performances was in the form of an experimental film, titled 3000 Years of Art, which is today’s daily bonus video of the day. The piece was put together by filmmaker Dan McLaughlin, and it is dazzling.
