A Busy and Rewarding Musical Life for Paul Williams

The Seventies was my era...I grew up with some great music playing. It is basically the soundtrack of my life. So it was more than exciting for me to have the opportunity to do an interview with award-winning songwriter Paul Williams, responsible for hits like Rainy Days and Mondays, We've Only Just Begun and the Oscar winning Evergreen (Theme from A Star Is Born).

This guy has done it all. We have all heard his music and it is timeless. Whether we have heard Kermit the Frog singing The Rainbow Connection or Three Dog Night emoting Just An Old Fashioned Love Song or Helen Reddy lamenting the haunting You and Me Against the World.  And for you current music listeners, you have probably heard his work as he has collaborated with Scissor Sisters on their album Ta-Dah.

Williams is an Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe winning Hall of Fame songwriter. He is a recipient of The National Music Publishers President's Award and is President and Chairman of the Board of ASCAP(the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers). Recognized as one of America's most prolific and gifted lyricists and composers, Paul's standards have been recorded by such diverse musical icons as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, David Bowie, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughn, Johnny Mathis, The Carpenters, Luther Vandross, REM, Mel Torme, Anne Murray, Diana Krall, Gladys Knight and Diana Ross.

 

"The Rainbow Connection", from the children's classic The Muppet Movie, is one of two Paul Williams' songs that grace the American Film Institute's list of the top movie songs of all time; the second, "Evergreen," is from the award winning Streisand/Kristofferson remake of A Star Is Born. Additional song scores include the cult favorites Phantom of the Paradise and Ishtar, as well as The Muppet Christmas Carol, Bugsy Malone, and Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas, the latter of which has now been adapted for the stage. His recent work has remained wonderfully diverse, from creating and writing the songs and story for Disney's A Muppets Christmas: Letters To Santa, to writing with the Scissor Sisters, to penning the music and lyrics for Garry Marshall's theatrical sensation Happy Days.

But he's not just a songwriter, folks. His TV and film acting credits include Battle For the Planet of the Apes, Phantom of the Paradise and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. And who doesn't know the theme for The Love Boat? Like I said, we all know his talent in some medium and appreciate it.

Publicly lauded for his work as a songwriter, performer, actor and humanitarian, Paul predicts he'll be remembered for playing Little Enos in the Smokey and the Bandit trilogy and for his lyrics to "The Love Boat" theme, although it is the lyrics from Bugsy Malone, recast for a recent Coke commercial, that aptly sum up his philosophy: "You give a little love and it all comes back to you; You're gonna' be remembered for the things that you say and do". As a devoted husband to writer Mariana Williams and proud father, Paul considers his son Cole, and daughter Sarah, to be his best work.

 

Talking with Williams was, as he put it, "like hanging with an old friend". So, having said that....

TJ:  First thing I have to admit to you, I grew up in the seventies and am a big fan of your music.

WILLIAMS:  Thank you so much! It's been a good life and I'm loving it as much today as ever.

TJ:  One of my favorite songs was Just An Old Fashioned Love Song.

WILLIAMS:  That may have been one of the quickest songs I wrote in my life. I was taking this young lady on a date and I found out when I was leaving the studio that a song I had written had gone gold. I think it might have been Rainy Days and Mondays.  SO I picked up this girl and told her I did it again with another old fashioned love song...and all of a sudden the mind goes 'DING'!  I sat down and wrote a very simple song and thank God Three Dog Night got it.

They had been very good to me. My first top ten record, Out In The Country, was with them and later on they did Family of Man. Everytime they go out and cut another live album, they manage to put my three songs on them. So I am a big Three Dog Night Fan.

TJ:  So am I, Paul! I have all their albums.

WILLIAMS:  I wish Chuck Negron would rejoin the group. It would be magnificent to get them all back together.

TJ:  Me too. Hey, hope springs eternal!

WILLIAMS:  (Laughing)  Did you just make that up?? Wait a minute...

TJ:  Of course not. Mom used to say that to me when I was growing up...it's a family thing!

WILLIAMS:  Slowly. We're all turning into our parents. It's funny...I'm a golfer and I've probably never done anything so poorly in my life that I love so much. But I kept trying until I got good or die trying. I had hit a really bad shot and the thing that came out of my mouth was one expletive after another. So, I trained myself not to be a better golfer but to be better at being disappointed. Now, when I hit a really bad shot, I yell out, "Oh, my goodness!"  And it's probably the most embarrassing thing you can yell!

I heard a great story one time about Richard Attenborough. Richard was at a baseball game and he had never been to a baseball game before. He got caught up in the excitement and the screaming at the game. The batter had hit a foul ball and everyone got up then it got quiet and they sat down. And as soon as everyone got quiet, he screamed, "Run, darling, run!" (Laughing)

TJ:  That's too funny!!! Funny thing is, I have a friend who would probably do the same thing at a baseball game! OK, back to the questions...you are now the President and Chairman of the Board of ASCAP.

WILLIAMS:  Yes! I have been on the board for the last eight years and was Vice President for the last two years and April 26^th of this year, I was elected as President and Chairman of the Board.  It's an amazing opportunity and a great honor. For a songwriter to be President of ASCAP respresenting 360,000 plus writers and publishers, it's just a great honor. Especially at this time, when the genie's out of the bottle. It's all about the internet and new ways to experience music. It's really quite the time.

TJ:  Did you ever in your wildest dreams imagine that you would be doing this right now?

WILLIAMS:  Never in my wildest dreams! You know, I joke about that a lot. I joke about how my life is exactly as I planned it. I have an awful lot to be grateful for in this life.

TJ:  Now you had done some touring with Melissa Manchester, who is another one of my inspirations, and you each sang the other's songs?

WILLIAMS:  We did severAl Weeks on the road together doing a show called Songs and Stories, where we actually did sing each others songs and dueted them and each sang solo on stage and then joined together onstage. We wrote a bunch of songs together. We wrote one called Crazy Loving You that I am really proud of...you can listen to this on my MySpace page.

TJ:  What was your first song ever to be published?

WILLIAMS:  I had two songs that I wrote, one was the B side to Tiptoe Through The Tulips called Fill Your Heart and Tiny Tim recorded it. It was later recorded by David Bowie on his Hunky Dory album, the first outside song David Bowie ever recorded that he didn't write. And the same day, I had a song called It's Hard to Say Goodbye by Claudine Longet. I thought Claudine Longet and Tiny Tim...what kind of songwriter am I??

TJ:  Well, the way I see it...to go from that to writing for Scissor Sisters...that's quite an amazing talent.

WILLIAMS:  Yeah! From Muppets to Scissor Sisters. The thing is as a song craftsman and as President of ASCAP, the whole deal is to realize that you reach a broad spectrum of audiences.

That in mind, one of the most important things these days is audio and visual download from the internet and as President of ASCAP, I want to make sure that the writers are compensated appropriately. Right now, we are trying to get a bill that will clarify the performance of an audio visual download. For example, if you watch the special that I did with the Muppets...I wrote the story, I co-wrote the teleplay and I wrote the songs. We had a great cast...Uma Thurman, Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane... and the Muppets were amazing. Gonzo is my favorite character ever. He's like a landlocked bird and I think we're all landlocked birds.

If the songs are sung on TV, we get a performance royalty...if the songs are sung onstage, we get a performance royalty. In England, if it's downloaded onto a computer and watched, we get paid. In this country, it's not. So what we need to do is clarify that so that people get paid appropriately for their work. I just got on my ASCAP soapbox (laughing).

TJ:  To be honest, Paul, you are right! They put their heart and soul into the work and they should be compensated accordingly.

WILLIAMS:  People think that these are corporate monsters going after a piece of the pie and the fact of the matter is that these are small businessmen sitting right now with headphones on writing so they don't wake the baby in the next room. These are the people we are working for to make sure they are compensated for their work so they can make a decent living and buy shoes for that baby.

TJ:  By the way, congratulations on the Emmy Nomination for your song "I Wish I Could Be Santa Claus" from A Muppets Christmas:  Letters to Santa!

WILLIAMS:  Thank you so much! Every thirty years or sol, I like to be nominated for an Emmy. It's really exciting and I'm really proud of the song. It's a song about how we all wish we could be Santa.

(At this point, I am treated to Williams singing the song to me...which goes into my private archives...do I have to pay royalties for having this???)

TJ:  Wow! This is a moment for me...being sung to by the Paul Williams!

WILLIAMS: You know...I am really proud of this. It's about the spirit of Christmas...the real meaning of the holiday. And there's something about little Gonzo singing that song, you know? It is so touching.

TJ:  Now if you win the Emmy, where will the award go? Alongside the Oscar??

WILLIAMS:  I'll probably put it up on the shelf. It's probably too big to be used as a hood ornament for the car. You know, in this case, to be nominated is really exciting and it's going to be really great to sit in the audience and get excited all over again.

TJ:  OK, let's talk about you and the incredible Barbra Streisand...

WILLIAMS:  I have a song on her new album that I wrote with Ivan Lins called Love Dance. It's probably my wife's and my favorite song...it's either that or With One More Look At You from A Star Is Born. It's one of my favorite love songs that I have written in my life and she sings it beautifully. It's on the album twice...once with a fully produced big band arrangement done by Johnny Mandel, also incidentally on the Board of Directors of ASCAP, and then there's a more intimate version with Diana Krall's smaller rhythm section, which is wonderful. It's very exciting to have another cut with Barbra.

It's a very exciting time in my life right now, Emmet Otter (Williams contributed the music and lyrics) is returning and will run December 5, 2009, through January 3, 2010, at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut. This is a live action musical which also has puppets. The show will go on tour next year.

And Happy Days The Musical, which I did for Garry Marshall, will be touring again next year. I have really fallen in love with writing, which I can thank the theatre for...I had no idea I would come to love the script process...the collaborative process...I think that that has really lit the fire under me for writing again.

It's always great to try something new...it's one of the byproducts that makes us grow artistically and personally. And it keeps you young and vibrant. Thanks to a new friend, Paul Williams, for sharing his life with us at BroadwayWorld.com and don't forget the following items:

1)   You can listen to William's new song Love Dance on Barbra Streisand's new album Love Is The Answer, set to be released September 29^th. Check out highlights at barbrastreisand.com.

2)    Root for Paul and his Emmy nomination for I Wish I Could Be Santa Claus from A Muppets Christmas:  Letters to Santa on Emmy night Sunday, September 20^th at 8:00PM EST on CBS.

3)      See Jim Henson's Emmet Otter at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, which runs from December 5, 2009, through January 3, 2010 [Official Press Opening December 16, 2009]. The curtain times are as follows: First performance December 5 at 8:00 p.m.; Wednesdays December 9 and 16 at 12:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., Wednesdays December 23 and 30 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., Thursdays December 10 and 17 at 7:00 p.m.; with special performances on Christmas Eve at 12:00 p.m., New Year's Eve at 12: p.m. and New Year's Day at 2:00 p.m.; Fridays December 13 and 18 at 7:00 p.m.; Saturday December 12 at 12:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., Saturdays December 19 and 26 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., and Saturday January 2 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.; and Sundays at 12:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. Tickets start at $39 for children under 12 and $49 for adults. A limited number of $26 Second Row Side Mezzanine (restricted view) seats are available for each performance. Tickets are on sale now to Goodspeed Members only and will go on sale to the general public on September 11. For more information call the Box Office at 860.873.8668 or visit www.goodspeed.org.

So for now, I say that this is just an old fashioned TJ Fitzgerald bidding you ciao and remember, theatre is my life...and so is music!!!!

To post a comment, you must register and login.