While I was talking to my son on the weekend (He's a millennial) I happened to mention Paul Williams..., and I was shocked when he said he had never heard of him!
How quickly we are forgotten: I am going to include this info just so you realize how fleeting it is to be famous!
Paul Hamilton Williams Jr. (born September 19, 1940) is an American composer, singer, songwriter and actor.
He is known for writing and co-writing popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s, including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song" and "Out in the Country," Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World," David Bowie's "Fill Your Heart" and the Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun" and "Rainy Days and Mondays."
Williams is also known for his musical contributions to films, including the Oscar-nominated song "Rainbow Connection" from The Muppet Movie, and writing the lyrics to the #1 chart-topping song "Evergreen," the love theme from the Barbra Streisand film A Star Is Born, for which he won a Grammy for Song of the Year and an Academy Award for Best Original Song, and the soundtrack for "Phantom of the Paradise! (See video)
He wrote the lyrics to the opening theme for the television show The Love Boat, and on top of this, he had a number of hits himself: Just an old fashioned love song, We've only just begun, I won't last a day without you!
Notable songs
- "Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)", (#1 hit for Barbra Streisand!)
- "I Won't Last a Day Without You", (#1 hit for Carpenters!)
- "Rainy Days and Mondays", (#1 hit for Carpenters!)
- "We've Only Just Begun" (#1 hit for Carpenters!)
- "The Family of Man" (#5 hit for Three Dog Night)
- "Out in the Country" (#15 hit for Three Dog Night)
- "Talk It Over in the Morning" (#1 hit for Anne Murray)
- "You and Me Against the World" (#1 hit for Helen Reddy)
- "Rainbow Connection" (Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated song)
- "Flying Dreams" (from The Secret of NIMH soundtrack)
- "Let Me Be the One" (#18 U.S R&B chart hit for The Carpenters and Al Wilson)
- "Someday Man" (The Monkees – 1969 – "A" Side of "Listen to the Band" single)
- "Touch" (Daft Punk – 2013 – Random Access Memories)
- "You're Gone" (US Country #4 hit for Diamond Rio)
TV themes (lyricist)[edit]
- Griffin and Phoenix (1976 TV movie, the theme song "A Perfect Love" video by Gord Ritchie)
- The McLean Stevenson Show
- Another Day (1978 TV series theme song)
- The Love Boat
- It Takes Two
- Sugar Time!
- Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas
Films
- Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
- Bugsy Malone (1976)
- Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1977)
- The End (1978)
- The Muppet Movie (1979)
- Ishtar (1987)
- The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Theatre[edit]
- Bugsy Malone (1997)
- Happy Days (2007)
- Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (2008)
