Classical Gas

"Classical Gas" is an instrumental piece of music written by Mason Williams. The title of the album on which it appears is also Classical Gas. This song was originally released by Mason Williams on "The Mason Williams Phonograph Record" released in 1968.

History

The title of the song was originally "Classical Gasoline" but was changed to "Classical Gas" by the music copyist. On the original recording, Williams plays guitar and is accompanied by an orchestral backing. The orchestral arrangements for this song were written by Mike Post. It was released in February 1968 from the album The Mason Williams Phonograph Record. In August 1968 it reached Number 2 on the American charts and went on to sell over a million copies; the song also topped the Billboard Easy Listening survey.^{[1][citation needed]} Williams re-recorded the tune as a solo guitar piece on his 1970 album Hand Made. In 1987, he recorded a version with Mannheim Steamroller.

Mason Williams was the head writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour at the time of the piece's release. The song premiered on the show. Williams performed it several times over several episodes. After the piece had reached the Top Ten, Williams asked an experimental filmmaker named Dan McLaughlin to create a video montage of classical art works edited in time to the music, using a visual effect now known as kinestasis. The pioneering work, "3000 Years of Art", premiered in the summer of 1968 and may have helped push the song high on the charts.^[2][3]

During the 1970s and early 1980s, many television stations used the song—or an updated version by Telesound—as their theme song.

There is a common misconception that "Classical Gas" was composed and performed by Eric Clapton, when in fact Clapton has never even recorded a cover of the song. This misconception may possibly be attributed to the fact that Clapton was musical director of, and played much of the guitar music for the feature film The Story of Us, whereas the version of "Classical Gas" on the film's soundtrack is actually from Williams' album Handmade.^[4]

Track list

1. "Classical Gas" 03:27
2. "Sunflower" 02:08
3. "Samba Beach" 03:54
4. "Country Idyll" 02:11
5. "Saturday Night at the World" 03:52
6. "Shady Dell" 03:18
7. "Katydid’s Ditty" 00:58
8. "Greensleeves" 03:01
9. "Doot-Doot" 02:03
10. "La Chanson de Claudine" 03:12
11. "McCall" 02:35
12. "Vancouver Island" 02:45
13. "Baroque-A-Nova" 03:04

Awards

• In 1969 the piece won three Grammy Awards: Best Instrumental Composition, Best Contemporary-Pop Performance, Instrumental, and Best Instrumental Arrangement.
• In 1998 Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) awarded Williams a special Citation of Achievement. The piece has logged over five million broadcast performances to become BMI's all-time number-one instrumental composition for radio air play.

Notes

This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (July 2009)

External links

• Official website
• Notable instances of "Classical Gas" in media
• Official Mason Williams website