Musical Career
Williams was part of a short lived rock group called "Holy Mackerel." He is responsible for a number of enduring pop hits from the 1970s, including several hits for Three Dog Night (the aforementioned "An Old Fashioned Love Song", as well as "The Family of Man", and "Out in the Country"), Helen Reddy ("You and Me Against the World"), and the Carpenters, most notably "Rainy Days and Mondays," "I Won't Last a Day Without You," and "We've Only Just Begun", originally a song for a Crocker National Bank television commercial featuring newlyweds, and which has since become a cover-band standard and de rigueur for weddings throughout North America. An early collaboration with Roger Nichols, "Someday Man," was covered by The Monkees (a group for which he auditioned but was not cast) on a 1969 single, and was the first Monkees' release not published by Screen Gems. He also auditioned for, but was not selected to be a Mouseketeer. Bobby Sherman also sang "Cried Like a Baby." Anne Murray sang "Talk It Over in the Morning." He also wrote the cantata Wings with music by Michel Colombier.
A frequent cowriter of Williams was musician Kenneth Ascher; their songs together included the popular children's favorite "Rainbow Connection," sung by Jim Henson (as Kermit the Frog) in The Muppet Movie. Williams also collaborated with Biff Rose, notably on the song "Fill Your Heart," originally recorded by Tiny Tim as the B-side of his 1968 hit "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" and subsequently covered by David Bowie on his album Hunky Dory. Most recently, he collaborated with Scissor Sisters on their second album, Ta-Dah and contributed lyrics to Richard Barone's 2010 album Glow.
Williams has worked on the music of a number of films, including writing and singing on Phantom of the Paradise (in which he also starred and earned an Oscar nomination for the music); and Bugsy Malone. He contributed lyrics to the Cinderella Liberty song You're So Nice to Be Around with music by John Williams, and it earned them an Oscar nomination. Along with Kenneth Ascher and Rupert Holmes, they wrote the music and lyrics to A Star Is Born, with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. The bittersweet love ballad, "Evergreen," from the movie won the Academy Award for Best Song of The Year.
He is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and his songs have been performed by both pop and country music artists. He has won one Academy Award for best song ("Evergreen") from A Star Is Born (whose music was composed by the artist who performed it, Barbra Streisand; Williams wrote its lyrics) and has been nominated for several others.
He wrote the music for a musical production of Happy Days that debuted in 2007 and also made a cameo appearance as an animated version of himself singing "Breathe in the Sunshine" in the hit animated TV series Dexter's Laboratory.
He wrote and sang "What Would They Say," the theme song from the made-for-television film The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, a 1976 film starring newcomer John Travolta alongside the late Diana Hyland.
In April 2009, Williams was elected President and Chairman of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
In March 2011 it was announced that Williams had "written a couple of tunes" on the upcoming album of French electronic duo Daft Punk.
Read more about this topic: Paul Williams (songwriter)
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