How Good It Is

The Village People came up with a worldwide hit to round out their third album, but so few things about this record are as it seems.

The first single from Simon and Garfunkel's final studio album wasn't their biggest hit, but technologically it was their most ambitious.

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The Who was gaining popularity in the UK, but they hadn't reached the point of having huge amounts of money yet. So when Pete Townshend found himself accidentally(ish) living in a posh neighborhood near Buckingham Palace, he noticed that everyone around him was treating him badly. So on his twentieth birthday, while sitting on a train, he composed this song, as a means of getting back at all the rich people who were mean to him.

Why didn't I think of that!? Oh, well.

Here, incidentally, is their performance during which Townshend nearly gets his head blown off. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be a clip of the entire performance.

Here's this week's episode for your listening and/or downloading pleasure:

Finally, this is the artwork related to the trivia question for this episode. If you've heard the episode and you want to see what I'm talking about, click the button to show the art. If you haven't heard it yet, go back and listen first. It's OK, we'll still be here for you.

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When The Who was gaining popularity, Pete Townshend found himself living in a very posh neighborhood before he could really afford it, and was disgusted by the way he was treated by the locals. So on his 20th birthday he penned this tune as his manifesto.

Jefferson Airplane's breakout hit was written by Grace Slick's brother-in-law and first performed by her in a band formed by her then husband. Ain't nothing but a family thing.

Despite the lyrics, David Allan Coe's breakout hit isn't about a woman.

Billy Joel's longest studio track has a lot of Long Island landmarks in it, and most of them are easily identified. But what restaurant was he referring to in this song? This week we look at some contenders.

Gary US Bonds was still just "US Bonds" on the record labels until shortly after this record came out. This week we look at the story behind this song, and how it influenced another hitmaker to write and produce Bonds' 1981 comeback hit.

Click here for a transcript of this episode.

Let me open up with an apology for the delayed show. Those who know me well know that there was a medical issue in the family that distracted me, and that's got to come first, right?

For me, "Classical Gas" is one of those songs that passes in and out of my consciousness. I forget about it for a long time, and then I can't get enough of it for awhile. And when I did that trivia question last week about instrumentals, "Classical Gas" returned to my radar and I said, "Ooh, I gotta do this one!". Coincidentally, a listener happened to request that I cover the song, and I was only too happy to oblige, having already started the research. (My reply to him was "boy are you in for a surprise.")

This is the video that Williams re-scored for its use on the Smothers Brothers' Comedy Hour. Try to picture it using Beethoven's Fifth Symphony; I don't think it works nearly as well. (Also, this video--which was posted to YouTube by Mason Williams--sounds like a slightly different mix, but I could be wrong on that one.)

And I didn't promise you this in the show, but I'm going to link it here anyway, because I like it so much. This is the cover of "Classical Gas" by Vanessa Mae from 1995:

And here is the episode itself, for those who like to listen or download from here:

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Mason Williams re-scores a student film for use on a television show, and creates one of the first music videos, which supported his record's climb into the Top Five.