Editing Classical Gas (section)

==History==
Originally named "Classical Gasoline", the tune was envisioned to be "fuel" for the [[classical guitar]] repertoire.  The title was later inadvertently shortened by a [[music copyist]].<ref name=story/> [[Mike Post]], later famous for television theme music, was a producer and arranger for the song.

Williams was the [[head writer]] for ''[[The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour]]'' at the time of the piece's release and premiered the composition on the show. Williams performed it several times over several episodes.

After the piece had reached the Top 10, Williams asked an [[experimental film]]maker named [[Dan McLaughlin (filmmaker)|Dan McLaughlin]] to adjust a student video [[Montage (filmmaking)|montage]] that he had created of classical art works using [[Beethoven]]'s [[Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)|5th Symphony]] and edit it in time to "Classical Gas", using the visual effect now known as [[wikt:kinestasis|kinestasis]]. The work, ''3000 Years of Art'', premiered in 1968 on an episode of the ''[[Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour]]''. The song peaked at number two for two weeks in August that year,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.classicalgas.com/gasvideo.html |title= Classical Gas Original Video |website=Classicalgas.com |date=2013-04-08 |access-date= 2016-10-01}}</ref> behind "[[Hello, I Love You]]" by [[The Doors]]. On the US [[Adult Contemporary (chart)|Easy Listening]] chart, it went to number one for three weeks.<ref>{{cite book |title= Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001|last=Whitburn |first= Joel |author-link=Joel Whitburn |year= 2002 |publisher=Record Research |page=259}}</ref>

"Classical Gas" is sometimes erroneously thought to have been performed, or even composed, by [[Eric Clapton]], because Clapton was the musical director of, and played much of the guitar music for, the feature film ''[[The Story of Us (1999 film)|The Story of Us]]'', in which Williams' own recording of it from his album ''Handmade'' appeared.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.classicalgas.com/gasfaq.html |title=Classical Gas FAQ |website=Classicalgas.com |date=2013-04-08 |access-date= 2016-10-01}}</ref>

Williams re-recorded "Classical Gas" as a solo guitar piece on his 1970 album ''Handmade''. This version was re-released by Sony in 2003, 
after being featured in the film ''[[Cheaper by the Dozen (2003 film)|Cheaper by the Dozen]]'', which starred Williams' ''Smothers Brothers'' ''protégé'',<ref>{{Cite book|title= Dangerously Funny|last=Bianculli|first=David|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=2010|isbn=978-1-4391-0117-9|pages= 193–194}}</ref> actor/comedian/musician [[Steve Martin]].

Williams’ original version of “Classical Gas” was also used on the soundtrack of the popular 2000 Australian movie ''[[The Dish]]''.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0205873/soundtrack/ | title=The Dish (2000) - Soundtracks - IMDb | website=[[IMDb]] }}</ref>

In the mid-to-late 1970s and early 1980s Williams' version of "Classical Gas" was used by television stations across the United States as their [[Television news music|opening news themes]].  News music company Telesound followed with an identically-named and quicker-tempo version of the song for television stations to use.<ref name="NMSACG1">{{cite web|url=http://www.newsmusicsearcharchive.com/#3,1,604|title=News Music Search Archive - Classical Gas (Telesound)|accessdate=February 8, 2020|work=News Music Search Archive}}</ref><ref name="NMSACG2">{{cite web|url=http://www.newsmusicsearcharchive.com/#3,1,222|title=News Music Search Archive - Classical Gas (Mason Williams)|accessdate=February 8, 2020|work=News Music Search Archive}}</ref>