Trivia / Paul Williams

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• Acclaimed Flop: Someday Man was adored by critics from the day it was released, and has seen increasing praise throughout the years, but it never sold well.
• Breakthrough Hit: Composed a few... for others, that is.
• Creator Backlash: His final television appearance before sobering up, a one-shot gig hosting a late-night talk show in which he was coked out of his mind and generally acting like a mean-spirited attention whore. In Still Alive, he can't even look at the TV as he and the director watch it and eventually (and angrily) tells him to shut it off.
• Creator Breakdown: At his absolute lowest, Paul's songwriting output was basically nonexistent, and he spent his days alone in a hotel room convinced that he was under surveillance by the "tree police." He also made an infamous talk show appearance while coked up to the max, making mean-spirited jokes that nobody laughed at. Thankfully, he got better.
• Dawson Casting: Pulled off one of the more extreme examples. At age 24 he convincingly played a child aerospace engineering prodigy in the oddball 1965 Black Comedy The Loved One.
• He Also Did: Contributed voice acting for Batman: The Animated Series (that's right; he's the goddamn Penguin!) and My Little Pony TV Specials.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: You say you want the Ishtar soundtrack, eh? All that exists are extracts from the movie made by some dedicated fans.
• One-Hit Wonder: "Waking Up Alone" made it to #60 on the Billboard Hot 100.
• Playing Against Type: Phantom of the Paradise. All of it.
• Reclusive Artist: Yes and no. He's made a good name for himself post-musical career as a spokesperson for sober living, but only gives a handful of musical performances yearly, most of which don't even go beyond two states over from his house!
• Throw It In!: For "Goodbye, Eddie, Goodbye", featured vocalist Archie Hahn delivered the spoken word parts in a hammy Puerto Rican accent.
• What Could Have Been:
  • When he was still aspiring to become an actor, Paul auditioned for both The Mickey Mouse Club and The Monkees (together with Stephen Stills). In the case of the latter, contractual issues arose. Aside from eventually penning The Monkees' single "Someday Man", Paul at one point shared a manager with Michael Nesmith, and Micky Dolenz would later adapt Bugsy Malone for the stage.
  • Originally, when Williams wrote "An Old Fashioned Love Song", he originally offered it to the Carpenters, as the duo had previously recorded two of his other songs, "We've Only Just Begun" and "Rainy Days and Mondays". Richard Carpenter, however, rejected it, and Williams instead ended up offering it to Three Dog Night instead, who had a top ten hit with it. Amusingly, while the Carpenters never recorded "An Old Fashioned Love Song", they ended up performing it live on The Carol Burnett Show sometime later on.

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