From the submitter: The "Classical Gas Video," as it has come to be known, started out as a student film with Beethoven's 5th Symphony as the original soundtrack. After seeing the film in early 1968, Mason Williams, writer for the Smothers Brothers Show and composer of Classical Gas, approached the film's creator about replacing the music. The revamped music video was shown on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, first during the summer of 1968 and several times more throughout the year. The video has since passed into legend (some call it the very first music video) while Classical Gas, due in part to the impact of the video, became one of the largest selling instrumental recordings of all time.
The actual video has not been seen since 1968 and, for a multitude of reasons, may never again see the light of day. I have recreated it using the original student film (which, incidentally, was entitled "God is Dog Spelled Backwards"), and re-edited it to Classical Gas. Give or take a few frames, it is nearly identical to the actual video that aired on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour almost 40 years ago.
10 Comments
swampgirlMy dad bought one of those long console stereos w/the sliding doors on the top about the time I came around (68)
The album was hilarious. Prince's Panties was a family favorite.
It had a record player, AM/FM on one side.... record storage in the middle and an awesome reel-to-reel tape deck on the other. The Mason Williams record came with the stereo.
I never knew this story behind this guy though, excellent find MLX
rougy"My dad bought one of those long console stereos w/the sliding doors on the top...."
I know what you mean. We had one about as long as a couch: television in the middle, radio on the right, turn-table on the left, huge freaking speakers. We kept it long after the components were obsolete just because it was kind of a classy thing to have in a living room.
antThat song sounds like MacGyver theme music.
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)
That's really interesting. I didn't know the history of Classical Gas.
legacy0100I would LOVE to upvote this. But the problem is that it's giving me epileptic seizure.
AHhh whatever, upvoted!
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