"Rainy Days And Mondays" - Paul Williams

“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”

Songwriters can usually be split into three camps; those who just write, those who write and perform, and those who write and wish they could perform. There have been many songwriters in that last camp whose great songs have gone much further than they themselves ever did as an artist. For any number of reasons, they didn’t make as big of a splash performing as their songs made being performed by other bands. There seemed to be no shortage of these cats in the 70’s.

Paul Williams is an incredible songwriter and released about 15 albums in the 70’s, has a ton of movie soundtrack cuts, acted in many, many movies and appeared on more than 20 TV shows, and I bet you’ve never heard of him. However, I guarantee you know and love some of the songs he has written that have been performed by other people. Three Dog Night had success with “(Just An) Old Fashioned Love Song”. The Carpenters had two big hits with his “Rainy Days and Mondays” and “We’ve Only Just Begun” (which I am pretty partial to since Amanda sang it at our wedding). The Monkees, Barbara Streisand, the theme to “The Love Boat”, the list goes on and on! Perhaps his greatest lyrical achievement was not even sung by a human though. Well, technically it was but just go with me here. Paul gave the world the gem that is “Rainbow Connection” from The Muppet Movie. Our heads may hear Kermit, but our hearts will always have Paul to thank.

"Rainy Days and Mondays" - Paul Williams (Here Comes Inspiration)

"Rainbow Connection" - Kermit The Frog (The Muppet Movie Soundtrack)