Tomorrow, June 2, sees the release of the newest title from Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music: a remastered and expanded edition of Paul Williams' 1979 Portrait Records album A Little on the Windy Side!  We hope you enjoy this special preview!

Paul Williams closed out a decade of remarkable productivity with 1979's A Little on the Windy Side, his one and only album for Epic Records' Portrait imprint.  Produced by his brother Mentor Williams in Nashville, Tennessee with the city's cream-of-the-crop musicians, it fell victim to a case of bad timing.  Paul didn't forget the album, however.  He's described it as "one of the most listenable and good-feeling records I've ever been associated with."  With our remastered and expanded edition due in stores tomorrow, Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music are proud to give new life to this overlooked evergreen from the voice and pen of one of America's greatest songwriters.

A modern-day renaissance man, Nebraska-born Williams tried his luck as an actor, a composer-lyricist, and a singer from his earliest days in Los Angeles.  A brief three-month stint as artist and songwriter at The Turtles' home of White Whale Records ended in disappointment when Williams was shown the door.  But he didn't have to wait long for a new opportunity.  He told Ed Christman of Billboard in 2014, "I was an out-of-work actor. I knew nothing about the music business. I was totally ignorant about how the music business worked. I had written a few songs and then a friend played them for A&M. I showed up at A&M Records in 1967 in a borrowed car."  The gamble paid off, as A&M's head of publishing Chuck Kaye teamed Williams with aspiring composer Roger Nichols.  Williams' often hopeful, always universal lyrics proved the perfect match for Nichols' bright, infectious melodies.

As fate would have it, more good fortune was in the cards.  Up-and-coming producer Richard Perry selected "Fill Your Heart," a song written by Williams with Biff Rose, for Tiny Tim's Reprise album debut.  When "Tip-Toe Thru' the Tulips with Me" became a surprise hit for the ukulele-playing Laugh-In favorite, Paul's song was the B-side.  Perry sensed Williams' potential and approached him to cut his own album for Reprise.  Rather than flying solo, he enlisted a group of friends with whom he had been making music since late 1967, including his brother Mentor, Jerry Scheff and George Hiller.  They eventually settled on the name of The Holy Mackerel.  Sessions for their eclectic, psych-pop album with Perry commenced in March 1968.  By the time of The Holy Mackerel's November release, the six-person band had already survived a line-up change and split up for good.  But all wasn't lost.  The Nichols/Williams partnership, represented on The Holy Mackerel by the ironically bouncy sunshine pop nugget "Bitter Honey" (also recorded by Jackie DeShannon and others) was going strong.

Though The Holy Mackerel and its three singles failed to chart, Reprise greenlit Williams' first solo album to be produced by Nichols.  Someday Man, released in May 1970, was a deeply personal, striking pop journey brimming with warmth and melody.  Once more, the public didn't catch on, but Someday Man has since been recognized as not only a classic, but as a landmark of the sunshine pop genre.  Undeterred, Nichols and Williams pressed on.  After having their songs recorded by top artists on A&M and elsewhere, they experienced a major breakthrough when "Out in the Country" went Top 20 for Three Dog Night.  Soon after, a song the duo wrote for a bank commercial went to No. 2 on the Billboard singles chart in summer 1970 as recorded by A&M's Carpenters: "We've Only Just Begun."  Before dissolving their songwriting partnership in 1972, Williams and Nichols crafted some of the era's most enduring pop songs including "Rainy Days and Mondays," "I Won't Last a Day Without You," "The Drifter," and "Let Me Be the One."

The next step was for A&M to sign Williams as a solo artist, and 1971's An Old-Fashioned Love Song (named for his tune that went Top 5 for Three Dog Night) became the first of his five albums for the label through 1975.  By the time of his signing to the young Portrait imprint (formed in 1976), Paul Williams was a household name as a frequent talk show guest (with roughly 50 appearances on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show), an actor in such films as Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Smokey and the Bandit and The Phantom of the Paradise (which he also scored) and an Academy Award winner thanks to his collaboration with Barbra Streisand on the song "Evergreen" from A Star is Born.  David Bowie, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley all took their turn with his compositions.  Portrait trumpeted Williams' signing in March 1978 as part of its new, expanded roster.

In July, Paul entered Nashville's Quadrafonic Sound Studios with a very special collaborator: his brother and former bandmate, Mentor Williams.  Mentor was by then a veteran hitmaker in his own right, notably as songwriter-producer of Dobie Gray's 1973 Top 5 hit "Drift Away."  Paul recalled that "Mentor's first observation was that as a singer I was indeed an old school crooner in the tradition of Crosby or Como - I wouldn't dream of comparing myself to those giants - and that I should choose material that allowed me to 'glide' over great feeling tracks.  It wasn't long before I was on a plane to Music City and enjoying the gifts of my little brother's genius."  For what Paul would deem a "Williams family album," Mentor enlisted the Nashville A-team of musicians, including Reggie Young on guitar, David Briggs on keyboards, and Troy Seals on guitars.  The album's repertoire included both new songs ("Save Me a Dream," "For Goodness' Sake," "A Little More Like You") and new recordings of favorites ("Here's Another Fine Mess," "My Fair Share," "Brand New Song") from Williams' songbook.

The Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music expanded edition of A Little on the Windy Side features four bonus tracks - three of which are previously unreleased!  We're proud to premiere Paul's rendition of "When the River Meets the Sea" from his score to Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas; "Love Conquers All" from the film One on One; and a reprise of "Brand New Song."  We've also included the rare mono single version of "A Little on the Windy Side" to round out this set which has been newly remastered by Sean Brennan at Battery Studios!

This story is "to be continued" in my liner notes to A Little on the Windy Side, available tomorrow at the links below from Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music!

Paul Williams, A Little on the Windy Side (Portrait JR 35610, 1979 - reissued Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

1. Moonlight Becomes You
2. A Little on the Windy Side
3. Save Me a Dream
4. For Goodness' Sake
5. Brand New Song
6. A Little More Like You
7. This Strange New Feeling
8. Here's Another Fine Mess
9. My Fair Share
10. For the Life of Me
11. The Gift

Bonus Tracks

12. Brand New Song (Reprise) (Previously Unreleased)
13. When the River Meets the Sea (Previously Unreleased Paul Williams Version)
14. Love Conquers All (Previously Unreleased Paul Williams Version)
15. A Little on the Windy Side (Mono Single Edit)