James William Anderson III (born November 1, 1937) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and television host.

As the decade progressed his style moved towards the polished countrypolitan genre of country music, with songs such as "I Can't Wait Any Longer".

He was dropped from his record label in the early 1980s and began a brief career in television which included hosting the game shows The Better Sex and Fandango.

Collaborating with other writers, he wrote material that went on to become hits for Vince Gill, George Strait, Kenny Chesney, and Steve Wariner in the next two decades.

[6] His interest grew further after watching country musicians perform on a radio station, located directly above his father's insurance company.

[11] He and several students formed a country band called the "Classic City Playboys" and began playing local events.

[14] However, the success brought by Ray Price's version of "City Lights" led Anderson to frequent Nashville, Tennessee.

[15] The song became a major hit the following year when it climbed to the number 12 position on the Billboard Hot Country and Western Sides chart.

[17] The song was later recorded and made hits individually by Eddy Arnold, Roy Clark, Jean Shepard and Steve Wariner.

[19] The success of "Po' Folks" led Anderson to receive an invitation to join the Grand Ole Opry cast.

This included making national television appearances on shows such as American Bandstand, where he performed his follow-up crossover hit "8×10".

On his 1971 release, Always Remember, Greg Adams of AllMusic commented that it "confounds expectations" for delivering original vocal performances of songs first cut by Kris Kristofferson and Kenny Rogers.

[56] In 1998, Anderson was signed to Warner Bros. Records as part of a veterans artists project that included Ronnie Milsap and Connie Smith.

[58] John Weisberger of Country Standard Time gave the release a positive response, calling the songs "vintage".

[70] In June 2022, a compilation titled The Best of Bill Anderson: As Far as I Can See was released by MCA Nashville and included a new track featuring Dolly Parton.

[35][1] The success of "City Lights" led Anderson to receive a contract from the Tree Writing music publishing company in Nashville.

[80] Smith's career was further facilitated by Anderson, who wrote many of her follow-up hits such as "Then and Only Then", "Cincinnati, Ohio" and "I Never Once Stopped Loving You".

[82] Other pop artists to record Anderson's material included James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Dean Martin.

Released as a single, it became a top-five hit on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart that year and inspired Anderson to write again.

[91] "Which Bridge to Cross" was released as a single by Gill in 1994 and became a major hit, peaking at number four on the Billboard country chart.

[102] Anderson recalled the excitement of winning the accolade in his autobiography: "I jumped up and hugged Brad and knocked his white western hat from his head.

[104] The song's concept was inspired by Johnson's divorce at the time and included a spoken narration, a device that was not popular in the country genre during the mid-2000s.

[114] Also in the 1980s, Anderson hosted the program Backstage at the Grand Ole Opry and the game show Fandango, which both aired on the former Nashville Network (TNN).

Fandango was brought to Anderson's attention by the program director of WSM TV in Nashville, who believed that a country music trivia show would be successful for the network.

[120] Anderson signed a three-year contract with the restaurant company to serve as their national spokesperson, appearing in radio and television commercials.

Author Kurt Wolff called his early compositions "cute and sentimental", citing "Po' Folks" and "I Love You Drops" to be examples of this style.

In reviewing the song, Konc commented that it was "packed full of unforgettable images" related to "heartbreak, addiction and loss".

After signing with Decca Records, he was given the nickname of "Whisperin' Bill Anderson", due to his soft-spoken vocal performance.

[1] Stephen L. Betts of Rolling Stone commented that Anderson continues to demonstrate a whispering quality into his current work.

[136] In November 2002, BMI named him its first country songwriting icon, placing him alongside R&B artists Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and James Brown as the only recipients of that award.