Mason Douglas Williams (born August 24, 1938) is an American classical guitarist, composer, singer, writer, comedian, and poet, best known for his 1968 instrumental "Classical Gas" and for his work as a comedy writer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and Saturday Night Live.

Together with Nancy Ames, he wrote "Cinderella Rockefella", a 1968 number-one hit for Esther and Abi Ofarim in the United Kingdom.

[7] In 1970, Williams made a television appearance on a variety show, Just Friends, which reunited regulars of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

To create a visual element for his performance, he used a special playable classical plexiglass guitar built for him by Billy Cheatwood and a prop designer for ABC.

"[9] In December 1970, Williams performed benefit concerts for the Pala Indian Reservation Cultural Center hosted by Clairemont High School.

Sponsored by the nonprofit Americans for Indian Future and Tradition, with the help of Ken Kragen and Friends, Williams performed two shows.

[citation needed] In 1992, the Vanguard label released Music 1968–1971, a compilation of tracks from his five Warner Bros. albums recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

[14] In 1984, Williams released an album, Of Time & Rivers Flowing, on his own Skookum label, containing 14 of the roughly 35 songs performed in the concert.

By 2008, the song logged over six million broadcast performances, to become the all-time number-one instrumental composition for air play in BMI's repertoire.

In February, Williams' "Bus" art piece was included in the Norton Simon Museum exhibition "Radical Past", in Pasadena, California.

[citation needed] Williams' music has been featured in several movies, including The Story of Us, Cheaper by the Dozen, The Dish, The Heidi Chronicles, and Heartbreakers.

[3] In January 2007, he was reunited with long-time friend[17] and artist Edward Ruscha, performing at the Getty Center in Los Angeles.

Several other "them" poems, along with many ditties, song lyrics, odd and amusing photographs from around the country, and assorted bits of visual and verbal silliness are collected in The Mason Williams Reading Matter (Doubleday, 1969), and the Them Poems record album was reissued (also in 1969, on the heels of the success of "Classical Gas") as The Mason Williams Listening Matter.

[23] On the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, he created and perpetuated the 1968 "Pat Paulsen for President" campaign, an elaborate political satire.

[25] Other television personalities for whom he has written include Andy Williams, Glen Campbell, Dinah Shore, Roger Miller, and Petula Clark.

[26] In 1980, Williams briefly served as head writer for NBC's Saturday Night Live, but left after clashing with producer Jean Doumanian.

[27] In 1988, Williams received his third Emmy nomination as a comedy writer for his work on The Smothers Brothers 20th Reunion Special on CBS.

[30] that encompasses classical, folk, minstrel, gospel, jazz, country, pop, and contemporary rock music genres.