{"id":15480,"date":"2019-05-26T23:00:29","date_gmt":"2019-05-27T05:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1806964"},"modified":"2019-05-26T23:00:29","modified_gmt":"2019-05-27T05:00:29","slug":"ten-essential-don-williams-classics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/music-news\/ten-essential-don-williams-classics\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Essential Don Williams Classics"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:ao:image:cmt.com:674549?width=1200&amp;height=675&amp;.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"byline\">by <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/author\/morrise\/\" title=\"Posts by Edward Morris\" rel=\"author\">Edward Morris<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"date\">22m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>If any one songwriter was crucial in forwarding Don Williams\u2019 recording career, it was the limitless Bob McDill.<\/p>\n<p>Of the 56 songs Williams charted between his first in 1973 and his last in 1992, McDill wrote or co-wrote 14, among them the classic \u201cGood Ole Boys,\u201d \u201cLord Have Mercy on a Country Boy,\u201d \u201cRake and Ramblin\u2019 Man\u201d and \u201cIf Hollywood Don\u2019t Need You.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Williams, who died in 2017, would have been 80 on Monday (May 27).<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uyoAoXB_xUU?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uyoAoXB_xUU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>Like Williams a Texan, McDill was a part of that creative co-op that included producer and songwriter Allen Reynolds, producer Garth Fundis, publisher Bill Hall, singer and songwriter Dickey Lee and Musical Everyman, \u201cCowboy\u201d Jack Clement, the last of whom gave Williams his first country record deal.<\/p>\n<p>A dabbler in film making, Clement produced on Williams what is arguably the first country music video, a concept clip on McDill\u2019s \u201cCome Early Morning\u201d in 1973. \u201cJack was still into the whole mentality and excitement \u2014 for him \u2014 of making movies,\u201d Williams told CMT in a 2004 interview. \u201cHe made a horror movie [<em>Dear Dead Delilah<\/em>, 1972] that preceded the video. But [the video] was his idea, totally. He just really wanted to do it. [Although] there was virtually no outlet for it at the time. \u2026 I think there was like a Saturday morning show in Philadelphia and American Bandstand that at some times would play something like that. \u2026 But it was just something he wanted to do. So I said\u2019 Go to it.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In \u201cGood Ole Boys Like Me,\u201d McDill provided Williams with his most quoted lyric: \u201cI can still hear the soft Southern winds in the live oak trees\/and those Williams boys they still mean a lot to me\/Hank and Tennessee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Williams would score 17 No. 1s throughout the \u201970s and \u201980s, including such non-McDill treasures as \u201cTulsa Time,\u201d \u201cSome Broken Hearts Never Mend,\u201d \u201cLord I Hope This Day Is Good\u201d and \u201cLove Is On A Roll.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2bHVYvRMm9Q?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2bHVYvRMm9Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>Here are 10 Williams\/McDill songs essential to appreciating the soft-spoken baritone who came to be known as \u201cthe Gentle Giant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Apart from his American audiences, Williams also developed a following in, of all places, Zimbabwe. His 2004 DVD. Into Africa, chronicled his rapturous reception there. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>ALL ALERTS<\/p>\n<div class=\"author\">\n<div class=\"description\">Edward Morris is a veteran of country music journalism. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a frequent contributor to CMT.com.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1806964\/ten-essential-don-williams-classics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Edward Morris 22m ago If any one songwriter was crucial in forwarding Don Williams\u2019 recording career, it was the limitless Bob McDill. Of the 56 songs Williams charted between his first in 1973 and his last in 1992, McDill wrote or co-wrote 14, among them the classic \u201cGood Ole Boys,\u201d \u201cLord Have Mercy on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-08 06:29:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}