By Sally Friedman, For The Bulletin
The music was always there. Always. But not even Paul Williams himself can explain exactly how or why.
The legendary composer’s presence will be felt once again as the new production of Happy Days takes to the stage at the Academy of Music tonight through Sunday.
During a recent phone interview from his home in Naples, Calif., the island community where he has found peace and serenity, Mr. Williams did some reflecting and reminiscing about his unusual life and work. He looks back on more than four decades of composing music and lyrics for the songs that play in our heads.
“My father died in a one-car wreck when I was 13, and it was pretty tough both before and after that,” said Mr. Williams, whose father, an alcoholic, did construction when he could, and moved the family around constantly. Mr. Williams was ultimately sent to live with an aunt and uncle.
“Music became my escape. I started writing songs as therapy, and somehow, the music came. Then I started hearing the words … I don’t mean to sound mysterious, but that’s honestly what happened,” he said. “I felt like some kind of emotional translator.”
There were a few false starts in other careers, first as a jockey because of Mr. Williams’ small stature, and then as a skydiver. But more traditional performing, including acting, would soon follow. And acting, while satisfying, ultimately took a back seat to music.
Without formal training, and with the unlikely “resumé” of “…just picking up a guitar and doodling around,” Mr. Williams started to create the iconic music that swept across the nation during the ’70s and ’80s. He didn’t even know the names of the chords, which had to be numbered for him. But that didn’t stop this musical wizard.
Mr. Williams would give the world “We’ve Only Just Begun” and “Rainy Days and Mondays,” both recorded by The Carpenters, as well as the haunting song “Evergreen” from the 1976 film “A Star is Born,” starring Barbra Streisand.
In 1979, his music was heard around the world because it was Mr. Williams who composed “The Rainbow Connection” for “The Muppet Movie,” which garnered him an Academy Award nomination.
Movie scores and TV theme songs kept the momentum going throughout the years, but got somewhat curtailed when Mr. Williams began his long battle with alcohol addiction. It was a desperate time for him, but he will proudly tell anyone that he’s been sober now for 19 years, does alcohol counseling, and is as productive as he was in his glory days.
“I know what it’s like to hit an emotional bottom, and then to come back up again, and the road up is a lot better than the road down,” he said.
These days, the Happy Days project has given Paul Williams his own happy days.
“I loved working on a show that meant so much to so many — including me,” he said. “The ‘Happy Days’ family was everybody’s family, and the Cunninghams live in our memory cells. ‘The Fonz,’ ‘Potsie’ and ‘Chachi’ are timeless, and it was just so wonderful to work with Garry Marshall, the original creator of the TV series,” said Mr. Williams, who has had a long friendship, along with a working relationship, with Mr. Marshall.
“I’ve also loved the collaborative process in this project — Garry and I literally worked on this show for over five years, and when we finally saw it ‘on its feet,’ with an audience, we knew we’d nailed it,” he said.
“This one really belongs to all of us, and since these are tough days in this country, I can’t think of a better time to remember a simpler, sweeter world!”