Williams’ songs have been recorded by country superstars Alan Jackson and Lee Ann Womack, as well as rock legends Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton. He retired from touring for good two years later. His most recent studio album, Reflections, was released in 2014. By that time, he had released more than 35 albums. In 2004, he released his My Heart to You LP for Sugar Hill Records although he staged a 2006 farewell tour, he came out of retirement in October 2010, the same month he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He later name-checked Reynolds in the 1982 Bob McDill-penned hit “If Hollywood Don’t Need You (Honey, I Still Do),” which was one of the many singles co-produced by Williams with longtime collaborator Garth Fundis. and the Dixie Dancekings and 1980’s Smokey and the Bandit II. In addition to his recording career, Williams appeared in the 1975 Burt Reynolds films W.W. Williams was consistently an international ambassador of country music, earning a massive following in Europe, especially in the U.K. In the late Eighties, Williams quit touring after suffering back problems, but soon picked back up, with several hits for RCA until 1991’s “Lord Have Mercy on a Country Boy” ended his streak. In 1981, he joined Emmylou Harris on “If I Needed You,” a Top Five duet that would introduce the masses to the work of songwriter Townes Van Zandt. In 1976, Williams became an Opry member, and was crowned CMA Male Vocalist of the Year in 1978, with his version of Danny Flowers’ “Tulsa Time” earning CMA Single of the Year. That same year, he reached the pop Top 40 with the tender “I Believe in You,” Between 19, of the nearly 50 singles he released, first on Dot, then ABC/Dot – which would become MCA – then Capitol and finally RCA, all but three reached the Top Ten. In 1980, Williams, who had quickly gained an overseas following, was named Artist of the Decade by the readers of the London-based magazine Country Music People. Later that year, he scored the first of 17 Number One singles with the romantic “I Wouldn’t Want to Live If You Didn’t Love Me.” The visionary Clement also shot some of the industry’s first-ever music videos for Williams’ early hits. In 1974, the label issued “We Should Be Together,” which became the singer’s first Top Five hit. When other artists proved reluctant to record Williams’ songs, Clement signed him as an artist to his JMI Records, releasing his first country single, “Don’t You Believe,” in 1972. Based in Nashville, the trio earned two Top 40 tunes, “I Can Make It With You” and “Look What You’ve Done,” in late 1966. Initially performing in Corpus Christi in a duo called Strangers Two with singer Lofton Kline, Williams and his partner met singer Susan Taylor and formed the folk-pop trio that would be called the Pozo-Seco Singers. Everyone who makes country music with grace, intelligence, and ageless intent will do so while standing on the shoulders of this gentle giant.”īorn in Floydada, Texas, on May 27th, 1939, Don Williams was raised in Portland, Texas, where he learned guitar from his mother. “His music will forever be a balm in troublesome times. “In giving voice to songs like ‘Good Ole Boys Like Me,’ ‘Lord, I Hope This Day Is Good’ and ‘Amanda,’ Don Williams offered calm, beauty, and a sense of wistful peace that is in short supply these days,” Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Kyle Young said in a statement Friday. An internationally popular country star, Williams recorded dozens of hit songs, including “Tulsa Time,” “Lord, I Hope This Day Is Good” and “It Must Be Love.” He was 78. Don Williams, the Country Music Hall of Fame member whose imposing height and warm, reassuring voice earned him the nickname “Gentle Giant,” died Friday, September 8th, after a short illness.
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