Classical Gas

The "Classical Gas Video," as it has come to be known, started out as a student film in 1963 entitled "God is Dog Spelled Backwards." The film was created by UCLA film student, Dan McLaughlin, who used Beethoven's 5th Symphony as the original soundtrack...

...After seeing the film in early 1968, Mason Williams, writer for the Smothers Brothers and composer of Classical Gas, approached McLaughlin about replacing the music with his (Williams') composition, a successful Top 40 record at the time. The revamped music video was shown on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, first during the summer of 1968 and several times more throughout the year. The video has since passed into legend (some call it one of the very first music videos), while Classical Gas, due in part to the impact of the video, became one of the largest selling instrumental recordings of all time...

...The actual video has not been seen since 1968 and, for a multitude of reasons, may never again see the light of day. I have re-created it using the original student film as a guide, re-editing it to Classical Gas. Give or take a few frames, it is nearly identical to the actual video that aired on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour 40 years ago.