Roger Nichols & Paul Williams
Roger Nichols & Paul Williams
Genres: pop, soft rock, 70s, singer-songwriter, soft pop
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About Roger Nichols & Paul Williams
Roger Nichols and Paul Williams are American singer-songwriters who penned a number of pop and rock hits during the '60s and '70s, for artists such as Carpenters ("Rainy Days and Mondays", "I Won't Last a Day Without You"), The Monkees ("Someday Man"), and Three Dog Night ("An Old Fashioned Love Song"). Several of their songs are regarded as classics, with their most enduring composition, Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun", having been accepted into the canon of popular music as a ubiquitous wedding song. Almost invariably, Nichols composed music whereas Williams crafted lyrics. Nichols and Williams first met around 1967, at which time Williams served as frontman and principal songwriter for short-lived psychedelic outfit The Holy Mackerel. Together, they composed the Mackerel's first single, "Bitter Honey", a pure pop affair that diverged from that album's general sound. With a memorable melody and euphoric chorus joined with Williams' bittersweet and morose, yet ultimately optimistic lyrics, it was hugely indicative of Nichols and Williams' future collaborations. In 1969, Williams was hired as a songwriter for Santa Monica-based A&M Records where Nichols also worked. They quickly composed numerous songs, of which several would become future hits for other artists, and recorded demo versions with Williams and Nichols as the sole performers. The demos were eventually compiled onto a 1970 LP, We've Only Just Begun, intended only for distribution to interested artists and labels. That same year saw the release of Nichols/Williams' first notable hit singles, elevating Nichols and Williams into the upper echelon of U.S. songwriter partnerships in short order. As Williams begun a career as a songwriter and performer in his own right (whose 1970 debut album, Someday Man, consisted exclusively of Nichols/Williams compositions), collaborations with Nichols grew less and less frequent until they reached a complete halt roughly around 1973. 2001 saw a public reissue of We've Only Just Begun on compact disc, whose liner notes state that Nichols and Williams still write songs together, though these have yet to be heard by the listening public.
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