Listen to the Radio (1982) – Don Williams

Posted on April 24, 2023 by observationblogger — Leave a comment

Listen to the Radio was the principal song that hooked me onto Don William’s music. It was the title track and first single released in April 1982 from his album Listen to the Radio. Don (The Gentle Giant) sang a lot of music written by others including this song by Fred Knipe. The song reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.

Listen to the Radio is the fifth song from Don Williams to feature here at the Music Library Project and you can find so much back-story about Don’s career in those previous posts. His voice is my favorite to listen to in the classic – country music genre.

I guess as a lover I have a ways to go
When someone wants you they should just say it’s so
But you’ll understand if you’ll take my hand
And then we can dance real slow
To something on the radio

Listen to the radio
Oh, listen to the radio
‘Let’s spend the night together
Baby don’t go’
They sing it on the radio

I grew up on Don’s music since my Papa was an avid admirer. It didn’t take much time to envelop my father’s fascination in his music. He was one heck of a country artist and an inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He also did community service when he got bored like mowing the high school baseball field and the city park. You can read more about that in the I Recall a Gypsy Woman article.

Fellow blogger Max at Powerpop told me he interacted with Don. He lived a few miles from where Max grew up about 30 minutes from Nashville.

‘He (Don Williams) was always nice to me and the people in town knew him, but he never acted like he was anything special‘.

Also, according to Max, Don was good friends with Eric Clapton (see image above). ‘Clapton really started to admire Don in the mid to late seventies. That is when Eric started to do some country tinged songs like Lay Down Sally and Promises. He covered one of Don’s songs on Slowhand…We’re All The Way…‘

References:
1. Listen to the Radio – Wikipedia