When the American Song Festival’s 1975 semifinalists recently gathered in Los Angeles’s Continental Hyatt House for a last round of judging, their dozen tunes had already triumphed over some 60,000 other entries and won them $5,500 each. Now they would learn which of them would receive the grand piano and pocket the additional $25,000 that go with the event’s Best Song award.

Competing for this top honor in such select company, most of the semifinalists must have suffered some moments of suspenseful incertitude. But when ASF host Paul Williams strode onstage and opened a sealed envelope, revealing that New Yorkers Phil Galdston and Peter Thom had been voted creme de la creme for their “Why Don’t We Live Together?,” the staid-looking pair reacted as if they’d expected the award all along.

“We were excited,” admits Galdston, “but I wouldn’t say we were surprised. We knew we had a good song; everybody was thrilled with it from the beginning. And when we got the notice that we’d passed the first screening, Peter said, ‘Ah, we’re gonna win.’ A lot of our friends thought so, too. You know, it was just a feeling, but we thought we had a good shot.”

The duo, who exude similar self-confidence about most every aspect of their careers, have reason to feel optimistic. By the time they took the top prize in the festival, each of them had amassed a long string of music industry credits. And “Why Don’t We Live Together?”had already been recorded by both the N.E. Philly Band and Barry Manilow. Now, while numerous other artists cover that song, the pair appear to be on the verge of clinching their own record contract. Thom, meanwhile, has a job as lead singer and rhythm guitarist for the prestigious City Center Joffrey Ballet Orchestra. And his musical partner serves as road manager, pianist, and co-producer for comedian Robert Klein.

Though Galdston recorded an Epic single in 1968 with a group called Cisum (“music” spelled backwards), he notes that his first important opportunity in the business didn’t come until after he met Klein three years later. “I had a jazz-rock band called Freeway at the time,” he recalls, “and we had the same manager as Robert. So, when he debuted as a headliner at the Bitter End, our manager arranged for my band to open for him. He needed a piano player for his act, and I helped out. A year later, when I graduated from college, I started working with him regularly.”

Freeway also served as the vehicle for Galdston’s initial meeting with Thom. “I was looking for a singer for the group,” Galdston remembers, “because I was doing a lot of the leads, and I’m just not that strong a vocalist. I eventually came across Peter through Larry Brezner, who manages Melissa Manchester. He was Peter’s manager, too, and he played me a couple of cuts from an album Peter had done. [The solo disc, released by United Artists in 1972, is now out of print] I liked his stuff. I played it for the band and they were convinced, too. So, we began to work together.”

“And then,” puts in Thom, “we became unconvinced with the band.”

“We realized,” Galston explains, “that we were spending more time organizing the group than we were creating. You know, arranging for a large horn band means really planning out in detail what everybody’s gonna be playing. Writing the horn charts, all the lines…a lot of work.

“And Larry Brezner, who was by then managing the group unofficially, heard Peter and me plaing together as we were writing one day. And he said, ‘Hey, you don’t need a band at all; forget it. Why don’t you just go ahead and do it by yourselves?’

“He was a major force in compelling us to give up the band. Looking back, though, I think I was attracted to working with Peter as much for just a duo—songwriting—as for having him in the band. I think I was looking ahead. I though, ‘Here’s somebody I could really work with.'”

Time quickly affirmed Galdston’s belief. Shortly after they teamed up as songwriters in 1973, the pair landed a publishing contract with Chappell Music and began to attract attention to their tunes. Then came the American Song Festival.

“It wasn’t our idea to enter at all,” Galdston recalls. “We walked in one day to the office of a guy we work with at Chappell, and he said, ‘Hey, these applications just came in. Why don’t we enter?’ We said, ‘All right, we’ll do it.'”

That decision has apparently paid off in more than money. “You notice,” says Thom, “that you get a little bit of credibility in people’s minds that may not have been there before the festival. You know, we’ve walked into offices where someone has just finished reading about us in the trades. And it helps.”

Cover versions of “Why Don’t We Live Together?”—particularly the one on Barry Manilow’s Gold record–winning latest LP—have also benefited the pair, Galdston acknowledges. But when asked about the Manilow rendition, his first response is a brusque “no comment.”

“I’ll tell you one thing I can say. We just heard an Australian version of it that we both liked a lot. ‘Cause it’s very funky, an entirely different approach.”

Is Galdston implying dislike for the Manilow recording? “It’s very interesting,” he says, chuckling softly, “to hear other people do your songs. I would say that.”

“It’s difficult sometimes,” Thom interjects, “because when you write a song, you have in your mind how it’s supposed to be. And when someone else performs it, well, like Barry made some lyrics changes…”

“In our song,” Galdston explains, “the bridge says, ‘We’ve both been burned before / Learned that love can turn to war.’ And Barry didn’t like that. It sounded too negative to him, and he wanted the whole song to be positive about living together. So he sang, ‘We’ve both been burned before / But this time love is sure.’

“That’s not what we had in mind. Our idea was to write a realistic love tune. And the point was like, there may be problems in the relationship, but the only way we’re gonna know if it’ll work is if we try.”

Partly because cover versions can’t communicate exactly what the pair intend, they are eager to begin their own recording project. “Songwriting is the area we’re pursing most strenuously right now,” Galdston emphasizes, “but we want to go on and be overall participants in the music business. And we definitely intend to perform and record. At the moment, we’re only about a day away from an album contract. And we’r’e getting a band together to go on the road.”

Any other plans? “Yeah,” Galdston announces. “We’re gonna enter the festival again.” After taking its top prize? “Absolutely,” he says. “We’re gonna win again.”

Galdston & Thom’s American Gypsies album, which includes “Why on’t We Live Together?,” is available here.