When he launched By The Time I Get To Phoenix in November 1967, Glen Campbell was not solely on the seventh album of his profession. Remarkably, he was additionally on his third Capitol LP within the house of simply 5 months.
For all that he’d already been on the chart scene, intermittently, for six years, Campbell was ending the 12 months as one of many hottest new properties in nation music, and that standing was confirmed not solely in a smash hit single with Jimmy Webb’s title track, but additionally when the album gained the 1968 Grammy for Album of the 12 months — the primary time a rustic LP had ever claimed that title.
Glen’s earlier album Light On My Thoughts, launched solely within the August, produced a title track which grew to become a signature for the remainder of his profession, though not one with an enormous chart presence. Surprisingly, his model of the John Hartford track solely reached No.30 on the nation chart, and No.44 pop. However the title monitor of By The Time… was one other factor altogether.
The track rose to No.2 on the nation countdown, grew to become a Prime 30 US pop entry and kickstarted Campbell’s profession, sending Light On My Thoughts onto the album chart in early December. It was joined there by the follow-up on the finish of the 12 months, and each albums grew to become million-sellers.
A dominant title track
By The Time I Get To Phoenix was, maybe, dominated by Webb’s massively evocative title quantity, however the album as an entire confirmed how comfy Campbell was turning into as an interpreter of each conventional nation and up to date writers. It was produced by Campbell’s common studio confidant Al De Lory, who would oversee all of his early work, this time with Nick Venet, best-known because the Capitol government and studio man who signed the Seashore Boys.
They put collectively a nice staff that included contributions from A-team session males James Burton on guitar, Joe Osborn on bass and Jim Gordon on drums. The crowning glory, as all the time, was Campbell’s magnificent voice, whether or not he was singing Paul Simon’s “Homeward Bound,” Invoice Anderson’s “Bad Seed” (a Prime 10 nation hit the 12 months earlier than for Jan Howard), or Ernest Tubb’s 1945 chestnut “Tomorrow Never Comes.”
Campbell additionally lined the work of youthful writers resembling Jerry Reed and, from the Limeliters, Alex Hassilev, and had two co-writes of his personal, “Back In The Race” (with Vic Dana) and “Love Is A Lonesome River” (with Kella Christian). The album delivered one other Prime 20 nation single in an replace of Dorsey Burnette and Barry de Vorzon’s “Hey Little One,” a Prime 50 pop single for Burnette in 1960. An rising Leon Russell was additionally on board, for the elegant string association on “My Baby’s Gone.”
The album was a staging submit in Campbell’s early success and, simply as importantly, its Grammy recognition confirmed how nation was profitable ever extra acceptance within the musical mainstream.
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