Chart entered : 29 January 1969
Chart peak : 7
Number of hits : 10
I thought I'd eradicated the mistakes but obviously not; at least Glen's not too far out of sequence.
Glen was nearly 33 when this entered the charts. He was born in Arkansas to a farmer of Scottish descent and taught to play the guitar by an uncle. He joined his uncle's band in 1954 and worked in local TV and radio until 1960 when he moved to LA to work as a session musician. For about a year he played rhythm guitar with The Champs , most famous for their 1958 hit "Tequila". It's not very clear which of their singles he played on but probably not any of their hits. More significantly he quickly became part of a loose group of session guys known as The Wrecking Crew.
By the beginning of 1961 he had a publishing deal and in April released his first single "Valley of Death" a self-written Frankie Laine style Western song on Jerry Capehart's label. In May he signed a recording deal with Crest and Capehart became his manager. Capehart wrote his next single ,the slightly sinister pop ballad "Turn Around, Look at Me " which got him his first US hit when it peaked at number 62. Glen also had two singles out that year under assumed names , the teen pop of "Winkie Doll " under the nom de plume Billy Dolton and the brassy instrumental "Buzzsaw Twist" as the Gee Cees ( along with some former Champs ).
Glen's next single, a co-write with Capehart called "The Miracle Of Love" wasn't a hit probably because the song isn't strong enough to bear the weight of the overblown arrangement. Glen switched labels to Capitiol for his next release a cover of Al Dexter's 1944 folk song "Too Late To Worry, Too Blue To Cry" as a lachrymose country ballad. It' not to my taste but gave him a second hit peaking at 76 in the summer of 1962. "Here I Am" from October is the same sort of thing but wasn't a hit.
His next move was to form a country trio the Green River Boys although he called the shots and the records came out as "Green River Boys featuring Glen Campbell. The first single in November 1962 was a cover of Merle Travis's "Kentucky Means Paradise" a hillbilly tune that's so brief it's over in the time it takes to read this sentence. He put them aside in the new year to record Jerry Fuller's "Prima Donna" a pretty Bobby Vee -ish pop tune but it just missed out on the Top 100. The second and final GRB single was another Travis song "Dark As A Dungeon" which plods despite Glen's fancy flourishes on the guitar.
In October 1963 Glen came out with his own "Same Old Places " a decent song very much in the Gene Pitney vein but it wasn't a hit. In April 1964 his and Capehart's big ballad "Through The Eyes Of A Child" also failed to make the chart. I haven't heard the next one "Summer ,Winter, Spring And Fall from October.
For the next few months he was preoccupied with being a temporary Beach Boy as he substituted for Brian Wilson on tour which meant playing bass and singing falsetto harmonies. He would later play guitar on Pet Sounds. When the tour finished he put out the Roy Orbison -style torch song "Tomorrow Never Comes" but again missed out on the charts. He was then offered a song by Brian Wilson ( co-written with Russ Titelman ) as a thank you gesture. "Guess I'm Dumb" had been rejected by the other Beach Boys but Glen took it on with Brian producing. You can hear his presence in the arrangement but the song isn't that strong with some awkward phrasing for Glen to negotiate.
Glen then scored his biggest hit to date with a jangly, uptempo version of Buffy St Marie's "The Universal Soldier" though he was at pains to point out he wasn't in sympathy with its pacifist message. It reached number 45 although I think he plays it too fast and the sudden ending is very clumsy. He tried the same trick with his next single, "Private John Q" a Roger Miller song about a reluctant draftee which sounds like one of Lonnie Donegan's hillbilly tunes. It didn't work for a second time and the single wasn't a hit.
His first single of 1966 was a song he co-wrote with Jerry Fuller , the aptly-titled "Can't You See I'm Trying". I haven't heard his version but the song sounds good in a Monkees-ish version by The Fireballs. By now Capitol were a little concerned ; if he hadn't been a regular on TV and so well connected through his session work it's unlikely that they would have tolerated such a high failure rate for so long. They pushed him towards a new producer Al de Lory.
Glen and de Lory first worked together on the single "Burning Bridges" ,a country weepie about starting afresh written by Walter Scott. If it were by Jim Reeves I'd hate it but there's something about Glen's yearning voice that makes it appealing. It didn't make the main chart but was a substantial country hit. I haven't heard the next one "I Gotta Have My Baby Back" , a minor country hit but the one after that began his golden period.
"Gentle On My Mind" was written by folk singer John Hartford . It's a wordy song celebrating escape or irresponsibility according to taste as the train-jumping hobo prefers to keep an untarnished memory of his girl rather than settle down with her. Its release took Glen by surprise as de Lory thought his demo version couldn't be improved and released it while Glen waited for his opinion. It reached number 62 in the charts and quickly attracted scores of covers including Dean Martin's which reached number 2 in the UK in 1968, the last hit in his lifetime.
His next single consolidated the success. "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" was an album track recorded by Johnny Rivers in 1965 and written by teenage songwriter Jimmy Webb. In a reversal of the Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa scenario the singer is driving away from his unsatisfactory lover but can't stop thinking about what she's doing at each significant part of the journey which completely undermines his resolve. You know he's going to turn back. Glen's voice carries all the hopelessness of the situation while the strings sweep him along in imitation of the journey. It reached number 26 and cemented his image as the square-jawed Everyman balladeer of the American byways. Strangely enough it's never been a hit for anyone in the UK.
After Glen picked up two Grammys for each of his last two singles, the ( very good ) Roy Orbison impersonation "Hey Little One" became his third hit in a row peaking at 54 early in 1968. John D Loudermilk's celebration of family life "I Wanna Live" made it four . Mums' favourite "Dreams Of The Everyday Housewife" written by the little known Chris Gantry continued the hot streak. Capitol then reissued " Gentle On My Mind" and it reached 39 second time round.
And then he turned back to Webb for this one , reckoned by Mr Maconie to be "the greatest pop song ever composed". Webb was driving near Wachita and observed a telephone company employee atop one in an endless line of poles running out into the open prairie. He imagined this person to be intensely lonely and dreaming of an absent lover while he worked. The world and his dog have covered it but no one can hold a candle to this version. Glen's voice carries all the ache of loss and solitude while carrying on with the banalities of a blue collar working life. In place of a third verse he plays the melody in what is probably the most well-known bass solo in pop. De Lory deserves almost equal credit for the string arrangement which tries to mimic the whining sounds of the wires and the morse code thereby anticipating Kraftwerk by a few years. It's a brilliant record which will never age and a number 7 ( 3 in the US ) peak hardly does it justice.
No comments:
Post a Comment