Jimmy Webb

Jimmy Webb is among the most lauded and successful pop songwriters of the '60s and '70s but remains more obscure than many of his peers, having never become a star performer in his own right. Born into a religious and musical family in Elk City, OK, in 1946, Webb proved his mettle as a keyboardist and singer by performing with his father’s church choir. A burgeoning love of pop music led him to Los Angeles, where he took a songwriting job at Motown when he was only 17. Early success came thanks to his work with The 5th Dimension on their Up, Up and Away album. In 1967, Glen Campbell recorded a hit version of Webb’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” and subsequently “Wichita Lineman” and “Galveston,” making these Webb’s three most enduring compositions. But he achieved true auteur status with the release of Richard Harris’ theatrical 1968 baroque-pop LP A Tramp Shining, which was penned entirely by Webb and featured the chart-topping mini-epic “MacArthur Park.” Webb recorded a collection of acclaimed solo records in the '70s; 1977’s El Mirage stands as the most ambitious of that collection, featuring lush production by George Martin. It also contains the original recording of “The Highwayman,” which became a country No. 1 in the mid-'80s in the hands of the Jennings/Cash/Kristofferson/Nelson supergroup The Highwaymen. During this time, Webb turned to film, Broadway, and classical writing, returning for a string of solo albums in the '90s and '00s that mixed new originals with rerecordings of his classic hits and high-profile guest appearances.