Glen Campbell traces four decades of music in new CD box set
Posted: Saturday, October 18, 2003
Glen Campbell performs in Nashville, Tenn., in August. Campbell has released a four-CD box set that traces his career over four decades. (AP Photo)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Glen Campbell is talking about the time he played guitar on Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" and begins to hum the familiar melody.
Moments later, he's talking about the rock band Cream's performance on his TV show, and he starts growling the opening riff to "Sunshine of Your Love."
"It was so loud I had to leave the studio," Campbell said, laughing.
After 40 years in the music business, Campbell's mind is packed with song lyrics, guitar riffs, melodies and show business trivia. He uses songs to express thoughts the way other people use hand gestures.
This month, Capitol Nashville released a four-CD box set, "Glen Campbell: The Legacy 1961-2002."
But even that massive, 80-song compilation skips one of the most remarkable aspects of Campbell's career: his recording sessions as a singer and guitarist in the 1960s. Besides Sinatra, Campbell recorded with Elvis, the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, the Righteous Brothers, Merle Haggard, Nat "King" Cole, the Monkees, Ricky Nelson, Jimmy Rogers, Wayne Newton, the Mamas and the Papas, Dean Martin and others. For 18 months in the mid-'60s, he replaced an ailing Brian Wilson in the Beach Boys.
Campbell, 67, remembers something about each session.
"Merle and I would sing it live and then Bonnie (Haggard's then-wife, Bonnie Owens) would overdub the harmony," he says. "I still remember my parts. In fact, if I saw Merle Haggard today I'd go and sing it with him."
The morning of a recent appearance at the Grand Ole Opry, Campbell is eating breakfast in his hotel suite. Looking tan and fit, he's enthusiastic as he discusses everything from the box set to his decision to quit drinking and drugs.
"Talk about a tool of the devil. That's one of them n drugs," Campbell said.
The son of an Arkansas sharecropper, Campbell was playing guitar in his uncle's Western swing band by the time he was a teenager. He moved to the West Coast in his early 20s and for a long time was known more as a session player than a solo artist.
His commercial breakthrough was 1967's "By The Time I Get to Phoenix," a song by Jimmy Webb. Like many of his hits, the song was embraced by country and pop audiences.
"When I heard it I cried because I was so homesick," Campbell said. "That's exactly the way I felt when I came out from Arkansas to L.A., and it's the way Jimmy Webb felt when he came out from Oklahoma. I heard it and said, `Oh, man this is it."'
His next hit was another Webb composition, "Wichita Lineman," that rose to No. 1 on the country charts and No. 3 on the pop charts in 1968. Yet another Webb song, "Galveston," followed in 1969.
From 1967 to 1980 Campbell scored 48 country hits and 34 pop hits. "Rhinestone Cowboy" and "Southern Nights" reached No. 1 on both charts.
His TV show, "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour," aired from 1969 to '72 and drew a weekly audience of about 50 million. The show was unusual for its diverse musical guests, including Stevie Wonder, Linda Ronstadt, Cream, Liberace, Ella Fitzgerald, Roger Miller, Johnny Cash and Ray Charles.
At the end of each show, Campbell would jam with his guests.
"He could play with all those guys. It didn't matter who they brought on n pop, country or rock," said Steve Wariner, a singer-songwriter and guitarist who recorded a hit duet with Campbell in 1987, "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle." "It really inspired me watching that, and I've told Glen that several times."
The television exposure pushed Campbell's fame to new heights. In 1969, he was cast alongside John Wayne in the hit movie "True Grit" and with Joe Namath in 1970's "Norwood."
But his personal life began to deteriorate. He drank heavily, got addicted to cocaine, went through three divorces and had a tumultuous engagement to Tanya Tucker in 1980. Campbell has been married to his fourth wife, Kim, since 1982.
"I thought I was going to die one night," he said of his drug use. "I woke up the next morning and said, 'I've got to stop doing this. I know better than that."'
Campbell's chart success began to wane in the 1980s. But he still performs up to 200 shows a year and recently recorded a country duet with Leslie Satcher called "When I Stop Dreaming" for a tribute album to the Louvin Brothers, a popular 1950s country duo.
Despite his own huge crossover success, Campbell echoes the oft-stated complaint about today's country music, saying he thinks it has drifted far from its folksy, rural roots and sounds too much like pop music.
"Country's not like it was," he said. "I like the way bluegrass is now. Alison Krauss and those guys are great musicians."
Then he begins to sing "When I Stop Dreaming."
Moments later, he's talking about the rock band Cream's performance on his TV show, and he starts growling the opening riff to "Sunshine of Your Love."
"It was so loud I had to leave the studio," Campbell said, laughing.
After 40 years in the music business, Campbell's mind is packed with song lyrics, guitar riffs, melodies and show business trivia. He uses songs to express thoughts the way other people use hand gestures.
This month, Capitol Nashville released a four-CD box set, "Glen Campbell: The Legacy 1961-2002."
But even that massive, 80-song compilation skips one of the most remarkable aspects of Campbell's career: his recording sessions as a singer and guitarist in the 1960s. Besides Sinatra, Campbell recorded with Elvis, the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, the Righteous Brothers, Merle Haggard, Nat "King" Cole, the Monkees, Ricky Nelson, Jimmy Rogers, Wayne Newton, the Mamas and the Papas, Dean Martin and others. For 18 months in the mid-'60s, he replaced an ailing Brian Wilson in the Beach Boys.
Campbell, 67, remembers something about each session.
"Merle and I would sing it live and then Bonnie (Haggard's then-wife, Bonnie Owens) would overdub the harmony," he says. "I still remember my parts. In fact, if I saw Merle Haggard today I'd go and sing it with him."
The morning of a recent appearance at the Grand Ole Opry, Campbell is eating breakfast in his hotel suite. Looking tan and fit, he's enthusiastic as he discusses everything from the box set to his decision to quit drinking and drugs.
"Talk about a tool of the devil. That's one of them n drugs," Campbell said.
The son of an Arkansas sharecropper, Campbell was playing guitar in his uncle's Western swing band by the time he was a teenager. He moved to the West Coast in his early 20s and for a long time was known more as a session player than a solo artist.
His commercial breakthrough was 1967's "By The Time I Get to Phoenix," a song by Jimmy Webb. Like many of his hits, the song was embraced by country and pop audiences.
"When I heard it I cried because I was so homesick," Campbell said. "That's exactly the way I felt when I came out from Arkansas to L.A., and it's the way Jimmy Webb felt when he came out from Oklahoma. I heard it and said, `Oh, man this is it."'
His next hit was another Webb composition, "Wichita Lineman," that rose to No. 1 on the country charts and No. 3 on the pop charts in 1968. Yet another Webb song, "Galveston," followed in 1969.
From 1967 to 1980 Campbell scored 48 country hits and 34 pop hits. "Rhinestone Cowboy" and "Southern Nights" reached No. 1 on both charts.
His TV show, "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour," aired from 1969 to '72 and drew a weekly audience of about 50 million. The show was unusual for its diverse musical guests, including Stevie Wonder, Linda Ronstadt, Cream, Liberace, Ella Fitzgerald, Roger Miller, Johnny Cash and Ray Charles.
At the end of each show, Campbell would jam with his guests.
"He could play with all those guys. It didn't matter who they brought on n pop, country or rock," said Steve Wariner, a singer-songwriter and guitarist who recorded a hit duet with Campbell in 1987, "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle." "It really inspired me watching that, and I've told Glen that several times."
The television exposure pushed Campbell's fame to new heights. In 1969, he was cast alongside John Wayne in the hit movie "True Grit" and with Joe Namath in 1970's "Norwood."
But his personal life began to deteriorate. He drank heavily, got addicted to cocaine, went through three divorces and had a tumultuous engagement to Tanya Tucker in 1980. Campbell has been married to his fourth wife, Kim, since 1982.
"I thought I was going to die one night," he said of his drug use. "I woke up the next morning and said, 'I've got to stop doing this. I know better than that."'
Campbell's chart success began to wane in the 1980s. But he still performs up to 200 shows a year and recently recorded a country duet with Leslie Satcher called "When I Stop Dreaming" for a tribute album to the Louvin Brothers, a popular 1950s country duo.
Despite his own huge crossover success, Campbell echoes the oft-stated complaint about today's country music, saying he thinks it has drifted far from its folksy, rural roots and sounds too much like pop music.
"Country's not like it was," he said. "I like the way bluegrass is now. Alison Krauss and those guys are great musicians."
Then he begins to sing "When I Stop Dreaming."
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