The first record I want to share with you is easily in my Top 25 favorite albums of all time. Perhaps Top 10. Glen Campbell's Reunion: The Songs of Jimmy Webb is a near perfect album. I couldn't tell you why its not perfect, but I just feel safer saying "near".
By 1974, Glen Campbell had lived the life that most can only dream of. He'd won Grammy's for his recordings of "Gentle On My Mind" and "By the Time I Get To Phoenix"as a solo artist and sold millions of records. He was a popular session guitar player on many huge hit records by many of my personal favorites like The Association and Mamas and the Papas. Especially cool, he was a guitar player on The Beach Boys' Petsounds record. He was even the original replacement for Brian Wilson when he stopped touring with the Beach Boys in 1965.
For some reason, Reunion is often overlooked when Glen Campbell is mentioned. I don't get it. I really don't. As a songwriter myself, Jimmy Webb is a hero. To think that a whole album of his songs, recorded by his greatest interpreter, is generally discovered in dollar bins inside the music store basement or underneath a dusty stack of Mitch Miller records at the local Goodwill, is one of the true crimes in pop music. Even now, you can pick up the CD for about $1.99 sealed on eBay.
I won't go into why you should listen to each song, I'll just demand it. Listen to the WHOLE record from start to finish. Sit in your favorite chair and put it on the stereo or go for a night drive. It will feel so familiar to you. It feels like childhood to me. I can imagine it coming out of the speakers in the back of the big ol' van my family had in 1983 in Nashville.
Go buy a clean version on vinyl on eBay.
You might as well smile...
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