Covered: Jimmy Webb: Volume 1, 1966-1971

In the past few days, I've been really getting into my Covered series highlighting the best songs of the best songwriters. I already had a bunch of albums basically reading for posting, but I keep thinking or coming across songwriters that would be fitting for the series. Keep in mind that I'm generally focusing on those who were songwriters for others instead of those who became famous stars performing their own music, although there will be some of the latter when their songs were widely covered. (For instance, one can find a million covers of Bob Dylan songs, but very few of Pink Floyd songs.)

One person who is a must for this series is Jimmy Webb. He's an usual case of someone who became a household name for being a songwriter. He did have his own music career, releasing many studio albums, but it never achieved much success, at least not in comparison to the songs he wrote that were hits for others. In my opinion, some of the songs he wrote are not just classics, but all-time classics. For instance, if I had a Top 50 Greatest Songs list, I think both "Wichita Lineman" and "Galveston" would be on it.

Webb has great success right from the start. I read an account from songwriter P. F. Sloan (who will be featured in this series later), who was also a producer in the mid-1960s. He met Webb around 1965, when Webb was under 18 and trying to get anyone to record his songs. Webb played him "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Up, Up and Away," "Wichita Lineman," "MacArthur Park," and more. Sloan was floored. He told Webb that he'd played him about five future Number One songs, which pretty much proved to be true. That golden era when it seemed every song Webb was writing turned into a hit is the basis on this volume. (I'll be posting a second volume of the rest of his career.)

If you like intelligent yet very catchy pop songs, this album is a must have. Yeah, he gets dinged for some silly lyrics in "MacArthur Park" ("Someone left a cake out in the rain..."). But overall, he's a songwriter's songwriter. He's even written a popular book about the art of songwriting (which I have, and have been reading lately, by the way).

As I said in another post recently, I'm going to try to keep my Covered write-ups short so I'll post more music faster. So if you want to know more about Webb, here's his Wikipedia page:

Jimmy Webb - Wikipedia

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 By the Time I Get to Phoenix (Johnny Rivers)
02 Up, Up and Away (5th Dimension)
03 Love Years Coming (Strawberry Children)
04 Paper Cup (5th Dimension)
05 Wichita Lineman (Glen Campbell)
06 Do What You Gotta Do (Nina Simone)
07 MacArthur Park (Richard Harris)
08 The Magic Garden (Dusty Springfield)
09 Carpet Man (5th Dimension)
10 Worst that Could Happen (Brooklyn Bridge)
11 Galveston (Glen Campbell)
12 Where's the Playground, Susie (Glen Campbell)
13 Didn't We (Dionne Warwick)
14 Honey Come Back (Jr. Walker & the All Stars)
15 See You Then (Roberta Flack)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17271156/COVRDJIMMYWBB1966-1971Vlum1_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/GtYWDuwj

The cover photo of Webb is probably from 1968.