Jimmy Webb

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Jimmy Layne Webb (born August 15, 1946) is an American songwriter, composer, and singer.

He has written numerous platinum-selling songs, including "Up, Up and Away", "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "Wichita Lineman", "Galveston", "The Worst That Could Happen", "All I Know", and "MacArthur Park".

He has had successful collaborations with Glen Campbell, Michael Feinstein, Linda Ronstadt, The 5th Dimension, Art Garfunkel, and Richard Harris.Webb was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1990.

He received the National Academy of Songwriters Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993, the Songwriters Hall of Fame Johnny Mercer Award in 2003, the ASCAP "Voice of Music" Award in 2006, and the Ivor Novello Special International Award in 2012.

According to BMI, his song "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" was the third most performed song in the fifty years between 1940 and 1990.

Webb is the only artist ever to have received Grammy Awards for music, lyrics, and orchestration.

Early life

Webb was born on August 15, 1946, in Elk City, Oklahoma and raised in Laverne, Oklahoma. He grew up in a religiously conservative family; His father, Robert Lee Webb, was a Baptist minister and veteran of the United States Marine Corps who presided over rural churches in southwestern Oklahoma and west Texas. With his mother's encouragement, Webb learned piano and organ and by the age of 12 was playing in the choir of his father's churches, accompanied by his father on guitar and his mother on accordion. His father restricted radio listening to country music and white gospel.

During the late 1950s, Webb began applying his creativity to the music he was playing at his father's church, frequently improvising and rearranging the hymns. He began to write religious songs at this time, but his musical direction was soon influenced by the new music being played on the radio, including the music of Elvis Presley. In 1961, at the age of 14, he bought his first record, "Turn Around, Look at Me" by Glen Campbell. Webb was drawn to the singer's distinctive voice.

In 1964, Webb and his family moved to Southern California, where he attended San Bernardino Valley College, studying music. Following the death of his mother in 1965, his father made plans to return to Oklahoma. Webb decided to stay in California to continue his music studies and to pursue a career as a songwriter in Los Angeles. Webb would later recall his father warning him about his musical aspirations, saying, "This songwriting thing is going to break your heart." Seeing that his son was determined, however, he gave him $40, saying, "It's not much, but it's all I have."

Personal life

Webb was married to Patricia "Patsy" Sullivan, a model and youngest child of screen actor Barry Sullivan and Swedish actress and model Gita Hall. They first met during a cover shoot for Teen in 1969; Sullivan was 12 at the time. The parents of six children, they were married in 1974 and divorced in 1996. Two sons, Christiaan and Justin, formed a rock band, the Webb Brothers. Their brother, James, later joined the band. Webb collaborated with his sons on the album Cottonwood Farm.

Webb gave up alcohol and marijuana following his divorce and revived his performing career. He had been a heavy user of both substances.

In 2004, Webb married Laura Savini, a host and producer for PBS. From 1996 to 2011, Savini was vice president of marketing and communications at WLIW, a PBS station in New York City. The couple first met backstage on New Year's Eve 1999 at Billy Joel's 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert at Madison Square Garden. They met again when Savini interviewed Webb for her series on the arts.

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Career

Webb was signed to a songwriting contract with Jobete Music, Motown Records' publishing arm, after cribing other people's music for a small music publisher in Hollywood. The Supremes' "My Christmas Tree" was the first commercial recording of a Jimmy Webb song, which appeared on their 1965 Merry Christmas album. On his 1966 album Changes, Webb met singer and entrepreneur Johnny Rivers, who signed him to a publishing contract and recorded his song "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." Rivers released Rewind, an album starring seven Jimmy Webb songs, including "Do What You Want" and "Tunesmith," a song also performed by Vikki Carr on her album It Must Be Him" in 1967. Rivers in the same year went online for information for a new group Rivers called the 5th Dimension. Up, Up, And Away, Webb's debut album, included the title track, which was released as a single in May 1967 and debuted in the Top Ten. The Magic Garden's sequel to The Magic Garden was also released in 1967 and included eleven more Webb songs, including "Worst That Could Happen."

Glen Campbell's version of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" debuted in November 1967, peaking at number 26. "Up, Up, and Away" was named Record of the Year (1967) and Song of the Year (1967). "Up, Up, And Away" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" received eight Grammy Awards between them. Webb's success as a young songwriter exemplified what had been his greatest challenge throughout his career. Although mainstream audiences were embracing his sophisticated melodies and orchestrations, his peers were taking on counterculture sounds. Webb was quickly out of sync with his times.

Time magazine celebrated Webb's versatility, expertise, and "gift for dynamic, versatile rhythms, creative designs, and rich, often surprising harmonies." With "Paper Cup" and "Cardman" selling over a million copies, Glen Campbell's "Wichita Lineman" and "Carryman" selling over a million copies, and Johnny Maestro & the Brooklyn Bridge scoring a gold record with "Worst That Could Happen," a song originally released by the 5th Dimension, that year, the band "Paper Cup" and "Carport Man" making their way to the top 40, and "Wichita Webb founded Canopy, an Irish actor's debuting with an album of all Webb songs. "MacArthur Park," one of the songs, was a long, complicated piece with multiple movements that was first rejected by the association The Association. Despite the song's seven-minute, twenty-one second length, Harris's version debuted at No. 2 on the Hot 100 on June 22, 1968, and #10 on the UK Singles Chart on July 24, 1968. For almost a year, A Tramp Shining appeared on the charts for almost a year. The Yard Went On Forever, a Webb and Harris tribute album that was also very popular. "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" by the late Frank Sinatra on the former's 1968 album Cycles, raising Webb's profile as a songwriter. Sinatra would continue to sing "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" as "the best torch song ever written." Webb received awards for "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Wichita Lineman," and "MacArthur Park" at the 1969 Grammy Awards. In 2019, "Wichita Lineman" was added to the National Recording Registry.

Glen Campbell continued his Webb hits with "Galveston" and "Where's the Playground Susie." Webb and Campbell met for the first time during the assembly of a GM commercial. Webb arrived at the recording session with his Beatle-length hair and yelled at the conservative musician, who leaned up from his guitar and said, "Get a haircut." Two Webb songs became hits in the same year as Isaac Hayes' soulful interpretation of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and Waylon Jennings' Grammy-winning country version of "MacArthur Park." The singer delve deeper into Webb's songbook with a version of "Didn't We?" on Frank Sinatra's critically acclaimed 1969 album My Way. "A number that was originally drawn by Richard Harris in 1968 and released as the B-side of "MacArthur Park." Webb completed the year by writing, arranging, and releasing Thelma Houston's first album, Sunshower. As the decade came to an end, Webb's collection of hit singles came to an end. He began to detach from the formulaic process in which he worked and began to experiment with his music. He began to work on His Own Dark City, a semi-autobiographical Broadway musical, which reflected the emotional turmoil he felt at the time. He also wrote music for the films How Sweet It Is. Willie Boy Is Here and Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here.

With the release of Epic Records' "counterfet" album Jim Webb Sings Jim Webb, Webb's career as a singer-songwriter got off to a rocky start. The album was made "by a group of ruffians from various old demos of mine" and tarted up to sound like 'MacArthur Park,'" according to Webb. Beginning in 1970, Webb released six original albums of his own songs: Words and Music (1971), Letters (1972), Land's End (1974), El Mirage (1977), and Angel Heart (1982). Webb has never been as good as a performer as he has been as a composer and arranger as he has been as an observer as well as as a critic. Each album was praised for its original music and memorable lyrics.

Words and Music, Webb's debut as a performer, was released on Reprise Records in late 1970 to critical acclaim. "P.F. is one of the album's cuts," Rolling Stone writer Jon Landau wrote. Sloan, a "masterpiece [that] could not be improved upon," is a form of sugar "that could not be improved upon." The album also includes the enthralling song collection "Music for an Unmade Film." And So: On, Webb's 1971 sequel to And So: On, was equally enthralling to critics. Rolling Stone described the album as "another significant step in the scheme to recover his identity from the housewives of America's illicit use of modern composers/performers." "Mether on a Plane," "All My Love's Laughter," and "Marionette" are among the album's titles. The Three Degrees appear in the film "Everybody Gets To Go To The Moon," which was released in 1969 by Thelma Houston.

"Galveston," Webb's 1972 album Letters, which features his own interpretation of "Galveston," received a lot of praise. Letters from Bruce Eder, a music critic, ranked as the "most surprising, diverse, and possibly the most satisfying of all of Jimmy Webb's early solo LPs" and "arguably the best of Webb's solo albums." "Jimmy Webb is the most influential pop music figure to emerge after Bob Dylan," Peter Reilly of Stereo Review wrote about the album. "Campo de Encino," an homage to his park-like residence in Encino, California, during the 1970s, "When Will Brown Begin," and "Piano" are also included on the album.

On Asylum Records, Webb announced Land's End in 1974. Webb's End, which was not released on his previous albums, was able to produce a more well-produced pop/rock sound on Land's End, which was recorded in England with the support of an all-star session band starring Joni Mitchell, Ringo Starr, and Nigel Olsson. The album has "a thematic consistency" in that the bulk of its songs were stories of romantic discord. Although Webb's success as a performer soared, he "hadn't found a voice as a solo artist." "Ocean in His Eyes," "Just This One Time," and "Crying in My Sleep" are among the album's titles.

El Mirage on Atlantic Records was released in 1977 by Webb. George Martin, the Beatles' former producer, arranged, and conducted the album, the album's "most polished debut as a performer" on the webb. "These were lush tracks full of tasty playing and warm string charts on which Webb's thin tenor was boosted by a variety of background vocalists, making it a perfect example of the 'West Coast pop'" style. Several solid compositions on the album include "The Highwayman," which would later become a top-one country hit for Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson, who referred to their super group The Highwaymen. Their version of "The Highwayman" received the Best Country Song Grammy Award. A newly arranged version of "P.F.") El Mirage also includes "If You See Me Getting Smaller I'm Leaving." "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" is Sloan's phrase, which had already been published by Joe Cocker, Glen Campbell, and Judy Collins. Despite the positive critical reaction to the album, El Mirage did not succeed in redefining Webb as a performer as he had hoped.

Angel Heart, Webb's last solo album from that time, was released in 1982 on Lorimar Records. The album drew on the talents of top Los Angeles session musicians to produce a classic West Coast pop sound, augmented by guest vocal harmonies from Gerry Beckley, Michael McDonald, Graham Nash, Kenny Loggins, Daryl Hall, and Stephen Bishop. Angel Heart lacked the same quality content as his previous solo albums, but the composer's lacked the same high-quality content. Despite its polished production, the album contained few high points, apart from "Scissors Cut" and "In Cars," which were previously released by Art Garfunkel. A decade will go by before Webb's next solo album is released.

Webb's songs remained to be released by some of the industry's most influential artists throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Jimmy Webb produced The Supremes' last album, which featured Jean Terrell as the lead singer. The Supremes Produced and Arranged by Jimmy Webb on 1972. When he wrote and produced "I Keep It Hid" featuring her on lead vocals, Webb is quoted as saying he had a crush on Mary Wilson. Art Garfunkel's Watermark album's initial release in 1977 contained solely of songs from the Webb. Donna Summer's disco version of "MacArthur Park" became the top-selling vinyl single on the American pop music charts for three weeks in 1978. Thelma Houston's debut on her album "What Was That Song" and "Before There Could Be Me" appeared on her album "Breakwater Cat," "Gone," "Long Lasting Love," and "What Was the Song" were among her songs. For her album "I Run With Pain," Leah Kunkel's song "Never Gonna Lose My Dream of Love Again" and "Let's Begin" were recorded. Bob Dylan, the born-again Bob Dylan, performed the latter live in 1980. Tanya Tucker's album Dreamlovers features "Tennessee Woman." On the 1980 album Trilogy: Past Present Future, Frank Sinatra did his own cover of "MacArthur Park" on "MacArthur Park."

Art Garfunkel recorded "Scissors Cut," "In Cars," and "I've Got to Say" on his album Scissors Cut in 1981, and Arlo Guthrie's "Oklahoma Nights" on his album Power of Love. Linda Ronstadt's album Get Closer sang "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" and "Easy for You to Say" on her album Get Closer. Joe Cocker performed "Just Like Always" on his album Sheffield Steel, and the Everly Brothers performed "She Never Smiles Anymore" on their album Living Legends.

"One day I wondered what happened to the Seventies and all the grandiose schemes," Webb said in 1981.

Webb went from solo performance to large-scale undertakings, Broadway musicals, and classical music from 1982 to 1992. "The Last Unicorn," an animated children's tale, was produced by Mr. He produced the soundtrack for the film "The Last Unicorn," "In the Sea," "Now That I'm a Woman," and "That's All I've Got to Say." Instrumental music was composed, arranged, and conducted by Webb on the remainder of the album. He produced the soundtrack to all episodes of the television show Seven Brides for Seven Brothers the same year.

Webb produced the theme tune for the 1984-85 TV sitcom E/R. Glen Campbell of Glen Campbell recorded "Cowboy Hall of Fame" and "Shattered" for the album in 1985. It's Just a Matter of Time. Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson recorded "Highwayman" on the album Highwayman. On the album The Seventh One, Toto recorded "Home of the Brave" in 1988. Kenny Rankin's album "She Moves, Eyes Follow" was released on the album "Hiding in Myself." Linda Ronstadt recorded "Still Within the Sound of My Voice" (with Webb's orchestral arrangement), "I Keep It Hid" (with Webb playing piano), and "Shattered" in 1989. On the album "Postcard From Paris," John Denver recorded "Postcard From Paris." Kenny Rogers' album "They Just Don't Make Em Like You Anymore" on the album "Back Home Again" in 1991.

Art Garfunkel, Amy Grant, and the London Symphony Orchestra all performed a cantata, The Animals' Christmas, which was released in 1986. The cantata portrays the Christmas tale from the perspective of animals.

The Hanoi Hilton soundtrack was produced by Webb in 1987. He reunited with Campbell for the album Still Within the Sound of My Voice, for which he wrote the title song. Light Years, a Jimmy Webb tribute album that was largely composed of Jimmy Webb songs, came out in 1988. The album contained the title song as well as "Lightning in a Bottle," "If These Walls Could Speak" (which was also recorded by Amy Grant this year) and "Our Movie." The album also features two songs from 1982's Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. "Other People's Lives," "Wasn't A Time," "I Don't Know How To Love You Anymore," and "Is There Love After You" were also included on the album. Several of these songs later appeared on Webb solo albums.

In 1992, Webb produced Instant Intimacy, which he co-produced with the Tennessee Repertory Theatre. "What Does a Woman See in a Man," "I Don't Know How to Love You Anymore," and "Is There Love After You" were among the musical's that he and others would later perform. Webb performed "What Does a Woman See in a Man" and unveiled several new songs, including "Sandy Cove" and an old folk hymn, "I Will Arise," on the same year.

Jimmy Webb has released five critically acclaimed solo albums: Suspending Disbelief (1993), Ten Easy Pieces (1996), Just Across the River (2010), and Still Within the Sound of My Voice (2013). He has continued to expand his creative universe to include musicals, commercial jingles, and film scores.

Webb collaborated with Nanci Griffith in 1994 to contribute the song "If These Old Walls Could Speak" to the Red Hot Country's AIDS relief album Red Hot + Country.

In 1997, Webb co-produced Carly Simon's "Film Noir" album and contributed his singing, orchestration, and piano skills to the project, which was originally broadcast on AMC. He also co-wrote the song "Film Noir" with Simon. On Simon's 2008 album, "This Kind of Love," Webb reprised his role as arranger and co-producer.

Webb wrote Tunesmith: Inside the Art of Songwriting, his first book, which was published by Hyperion Books in 1998. It was well received by writers and performers, and it became a best-seller. According to one book reviewer, it was "a companion that every serious songwriter should read and read again, and be sure to have on hand for referral."

Live and At Large (2007), his show, which was released in the United Kingdom, was released in 2007. Richard Harris, Waylon Jennings, Harry Nilsson, Glen Campbell, Art Garfunkel, Frank Sinatra, and Rosemary Clooney were among the album's personal stories and anecdotes about Richard Harris, Waylon Jennings, Waylon Jennings, Harry Nilsson, Glen Campbell, Art Garfunkel, Frank Sinatra, and Rosemary Clooney.

Webb appears in the 2008 film The Wrecking Crew, giving rich and detailed insight into the lives of California session musicians in the 1960s.

Just Across the River, an album of rearranged Webb songs starring guest appearances by Vince Gill, Billy Joel, Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Jackson Browne, Glen Campbell, Michael McDonald, J. D. Souther, and Linda Ronstadt, was published in June 2010.

Webb was unanimously elected Chairman of the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011, replacing Hal David, who resigned after ten years in that role.

In May 2012, Webb traveled to London to receive the coveted Ivor Novello Special International Award, which honors non-British writers and composers who have made a major contribution to the international musical landscape. Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb's In Session, a collaborative album by Glen Campbell and Jimmy Webb, was released by Fantasy Records in September 2012. In December 1988, the album and its accompanying DVD were shot, taped, and filmed in CHCH-TV's Hamilton, Ontario studios as part of the Canadian concert series In Session.

Webb's influence on his fellow musicians is still thriving, even after he sold his first album. Bruce Springsteen, the renowned rock singer-songwriter, has admitted that Webb's music influenced his 2019 album Western Stars, and country music star Keith Urban cites Webb as his first songwriting inspiration.

Webb continues to excel in the United States and overseas. The Cake and the Rain: A Memoir, an autobiography published in 2017.

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Honors and awards

• 1967 Grammy Award for Song of the Year ("Up, Up and Away")
• 1969 Oklahoma Baptist University Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia honorary membership, Pi Tau Chapter
• 1986 Grammy Award for Best Country Song ("Highwayman")
• 1986 National Academy of Popular Music Songwriter's Hall of Fame
• 1990 Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame
• 1993 National Academy of Songwriters Lifetime Achievement Award
• 1999 Oklahoma Hall of Fame
• 1999 ASCAP Board of Directors, Vice Chairman (as of January 2015)
• 2000 Songwriters Hall of Fame Board of Directors
• 2003 Songwriters Hall of Fame, Johnny Mercer Award
• 2006 ASCAP Voice of Music Award
• 2010 Songwriters Hall of Fame, Chairman Emeritus, 2010–2014
• 2012 Ivor Novello Awards, Special International Award
• 2013 Great American Songbook Hall of Fame, Songbook Award
• 2019 National Recording Registry ("Wichita Lineman")