Jimmy Webb - Words and Music

Words And Music, released in November 1970, was the first album recorded as such by 24-year-old Jimmy Webb (or Jimmy L. Webb, as he was credited on the cover). But he had achieved a measure of fame as a songwriter in the preceding years. His compositions had given him two dozen entries on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1967 and 1970, among them the Top Ten hits "MacArthur Park" (by Richard Harris), "Worst That Could Happen" (by The Brooklyn Bridge), "Wichita Lineman" (by Glen Campbell), "Galveston" (by Campbell), and "Up-Up and Away" (by The 5th Dimension), as well as the much-recorded "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." (Indeed, the only songwriters more successful on the pop singles chart in 1969 were Kenny Gamble, John Lennon, and Paul Mccartney.) These hits, in turn, had made him a favorite of middle-of-the-road pop singers (including Paul Anka, Tony Bennett, Vikki Carr, John Davidson, Bobby Goldsboro, Eydie Gorme, Robert Goulet, Don Ho, Engelbert Humperdinck, Jack Jones, Tom Jones, Dean Martin, Al Martino, Johnny Mathis, Jim Nabors, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Jerry Vale, Dionne Warwick, Andy Williams, and Nancy Wilson) and easy listening artists (including Ray Conniff, Percy Faith, Ferrante & Teicher, Andre Kostelanetz, Enoch Light, Henry Mancini, Mantovani, and Lawrence Welk) who covered them. Read More