The career of the late Glen Campbell career will be celebrated with Glen Campbell—The Legacy [1961-2017], an updated and expanded edition of his long-out-of-print, career-spanning boxed set. Originally released in 2003, this four-disc anthology, due June 21 via Capitol/UMe, collects 78 songs, beginning with his earliest and including such hits as “Gentle On My Mind,” “By The Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Galveston,” “Wichita Lineman,” “Rhinestone Cowboy” and “Southern Nights,” and culminating with his final recordings. The collection includes all of Campbell’s best-known and favorite songs and chronologically charts his career over six decades, with sales totaling more than 50 million albums.
Pre-order is available here.
This new edition picks up where the previous one left off and adds songs from Campbell’s late-career renaissance. Now included are songs from his string of later albums: 2008’s Meet Glen Campbell, 2011’s Ghost on the Canvas, 2014’s soundtrack to his documentary, Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, and 2017’s Adiós, released shortly before he passed away from complications from Alzheimer’s. The box includes a 60-page booklet and updated liner notes by music scribe Joel Selvin, who wrote the original liners.
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Opening with “Turn Around, Look At Me,” Campbell’s first single released in 1961 shortly after he moved to Los Angeles from Albuquerque to break into the music business, Glen Campbell— The Legacy [1961-2017] includes songs from nearly all of the 60-plus albums he released in his lifetime.
The collection traces Campbell’s evolution from his earliest days with songs like the bluegrass tune “Kentucky Means Paradise,” the honky-tonk oldie “Too Late To Worry—Too Blue To Cry,” Buffy St. Marie’s protest anthem “Universal Soldier” and “Guess I’m Dumb,” written and produced by his friend Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, for whom Campbell substituted on tour when Wilson bowed out, to his first works with producer Al De Lory, who helped him hone his signature sound with the song that would kickstart his recording career and put him on the map: the 1967 John Hartford-penned masterpiece “Gentle On My Mind.”
Campbell, who was concurrently also a first-call session musician recording with the likes of the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Simon and Garfunkel, the Righteous Brothers, Merle Haggard and many more as part of the Wrecking Crew, followed the hit with a song that would end up being a turning point for him. “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” both introduced a new lush sound for Campbell and a little-known songwriter from Oklahoma named Jimmy Webb. The song, which along with “Gentle On My Mind,” helped him make history at the 1967 Grammy Awards by sweeping the song and performance awards in both the pop and country and western categories, was a crossover success that spent six months on the charts and catapulted Campbell to fame. It also began a fruitful lifelong partnership between the musician and songwriter that would last more than five decades and include some of Campbell’s biggest hits such as “Wichita Lineman” and “Galveston,” which kicks off disc two.
Related: Recalling Campbell’s early session career
The late ‘60s and early ‘70s were especially prolific for Campbell who, in between starring in his hit TV show The Glen Campbell Good Time Hour and becoming a movie star opposite John Wayne in the western True Grit (for which he recorded the Oscar-nominated theme song) and his feature film follow-up, Norwood, released four albums in 1970 and three more the following year. The Legacy collection includes many of the tracks released during this period including Webb’s “Where’s the Playground Susie” and “MacArthur Park,” “I Wanna Live” (a #1 country hit) and several songs recorded with labelmate Bobbie Gentry including “Let It Be Me,” Scarborough Fair/Canticle” and the Everly Brothers hit “All I Have To Do Is Dream.” There’s also Campbell’s version of Roy Orbison’s “Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream),” the Gordon Lightfoot-penned title track from his album The Last Time I Saw Her and a medley with Anne Murray of “I Say A Little Prayer/By The Time I Get To Phoenix.”
The second half of the boxed set features Campbell’s trademark song “Rhinestone Cowboy,” which earned him his first #1 record and became his theme in many ways, and his spin on Allen Toussaint’s “Southern Nights.” More than four decades later Campbell’s rendition of “Southern Nights” would prominently feature in the film and soundtrack to Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 2, introducing a new generation to his music. Other highlights include “God Only Knows,” Campbell’s take on Brian Wilson’s opus, “Sunflower,” a breezy #1 hit written by Neil Diamond and “Highwayman,” which, eight years after recording the Jimmy Webb song, Campbell would introduce to Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. They not only used the name for their supergroup but also won a Grammy.
Watch a video of “Southern Nights”
The final disc of the collection, which includes Campbell showcasing his love for gospel and his faith with a live rendition of “Amazing Grace,” and flexing his guitar skills on “Classical Gas,” has been expanded to include songs from his albums released in the 2000s. Included from his acclaimed 2008 album, Meet Glen Campbell, which saw him tackle contemporary and classic songs, are his covers of the Foo Fighters’ “Times Like These,” Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” and Jackson Browne’s “These Days.” 2011’s Ghost on the Canvas is represented with a spirited take on the Paul Westerberg song of the same name while 2013’s See You There is represented with “Waiting on the Comin’ of My Lord.”
The last song Campbell ever recorded was “I’m Not Gonna Miss You.” This goodbye to his family and fans was co-written by him and producer Julian Raymond and recorded with members of the Wrecking Crew. The song, featured in the documentary Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, which chronicles Campbell’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and his final tour, won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song and was nominated for Best Original Song at the 87th Academy Awards. The retrospective culminates with three songs from Campbell’s album Adiós, recorded while fighting his disease and released in 2017 to universal acclaim: a banjo-filled take on “Everybody’s Talkin’,” country weeper “It Won’t Bring Her Back” and the bittersweet title track, which brought Campbell’s career full circle by reuniting him one last time with his Webb.
Watch the “Rhinestone Cowboy” video
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