Not long after his 18th birthday he found himself in Los Angeles, having joined the Champs (Tequila) he was playing and touring and was also the primary studio guitarist for The Hondells and The Rip Chords, both strictly vocal groups who hired sidemen to record and tour. Those gigs led to a stint with the Delltones, Dick Dale's band, and work with Gene Vincent, Bobby Darin, Ricky Nelson, The Green River Boys and a host of others which eventually led to a recording contract of his own in 1961. His first solo recordings made the charts, but seldom broke the top 50, but as his reputation spread it led to his seat with Hal Blaine's legendary Wrecking Crew, Hollywood's premier recording session icons. That exposure led to other sessions, and bigger artist, including Dean Martin, Lou Rawls, Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. By 1965 Glenn was playing on over 500 recording sessions each year.
Following Brian Wilson's breakdown and retirement from the road in 1965, Campbell became a touring member of the Beach Boys for several months, having already played on many of their hits and the entire "Pet Sounds" album. At the end of his tenure as the group's temporary bassist, the Beach Boys offered him a permanent spot in the band, but he turned them down when they wouldn't allow him to have an equal cut of the group's royalties. A few months after rejecting their offer, the Beach Boys' record label, Capitol, offered Campbell a full-fledged contract. His first release under his new long-term Capitol contract was a version of Buffy Sainte-Marie's "The Universal Soldier," which peaked at number 45. For much of 1966, he continued to pursue studio work, but he released "Burning Bridges" toward the end of the year, and it climbed to number 18 on the country charts early in 1967.
During 1967, Capitol pushed Campbell as a country recording artist, and their breakthrough arrived in the late summer when his folky country-pop rendition of John Hartford's "Gentle on My Mind" became a Top 40 hit on both the country and pop charts. By the end of the year, he had released a cover of Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," which reached number two on the country charts, and number 26 on the pop charts. Early in 1968, "Gentle on My Mind" won the Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording of 1967. Campbell's success continued in 1968, as "I Wanna Live" became his first number one hit and "Dreams of the Everyday Housewife" reached number three. The Smother's Brothers tapped Glenn to host their summer replacement "Smothers Comedy Brothers Hour" variety show and the following year, CBS television hired him to host the variety show The Glen Campbell Good Time Hour, which became quite popular and helped establish him as not only a country star, but a pop music superstar. That show lasted 4 years.
He had number one hits with "Wichita Lineman" (1968) and "Galveston" (1969) and went on from his TV shows to his co-starring role with pal John Wayne in the movie "True Grit" in 1969.
There's a lot more to Glen's story, and maybe I'll get around to it, but first I want to share his music. Glen is now in 24 hour hospice care, but before he went away he helped raise millions for Alzheimer's research, after he was in the throws of the disease himself. It took courage and hard work to put himself through that final tour and album "Ghost on the Canvas". Later this month a documentary about his Alzheimer's called "I'll Be Me" will be released. I urge you to see it. I lost both of my parents to Alzheimer's and spent two years as their primary caregiver. Glen's life was a labor of love and his career shines like a super nova, he was the first "crossover" artist in history; let's not forget him, even though he's forgotten us.
~ Glen Campbell ~
