‘Jimmy Webb: American Songwriter’: 5 Best Moments From the PBS Special: ‘Those Songs Are So Timeless; So Rich’

Vince Gill knew he was taking on an all-but-impossible task when he agreed to sing “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and “Wichita Lineman” on the PBS special Jimmy Webb: American Songwriter, which premieres Friday (Oct. 30) at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on PBS, pbs.org/gperf and the PBS app.

Gill, of course, did a fine job on those Jimmy Webb songs, which Glen Campbell turned into crossover pop/country hits (and Grammy nominees for record of the year in 1968 and 1969, respectively). But no one is ever going to top Campbell’s sublime recordings.

“Glen made such remarkable records with these songs, and they’re untouchable,” Gill said in an interview segment on the special. “They truly are. Those songs are so timeless. They’re so rich. They’re so rich in history. They’re so rich in story. They’re the American songbook of my lifetime.”

The excellently produced special looks at the highlights of Webb’s career, which began in earnest when The 5th Dimension’s buoyant recording of “Up — Up and Away” cracked the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1967. (Webb was a month away from turning 21.) Webb went on to write such gems as “MacArthur Park” (a Hot 100 smash for both Richard Harris and Donna Summer), “Didn’t We” (covered by Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams and Barbra Streisand, among many others) and “All I Know,” the first solo hit for Art Garfunkel.

Great Performances – Jimmy Webb: American Songwriter is a production of John Paulson Productions. It is executive produced by John Paulson and Karen Sherry Dolan and produced by Carol Stein and Philip W. Hack. Directed by Gary Menotti. For Great Performances, Bill Kabel is producer, Bill O’Donnell is series producer and David Horn is executive producer. 

Here are five highlights of Great Performances – Jimmy Webb: American Songwriter.

• The Glen Campbell Segment

  This segment was the highlight of the special — and how could it not be? In addition to Gill’s performances of the two aforementioned classics, Lyle Lovett sang a sturdy version of Campbell’s 1969 hit “Galveston.”

  Lovett proved as eloquent as Gill in describing Webb’s talent: “When you hear a song, and you think, ‘Well, that’s like nothing I ever heard before,’ you can pretty well figure that Jimmy Webb must have written it. His chord changes, his melodies, the way he says things, the images he creates are unique to him.”

  At another point, Lovett said: “Jimmy’s songs deal in sadness and regret, but always you hear hope in the melody. You hear hope in the arrangement, and the chord changes. It’s one of the things that it makes them great.”

  Gill added: “He just paints the most beautiful pictures with his words. That’s what great songs do. They take you to that place that that song sits in.” About “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” he said: “I’ve driven that road, and I know how all those cities lay and where they are, and how many miles it is between Phoenix and Albuquerque, and Albuquerque and Amarillo, and Amarillo to Oklahoma City. Jimmy’s use of sense of place is so powerful. You’re on that road.”

  Gill and Lovett joined Webb and Ashley Campbell, Glen’s daughter, for “Highwayman.” Webb introduced the song on a 1977 album, but Campbell was the first artist to cover it, in 1979. It is most famous for the 1985 version by The Highwaymen (Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson). The Highwomen (Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris and Amanda Shires) adapted it for a 2019 album. After these two single-gender versions, it was nice to see a mixed-gender rendition on the special.

• Ashley Campbell Ably Stands in for Her Dad

  Ashley Campbell, 39, ably filled in for her father, Glen Campbell. She sang “All I Know”; joined Webb, Lovett and Gill on “Highwayman”; and joined Webb for “Adios,” which her dad recorded for his final studio album.

  Ashley is a gifted singer — that runs in the family — and modest too. “I feel like a poor substitute for my father for sure,” she humbly said, “but it’s just such an honor that Jimmy seems to care for me so much.”

  She, of course, has known Webb all her life. “Jimmy Webb has been a constant presence in my life,” she said. “Growing up it was made very clear right off the bat, as soon as I was able to be aware of it, that he was my father’s absolute favorite songwriter, no contest.”    

• Learning the Backstory of a Classic Song

  “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress” has been recorded by numerous artists since 1974, when Joe Cocker recorded it on his album I Can Stand a Little Rain. Among them: Glen Campbell on his 1974 album Reunion: The Songs of Jimmy Webb, and Judy Collins on her 1975 album Judith.

  On the special, Webb suggested that the “harsh mistress” that brought him both joy and pain may have been the music business. After getting off to such a fast start, he went more than four years without a top 10 Hot 100 hit (until “All I Know” put him back in the top 10 in 1973).

  Said Webb as a lead-in to “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress”: “All the success I had early in my career led to a kind of emotional exhaustion. One of the biggest mistakes I made was believing I had a magic formula, and any time I wrote a song, it was going to be a hit. But fame, especially in the music industry, can be overwhelming and ephemeral. So, I tried to capture that cold, hard truth.”

• Ryan Shaw and Sheléa Can Sing

  Webb is a great songwriter, but he was not blessed with a great voice. He sang two songs by himself and two songs with others, but for the most part turned his songs over to five singers who are gifted in that area. Having discussed Gill and Lovett and Ashley Campbell, let’s focus here on Shaw and Sheléa, the latter a protegee of both Quincy Jones and Stevie Wonder.

  Shaw sang “The Worst That Could Happen,” a song the 5th Dimension recorded on their 1967 album The Magic Garden but never got around to releasing as a single. Brooklyn Bridge picked it up and took it to No. 3 on the Hot 100 in February 1969. Shaw’s version brought out all the song’s melodrama. Shaw also sang “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress” and, with Sheléa, “Still Within the Sound of My Voice.”

  Sheléa sang “Shattered,” which was inspired by the murder of John Lennon, and “MacArthur Park.” In 1978, the latter song became Donna Summer’s first No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 and brought Webb the only No. 1 of his career. Sheléa had the unenviable task of competing with our memories of Summer’s daring and thrilling reinvention of the song, but she met the moment.

• Those TV Clips

  The special makes great use of vintage TV clips. We see the 5th Dimension performing their 1967 smash “Up — Up and Away” on several variety shows of the era; a bit of TWA’s TV commercial of the era in which they licensed the song (which was good for Webb’s bank account but may have hurt his credibility in some quarters in those anti-capitalist times); a 22-year old Jimmy being interviewed by an admiring Hugh Hefner on the late-night TV show Playboy After Dark; several clips drawn from The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour (in which Campbell easily lived up the praise heaped upon him by Gill and Lovett); and clips of both Richard Harris and Donna Summer (both sadly departed) singing their smash versions of “MacArthur Park.”

• The Set List

  “Up, Up and Away” – Jimmy Webb

  “The Worst That Could Happen” – Ryan Shaw

  “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress” – Ryan Shaw

  “All I Know” – Ashley Campbell

  “Shattered” – Sheléa

  “Still Within the Sound of My Voice” – Ryan Shaw, Sheléa

  “If These Walls Could Speak” – Lyle Lovett (Amy Grant, Shawn Colvin, Nanci Griffith)

  “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” – Vince Gill

  “Galveston” – Lyle Lovett

  “Wichita Lineman” – Vince Gill

  “Highwayman” – Jimmy Webb, Lyle Lovett, Vince Gill and Ashley Campbell

  “Didn’t We” – Jimmy Webb

  “MacArthur Park” – Sheléa

  “Adios” – Jimmy Webb and Ashley Campbell