40 / 116
Jimmy Webb at the
Helsinki Festival
on the US charts and to the coveted
number-one position elsewhere around
the globe. e breezy “sunshine pop”
song established e Fi h Dimension as
one of the year’s most popular groups,
helping them to create a string of mem-
orable ’ s and ’ s chart classics.
Webb was himself swept up, up
and away in
. Country star Glen
Campbell’s lush and tender recording of
“By the Time I Get to Phoenix” that year
instantly crossed genres and audiences,
becoming a huge country hit and a new
pop standard. e song’s success kicked
o a Webb–Campbell collaboration that
yielded several more albums and hits,
including “Galveston” and the timeless,
ethereal love song “Wichita Lineman.”
At the
Grammy Awards, “Up,
Up, and Away” won six major awards,
including both of the ceremony’s highest
honors, Song of the Year and Record of
the Year. In addition, Campbell’s “By the
Time I Get to Phoenix” won two Gram-
mys. Being linked to a whopping eight
trophies, Webb became one of the most
heralded and sought-a er songwriters
in the industry practically overnight.
Webb’s idiosyncratic style is poetic
and piercing, with a re ective, heartfelt
insight. A Jimmy Webb song breaks new
ground and breaks your heart. And that
mesmerizing melding of melody and
lyric abundantly over ows on one of his
best-known fables.
e unlikely hit single “MacArthur
Park,” sung by British actor Richard
Harris and released in
, found Webb
following up his Grammy dominance
with another major success. is
sprawling, heavily orchestrated, and
wildly metaphorical musical journey of
a break-up song clocked in at more than
seven minutes. Nonetheless, its hypnotic
presentation proved too much for radio
stations and listeners to resist. It rose to
number two in the US, and again placed
Webb’s words high on several interna-
tional charts.
e song encapsulated all of Webb’s
ambitious talent and air, with allusions
to leaving a “cake out in the rain,” a “rec-
ipe” for a love a air that included “sweet
green icing owing down.”
Ten years later, disco diva Don-
na Summer recorded a triumphant,
high-energy version of “MacArthur
Park” that boogied its way to the top of
the charts, becoming the only Jimmy
Webb song to reach the top spot. e
song’s swirling production and Sum-
mer’s strong, versatile voice made it one
of her signatures and a pop and dis-
co-era classic.
Webb’s songs have been sung by
many more of the most famous and dis-
tinct voices in popular music, including
Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Elvis
Presley, Art Garfunkel, Linda Ronstadt,
Joe Cocker, Randy Newman, Judy Col-
lins, Billy Joel, Jackson Browne, Vince
Gill, J.D. Souther, Lucinda Williams,
Mark Knop er, Brian Wilson, Lyle
Lovett, and Keith Urban.
Webb also carved out a solo singing
career of his own, de ned by a host of
musical genres. For example, in
he
worked with famed Beatles producer
George Martin on the album
El Mirage
,
which included his original song “ e
Highwayman.” In
, it was recorded
by the country supergroup of Johnny
Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristo erson,
and Waylon Jennings, who would adopt
the title for both their album and their
group name as well as earn Webb a Best
Country Song Grammy.
e combination of Rivers’s and
Webb’s musical highlights makes this
Ravinia double bill a prodigious pair-
ing. In total, Rivers has nine
Billboard
top- hits and top- s, and he has
sold more than million records. e
underestimated Rivers is not a member
of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but
he certainly has the credentials and
the industry and audience respect to
deserve consideration. In
,
Rolling
Stone
placed Webb among the top
songwriters of all time, and Webb was
the youngest person ever inducted into
the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
As through their long and accom-
plished careers, Johnny Rivers still rides
the rock and roll current, and Jimmy
Webb steadily sails up, up, and away—
and for any music fan, that’s no secret
(agent), man.
James Turano is a freelance writer and a former
entertainment editor, feature writer, and columnist
for national and local magazines and newspapers.
+H KDV ZULWWHQ RIɶFLDO SURJUDPV IRU HLJKW EOWRQ -RKQ
tours since 2003 and is also a Chicago radio per-
sonality, heard regularly on WGN Radio 720AM.
SASA TKALCAN/HELSINKI FESTIVAL
RAVINIA MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 3, 2018 – MAY 11, 2019
38