{"id":363805,"date":"2025-12-22T04:21:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T04:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/363805\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T04:21:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T04:21:13","slug":"on-this-day-in-1968-glen-campbell-topped-this-chart-for-the-first-and-only-time-thanks-to-his-signature-geographic-based-formula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/363805\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in 1968, Glen Campbell Topped This Chart for the First (And Only) Time Thanks to His Signature Geographic-Based Formula"},"content":{"rendered":"

For someone who never had aspirations<\/a> to become a country music performer, Glen Campbell certainly built an immensely successful career doing just that. And that success spanned multiple genres, charting 80 songs on Billboard\u2019s country, Hot 100, and adult contemporary charts. Of those 80 songs, 29 cracked the top 10 and nine reached No. 1. On this day in 1968, Campbell landed his sole career No. 1 on the Billboard Top LPs chart with Wichita Lineman.<\/p>\n

Wichita Lineman, Glen Campbell\u2019s 11th studio album, ruled the country charts for an astonishing 20 weeks<\/a> and gave the three-time CMA Award winner his only double-platinum record in the U.S. As stated above, it was also Campbell\u2019s only time to top Billboard\u2019s Top LPs, a precursor to today\u2019s Billboard 200.<\/p>\n

Glen Campbell Would Eventually Replace Himself at No. 1<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s title track was another example of an award-winning, geographic-based formula for Campbell and songwriter Jimmy Webb, who also wrote the 1967 hit \u201cBy the Time I Get to Phoenix.\u201d That song reached No. 2 on Billboard\u2019s Hot Country Singles chart and won two Grammy Awards, so it\u2019s no surprise that Campbell begged Webb for another \u201cplace-based\u201d song.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome time earlier,\u201d Webb told The Independent <\/a>in 2008, \u201cI had been driving around northern Oklahoma, an area that\u2019s real flat and remote \u2013 almost surreal in its boundless horizons and infinite distances. I\u2019d seen a lineman up on a telephone pole, talking on the phone. It was such a curiosity to see a human being perched up there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Webb wrote the song and handed it over to producer Al De Lory, whose uncle worked as a lineman in Kern County, California. \u201cAs soon as I heard that opening line, I could visualize my uncle up a pole in the middle of nowhere,\u201d De Lory said. \u201cI loved the song right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

[RELATED: On This Day in 1967, Glen Campbell Turned a Jimmy Webb-Penned Song Into a Classic \u201cSuccinct Tale\u201d With an O. Henry-Esque Twist]<\/a><\/p>\n

Hailed as \u201cthe first existential country song\u201d by The Independent, \u201cWichita Lineman\u201d topped both the Hot Country Songs and Adult Contemporary charts, also reaching No. 3 on the Hot 100. The album of the same name held firm atop the country charts until April 1969, when Campbell replaced himself with\u2014what else?\u2014Galveston.<\/p>\n

Featured image by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For someone who never had aspirations to become a country music performer, Glen Campbell certainly built an immensely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[16764,64,63,6982,134,197910],"class_list":{"0":"post-363805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-1960s","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-country-music","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-glen-campbell"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}