“By the Time I Get to Phoenix” (Glen Campbell/Isaac Hayes)

Today’s classic Jimmy Webb song of the day is “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” made famous by singer Glen Campbell. His single, released in October of 1967, only hit #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 but rose to #12 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart and #2 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart. More importantly, the song has become a standard; no less an eminence than Frank Sinatra proclaimed it “the greatest torch song ever written.”

Jimmy Webb wrote “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” while he was still involved in a relationship with his original sweetheart, Suzy Horton. (Suzy inspired a lot of Jimmy’s tunes, including yesterday’s classic song of the day, “MacArthur Park.”) Johnny Rivers was the first to record it, in 1966, but it was Glen Campbell who made it a hit.

The musicians on Campbell’s version of “By the Time I get to Phoenix” were all members of the Wrecking Crew—James Burton on guitars, Joe Osborn on bass, and Jim Gordon on drums. The Wrecking Crew were the group of studio musicians who ruled the West Coast studio scene in the 1960s. Glen Campbell was also a member of the Crew, before he left the studios for a solo career. As an accomplished studio musician, Glen himself played acoustic guitar on this and most of his other records.

“By the Time I Get to Phoenix” is a goodbye song. The lyrics tell the short story of a guy who’s decided to leave his lover, and him imagining what she’s doing as he hits the various stops on his way out of town. By the time he gets to Phoenix, she’s just rising; when he hits Albuquerque, she’s at work; when he makes Oklahoma, she’s sleeping. She finally cries when she realizes that he’s really gone, even though he tried to tell her so.

Interestingly, the geography presented in the song isn’t exactly accurate. To the point, you can’t really get there from here, at least not in the timeframe explored in the lyrics. Jimmy Webb recounts this story:

“A guy approached me one night after a concert… and he showed me how it was impossible for me to drive from L.A. to Phoenix, and then how far it was to Albuquerque. In short, he told me, ‘This song is impossible.’ And so it is. It’s a kind of fantasy about something I wish I would have done, and it sort of takes place in a twilight zone of reality.”

Geography aside, this short and succinct little song (with an “O. Henry-esque twist at the end,” as Jimmy once put it) quickly became a favorite among all manner of performers. “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” has been covered by artists as diverse as Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, Jack Jones, Vikki Carr, Conway Twitty, Eddie Arnold, Andy Williams, O.C. Smith, the Lettermen, Charlie Rich, Burl Ives, Frankie Valli, Jim Nabors, Englebert Humperdinck, Robert Goulet, the Mills Brothers, Peggy Lee, the Four Tops, Harry Belafonte, Kate Smith, the Main Ingredient, James Brown, Reba McEntire, Thelma Houston, Dean Martin, and the Chairman of the Board himself, Frank Sinatra.

Perhaps my favorite cover was by Isaac Hayes on his 1969 Hot Buttered Soul album. He turned Jimmy’s efficient 2:42 tune into a soulful 18 minute and 45 second proto rap about what led to the man’s leaving. It’s a remarkable piece of music that totally reimagines the original tune, but in a good way.

“By the Time I Get to Phoenix” was the first of a long collaboration between songwriter Jimmy Webb and singer Glen Campbell. Other Webb/Campbell collaborations include “Wichita Lineman” (1968), “Galveston” (1969), “Where’s the Playground Susie” (1969), and “Honey Come Back” (1970). Lots of artists sang Jimmy’s tunes, but Glen was perhaps the most sympathetic singer of them all. Glen seemed to really get the Oklahoma roots behind many of Jimmy’s songs, bringing an everyman interpretation to the little dramas behind the music.

And here’s your daily bonus recording of the day, Jimmy Webb himself duetting with his pal Glen Campbell on a new version of “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” from Jimmy’s 2010 album of duets, Just Across the River. This is a special one.