This week’s final classic Jimmy Webb song of the day is “Didn’t We,” a song that really wasn’t a major hit for any particular artist but was covered by enough singers to become somewhat of a classic.
Jimmy Webb wrote “Didn’t We” back in 1968 as a reflection on a love affair that almost but not quite made it. It’s right there in the lyrics:
This time we almost made the pieces fit
Didn’t we, girl?
This time we almost made some sense of it
Didn’t we, girl?
This time I had the answer right here in my hand,
Then I touched it and it had turned to sand,
This time we almost sang our song in tune
Didn’t we, girl?
This time we almost made it to the moon oh,
Didn’t we, girl?
This time we almost made our poem rhyme,
This time we almost made that long hard climb,
Didn’t we almost make it this time?
Richard Harris was the first to record “Didn’t We,” on his 1968 album, A Tramp Shining. It was initially released as the B-side to his monster hit, “MacArthur Park,” and then later as an A-side on its own. The single saw moderate success, hitting #63 on the Billboard Hot 100 but rising all the way to #11 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart.
I call “Didn’t We” a classic because hundreds of other artists have covered the song, including Barbara Streisand (released as a single that hit #22 on the Adult Contemporary chart), Dionne Warwick, O.C. Smith, James Darren, Al Martino, Liza Minelli, Robert Goulet, John Davidson, Johnny Mathis, Astrud Gilberto, Andy Williams, Eydie Gorme, Diana Ross, former Temptation Eddie Kendricks, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Ronnie Milsap, Peggy Lee, Diane Schuur, Stephane Grappelli, Ramsey Lewis, and Michael Feinstein. I’m particularly partial to the versions by Frank Sinatra and Thelma Houston, both of which you can listen to, below.
And that’s the thing about Jimmy Webb’s songs. They’re just so damned good that anybody can sing them and sound great. His music is sophisticated yet accessible, the lyrics literate but so universal that they fit with any artist or genre. Jimmy’s music is universal without being generic; some of his songs feature very complex chords and melodies, others get by with very basic chords and stepwise melodies. He writes his music for the words, always achieving a perfect match.
I would be remiss not to mention some of Jimmy Webb’s non-music writing. He’s authored two books that are both worth reading. The first, Tunesmith: Inside the Art of Songwriting, was published in 1999 and is still in print; it’s a mix of memoir and step-by-step guide to songwriting. (I found it one of the best books about songwriting I’ve yet to come across.) The second, The Cake and the Rain: A Memoir, is a full-on autobiography that is endlessly entertaining; it was published in 2018 and, while currently out of print, can be purchased used or as a Kindle e-book.
Then there are Jimmy’s solo albums. There are three of note: Ten Easy Pieces (1996), a collection of his best tunes performed solo on piano; Just Across the River (2010), a series of duets with the likes of Glen Campbell, Billy Joel, Mark Knopfler, Vince Gill, Jackson Browne, and Lucinda Williams; and Still Within the Sound of My Voice (2013), another album of slightly countrified duets with Carly Simon, Rumer, Lyle Lovett, Joe Cocker, Marc Cohn, and others. Just Across the River is particularly notable as it features the very last recorded performance by Linda Ronstadt, now retired, on Jimmy’s classic tune, “All I Know,” but they’re all worth a listen.
And, to finish off Jimmy Webb week, here’s your daily bonus song of the day, Jimmy Webb and Linda Ronstadt duetting on “All I Know” from the Just Across the River album. It just doesn’t get much better than this.
