"Gentle on My Mind" is certainly one of Glen Campbell's best albums. Indeed, it won a Grammy for album of the year in 1967! Glen, who is a guitarist/songwriter as well as a very gifted singer, is in excellent form throughout the album with his rich tenor voice. The musical arrangements enhance the natural beauty of these songs, too. The quality of the sound is excellent.
The album begins with the terrific title track; and Glen never sounded better! The guitar work does wonders for this ballad and Glen never lets go of a single superfluous note, either--I'm very impressed. "Catch the Wind," a song by Bob Dylan, gets a most sensitive treatment from Glen Campbell who sings this song wonderfully. There's yet another gem in Glen's treatment of "It's Over;" and "Bowling Green" has a dynamic style that makes me want to listen to it over and over again.
"Just Another Man" again has Glen performing brilliantly; the music fits in perfectly with his vocals. His sophisticated phrasing makes this ballad special and I think you'll like this if you haven't heard it before. "You're My World" uses the strings to great advantage--and what a fine beat this has! Glen really opens up to show the incredible power of his voice and that's grand. In addition, "The World I Used to Know" features Glen in his natural element as a fine entertainer; the strings, guitar and more make this an excellent song that I won't forget anytime soon.
"Without Her" has Glen squarely in the spotlight on this Harry Nilsson tune--and that's quite all right by me! Glen sings a rather melancholy song flawlessly and it's all so well done that it ranks as a highlight of the album. "Mary in the Morning" shines brighter than silver and gold in Glen Campbell's capable hands; he sings straight from the heart and just one listen proves it! "Love Me As Though There Were No Tomorrow" is sublime to hear; and the album closes very well with Glen Campbell performing his cover of "Cryin'." "Cryin'" showcases Glen's ability to deliver a cover song with panache; and it leaves me wanting more!
Glen Campbell remains an exceptional multi-talented artist; and it's no wonder with albums like this one. This is a must-have for any Glen Campbell fan; and newcomers just discovering Glen would do well to add this to their collections.
May 17, 1967 made Glen Campbell's career. It started out inauspiciously, though, with a not very big hit 45 single a few weeks later. On 5/17/67, he recorded a signature song. On 5/27/67, John Hartford's RCA/Victor 47-9175 entered the C&W singles chart, would top out at #60 as a C&W hit, not a big single. At Campbell's recording session date, 5/17/67, he recorded the following tracks:
Human - Matrix 57638 unissued (possibly written by Gary Usher; see also a Hank Snow's late 1964 RCA/Victor 45 single, 47-8488)
Gentle on My Mind - Matrix 57639
Just Another Man - Matrix 57640
Bowling Green - Matrix 57641
Capitol slapped two unfinished tracks, "Gentle On My Mind" and "Just Another Man" on 45 single #5939 (cancelled #5927, "My Baby's Gone"/"Kelli Hoedown," after a very small pressing run on pea-green promo 45s); the single was listed as a Pop Spotlight release in Billboard on 6/24/67 and coincidentally, his "group" 45, as by Sagittarius, "My World Fell Down," debuted on the same date on Columbia 4-44163--his vocal is on that psych-rock single. "Gentle On My Mind" Capitol 45 single 5939 entered the Hot-100 on 7/15/67 as a pop single, hitting a peak #62, then crossed over to C&W two weeks later, topping at #30 for Billboard. On Cash Box, Capitol 5939, "Gentle On My Mind," debuted on the Top 100 pop singles chart on 7/15/67, with a total run: #97, 90, 85 (7/29/67); two weeks later on 8/12/67 the single entered the C&W chart, total run #51, 43, 38, 30, 28, 22, 21, 37, 48. Not that big a hit...single. But the stronger C&W presence put the album on the C&W best sellers' lists.
The album is clearly not a C&W Capitol Lp, and you can tell by the song selection. The filler tracks, by the pop hit artist (other than the title hit):
"Catch the Wind" - Donovan, Hickory 1309
"It's Over" - Jimmie Rodgers, Dot 16861
"Bowling Green"--Everly Brothers, Warner 7020
"Just Another Man" - later by Roy Clark on his YESTERDAY, WHEN I WAS YOUNG Dot Lp and 45 B-side. Charles Aznavour wrote "Yesterday, When I Was Young"
"You're My World" - Cilla Black, Capitol 5196. Beatles coat-check girl singer from the UK
"The World I Used to Know" - Jimmie Rodgers, Dot 16595
"Without Her" - Harry Nilsson, see Herb Alpert's 1969 hit on A&M 1065
"Mary In the Morning" - Al Martino Capitol 5904
"Love Me As Though There Were No Tomorrow" --Sonny Knight, Aura 4505
"Cryin'" - Roy Orbison Monument 447
--Not a hillbilly song in the bunch. All pop and pop/rock. Capitol marketed Campbell as middle-of-the-road, also known as "good music."
The album started selling steadily, entering the Billboard C&W Lp chart on 10/07/67 at #43 and climbing to #15 on 11/04/67, where it more or less stuck, drifting up and down the C&W album chart for months on end as low as #18 and as high as #9 for more than half a year. On 10/28/67, the album entered the Cash Box C&W albums chart at #26, after 11 weeks peaked at #3, bopping up and down into the top 10 for a total run of 72 weeks on Cash Box. BY THE TIME I GET TO PHOENIX, T/ST 2851, joined it on the Billboard C&W Lp charts at #27 on 12/30/67; however, GENTLE ON MY MIND barely registered on the Billboard Top Lps chart, entering at #189 on 12/02/67, then #188, 191, 191 (12/23/67), at which point ...PHOENIX replaced it on the pop Top Lps chart on 12/30/67 (#184). By March, 1968, Capitol had sold 30,000 copies of the GENTLE ON MY MIND album and 80,000 of BY THE TIME I GET TO PHOENIX. Wanda Jackson's hits comp at the time had sold some 15,000. Capitol's Angel classical albums were considered successful at 3-7,000 copies.
About "By The Time I Get to Phoenix":
First version was track one, side one, of Johnny Rivers' CHANGES Imperial LP 12334, circa November, 1966. The side and track placement told everyone with any pop music smarts at the time, "THIS song is the title track hit single." But it took several months for anyone to do anything with it on a 45 attempt. Pat Boone recorded it (and "Ride, Ride, Ride" - See Lynn Anderson and Brenda Lee for that song) for Dot, about July 20-25, 1967 (arranged & conducted by former Nashville Mercury Records A&R man, Bill Justis); Dot held it back on 45 single Dot 17045. That was a mistake. Glen Campbell recorded the basic track for Capitol 2015 45 single on 8/17/67; Al DeLory recorded the orchestra overdub on 8/29/67. By about the third week of September, Boone's and Campbell's versions came out a few days apart, at best. Boone's version lost.
Patti Page's "Gentle On My Mind" hit:
The song got picked up by Patti Page on Columbia 4-44353, who put it on the Billboard Top-40 Easy Listening chart, debut 12/30/67 #39, 1/06/67 #38, and it dropped out, appeared on the Hot-100, 2/10/68 #100, 96, 95, 93, 93 (3/09/68), 93, 93, 87, 79, 69, 66 (4/20/68), 66, 84, 84 (5/11/68), 87, 85, and came back on the easy listening chart again on 3/09/68 at #30, 14, 8, 8, 8, 7, 7, 7, 17, 25 (5/11/68). The single spawned an album with the title track, GENTLE ON MY MIND, Columbia CS 9666, in July, 1968. No mention of Page's hit in my Scarecrow Press references by Frank Hoffmann and George Albert, however.
GENTLE ON MY MIND didn't return as a pop album again until 3/30/68 (#156), and up, up and away by October. Cash Box's shorter pop album charts picked up GOMM on 8/17/68 at #98, then it started a further 45 week run on 9/07/68, thirteen weeks later hitting a Cash Box peak of #5 pop Lp.
The albums pulled Campbell's Capitol 5939 45 back on the Billboard charts again beginning 9/14/68 (Hot-100), hitting #39 on 11/02/68 the second time around, Easy Listening on 10/12/68, and C&W again on 10/19/68. Again, not in my Cash Box references. The most logical explanation for the single coming back, other than the album's deep gravitation well, was that his prior single, "Dreams of the Every Day Housewife" had just fallen off the trade charts and his career was so hot that radio brought a well-remembered but not heavily exploited pop single out of the catalog again out of some sense of product desperation.
Both the GENTLE ON MY MIND and BY THE TIME I GET TO PHOENIX albums were RIAA certified gold albums ($1,000,000 in sales, roughly 500,000 units at the assumed $2 each wholesale) on October 17, 1968.
References: buy Joel Whitburn's books. Cash Box via Scarecrow Press by Frank Hoffmann and George Albert. Very, very blurry print of old Billboard mags on microfilm at Bowling Green University Library collection, and the Reno, Nevada microfilm library collection (1970+). Correspondence with Bob Pinson at the Country Music Foundation library. Correspondence with a retired Capitol sales rep with a major collecting fascination on Stan Kenton and Frank Sinatra.
