Apropos nothing at all, I woke up this morning singing "Macarthur Park".
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@GeePawHill Maynard Ferguson’s version is definitive for me.
@PragmaticAndy I'll have to refresh my memory of his take.
@GeePawHill Live At Jimmy’s version. Great live album. May call dolphins.
@PragmaticAndy Dude could blow. He could *squeal*, too. One of the most distinctive tones of all trumpeters.
I think it was maybe cuz of that 30 most important living American songwriters list, which did not include Jimmy Webb and thereby pissed me off.
Webb wrote "MacArthur Park", "By The Time I Get To Phoenix", and "Wichita Lineman", among many other very well-known and well-charting songs.
Maybe it's because I grew up in South America, but I've lived in english-speaking North America for over three decades now and I couldn't sing any of those songs you mentioned or recognize the tunes.
His influence might be unevenly distributed geographically maybe?
@eestileib One feels sure. But if Carole King is on the list, Jimmy Webb should be. And John Fogarty, too.
Now, what's also true is that modern music distribution is *dramatically* more international than it was when King, Webb, and Fogarty were writing. In destination, yes, but also in source.
Webb tells a story. He went to the Palace to meet a producer and was early. So he snuck backstage and sat in the green room. It was quiet and dark in there, so he pulled out the song he was working on and fiddled with it on the piano, tweaking this, tweaking that.
Suddenly, he hears a rustle. A performer had been in the corner couch napping between shows, and he'd woken the guy up.
The guy gets up and heads out, and on the way out the door he says, "Not bad, kid, not bad. Keep working on it."
It was only after the man left that Webb realized who'd just spoken to him.
It was Louis Armstrong.
