These Glen Campbell threads have really taken me down memory lane. I had forgotten how great of an impact he had back in the sixties. He was really a breath of fresh air at the time, an artist that blended Country music with the sensibilities of the time. It didn't hurt that he was a nice looking fellow and came off as very personable. For some strange reason, the public tends to get tired of new artists fairly quickly, and ten years after his ascent to stardom, he had become old news to a lot of people, which is a shame, because he was still very bit as good as he had been when Gentle On My Mind first brought him to the public's notice.
I was watching the 1971 Public Television special featuring Roy Buchannon and he performed By the Time I Get to Phoenix. I found myself singing along along, trying to use Campbell's phrasing and vocal inflections and I was struck by how challenging that song could be to sing. Campbell definitely had some serious vocal chops.