Wichita Lineman


"Wichita Lineman" is a song written by the American songwriter Jimmy Webb in 1968. It was first recorded by the American country music artist Glen Campbell with backing from members of The Wrecking Crew and was widely covered by other artists.
Campbell's version, which appeared on his 1968 album of the same name, reached number 3 on the US pop chart, remaining in the Top 100 for 15 weeks. In addition, the song topped the American country music chart for two weeks and the adult contemporary chart for six weeks. It was certified gold by the RIAA in January 1969. The song reached number 7 in the United Kingdom. In Canada, the single topped both the RPM national and country singles charts. the song has also sold 357,000 downloads in the digital era in the United States.
In 2010, Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" ranked "Wichita Lineman" at number 195. It has been referred to as "the first existential country song". British music journalist Stuart Maconie called it "the greatest pop song ever composed"; and the BBC referred to it as "one of those rare songs that seems somehow to exist in a world of its own – not just timeless but ultimately outside of modern music". "Wichita Lineman" was featured in series 12 of BBC Radio 4's Soul Music, a documentary series featuring stories behind pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.
In 2020, the song was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Background and content

Jimmy Webb stated in an interview for the BBC Radio 4 Mastertapes programme that the song was written in response to a phone call from Campbell for a "place" or "geographical" song to follow up "By The Time I Get To Phoenix". Webb's inspiration for the lyrics came while driving through Washita County in rural southwestern Oklahoma. At that time, many telephone companies were county-owned utilities, and their linemen were county employees.
Heading westward on a straight road into the setting sun, Webb drove past a seemingly endless line of telephone poles, each looking exactly the same as the last. Then, in the distance, he noticed the silhouette of a solitary lineman atop a pole. He described it as "the picture of loneliness". Webb then "put himself atop that pole and put that phone in his hand" as he considered what the lineman was saying into the receiver.
It was a splendidly vivid, cinematic image that I lifted out of my deep memory while I was writing this song. I thought, I wonder if I can write something about that? A blue collar, everyman guy we all see everywhere – working on the railroad or working on the telephone wires or digging holes in the street. I just tried to take an ordinary guy and open him up and say, 'Look there's this great soul, and there's this great aching, and this great loneliness inside this person and we're all like that. We all have this capacity for these huge feelings'.

Webb delivered what he regarded and labeled as an incomplete version of the song, warning the producer and arranger Al De Lory that he hadn't completed a third verse or a middle eight. Campbell said "When I heard it I cried...It made me cry because I was homesick." De Lory similarly found inspiration in the opening line. His uncle had been a lineman in Kern County, California; "I could visualise my uncle up a pole in the middle of nowhere. I loved the song right away."
The lack of a middle eight section was addressed by a baritone guitar interlude performed by Campbell, who had made his name as a guitarist with the group of Los Angeles backing musicians known as "The Wrecking Crew", many of whom were featured on the recording. The musicians on the recording included Campbell, Al Casey and James Burton, Carol Kaye, Don Bagley, Jim Gordon and Al De Lory. The orchestral arrangements were by De Lory with the descending six-note intro added by bassist Carol Kaye.
Webb was surprised to hear that Campbell had recorded the song: "A couple of weeks later I ran into somewhere, and I said, 'I guess you guys didn't like the song.' 'Oh, we cut that' he said. 'It wasn't done! I was just humming the last bit!'. 'Well it's done now!'"

Structure

The song consists of two verses, each divided into two parts. The first part is in the key of F major, while the second is written in D major. D represents the relative minor position to F, so a D minor section would be expected. The fact that it is nevertheless set in D major arguably contributes to the unique and appealing character of the song.
The lyrics follow the key dichotomy, with the first part of each verse handling issues related to a lineman's job, whereas the second part dwells on the lineman's romantic thoughts. Set off against the F major of the first part, the D major of the second part sounds distinctively mellow, which is consistent with its content.
The phrase "singing in the wire" is evoked in two ways in De Lory's orchestral arrangement. He uses high-pitched, ethereal violins to emulate the sonic vibration commonly induced by wind blowing across small wires and conductors, making these lines whistle or whine like an aeolian harp. Similarly, the electronic sounds a lineman might hear when attaching a telephone earpiece to a long stretch of raw telephone or telegraph line, i.e., without typical line equalization and filtering are represented by a repeating "Morse code" keyboard motif.

Cover versions

Many adult "middle of the road" artists, including Tom Jones, Johnny Mathis, Robert Goulet, Andy Williams, Bobby Goldsboro, and Engelbert Humperdinck, have covered the song, most of them shortly after the original version was a hit. There were also many instrumental versions, including a notable one by José Feliciano. In 2001 the instrumental band Friends of Dean Martinez included a cover version on their studio album of the same name, featuring lap steel virtuoso Bill Elm. Guitar master Johnny A included an instrumental version on his 1999 release Sometime Tuesday Morning. The song has also been covered by artists such as Ray Charles, The Dells, Freedy Johnston, O.C. Smith, Willie Hutch, The Meters, These Animal Men, Reg Presley of The Troggs, Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66, Kool & The Gang, Shawn Lee, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, James Taylor, R.E.M., The Clouds, Earl Van Dyke, King Harvest, Johnny Cash, Wayne Newton, Tony Joe White, Stoney LaRue, B.E.F. and The Nottingham Youth Jazz Orchestra.
Jazz pianist Alan Pasqua developed an arrangement of the song for jazz trio that appears on his album My New Old Friend and Peter Erskine's album The Interlochen Concert. A soul-jazz version was also performed by Young-Holt Unlimited. A stripped-down version of the song also appears on Villagers' 2016 album Where Have You Been All My Life with a simple piano accompaniment.
Other covers of the song include that of Wade Hayes, who released a version in August 1997 that peaked at number 55 on the US country music charts. It was to have been included on an album entitled Tore Up from the Floor Up, but due to its poor chart performance, the album was delayed. That album was finally released in 1998 as When the Wrong One Loves You Right, with the "Wichita Lineman" cover excluded.
A German cover version was Thomas Fritsch's "Der Draht in der Sonne", also sung by Katja Ebstein. In 2016, the country-pop band Restless Heart also recorded a cover of the song.
Guns N' Roses covered the song live during their "Not in This Life Time" world tour. The first live performance of the song was on August 30, 2017, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Rolling Stone magazine described it as "their most unexpected cover of the tour".
The Finnish singer Topi Sorsakoski recorded a Finnish version of the song on his album Yksinäisyys osa 2 in 1995.
After Campbell's death, Webb sang the song with Little Big Town as a tribute during the 51st Annual Country Music Association Awards on November 8, 2017.
Renee Cologne covered the song on her 2019 release Coverlings. Fred Hersch performed a cover of the song at the Village Vanguard on July 23, 2019.

Charts and sales

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

In popular culture

The song was used in the opening and closing scenes of the Ozark season 2 episode, "Badger", to emphasize the setting and tone of the beginning and end of Darlene and Jacob Snell's romance.
Ron Swanson can be heard briefly singing the song in the season four episode of Parks and Recreation, "The Debate".
Homer Simpson sings the song while mimicking hold music in The Simpsons 15th-season episode "Co-Dependents' Day".