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RPM - Library and Archives Canada |website=Collectionscanada.gc.ca |date=1969-12-06 |accessdate=2022-03-22}}\n| style=\"text-align:center;\"|49\n|-\n",{"template":{"target":{"wt":"single chart","href":"./Template:Single_chart"},"params":{"1":{"wt":"Ireland2"},"2":{"wt":"12"},"artist":{"wt":"Glen Campbell"},"song":{"wt":"Wichita Lineman"},"access-date":{"wt":"September 26,2021"}},"i":4}},"\n|-\n|New Zealand (''[[New Zealand Listener|Listener]]''){{cite web |url=http://www.flavourofnz.co.nz/index.php?qpageID=search%20listener&qartistid=721#n_view_location |title=flavour of new zealand - search listener |website=Flavourofnz.co.nz |access-date=October 2,2016 |archive-date=July 9,2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709185310/http://www.flavourofnz.co.nz/index.php?qpageID=search%20listener&qartistid=721#n_view_location |url-status=dead}}\n| style=\"text-align:center;\"|10\n|-\n",{"template":{"target":{"wt":"single chart","href":"./Template:Single_chart"},"params":{"1":{"wt":"UK"},"2":{"wt":"7"},"artist":{"wt":"Glen Campbell"},"song":{"wt":"Wichita Lineman"},"date":{"wt":"19690305"},"access-date":{"wt":"September 26,2021"}},"i":5}},"\n|-\n",{"template":{"target":{"wt":"single chart","href":"./Template:Single_chart"},"params":{"1":{"wt":"Billboardcountrysongs"},"2":{"wt":"1"},"artist":{"wt":"Glen Campbell"}},"i":6}},"\n|-\n",{"template":{"target":{"wt":"single chart","href":"./Template:Single_chart"},"params":{"1":{"wt":"Billboardhot100"},"2":{"wt":"3"},"artist":{"wt":"Glen Campbell"}},"i":7}},"\n|-\n",{"template":{"target":{"wt":"single chart","href":"./Template:Single_chart"},"params":{"1":{"wt":"Billboardadultcontemporary"},"2":{"wt":"1"},"artist":{"wt":"Glen Campbell"}},"i":8}},"\n|-\n|US [[Cash Box (magazine)|''Cash Box'']] Top 100{{Cite web |url=http://tropicalglen.com/Archives/60s_files/19690104.html |title=Cash Box Top 100 Singles,January 4,1969 |access-date=February 17,2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216120717/http://tropicalglen.com/Archives/60s_files/19690104.html |archive-date=December 16,2018 |url-status=dead}}\n|align=\"center\"|2\n|}\n",{"template":{"target":{"wt":"col-2","href":"./Template:Col-2"},"params":{},"i":9}},"\n\n===Year-end charts===\n{|class=\"wikitable sortable\"\n!Chart (1969)\n!Rank\n|-\n|Canada (''RPM'') Top Singles{{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?brws_s=1&file_num=nlc008388.6104&type=1&interval=24&PHPSESSID=mhe12pta2k83e08udtq66ot062 |title=Item Display - 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Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
Certifications
|
In 2021, Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" ranked "Wichita Lineman" at number 206. [44] Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan considered it "the greatest song ever written" [45] and British music journalist Stuart Maconie called it "the greatest pop song ever composed." [46] BBC Radio described 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" [47] and spotlighted it in series 12 of Soul Music, their long-running show documenting the stories behind influential music with a powerful emotional impact. [48] In 2017, Paste placed the song at number two on their list of the 12 greatest Glen Campbell songs; [49] in their version, Billboard ranked it number three. [50]
The single was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000. In 2019, the Library of Congress preserved the song in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." [51]
Journalist and author Dylan Jones published the book The Wichita Lineman: Searching in the Sun for the World's Greatest Unfinished Song in 2019, documenting the song's genesis and enduring legacy. [52]
Basic instrumental [d] [ better source needed ] tracks (May 27, 1968)
(mid-June, 1968) | Orchestral overdub (August 14, 1968) Strings:
Horns:
| Woodwinds:
Keyboards:
Percussion:
|
Many adult "middle of the road" (MOR) artists recorded the song, including Tom Jones, Johnny Mathis, Robert Goulet, Andy Williams, Bobby Goldsboro and Engelbert Humperdinck, most of them shortly after the original version was a hit. Reggae singer Dennis Brown released a cover of the song on his 1972 album Super Reggae and Soul Hits. [55] There were also many instrumental versions, including 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 guitarist Bill Elm. Guitarist 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, Billy Joel, Freedy Johnston, O.C. Smith, Willie Hutch, the Meters, Fatback Band, These Animal Men, Maria McKee, Reg Presley of the Troggs, Shawn Lee, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, James Taylor, R.E.M., The Clouds, Earl Van Dyke, Zucchero Fornaciari, King Harvest, Johnny Cash, Dwight Yoakam, Wayne Newton, Tony Joe White, Stoney LaRue, B.E.F., Urge Overkill, [56] Black Pumas, [57] Colin Hay and the Nottingham Youth Jazz Orchestra (Combo). Sérgio Mendes & Brasil '66 did the song with the lyrics "He is a lineman for the county".
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. Jazz pianist John Harkins played an up-tempo rendition of the song on his 2015 album Cognition. [58] Jazz pianist Laurence Hobgood recorded a version of the song combining a contemporary jazz trio with a string quartet. [59] 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 [60] 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. [61]
In 2016, the country-pop band Restless Heart also recorded a cover of the song. [62]
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. [63] [64] Rolling Stone magazine described it as "their most unexpected cover of the tour". [65]
The Brian Setzer Orchestra covered the song live during their Christmas Rocks! 2017 tour [66] and they perform the song on the Christmas Rocks! Live Blu-ray DVD that was released on November 9, 2018. [67]
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.[ citation needed ]
Fred Hersch performed a cover of the song at the Village Vanguard on July 23, 2019.
The English rock band, Elbow covered the song on the Zoe Ball Show on BBC Radio 2 as a surprise for the actor Paul Rudd, on October 19, 2019. [68]
Former Men at Work frontman Colin Hay recorded and released a version of this song on his 2021 cover album I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself. [69]
Brett Kissel covered the song on his 2023 release The Compass Project – West Album . [70]
In other languages
Lyrics that are loose translations of, or inspired by, Webb's song have been written in at least two other languages: German and Finnish.
A German language version written by Thomas Fritsch, "Der Draht in der Sonne" (English "The Wire In the Sun"), has also been covered by Katja Ebstein. [71]
Finnish singer Topi Sorsakoski recorded a Finnish version of the song on his album Yksinäisyys osa 2 in 1995. [72]
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. [73]
Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) can be heard briefly singing the song in the season four episode of Parks and Recreation , "The Debate".[ citation needed ]
Homer Simpson sings the song while mimicking hold music in The Simpsons 15th-season episode "Co-Dependents' Day".[ citation needed ]
The KLF referenced the song in the title "Wichita Lineman Was a Song I Once Heard", on their 1990 ambient house concept album Chill Out .[ citation needed ]
The Decemberists paid homage to the song on their album Picaresque in the song "The Engine Driver".[ citation needed ]
In the Newsradio Season 2 episode "In Through the Out Door", Matthew (Andy Dick) bets Joe (Joe Rogan) that the next song on the radio will be a good one. When they flip the radio on, "Wichita Lineman" is playing. Matthew admits to losing the bet, while from the next room Dave (Dave Foley) wistfully remarks that he loves this song.[ citation needed ]
The song appears in the 2013 film (and accompanying soundtrack) Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa .
The track's fadeout was voiced over for many years by longtime English DJ Steve Wright to close his BBC Radio shows. [74]
I was wondering if I was going to put a bridge into it.
What a thrill it was to cut "Wichita Lineman" for Glen. And yes, he borrowed my Dano 6-stg. bass guitar to play his famous solo on.
... vocals were done at a separate session ...
Sid Sharp did all the strings for the Wrecking Crew's records.