Many listeners may not know the name Jimmy Webb, but they've likely heard his songs. More than 200 artists have recorded Webb's classic, "MacArthur Park," including Richard Harris, Donna Summer, Frank Sinatra, and even Weird Al Yankovic, who parodied it under the name of "Jurassic Park."
That's just for starters.Glen Campbell scored big with Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and "Wichita Lineman." Joe Cocker soared with "The Moon's a Harsh Mistress," the Fifth Dimension with "Up Up and Away," and, later, the Highwaymen (Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson) with "The Highwayman."
The Oklahoma-bred Webb, who now lives in New York, is still active, writing songs for the likes of Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, and Michael Feinstein. He also released a well-received book on his craft last year, "Tunesmith: Inside the Art of Songwriting."
Webb is the only artist to ever receive Grammy awards for music, lyrics and orchestration, though he's never been known as a performer. But in recent years, he's finally come out from behind the scenes to do some low-key touring.
"I like to spin yarns and I want people to know that this isn't a dreadfully serious show," says Webb. "Usually, I can also bring myself to wade through 'MacArthur Park.' It's a chore sometimes, but I like to think that this 30-year-old song shows no sign of losing its vitality. Although I must say that the world seems fairly divided into two camps -- those who loathe it and those who give it too much credit."
Webb wrote "MacArthur Park" in his teenage years. "For a teenager to write something like that was probably pretentious, but that's what I was after. Bones Howe, who managed ('60s hitmakers) the Association, wanted a long classical piece for radio. 'MacArthur Park' was a sketch for a longer piece that never came about."
So Webb went to England to play it for Harris, an actor who recorded it as a lark. "After playing a lot of songs for him, I played the first few bars and the first line of 'MacArthur Park' and Richard said, 'I'll have that one.' I guess I can blame the whole thing on him, but his version is still my favorite."
These days, Webb is also on the board of directors of ASCAP, where he's fighting to secure royalties for songwriters whose work appears on the Internet. "We need to be paid if our music is used on the Internet," he says, "though there's a certain group of cowboys who think if it's on the Internet, it's public domain, period."
At his shows, Webb sings and performs solo on piano. "I'm not dead yet and I don't feel I'm a has-been," he says with characteristic good humor. "I like to think I offer a viable alternative to some of the stuff that's out there.