In a last-ditch effort, Campbell was teamed with producer Al DeLory in 1966. Together, they first collaborated on a song called “Burning Bridges” which became Glen’s first top 20 country hit in early ’67. His next notable single was “Gentle On My Mind” which became a country standard despite its mediocre chart peak of only #30. The real breakthrough occurred when Campbell recorded the first of his nine chart placements written by Jimmy Webb: “By The Time I Get To Phoenix,” which landed at #2 for two weeks on Billboard’s country chart and topped out at a decent #26 on the pop survey. Glen picked up a total of four Grammy awards for “Gentle On My Mind” and “By The Time I Get To Phoenix,” and major stardom was just around the corner.
With Campbell’s record of “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” along with The Fifth Dimension’s mega-hit “Up Up and Away” and actor Richard Harris’s #2 record “MacArthur Park,” Jimmy Webb was about the hottest songwriter in Los Angeles in late 1967. “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” (based on Webb’s real-life breakup with a girlfriend) had been out for about six months, although Jimmy and Glen Campbell still hadn’t met. They finally ran into each other one day at a session and Glen asked Webb if he had any more “town songs” (obviously thinking about a follow-up to “By The Time I Get To Phoenix”). Jimmy replied that he didn’t at the moment, but he promised to come up with something. He went home that afternoon and began writing “Wichita Lineman” specifically for Campbell.
Webb’s inspiration for the lyrics came from a time he remembered driving through Washita County, in rural southwestern Oklahoma. At the time many telephone companies were county-owned facilities, and their linemen were county employees. Heading west into the setting sun along State Route 152 in a very flat, desolate and wide-open part of Oklahoma, Webb drove past a seemingly endless string of telephone poles, each looking exactly the same as the first. Then, in the distance, he noticed the silhouette of a solitary lineman atop a pole. He described it as “a prairie gothic image.” Webb then “put himself atop that pole and put that phone in his hand” as he considered what the lineman might be saying into the receiver (the lyrics describe the loneliness that a telephone or electric company lineman feels while he works, and his longing for an absent lover). Reportedly, the storyline of “Wichita Lineman” was based around the same ex-girlfriend that had inspired the earlier hit “By The Time I Get To Phoenix.” In order for the new song to be more identifiable with listeners, “Wichita” was substituted for “Washita” because it “sang better” as Webb put it.