Jimmy Webb
A master architect of American songcraft, he wove complex narratives and lush melodies into timeless standards like 'Wichita Lineman' and 'By the Time I Get to Phoenix.'
Born 1946 (age 80)·American songwriter, composer, and singer·Birthday: August 15·Baby Boomers
Biography
Jimmy Webb emerged from rural Oklahoma as a teenage prodigy with an old soul's gift for melody and lyric. By his early twenties, he had already rewritten the rules of the pop song, creating miniature, cinematic tone poems for Glen Campbell. Tracks like 'By the Time I Get to Phoenix' and 'Wichita Lineman' were not simple love songs; they were stark, geographically sweeping portraits of loneliness and longing, matched by orchestrations that felt both intimate and epic. His work defied genre, yielding everything from the 5th Dimension's psychedelic pop smash 'Up, Up and Away' to Richard Harris's dramatic epic 'MacArthur Park.' Webb's own career as a performer, though less commercially meteoric, revealed the raw nerve at the heart of his writing. He stands as a composer's composer, a craftsman whose work is studied for its emotional and structural complexity.
Baby Boomers
1946–1964
The largest generation in history at the time. Shaped by postwar prosperity, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and Watergate. They questioned every institution their parents built — then ran them.
Jimmy was born in 1946, placing them squarely in the Baby Boomers. The events that shaped this generation — postwar prosperity, civil rights, Vietnam, and the counterculture — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Jimmy Was Born
The biggest hits of 1946
#1 Movie
The Best Years of Our Lives
Best Picture
The Best Years of Our Lives
Jimmy's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1946Born
United Nations holds its first General Assembly
Gas: $0.21/galHome: $5,150Min wage: $0.40/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Prisoner of Love" — Perry ComoBest Picture: The Best Years of Our Lives
1951Started school
First color TV broadcast in the US
Gas: $0.27/galHome: $7,925Min wage: $0.75/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Too Young" — Nat King ColeBest Picture: An American in Paris
1959Became a teenager
Fidel Castro takes power in Cuba
Gas: $0.30/galHome: $12,400Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"The Battle of New Orleans" — Johnny HortonBest Picture: Ben-Hur
1962Could drive
Cuban Missile Crisis brings the world to the brink
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $12,800Min wage: $1.15/hrPresident: John F. Kennedy"Stranger on the Shore" — Acker BilkBest Picture: Lawrence of Arabia
1964Could vote
Civil Rights Act signed; Beatles arrive in America
Gas: $0.30/galHome: $13,450Min wage: $1.25/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"I Want to Hold Your Hand" — The BeatlesBest Picture: My Fair Lady
1967Turned 21
Summer of Love in San Francisco; first Super Bowl
Gas: $0.33/galHome: $14,250Min wage: $1.40/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"To Sir, with Love" — LuluBest Picture: In the Heat of the Night
1976Turned 30
Apple Computer founded; US bicentennial
Gas: $0.59/galHome: $29,300Min wage: $2.30/hrPresident: Gerald Ford"Silly Love Songs" — WingsBest Picture: Rocky
1986Turned 40
Challenger disaster; Chernobyl nuclear meltdown
Gas: $0.86/galHome: $66,600Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"That's What Friends Are For" — Dionne & FriendsBest Picture: Platoon
1996Turned 50
Dolly the sheep cloned
Gas: $1.23/galHome: $99,700Min wage: $4.75/hrPresident: Bill Clinton"Macarena" — Los del RioBest Picture: The English Patient
2006Turned 60
Twitter launches; Pluto reclassified as dwarf planet
Gas: $2.59/galHome: $174,700Min wage: $5.15/hrPresident: George W. Bush"Bad Day" — Daniel PowterBest Picture: The Departed
2016Turned 70
Donald Trump elected president; Brexit vote
Gas: $2.14/galHome: $181,700Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Barack Obama"Love Yourself" — Justin BieberBest Picture: Moonlight
2026Turned 80
Gas: $3.91/galPresident: Donald Trump
Key Achievements
- Won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year at age 21 for 'Up, Up and Away,' performed by the 5th Dimension.
- Wrote the modern standards 'Wichita Lineman,' 'By the Time I Get to Phoenix,' and 'Galveston,' all immortalized by Glen Campbell.
- Is the only artist to have received Grammy Awards for music, lyrics, and orchestration.
- Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1990.
Did You Know?
He taught himself to play piano on the family's instrument, which was purchased with his mother's earnings as a strict Baptist Sunday school teacher.
The famous 'Wichita Lineman' was inspired by a lone telephone pole he saw driving through rural Oklahoma.
He has a deep knowledge of astronomy and has had a minor planet (Asteroid 31320) named after him.
His song 'MacArthur Park,' clocking in over seven minutes, was considered radically long for a pop single in 1968.
“A good song should give you a lot of pictures. You should be able to make a little movie out of it in your mind.”
