Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 - August 8, 2017) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and television host and actor. He was best known for his hit series of the 1960s and 1970s and for hosting The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS from 1969 to 1972. He has released 64 albums in a career spanning five decades, selling over 45 million albums worldwide, including twelve gold albums, four platinum albums and one double platinum album.
Born in Billstown, Arkansas, Campbell began his professional career as a studio musician in Los Angeles, spending several years playing with a group of instrumentalists later known as "The Wrecking Crew." After becoming a solo artist, he placed a total of 80 different songs on the Billboard Country Chart, Billboard Hot 100, or Adult Contemporary Chart, 29 of which made the top ten, and nine of them took first place on at least one of them. Campbell's hits include "Universal Soldier", his first hit from 1965, as well as "Gentle on My Mind" (1967), "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" (1967), "Dreams of the Everyday Housewife" (1968) ), "Wichita Lineman" (1968), "Galveston" (1969), "Rhinestone Cowboy" (1975) and "Southern Nights" (1977).
In 1967, Campbell won four Grammy Awards in the country and pop categories. For "Gentle on My Mind" he received two awards in Poland and in the west; He did the same in the pop "By the Time I Get to Phoenix". Three of his early hits later won the Grammy Hall of Fame Awards (2000, 2004, 2008), and Campbell himself won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He has held Singer of the Year trophies from both the Country Music Association (CMA). and the Academy of Country Music (ACM), and won the CMA Grand Prize as Artistic Artist of the Year 1968. Campbell played a supporting role in True Grit (1969), which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. He also sang the title song, which was nominated for an Oscar.