Glen Campbell And The Beach Boys: How A Session Ace Became An Unsung Hero
The Arkansas farm boy became a Wrecking Crew guitar great, and ended up briefly joining The Beach Boys on tour.
Glen Campbell will forever be remembered for the golden voice that made songs such as “Wichita Lineman,” “Gentle On My Mind,” “Rhinestone Cowboy,” and “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” all-time country greats. But Campbell would’ve gone down in musical history even if he’d never gotten behind the mic.
Born in April 1936 as the seventh son of an Arkansas sharecropper, Campbell was encouraged to play guitar at an early age by his uncle Boo, whose Western swing band he joined as a teenager. Campbell moved to Los Angeles in 1960 to try his hand as a musician and, in October that year, began touring with The Champs, best known for their 1958 hit, “Tequila.” Campbell signed to Capitol in 1962 and released a couple of solo records that flew under the radar. Meanwhile, as guitarist in hotshot session band The Wrecking Crew, Campbell lent his talents to timeless classics including “Viva Las Vegas” by Elvis Presley, “Strangers In The Night” by Frank Sinatra, and “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” by the Righteous Brothers. Crucially, Campbell also played on a number of Beach Boys sessions directed by the band’s musical lynchpin, Brian Wilson, contributing lead guitar to hits including “I Get Around,” “Dance, Dance, Dance,” “Help Me, Rhonda,” and Wilson’s masterwork Pet Sounds (“You Still Believe In Me,” “Don’t Talk,” “I Know There’s An Answer,” “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times,” and “Caroline, No”).
On December 18, 1964, Wilson suffered a nervous breakdown on a flight from Los Angeles to Houston, where The Beach Boys were due to commence a short tour. On arrival, he retreated to his hotel room and rallied enough to play the show that evening, but his anxieties soon returned. “Next morning, I woke up with the biggest knot in my stomach,” Wilson told writer Earl Leaf soon after, “I felt like I was going out of my mind.” Wilson returned to California immediately and didn’t return to full-time touring with the band until 1976. When it was decided that The Beach Boys would continue touring without their leader, they called upon the gun-for-hire who’d lit up so many of their greatest moments. “I’d played on all the Beach Boys’ recording sessions, and I knew their songs,” Campbell told NME in 1970. “So one day they called me and asked if I’d play a concert in Dallas with them because Brian Wilson was sick. I said sure.”
Glen Campbell As A Beach Boy
Days later, Campbell was a touring Beach Boy and had the striped shirt to prove it. His first show with the band was on December 22, 1964, at the Memorial Auditorium in Dallas. In Campbell’s 1995 autobiography, Rhinestone Cowboy, the star recalled the initial challenges he faced when stepping in for Wilson. “My first show as a Beach Boy was the first time I had to play bass while singing high harmony. I must have made about a hundred mistakes during that show. But no one noticed.” But the musical dexterity required of Campbell was a walk in the park compared to the culture shock of facing The Beach Boys’ devoted fans.
“I went to Dallas and made about two million mistakes, but nobody could hear them over the screamin’ and hollerin’ of 17,000 kids!” Campbell told NME. “Right after the concert, The Beach Boys ran for the cars like mad—but I took my time, I figured nobody would pay any attention to me. After all, I wasn’t really a Beach Boy. However, those kids… they jumped on me… started yankin’ my hair, stole my watch, tore off my shirt. From then on, I was always the first in the car!” Having learnt a valuable lesson, Campbell agreed to return for shows after a short Christmas break—hopefully a new watch was waiting for him under the tree.
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Over the following months, Brian Wilson returned for the occasional show, but Campbell became a regular fixture. Memorable nights included The Beach Boys’ first show in Canada—at the Exhibition Forum, Vancouver, on January 29, 1965—where fans attempted to climb on stage to get closer to their heroes. Weeks later, the band returned for their second Canadian gig—at the Maurice Richard Arena, Montreal—where the crowd’s reaction to being in the presence of heartthrob drummer Dennis Wilson was even more extreme. “In Canada, I saw one girl faint, and I pulled her up,” Campbell once told The Guardian. “Then I must have pulled seven or eight people up. They were all girls, screaming for Dennis. ‘Dennis, oh Dennis!’ We had to stop the show ’cause the girls were pressing up so hard against the stage.”
Despite the wild crowds, Campbell would look back at his time as a touring Beach Boy with great fondness. “It was definitely the happiest time to have a job where you’re doing the thing that you love to do: playing the guitar and singing,” he told Clash in 2011. “That was fabulous. That was the most content time of my life.” And there were other upsides too: “The money was fabulous, man. I’d have to work in the cotton patch for a year to make that kind of money!” Campbell also developed a good personal rapport with the band members, his seniority (he was nearly five years older than the band’s eldest member, Mike Love) making him the de facto voice of reason on the road, as he recalled to fanzine Beach Boys Stomp in 1997, “They were getting into arguments and I’d say, ‘Oh, are you children ready to go on stage and sing now?’ [laughs] They would say, ‘Get off, he started it.’ So I’d say, ‘Big deal.’”
Still, Campbell had solo aspirations and never planned on being a full-time Beach Boy. He declined an offer to join the band and agreed to continue to cover for Brian while a long-term replacement was found. “The Beach Boys weren’t the right fit for him,” wrote Mike Love in his 2019 autobiography Good Vibrations, My Life As A Beach Boy. “He preferred country music and wanted to be a solo artist, so after five months, he embarked upon his own career.” Songwriter and producer Bruce Johnston was waiting in the wings and played his first Beach Boys show on April 9, 1965, at the Municipal Auditorium, New Orleans. When Campbell rejoined the tour a couple of days later, Johnston stayed on the road as the group’s lighting engineer. Campbell’s final show as a Beach Boy was May 15, 1965, at New Haven Arena, but he remained on the tour as the group’s support act till the end of the month.
“Guess I’m Dumb” And Beyond
Campbell’s solo career had faltered to this point, but when an indebted Brian Wilson offered him a ready-made classic, he seized the opportunity. Wilson had written “Guess I’m Dumb” with Russ Titelman in the early 60s and originally produced the backing track—featuring The Wrecking Crew and backing vocals from The Honeys—for inclusion on 1965’s Today!. Mystifyingly, the band passed on the track, leaving it free for Campbell to work his vocal magic. With its sophisticated musical palette, nuanced arrangement, and heartbreakingly self-deprecating lyrics, “Guess I’m Dumb” pointed towards the glories to come on Pet Sounds.
Though “Guess I’m Dumb” wasn’t an immediate hit, it set Campbell on his path to future success, but he never forgot his short spell as a Beach Boy—in later years, his live show would feature a section devoted to his old friends, and he’d later tour as a support act for Mike Love’s Beach Boys.
In 2011, Campbell announced he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He died on August 8, 2017, at the age of 81. His and The Beach Boys’ story came full circle in 2024, with the release of the moving Brian Wilson duet “Strong” on the posthumous album Ghosts On The Canvas Sessions. “Glen was a great singer and a great guy,” Wilson said on its release. “Our intention in doing ‘Strong’ was to echo back to ‘Guess I’m Dumb’ and the times that Glen and I worked together. It’s kinda got that vibe to it and I dig the sound of it.” “I’m going to be the one you can count on,” sings Wilson, offering support to the man who once helped him in his time of need; it’s a fitting tribute to a great musical relationship.
