Glen Campbell’s Legacy Grows

Glen Campbell’s 2003 box set The Legacy: 1961-2002 no longer tells a complete enough story to educate and entertain longtime fans and curious new listeners.

On June 21, Capitol/UMe’s four disc, 78-song follow-up, The Legacy: 1961-2017, adds a needed addendum covering the final 15 years of Campbell’s career, a story cut short by a public battle with Alzheimer’s.

Just as a Johnny Cash career retrospective would end with an undeserving whimper if it stopped right before his American Recordings with Rick Rubin, Campbell’s prior box set leaves off an important closing chapter of the legend’s life and career.

The final disc now includes cuts from Meet Glen Campbell, a 2008 covers album honoring the songs of Green Day, The Foo Fighters and other students of Campbell’s rock and pop-defining studio work with the Wrecking Crew. If you haven’t heard it, that probably sounds as appealing as Pat Boone’s heavy metal moonlighting, but Campbell’s then-weathered voice does his source material justice. Campbell’s late life embracing of rock ‘n’ roll gets further magnified with the Paul Westerberg-written title track off 2011 album Ghost on the Canvas.

Campbell’s later material also took his sound full-circle, reuniting him with ‘60s songwriting partner Jimmy Webb and rewarding fans young and old with the singer’s greatest heart song, the Grammy-winning farewell “I’m Not Gonna Miss You.”