About
About Jimmy Webb:
Multiple GRAMMY-winning cross-genre songwriter Jimmy Webb’s most popular songs are touchstones for a generation yet remain timeless: “MacArthur Park,” “Wichita Lineman,” “Didn’t We,” “Galveston,” “Worst That Could Happen,” and “The Highwayman” for starters. During his live shows – which are different every night because of his incredible improvisational piano playing and wealth of stories – Webb creates a unique connection to the audience: Like a long lost uncle in town to regale with tales from the road, revealing the stories behind his hits, his first songwriting job at Motown, through a career trajectory that took a teenaged preacher’s son from a farm town in Oklahoma to the top of his longed-for profession in Hollywood in only a few short years. His books, Tunesmith: The Art of Songwriting and memoir The Cake and the Rain demonstrate his incredible talent with words and music.
Webb has topped the charts over and over from pop to country, blues, jazz, disco to even rap and EDM with interpretations by some of the industry’s greatest including Art Garfunkel, Linda Ronstadt, Frank Sinatra, Donna Summer, Josh Groban, Glen Campbell, The Highwaymen, Barbra Streisand, The Fifth Dimension, Guns n’ Roses, and James Taylor. The Webb covers are continuous: being released for Pride Month 2024 is a hot new dance version of “MacArthur Park” by Micah McLaurin and Amber Riley.
Since Webb’s GRAMMY sweep in 1968 when his own “Up, Up and Away” and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” both vied for Song of the Year ( “Up” won), to the use of his “Do What You Gotta Do” in Kanye West’s “Famous,” the man often praised as “America’s Songwriter” remains a respected icon in popular music – and continues to challenge his artistic boundaries with projects like a classical nocturne. He is always included in the lists of the greatest songwriters.
Jimmy lives on the North Shore of Long Island, New York, with his wife, a PBS television host and producer, Laura Savini. He has six spectacular grandchildren, five sons, and a daughter.
