Glen Campbell Covers Foos, U2
Wednesday July 09, 2008 @ 06:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

Glen Campbell

Aging singers long past their hit-making prime turning to songs recorded by members of younger generations in an attempt to attract new fans and pad their pension fund is a formula that's been used a handful of times over the past 15 years.

It worked wonders for Johnny Cash and his series of American Recordings albums. Tom Jones topped the British sales chart with Reload in 1999, and Paul Anka's Rock Swings was a top 10 U.K. hit in 2005. Pat Boone's 1997 effort, In A Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy? The less said the better.

The latest artist to take a stab at landing some hipster cred is Glen Campbell, who will release Meet Glen Campbell through Capitol Records on Aug. 19.

Campbell played guitar on hits for the likes of Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys and The Righteous Brothers through the mid-'60s before embarking on a career as a pop-country solo artist and recording smashes like "Gentle On My Mind," "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," "Wichita Lineman," "Galveston," "Southern Nights" and "Rhinestone Cowboy." He co-starred with John Wayne in True Grit and hosted The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour for three years on television. He's released more than 70 albums that have sold more than 40 million copies around the world.

In recent years, however, the most publicity Campbell has received was after he was forced to serve 10 days in jail after being arrested for extreme drunk driving in 2003, when he looked like this.

But the 72-year-old pulled himself away from the golf course in March and April to record 10 songs by the likes of U2, Foo Fighters, The Replacements, Travis and Green Day in Los Angeles with producer Julian Raymond (Fastball, The Wallflowers) and engineer Howard Willing (The Smashing Pumpkins, OK Go). Cheap Trick's Robin Zander, short-lived Jane's Addiction bassist Chris Chaney and Jellyfish's Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. and Jason Faulkner were among the guests who contributed to the album. Campbell's sons and daughters added backing vocals.

"I really like all of the songs and I had a great time recording them," says Campbell. "While I didn't write these songs, this sounds like a Glen Campbell album, which is important to me."

You can watch a video trailer of the making of the record here.

Meet Glen Campbell will be available on CD, vinyl and as a digital download.

Here are the songs, and their original artists, that you'll find on Meet Glen Campbell:

"Sing" (Travis)
• "Walls (Circus)" (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers)
• "Angel Dream" (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers)
• "Times Like These" (Foo Fighters)
• "These Days" (Jackson Browne)
• "Sadly Beautiful" (The Replacements)
• "All I Want Is You" (U2)
• "Jesus" (Velvet Underground)
• "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)" (Green Day)
• "Grow Old With Me" (John Lennon)