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USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth in 1982.^[2] The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003.^{[citation needed]} According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the paper has 1.8 million copies as of March 2012^[1] compared with The Wall Street Journal's 2.1 million^[1] though this figure includes the WSJ's 400,000 paid-for, online subscribers.^{[citation needed]} USA Today remains the widest circulated print newspaper in the United States.^{[citation needed]} USA Today is distributed in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, Canada and the United Kingdom.^{[citation needed]} The newspaper has its headquarters in the Tysons Corner area of Fairfax County, Virginia.^[3] Currently,^[when?] USA Today sells for US$1.00 in newsstands; however, it is often found free at hotels and airports that distribute it to their customers.^{[citation needed]}

Layout and format[link]

USA Today is known for synthesizing news down to easy-to-read-and-comprehend stories. In the main edition seen in the United States and some Canadian cities, each edition consists of four sections: News (the oft-labeled "front page" section), Money, Sports, and Life. On Fridays, two Life sections are included: the regular Life for entertainment (subtitled Weekend; section E), which features television, a DVD column, film reviews and trends, and a travel supplement called Destinations & Diversions (section D). The international edition of the paper features two sections: News and Money in one; with Sports and Life in the other.

The paper does not print on Saturdays and Sundays. USA Today prints each complete story on the front page of the respective section with the exception of the cover story. The cover story is a longer story that requires a jump (readers must turn to another page in the paper to complete the story, usually the next page of that section). On certain days, the news or sports section will take up two paper sections, and there will be a second cover story within the second section.

Each section is denoted by a certain color to differentiate sections beyond lettering and is seen in a box the top-left corner of the first page, with News being blue (section A), Money with green (section B), red for Sports (section C), and purple for Life (section D). Orange is used for bonus sections (section E or above), which are published occasionally such as for business travel trends and the Olympics; other bonus sections for sports (such as for the PGA Tour preview, NCAA Basketball Tournaments, Memorial Day auto races (Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600), NFL opening weekend and the Super Bowl) previously used the orange color, but now use the sports red in their bonus sections. On days featuring bonus sections or business holidays (when the four pages of stock tables are unneeded), the Money and Life sections are usually combined into one section, while combinations of the Friday Life editions into one section are common during quiet weeks.

In many ways, USA Today is set up to break the typical newspaper layout. Some examples of that divergence from tradition include using the left-hand quarter of each section as reefers, sometimes using sentence-length blurbs to describe stories inside. It is also the only paper in the United States to utilize the Gulliver font, which is used for both headlines and stories.^[4] Being a national newspaper, USA Today cannot focus on the weather for any one city. Therefore, the entire back page of the News section is used for weather maps and temperature lists for the entire United States and many cities throughout the world, with data provided by Weather Channel meteorologists. In the bottom left-hand corner of the weather page is a graphic called "Weather Focus," which explains different meteorological phenomena. On some days, the Weather Focus could be a photo of a rare meteorological event. On Mondays, the Money section uses its back page to present an unusual graphic depicting the performance of various industry groups as a function of quarterly, monthly and weekly movements against the S&P 500.

Book coverage, including reviews and a national sales chart is seen on Thursdays in Life, with the official full A.C. Nielsen television ratings chart printed on Wednesdays or Thursdays, depending on release. The paper also publishes the Mediabase survey for several genres of music, based on radio airplay spins on Tuesdays, along with their own chart of the top ten singles in general on Wednesdays. Advertising coverage is seen in the Monday Money section, which often includes a review of a current television ad, and after Super Bowl Sunday, a review of the ads aired during the broadcast with the results of the Ad Track live survey.

USA Today is headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia.

One of the staples of the News section is a state-by-state roundup of headlines. The summaries consist of paragraph-length Associated Press reports highlighting one story of note in each state, the District of Columbia, and one U.S. territory.

Some traditions have been retained, however. The lead story still appears on the upper-right hand of the front page. Commentary and political cartoons occupy the last few pages of the News section. Stock and mutual fund data are presented in the Money section. But USA Today is sufficiently different in aesthetics to be recognized on sight, even in a mix of other newspapers, such as at a newsstand. The overall design and layout of USA Today has been described as both neo-Victorian^[5] and Impressionist.^[6]

Also, in most of the sections' front pages, on the lower left hand corner, are "USA Today Snapshots", which give statistics of various lifestyle interests according to the section it is in (for example, a snapshot in "Life" could show how many people tend to watch a certain genre of television show based upon the type of mood they are in at the time). These "Snapshots" are shown through graphs which are made up of various illustrations of objects that roughly pertain to the graphs subject matter (using the example above, the graph's bars could be made up of several TV sets, or ended by one). These are usually loosely based on research by a national institute (with the source in the box below the graph in fine print to show credit).

Starting in February 2008, the newspaper added a magazine supplement called Open Air, appearing several times a year.^{[citation needed]}

2011 Tweaks[link]

On January 24, 2011, to reverse a slide of revenue, the paper introduced a tweaked format, changing a few looks of the front pages of sections.^[7]

Some of the changes include:

• A larger logo at the top.
• A new sans-serif font, called Prelo, for certain headlines of main stories.
• Increasing and decreasing of mastheads and white space in order to present a cleaner style.

Opinion Section[link]

The opinion section prints USA Today editorials, columns by guest writers and members of the Board of Contributors,^[8] letters to the editor, and editorial cartoons. One unique feature of the USA Today editorial page is the publication of opposing points of view alongside the editorial board's piece on the day's topic runs an opposing view by a guest writer, often an expert in the field.^[9]

The current^[when?] Editorial Page Editor is Brian Gallagher, who has worked for the newspaper since its founding in 1982. Other members of the Editorial Board include deputy editorial page editor Bill Sternberg, executive Forum editor John Siniff, op-ed/Forum page editor Glen Nishimura, operations editor Thuan Le Elston, letters editor Michelle Poblete, web content editor Eileen Rivers, and editorial writers Dan Carney, George Hager, and Saundra Torry.^[10] The newspaper's website calls this group "demographically and ideologically diverse."^[9]

Newsroom restructuring[link]

On August 27, 2010, USA Today announced that they would be reorganizing their newsroom. 130 people are to be laid off, a new publication called USA Today Sports will be created, and the paper will be shifting its focus away from print and more on digital platforms like USA Today.com and their mobile phone applications (apps).

Online commenting on articles[link]

USA Today requires a membership in Facebook in order to leave comments on news stories.^[11] People who are not members of Facebook can no longer comment on articles.

Controversial incidents[link]

Arthur Ashe[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

In 1988, Arthur Ashe discovered he had contracted HIV during blood transfusions he received during one of his two heart surgeries. He and his wife kept his illness private until April 8, 1992, when reports that the newspaper USA Today was about to publish a story about his condition forced him to make a public announcement that he had the disease.

Jack Kelley[link]

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In March 2004, the newspaper was hit by a major scandal when it was revealed that Jack Kelley, a long-time USA Today correspondent and nominee for the Pulitzer Prize, had been fabricating stories. The newspaper did an extensive review of Kelley's stories, including sending investigators to Cuba, Israel and Jordan, and sifting through stacks of hotel records to determine if Kelley was in the locations he claimed to be filing stories from. Kelley resigned, but denied the charges. The paper's publisher, Craig Moon, issued a public apology on the front page of the newspaper. Many remarked on the similarity of this scandal to that of the Jayson Blair situation at The New York Times, although it received less national attention.

NSA Database[link]

This section may stray from the topic of the article into the topic of another article, NSA. Please help improve this section or discuss this issue on the talk page. (April 2012)

In May 2006, USA Today reported that the National Security Agency had been working with AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth to compile "the largest database in the world," according to the anonymous sources inside the agency that went public.^[12] This allowed the paper to uncover a new facet of the agency and further upset the White House after the New York Times revealed the Bush administration authorized the NSA to wiretap international phone calls and e-mails traveling within the U.S.^[13]

Both stories challenged the administration's ability to spy on alleged terrorists without a judge's approval, a provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act established in 1978. But unlike the Times' story, the USA Today story provoked private telecommunications companies to enter the debate amid the initial developments for the next Telecommunications Act, popularly nicknamed the "net neutrality" or "equal internet access" bill.

On June 29, 2006, a press release for AT&T stated, "The U.S. Department of Justice has stated that AT&T may neither confirm nor deny AT&T's participation in the alleged NSA program because doing so would cause 'exceptionally grave harm to national security' and would violate both civil and criminal statutes."^[14] BellSouth, which announced its merger with AT&T on March 5,^[15] denies releasing any records to the NSA ^[16] and requested the newspaper retract claims in its story asserting BellSouth "provided phone records of its customers to NSA."^[17] "Both BellSouth and Verizon Communications Inc., another company cited in the story, denied this week that they provided the calling records," according to the AP.^[18] On June 30, USA Today published a statement: "The denial was unexpected. The newspaper had spoken with BellSouth and Verizon for several weeks about the substance of the report."^[19]

On August 17, 2006, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit issued a 43-page ruling stating the program is unconstitutional,^[20] but did not immediately suspend the program and grants a temporary stay, in which the American Civil Liberties Union continued fighting the program's legality in the case ACLU v. NSA.

Taylor's ruling states the program violates the FISA court standards, which provide oversight for all wire taps. The FISA court provides retroactive review of all government wiretaps and allows all government agencies 72 hours before presenting their case for wiretapping before the court. "There are no hereditary kings in America and no such powers created by the constitution," Taylor writes.

In a USA Today editorial, the staff wrote, "Much has changed since terrorists rammed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But one thing that has not is that America is a constitutional democracy with checks and balances. A ruling such as Thursday's is a useful and forceful affirmation of that."^[21]

The White House issued a statement saying that it disagreed with the decision and declared that the program was legal.^[22]

Finally in 2007, the Taylor ruling was reversed for lack of evidence by the Supreme Court, which said that the ACLU had no evidence that its own communications had been intercepted without a warrant, and therefore the ACLU did not have a basis to challenge the legality of the wiretaps. The majority decision denied that the ACLU had the standing to bring the case to court. The Supreme Court declined to rule on the legality of the wiretap program.

TV show[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

In the fall of 1988, an attempt was made to bring the breezy style of USA Today to television. The result was the syndicated series USA Today: The Television Show (later re-titled USA Today on TV, then simply USA Today), which was a joint venture between Gannett and producer Grant Tinker. Correspondents on the series included Edie Magnus, Robin Young, Boyd Matson, Kenneth Walker, Dale Harimoto, Ann Abernathy, Bill Macatee, and Beth Ruyak. As with the newspaper itself, the show was divided into four "sections" corresponding to the different parts of the paper – News, Money, Sports, and Life. The series was canceled after one and a half seasons in January 1990 due to low ratings.

Awards[link]

• List of USA Today major-league baseball awards
• USA Today Minor League Player of the Year Award
• USA Today All-USA high school baseball team (including High School Baseball Player of the Year and High School Baseball Coach of the Year)
• USA Today All-USA high school basketball team
• USA Today All-Joe Team (NFL)
• USA Today/National Prep Poll High School Football National Championship
• USA Today All-USA high school football team (including Super 25 teams in U.S. and Top 10 teams in East, South, Midwest, and West regions)
• USA Today All-USA high school football team (including Offensive and Defensive high school players of the year)
• USA Today High School Football Coach of the Year

Parodies[link]

Parodies of USA Today have appeared in various films and TV shows over the years, such as:

• The Harvard Lampoon published a parody issue of USA Today in 1986.
• A futuristic 2015 edition of USA Today (Hill Valley edition) is seen in Back to the Future Part II (1989)
• A spinoff red planet version entitled Mars Today seen in Total Recall (1990)
• An animated, dynamically updating e-paper version seen in Minority Report (2002)
• A paper called BSA Today in an alternate reality where North America is still governed by the United Kingdom as the British States of America, seen in Sliders (1995)
• Universe Today appeared in Babylon 5. The newspaper is custom-printed at a booth, where each customer can choose certain sections to include or exclude. It included at least an "Eye on Minbari" section.
• An extended sequence of Doonesbury strips in the 1980s mocked the paper.
• In The Simpsons episode Homer Defined, Homer reads a newspaper called USofA Today with the cover story: "America's Favorite Pencil - #2 is #1." Homer reads aloud another headline: "SAT scores are declining at a slower rate." After Lisa criticizes it, Homer says "this is the only newspaper in the country that is not afraid to tell the truth: that everything is just fine".
• The comedy publication The Onion publishes a feature on its front page called "Statshot," patterned after similar statistics published on the front page of USA Today.
• The 1988 computer game Hidden Agenda featured excerpts from a newspaper called 'USA Yesterday' in press digests.
• The alternate history movie C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004) features a newspaper called CSA Today.
• Country musician Alan Jackson has a song Entitled "USA Today" in which the paper thinks about doing a story of the loneliest man in the "USA Today". The Song is on his What I Do CD released in 2004.
• Comedian Stephen Colbert frequently refers to it as "Today's The USA Today". He sarcastically criticizes the newspaper for its abundant use of colors and flashy, uninformative infographics.

See also[link]

	Virginia portal
	Journalism portal

• USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Official website (Mobile)
• USA Today articles indexed by reporter
• Nieman Journalism Lab. "USA Today". Encyclo: an Encyclopedia of the Future of News. http://www.niemanlab.org/encyclo/usa-today/. Retrieved 1 April 2012. 

Lee Greenwood
Lee Greenwood performing in his trademark Stars and Stripes jacket.
Background information
Birth name	Lee Melvin Greenwood[1]
Born	(1942-10-27) October 27, 1942 (age 69) Los Angeles, California, United States
Origin	Sacramento, California
Genres	Country, Pop
Occupations	Singer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, piano, saxophone
Years active	1981–present
Labels	MCA, Capitol, Liberty, Curb, Country Crossing
Website	www.leegreenwood.com

Lee Melvin Greenwood (born October 27, 1942) is an American country music artist. Active since the early 1980s, he has released more than twenty major-label albums and has charted more than 35 singles on the Billboard country music charts.

Greenwood is best known for his single "God Bless the USA", which was popular when it was originally released in 1984, and became popular again after the 9/11 attacks (becoming his highest charting pop hit, reaching No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100). He also has charted seven No. 1 hits in his career: "Somebody's Gonna Love You", "Going, Going, Gone", "Dixie Road", "I Don't Mind the Thorns (If You're the Rose)", "Don't Underestimate My Love For You", "Hearts Aren't Made to Break (They're Made to Love)", and "Mornin' Ride". His 1983 single "I.O.U." was also a top five hit on the adult contemporary charts, and a No. 53 on the Hot 100.

Early life[link]

Greenwood was born in Los Angeles, California. After the separation of his parents, he grew up near Sacramento^[2] on the poultry farm of his maternal grandparents. At the age of seven, he began playing the piano and the saxophone, and at the age of nine became a member of a dance ensemble. In 1969, he joined the Chester Smith Band and had his first television appearance. A short time later, he worked with the country musician Del Reeves.

He founded his first band, The Apollos, in 1962. The band, which changed its name later to Lee Greenwood Affair, played mostly pop music and appeared mostly in casinos in Las Vegas. A few records were recorded in Los Angeles with the Paramount label. After the band broke up in the 1970s, Greenwood moved back to Las Vegas, where he worked as a blackjack dealer during the day, and as a singer at night.

Career[link]

In 1979, he was discovered in Reno, Nevada by Larry McFaden, the bandleader and bassist of Mel Tillis. After making some demo tapes, Greenwood was signed in 1981 by the Nashville division of the MCA label (who had recently absorbed the Paramount label), and McFaden became his manager.

The first single, "It Turns Me Inside Out", made it to a spot in the top 20 of the country charts. The song had been written for Kenny Rogers, but Rogers turned it down due to the sheer volume of songs he had been offered at the time. "Ring On Her Finger, Time on Her Hands" landed him in the country top 10. Each song was marketed heavily, particularly in the South Florida market by MCA Account Service Rep, Brad Fitzgerald, among others. Lee Greenwood did not write Inside Out. It was written by Jan Crutchfield.

He is best known for writing and recording the patriotic song "God Bless the USA" in the early 1980s. In 1995, he was featured with the song in the Warren Chaney docudrama, America: A Call to Greatness.^[3] "God Bless the USA" gained renewed popularity following the launch of Operation: Desert Storm in 1991, and again, ten years later, following the September 11, 2001 attacks; in fact, the song even re-entered the Top 20 of the country charts in late 2001. Since then, Greenwood has played at many public events and commemorations of the attacks.

Political views and advocacy[link]

He supports the Republican Party.^{[citation needed]}

In November 2008, President George W. Bush appointed Greenwood to a six-year term to the National Council on the Arts.^[4]

Theater[link]

In 1995, Greenwood took a break from his touring schedule to spend time with his wife and newborn son. In his time off, he elected to build a theater in Sevierville, Tennessee, and in April 1996, the "Lee Greenwood Theater" opened its doors.^[2] This gave Greenwood the opportunity to still perform daily shows, in addition to being with his family. The theater operated for five seasons, and closed for Greenwood to continue touring. The theater was not located in the heavily entertainment and tourist oriented areas of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and Gatlinburg, Tennessee which contributed to the theater closing.^{[citation needed]} The former theater building is now host to a church.

Family[link]

Greenwood has been married four times and is the father of six children. He is currently married to former Miss Tennessee USA, Kimberly Payne.^[2][5]

Discography[link]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Wood, Gerry (1998). "Lee Greenwood". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 212–3.

External links[link]

• Official website

Glen Campbell
Campbell performing in Texas, January 25, 2004.
Background information
Birth name	Glen Travis Campbell
Born	(1936-04-22) April 22, 1936 (age 76) Delight, Arkansas United States
Genres	Country, rock, folk, pop, folk rockgospel
Occupations	Musician Songwriter Actor
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, banjo, bass, bagpipes[1]
Years active	1958–present
Labels	Capitol, Atlantic, MCA, Liberty, New Haven
Associated acts	Bobby Darin, Rick Nelson, The Champs, The Forte' Four, Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, The Green River Boys, Frank Sinatra, Phil Spector, The Monkees, The Beach Boys, Bobbie Gentry, Anne Murray John Hartford, Jimmy Webb, Kenny Rogers, Leon Russell, Roy Clark, Linda Ronstadt
Website	www.glencampbellshow.com

Glen Travis Campbell (born April 22, 1936) is an American country music singer, guitarist, television host and occasional actor. He is best known for a series of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as for hosting a variety show called The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television.

During his 50 years in show business, Campbell has released more than 70 albums. He has sold 45 million records and accumulated no less than 12 RIAA Gold albums, 4 Platinum albums and 1 Double-Platinum album. Of the 74 trips up the country charts, 27 landed in the Top 10.^{[citation needed]} Campbell's hits include John Hartford's "Gentle on My Mind", Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "Wichita Lineman" and "Galveston", Larry Weiss's "Rhinestone Cowboy" and Allen Toussaint's "Southern Nights".

Campbell made history by winning four Grammys in both country and pop categories in 1967.^{[citation needed]} For "Gentle on My Mind" he received two awards in country & western, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" did the same in pop. He owns trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year from both the Country Music Association (CMA) and the Academy of Country Music (ACM), and took the CMA's top honor as 1968 Entertainer of the Year. In 1969 Campbell was hand picked by actor John Wayne to play alongside him in the film True Grit, which gave Campbell a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. Campbell sang the title song which was nominated for an Academy Award.

In 2005, Campbell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Biography[link]

1950s–early 1960s: session musician and the Beach Boys[link]

Campbell was one of 12 children born to a sharecropper father^[2][3] with Scottish ancestors right outside the tiny community of Delight in Pike County, Arkansas, in a town called Billstown, then a community of fewer than 100 residents. He started playing guitar as a youth without learning to read music. He credits his uncle Boo for teaching him the guitar.

At 16, Campbell hocked his guitar and went to live with his uncle Dick Bills in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Campbell joined his uncle’s band known as Dick Bills and the Sandia Mountain Boys and also appeared on his uncle’s radio show. A few years later, Campbell formed his own band, the Western Wranglers.^[4][5]

In 1958, Campbell moved to Los Angeles to become a session musician. He was part of the 1959 line-up of the group the Champs, famous for their instrumental "Tequila". Campbell was in great demand as a session musician in the 1960s. He was part of the studio musicians clique known as "the Wrecking Crew", many of whom went from session to session together as the same group. In addition to Campbell, Hal Blaine on drums, Tommy Tedesco on guitar, Leon Russell on piano, Carol Kaye on bass guitar, Al Casey on guitar were part of this group of session musicians that defined many pop and rock recordings of the era. They were also heard on Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" recordings in the early 1960s.

He was a touring member of the Beach Boys, filling in for Brian Wilson in 1964 and 1965. He played guitar on the group's Pet Sounds album, among other recordings. On tour, he played bass guitar and sang falsetto harmonies.

Late 1960s[link]

As a solo artist, he had moderate success regionally with his first single, "Turn Around, Look at Me". "Too Late to Worry, Too Blue to Cry" and "Kentucky Means Paradise" (cut with a bluegrass group called the Green River Boys) were similarly popular within only a small section of the country audience.

In 1962, Campbell signed with Capitol Records and released two instrumental albums and a number of vocal albums during his first five years with the label. However, despite releasing singles written by Brian Wilson ("Guess I'm Dumb" in 1965) and Buffy Sainte-Marie the same year ("The Universal Soldier"), Campbell did not achieve major success as a solo artist. It was rumored that Capitol was considering dropping him from the label in 1966 when he was teamed with producer Al DeLory, and together they collaborated on 1967's Dylanesque "Gentle on My Mind", written by John Hartford.

Campbell was the uncredited lead vocalist on "My World Fell Down" by Sagittarius, a studio group. The song reached #70 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967.^[6]

"Gentle on My Mind" was an overnight success. It was followed by the even bigger triumph of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" later in 1967, and "I Wanna Live" and "Wichita Lineman" in 1968. The 1969 song “True Grit” by composer Elmer Bernstein and lyricist Don Black, and sung by Campbell, who co-starred in the movie, received nominations for both the Academy Award for Best Song and the Golden Globe.

Campbell won two Grammy Awards for his performances on "Gentle on My Mind" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix".

His biggest hits in the late 1960s were the songs written by Jimmy Webb: "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Wichita Lineman", "Galveston", and "Where's the Playground, Susie?" An album of mainly Webb-penned compositions, Reunion: The Songs of Jimmy Webb, was released in 1974, but it produced no hit single records.

"Wichita Lineman" was selected as one of the greatest songs of the 20th century by Mojo magazine in 1997 and by Blender in 2001.

1970s: The Goodtime Hour, Rhinestone Cowboy and Southern Nights[link]

After he hosted a 1968 summer replacement for television's The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour variety show, Campbell hosted his own weekly variety show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, from January 1969 through June 1972. At the height of his popularity, a 1970 biography by Freda Kramer, The Glen Campbell Story, was published.

Campbell performing at the Michigan State Fair, circa 1970

With Campbell's session-work connections, he hosted major names in music on his show including: the Beatles (on film), David Gates and Bread, the Monkees, Neil Diamond, Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Roger Miller and helped launch the careers of Anne Murray, Mel Tillis and Jerry Reed who were regulars on his Goodtime Hour program.

In 1973, banjo player Carl Jackson joined Campbell's band for 12 years and went on to win two Grammy awards.^[7]

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Campbell released a long series of singles and appeared in the movies True Grit (1969) with John Wayne and Kim Darby and Norwood (1970) with Kim Darby and Joe Namath.

In 1971, Campbell took the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on the road for two nights to The Muny in Forest Park, (the largest and oldest outdoor theatre in America) in St. Louis, Missouri.

After the cancellation of his CBS series in 1972, Campbell remained a regular on network television. He co-starred in a made-for-television movie, Strange Homecoming, with Robert Culp and up-and-coming teen idol, Leif Garrett. He hosted a number of television specials, including 1976's Down Home, Down Under with Olivia Newton-John. He co-hosted the American Music Awards from 1976–78 and headlined the 1979 NBC special, Glen Campbell: Back To Basics with guest-stars Seals and Crofts and Brenda Lee. He was a guest on many network talk and variety shows, including: Donny & Marie, the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Cher, the Redd Foxx Comedy Hour, Merv Griffin, The Midnight Special with Wolfman Jack, DINAH!, Evening at Pops with Arthur Fiedler and the Mike Douglas Show. From 1982–83 he hosted a 30-minute syndicated music show on NBC, the Glen Campbell Music Show.

In the mid-1970s, he had more big hits with "Rhinestone Cowboy", "Southern Nights" (both U.S. #1 hits), "Sunflower" (U.S. #39) (written by Neil Diamond), and "Country Boy (You Got Your Feet in L.A.)." (U.S. #11).

"Rhinestone Cowboy" was Campbell's largest-selling single, initially with over 2 million copies sold in a matter of months. Campbell had heard the songwriter Larry Weiss' version while on tour of Australia in 1974 and felt it was the perfect song for him to record. It was included in the Jaws movie parody song "Mr. Jaws", which also reached the top 10 in 1975. "Rhinestone Cowboy" continues to be used in movie soundtracks and TV shows, including "Desperate Housewives", Daddy Day Care, and High School High. It was the inspiration for the 1984 Dolly Parton/Sylvester Stallone movie Rhinestone.

Campbell made a techno/pop version of the song in 2002 with UK artists Rikki & Daz and went to the top 10 in the UK with the dance version and related music video.

"Southern Nights," by Allen Toussaint, his other #1 pop-rock-country crossover hit, was generated with the help of Jimmy Webb, who turned Campbell onto the song, and Jerry Reed, who inspired the famous guitar lick introduction to the song, which was the most-played jukebox number of 1977.

From 1971 to 1983, Campbell was the celebrity host of the Los Angeles Open, an annual professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour.

1980s–2000s: Later career and Country Music Hall of Fame induction[link]

Campbell made a cameo appearance in the 1980 Clint Eastwood movie Any Which Way You Can, for which he recorded the title song.

In 1999 Campbell was featured on VH-1's Behind the Music, A&E Network's Biography in 2001, and on a number of CMT programs. Campbell ranked 29th on CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music in 2003.

Campbell in 2004.

He is also credited with giving Alan Jackson his first big break. Campbell met Jackson's wife (a flight attendant with Piedmont Airlines) at Atlanta Airport and gave her his publishing manager's business card. Jackson went to work for Campbell's music publishing business in the early 1990s and later had many of his hit songs published in part by Campbell's company, Seventh Son Music. Campbell also served as an inspiration to Keith Urban. Urban cites Campbell as a strong influence on his performing career.

In 2005, Campbell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

It was announced in April 2008 that Campbell was returning to his signature label, Capitol, to release his new album, Meet Glen Campbell.^[8] The album was released on August 19. With this album he branched off in a different musical direction, covering tracks from artists such as Travis, U2, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jackson Browne and Foo Fighters. It was Campbell's first release on Capitol in over 15 years. Musicians from Cheap Trick and Jellyfish contributed to the album as well. The first single, a cover of Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", was released to radio in July 2008. In March 2010, a farewell album titled Ghost on the Canvas was announced which served as a companion to Meet Glen Campbell.^[9]

Ghost on the Canvas was released on August 30, 2011, with collaborations that include Paul Westerberg (writer of the title track), Wallflower's singer Jakob Dylan, Chris Isaak, Rick Nielsen and Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Relationships and children[link]

Campbell has been married four times and is the father of five sons and three daughters, ranging in year of birth from 1956 to 1986. Campbell's eldest daughter is Debby from his first marriage (1955–1959) to Diane Kirk. Their firstborn died as an infant and Debby was their second child.^[10] After divorcing Kirk, Campbell married Billie Jean Nunley, a beautician from Carlsbad who bore him Kelli, Travis, and Kane. They divorced in 1975. Shortly after, he had an affair with and later married singer Mac Davis's second wife, Sarah Barg, in 1976. They had one child together (Dillon) and then divorced in 1980, three weeks after Dillon's birth.^[11] In 1980-81 he had a relationship with then 21-year-old country star Tanya Tucker.^[12] Campbell has been married to Kimberly "Kim" Woollen since 1982.^[13][14] Woollen was a Radio City Music Hall "Rockette" when she and Glen met on a blind date in 1981. They have three children together, Cal, Shannon and daughter Ashley^[15] who have joined their father on stage since 2010 as part of his touring band.^[16] Campbell, raised in the Church of Christ,^[17] and Woollen joined a Baptist church in Phoenix.^[18] They said in a 2008 interview that they have been adherents of Messianic Judaism for two decades.^[19]

Political views[link]

Campbell, a Republican, performed at the 1980 Republican National Convention^[20] and made a number of campaign appearances afterwards.^[21][22][23] According to The Guardian, "In their heyday, Campbell, Ronald Reagan and Charlton Heston – three proud Republicans – were close friends."^[24]

Alzheimer's diagnosis[link]

In June 2011, Campbell said he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease six months earlier. He had been suffering from short-term memory loss for years.^[25] He is currently on a final "Goodbye Tour", with three of his children joining him in his backup band.^[26][27] Campbell sang 'Rhinestone Cowboy' as a goodbye at the 2012 Grammy Awards which was held on February 12, 2012. ^[28]

Discography[link]

Videography[link]

Awards[link]

Academy of Country Music[link]

• 1967 Album of the Year - Gentle on My Mind
• 1967 Top Male Vocalist
• 1968 Album of the Year - Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell
• 1968 Top Male Vocalist
• 1968 TV Personality of the Year
• 1971 TV Personality of the Year
• 1975 Single of the Year - "Rhinestone Cowboy"
• 1998 Pioneer Award

American Music Awards[link]

• 1976 Favorite Pop/Rock Single - "Rhinestone Cowboy"
• 1976 Favorite Country Single - "Rhinestone Cowboy"
• 1977 Favorite Country Album - Rhinestone Cowboy

Country Music Association[link]

• 1968 Entertainer of the Year
• 1968 Male Vocalist of the Year

Country Music Association of Great Britain[link]

• 1974 Entertainer of the Year^[29]

Country Radio Broadcasters[link]

• 2012 Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc. Career Achievement Award^[30]

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum|Country Music Hall of Fame[link]

• Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum|Inducted in 2005

Dove Awards[link]

• 1986 Album by a Secular Artist - No More Night
• 1992 Southern Gospel Recorded Song of the Year - "Where Shadows Never Fall"
• 2000 Country Album of the Year - A Glen Campbell Christmas^[31]

Grammy Awards[link]

• Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for "Gentle on My Mind"
• Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording (1967) "Gentle on My Mind"
• Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Male "By the Time I Get to Phoenix"
• Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance - (1967) "By the Time I Get to Phoenix"
• 1968 Album of the Year - "By the Time I Get to Phoenix"
• 2000 Grammy Hall of Fame Award - "Wichita Lineman"
• 2004 Grammy Hall of Fame Award - "By the Time I Get to Phoenix"
• 2008 Grammy Hall of Fame Award - "Gentle on My Mind"
• 2012 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award^[32]Official Grammy Award website of the Grammy Hall of Fame Awards

Musicians' Hall of Fame[link]

• Inducted in 2007 (as a member of The Wrecking Crew)

Q Awards[link]

• 2008 Q Legend Award^[33]

Filmography[link]

Compositions[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2011)

Glen Campbell's compositions include "Fate of Man", "Less of Me", "(It's Only Your) Imagination", "I Have No One To Love Me Anymore", "Visions of Sugar Plums", "How Do I Tell My Heart Not To Break", "Bull Durham", "Just Another Man", "If This Is Love", "Friends", "Every Time I Itch I Wind Up Scratchin' You", "Spring Mist", "Back In The Race", "Love Is A Lonesome River", and "One Hundred Miles Away From Home".

References[link]