A Reddit thread asking for good country music recommendations blew up this week, pulling in more than 500 replies, and one song kept rising above the noise: Glen Campbell‘s “Wichita Lineman.”
The original post came from a self-described country skeptic who admitted they’d “never heard anything actually good” from the genre, blaming their distaste on only knowing the “super mainstream stuff.” What followed was a flood of recommendations spanning outlaw country, bluegrass, and honky-tonk classics from commenters eager to change their mind. By the time the poster came back to update their post, they’d been overwhelmed with suggestions, but one had already stood out: “So far I’ve only heard ‘Wichita Lineman,’ which I thought was great.”
It’s a fitting introduction to the genre. Written by Jimmy Webb in 1968 at Campbell’s request for another geography-inspired song following “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman” came from a specific memory Webb had of driving past telephone poles on a rural stretch of road as a kid. Webb has said he sent the song to Campbell still unfinished, missing a final verse, and Campbell filled the gap with an instrumental bass solo that became one of the song’s most recognizable moments.
Backed by the legendary session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew, the song climbed to No. 3 on the pop charts and hit No. 1 on the country charts, eventually earning gold certification. It also anchored Campbell’s Wichita Lineman album, which topped both the pop and country album charts, a rare crossover feat at the time.
The Reddit thread is proof the song’s pull hasn’t faded. Even someone who walked in actively hostile to the genre found something in it worth holding onto, more than half a century after it first came out, a reminder that a well-built song can cut through decades of genre baggage in about three minutes flat.