Jimmy Webb Opens The Piano Bench For New LP

On the eve of his 80th birthday, legendary songwriter Jimmy Webb is opening the piano bench — and finding a remarkable cache of songs that have been waiting decades for their moment. The Songwriters Hall of Famer and multi-Grammy winner, who has penned everything from “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and “Wichita Lineman” to “MacArthur Park” and “Highwayman.” will release Yours for the Taking: The Found Songs of Jimmy Webb Oct. 23 via Sun Records.

It’s a 13-track collection of previously unreleased material spanning Webb’s six-decade career. Alongside the announcement, he has shared “Winter Clothes (Original Demo),” an intimate early recording of a song he wrote with Frank Sinatra in mind nearly 50 years ago. A newly recorded version featuring Graham Nash also appears on the album.

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For decades, these songs remained, in Webb’s words, “in the piano bench.” Some were written with specific singers in mind who never recorded them; others simply never found their way into the world. Longtime Webb producer Fred Mollin, who safeguarded the compositions for years, helped bring them back into the light. As they revisited the material, Webb found himself asking: “Why didn’t I release this when I wrote it? This could be a hit!”

Produced by Mollin and recorded with Nashville musicians, Yours for the Taking is described as rock and roll with touches of jazz and country rather than a conventional Nashville record. Webb is also joined by Michael McDonald, Amy Grant, Marc Cohn, Beth Nielsen Chapman and Justin Currie across 11 newly produced tracks, alongside two original demos.

“A younger Jimmy Webb wrote these songs, decades ago,” Webb says. “He was in a rush. He was hard on himself and his works. He was moving fast and leaving songs behind. Now, on the eve of my 80th birthday, a more relaxed, more creative and more grounded Jimmy Webb is announcing the release of these deserving songs that I have found, toiled over and then collaborated with an extraordinary group of people on, so we can finally share them with the world.”

Webb’s ompositions have traveled remarkably far beyond their original eras and genres and have been recorded by Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Barbra Streisand, Nina Simone, Isaac Hayes, Linda Ronstadt and Tony Bennett, as well as later-generation artists including R.E.M., Guns N’ Roses, Keith Urban and Flea. His work has even been sampled by ODESZA and Kendrick Lamar.

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