Glen Campbell - Hey Little One (1968)

Arriving on the heels of the twin blockbusters Gentle on My Mind and By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Hey, Little One retains the lush, cinematic scope of those hits while pushing the perimeters of Glen Campbell’s material quite far. Campbell may dabble in the mawkish melodrama of “The Impossible Dream,” but he also sings Bob Dylan’s “I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)” and tackles Bob Lind’s progressive pop standard “Elusive Butterfly,” while shoring up his country roots with Hank Cochran’s “That’s All That Matters.” The best fit for Campbell here is J.D. Loudermilk, whose “I Wanna Live” is turned into one of Campbell's gorgeous, dramatic epics and sees his ‘60s standard “Break My Mind” given a crisp reading. There are two other sweeping singles here -- a cover of Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over” and “Hey, Little One” -- that benefit from Campbell’s flair for the gorgeously grandiose, but this tendency toward huge arrangements winds up weighing down some of the lesser numbers, ultimately turning this album into something of a mixed bag. © Stephen Thomas Erlewine