[1] Webb has written numerous platinum-selling songs, including "Up, Up and Away", "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "MacArthur Park", "Wichita Lineman", "Worst That Could Happen", "Galveston" and "All I Know".

[2] He had successful collaborations with Glen Campbell, Michael Feinstein, Linda Ronstadt, the 5th Dimension, the Supremes, Art Garfunkel and Richard Harris.

He grew up in a religiously conservative family;[5] His father, Robert Lee Webb, was a Baptist minister and veteran of the United States Marine Corps who presided over rural churches in southwestern Oklahoma and west Texas.

[6] During the late 1950s, Webb began applying his creativity to the music he was playing at his father's church, frequently improvising and rearranging the hymns.

Webb decided to stay in California to continue his music studies and to pursue a career as a songwriter in Los Angeles.

The following year, Webb met singer and producer Johnny Rivers, who signed him to a publishing deal and recorded his song "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" on his 1966 album Changes.

Webb contributed five songs to their debut album, Up, Up and Away, including the title track, which was released as a single in May 1967 and reached the Top Ten.

The group's follow-up album, The Magic Garden, was also released in 1967 and featured eleven additional Webb songs, including "Worst That Could Happen".

In 1968, Time acknowledged Webb's range, proficiency, and "gift for strong, varied rhythms, inventive structures, and rich, sometimes surprising harmonies".

[4] That year, the string of successful Webb songs continued with the 5th Dimension's "Paper Cup" and "Carpet Man" reaching the Top 40, Glen Campbell's "Wichita Lineman" selling over a million copies, and Johnny Maestro & the Brooklyn Bridge scoring a gold record with "Worst That Could Happen", a song originally recorded by the 5th Dimension.

He started work on a semi-autobiographical Broadway musical called His Own Dark City, which reflected the emotional displacement he felt at the time.

[13] Beginning in 1970, Webb released six original albums of his own songs: Words and Music (1970), And So: On (1971), Letters (1972), Land's End (1974), El Mirage (1977), and Angel Heart (1982).

Rolling Stone declared the album "another impressive step in the conspiracy to recover his identity from the housewives of America and rightfully install him at the forefront of contemporary composers/performers."

[14] Also in 1971, the Three Degrees are featured in the movie The French Connection giving a rendition of Webb's song "Everybody Gets To Go To The Moon", originally recorded in 1969 by Thelma Houston.

Unlike his previous albums, which tended to be underproduced, Webb was able to achieve a more heavily produced pop/rock sound on Land's End, which was recorded in England with the help of an all-star session band that included Joni Mitchell, Ringo Starr, and Nigel Olsson.

[17] William Ruhlmann observed, "These were lush tracks full of tasty playing and warm string charts on which Webb's thin tenor was buoyed by numerous background vocalists, the whole an excellent example of the style known as 'West Coast pop'.

"[17] The album contains several strong compositions, including "The Highwayman", which would later become a number one country hit for Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson, who named their super group The Highwaymen after the song.

Like its predecessor, the album drew upon the talents of top Los Angeles session musicians to produce a classic West Coast pop sound, enhanced by guest vocal harmonies by Gerry Beckley, Michael McDonald, Graham Nash, Kenny Loggins, Daryl Hall, and Stephen Bishop.

Apart from "Scissors Cut" and "In Cars", which were previously recorded by Art Garfunkel, the album offered few high points, despite its polished production.

In 1978, Donna Summer's disco version of "MacArthur Park" became a multi-million selling vinyl single that was number one on the American pop music charts for three weeks.

The album included the title song, as well as "Lightning in a Bottle", "If These Walls Could Speak" (which was also recorded by Amy Grant that year) and "Our Movie".

Since 1993, Webb has produced five critically acclaimed solo albums: Suspending Disbelief (1993), Ten Easy Pieces (1996), Twilight of the Renegades (2005), Just Across the River (2010), and Still Within the Sound of My Voice (2013).

Webb appears in the 2008 documentary The Wrecking Crew providing thoughtful and descriptive insights into the world of California session musicians in the 1960s.

In June 2010, Webb released Just Across the River, an album of newly arranged Webb songs that featured guest appearances by Vince Gill, Billy Joel, Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Jackson Browne, Glen Campbell, Michael McDonald, Mark Knopfler, JD Souther, and Linda Ronstadt.

In 2011, Webb was unanimously elected chairman of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, replacing Hal David who retired after ten years in the position.

[22] In May 2012, Webb traveled to London to receive the Ivor Novello Special International Award, which recognizes non-British writers and composers who have made an extraordinary contribution to the global musical landscape.

The album and its accompanying DVD were filmed and recorded in December 1988 at the Hamilton, Ontario, studios of CHCH-TV as part of the Canadian concert series In Session.

Musicians who attended the wedding included Joe Cocker, Kenny Loggins, Joni Mitchell, Harry Nilsson, and Ike Turner, plus actors Beau Bridges, Lynda Carter, Andrew Prine, Jessica Walter, and Jack Warden.

[citation needed] Webb had close personal relationships with Glen Campbell and actor Richard Harris, both of whom had great success singing his songs.

"[43] In his memoir and in interviews with the press, Webb has been frank about his problems with substance abuse, which included frequent use of cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol.