On 26 August 1975, Glen Campbell was spending his second week at number one on the US country chart with “Rhinestone Cowboy”, a song that revived his career and became his best-known recording. The song’s story of a struggling country singer seeking success resonated with Campbell after a difficult early 1970s, marked by the cancellation of his television show, a slowing acting career and weaker chart performance.

Campbell discovered the song while touring Australia, where Larry Weiss’s original version had been a minor hit, and bought Weiss’s album to learn it. On returning to the US, Campbell and Capitol Records executive Al Coury independently agreed it should be his next single; it subsequently topped the country, Billboard Hot 100 and adult contemporary charts, sold over one million copies, and reached number one in Canada, Ireland and Yugoslavia.