Billy Joel may be one of most famous songwriters ever, but there’s one track in particular that he wishes he could take credit for.
On more than one occasion, Joel has expressed his admiration for the 1968 Glen Campbell track “Wichita Lineman,” which was penned by acclaimed songwriter Jimmy Webb — though the “Piano Man” wishes he was the mastermind behind the crossover country hit.
“It’s such a beautiful song,” Joel said in admiration of the track during an interview with Rick Beato in July, going on to describe “Wichita Lineman” as simply, “The perfect song.”
“To me that’s one of the best songs ever written,” he added of Webb’s melancholy storytelling masterpiece, which became a No. 1 hit on the country charts for Campbell.
The song has since gone down in history as one of the most beloved country songs ever recorded, earning a spot on Rolling Stone‘s roundup of the 200 Best Country Songs of All Time, where it’s ranked at No. 12.
“If I could write a song as good as ‘Wichita Lineman’, I’d be a very happy man,” Joel said in a separate interview with Bill Maher a year earlier, when he made an appearance on Maher’s Club Random podcast in July 2025.
“I tried. There’s a song called ‘Stop in Nevada,’ I was trying to write ‘Wichita Lineman’. I was thinking, ‘Midwestern guy climbing a telephone pole with the barren fields of Kansas. How do you evoke that? How do I write that?'”
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And Joel isn’t the only one who thinks “Wichita Lineman” has all the makings for a “perfect” song. Bob Dylan, who considers the Campbell track to be one of his favorites, once called it the “greatest song ever written,” according to American Songwriter.
“Wichita Lineman” was one of Campbell’s five No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs, along with “I Wanna Live,” “Galveston,” “Rhinestone Cowboy” and “Southern Nights” — the latter two of which also reached the top of the Hot 100 chart. “Wichita Lineman,” however, only peaked at No. 3 on the all-genre singles chart.
Related: 1981 Country Ballad, Reimagined by Chris Stapleton, Still Holds Up 45 Years Later
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