It had been a long slide from the 1967 hit "Gentle On My Mind," the second most-played song in the world, and "Rhinestone Cowboy," the 1975 across-the-board No. 1 record, to the mostly unheard things he did in his last few years at Capitol Records and during a brief stint with Atlantic.

So, a year or so ago, Campbell decided to try to change things. First, he called his old buddy Jimmy Bowen, head of MCA Records' Nashville division, and got Bowen to sign him.

The album is his first for MCA, "Still Within The Sound Of My Voice." It's presently halfway up the country album charts, and Campbell's initial single from it, "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle," has been on the country single charts more than half of 1987.