[78-L] Patsy Montana's "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" (was Second Fiddle)

[Cary Ginell]

It's not such a far-fetched idea when you consider that "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" was released on eight different labels (Vocalion, OKeh, Melotone, Perfect, Conqueror, Romeo, Oriole, and Banner), not including a post-war Columbia reissue, thus making it available in a variety of nationwide department store chains. The million-selling status also does not necessarily indicate that all copies of the record were sold in 1936 (it wasn't released until January of that year, not in August 1935 when it was recorded) or even during the entire decade of the 1930s. Cumulatively, including the various reissues of the record, it is highly plausible that the record reached million-selling status after a period of time, maybe ten years or more. You have to remember that this was a very popular record that crossed over into pop music circles as well. Although Whitburn's spurious "charts" shows it spending four weeks at Number 10, there had to have been evidence that it was selling well amongst other pop music artists to have triggered any kind of sales reporting during this period. 

Cary Ginell

> Date: Fri, 20 May 2011 14:44:16 -0400
> From: mbiel at mbiel.com
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Second Fiddle To Nobody (Jean Shepard)
> 
> Oh come on, Cary.  A million copies of a record in 1935?  And a country 
> record at that.  I know sales were picking up since the low point in 
> 1933, but what reliable contemporary sources do you have that can claim 
> this?
> 
> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
> 
> On 5/20/2011 9:44 AM, Cary Ginell wrote:
> > The Nashville publicity machine is at it again, trying to rewrite
> > history. This time, it's the ridiculous claim that Jean Shepard&
> > Ferlin Husky's 1953 "A Dear John Letter" was the first country music
> > record by a female to sell a million copies. Horse hockey! Patsy Montana
> >   did it with "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" in 1935, nearly 20
> > years before. Somebody tell these people that there were other country
> > artists NOT associated with the Grand Ole Opry.
> >
> >
> >
> > Cary Ginell
> >
> >
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576321802128662500.html
> >>
> >   	
> 
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