[78-L] Second Fiddle To Nobody (Jean Shepard)

[Peter Schow]

On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 02:44:16PM -0400, Michael Biel wrote:
> 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?

According to an chapter by Robert Oermann and Mary Bufwack [1], Patsy 
Montana attributed the success of this song to:

 - emerging enthusiasm for Gene Autry films that drove cowboy popularity
 - the song's polka rhythm which made it popular with northern USA
   ethnic audiences
 - its dance spirit, which appealed to a country coming off Prohibition
   the year before.

Bufwack and Oermann claim this was a 1M seller in both this story and 
their "Finding Her Voice" book (2003) but offer no citation or reference.

[1] Patsty Montana and the Development of the Cowgirl Image, Oermann and
    Bufwack in "The Country Reader:  Twenty Five Years of the Journal
    of Country Music".  1996.