[78-L] RIAA: no help

[Cary Ginell]

With regard to the Patsy Montana inquiry, as I surmised, the rep who I talked to at the RIAA knows nothing about any record sales that occurred before they started their certification program in the 1950s. In fact, they don't even know anything other than what is reported to them by the record companies. It doesn't appear that they did any verification of sales figures given them by the record companies; they merely store them and then certify gold and/or platinum sales figures. As for Patsy Montana, naturally, they never heard of her but suggested I call RCA to find out if they have sales figures for her. When I told her that Patsy recorded for ARC, which became controlled by Columbia/Brunswick, that totally flummoxed her. She never heard of either record company. My explaining to her the lineage that resulted in Sony/BMG now owning the masters, that didn't help at all. She kept repeating her corporate mantra that "we are not aware of any sales reporting that occurred before our certification program began in the 1950s." I'm sure that if I tried calling Sony I'd reach an even deader end. As the big conglomerates merged, I'm sure that any knowledge of their own history went with it as well. 

Whether the information about "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" is true or not, the claim that the record was the first by a female country artist to sell a million copies had to have come from somewhere, so if anyone can trace this down, it would certainly prove interesting. All I know is that the claim has been around for at least 30 years. 

Cary Ginell