[78-L] Patsy Montana's "Million Seller"

[Dan Van Landingham]

I've never heard about "Cowboy's Sweetheart" being a million seller.I was of the 
impression Glenn Miller's "Chattanuga Choo Choo" was the first million seller 
and that it was Miller who was pressented
with what was said to be the first Gold Record.I grew up listening to my mother 
sing and yodel "Cow-
boy's Sweetheart" as well as others such as Elton Britt's "Chime Bells" as well 
as the song "He Taught
Me to Yodel".I used to accompany her on guitar playing all of those tunes at 
various functions.She is 

now 81 and was quite good when  I accompanied her some 25 to 30 years ago.




________________________________
From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Tue, May 24, 2011 4:20:23 PM
Subject: Re: [78-L] Patsy Montana's "Million Seller"

When the legend becomes fact..

dl

On 5/24/2011 7:16 PM, Mark Bardenwerper wrote:
> On 5/24/2011 2:33, Cary Ginell wrote:
>> Got this from Jay Orr of the Country Music Hall of Fame:
>>
>> Regarding your Patsy Montana / Cowboy’s Sweetheart
>> question, I have this from our senior historian, John Rumble. He refers
>> to Robert K. Oermann and Mary Bufwack, authors of
>> Finding Her Voice: Women in Country Music. They make the
>> assertion that I Wanna Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart was “the first record by
>>    a woman in country music to pass the million mark in sales.”:
>>
>>
>> We have not referred to
>>    it as a million-seller, because sales of this magnitude seem
>> implausible during the midst of the Great Depression. I seem to remember
>>    seeing one source, possibly one of our interviews
>>    with Art Satherley, who stated that it sold in the hundreds of
>> thousands, but not 1 million. If Cary wants to contact Oermann and
>> Bufwack, they may have obtained hard data to back their claim. But I
>> don’t think so. I think the million-seller designation probably
>>    bent the truth for promotion purposes. I suppose it’s possible that
>> cumulative sales over a good many years reached 1 million, but to reach a
>>    million within a year or even two years just doesn’t ring true, to me.
>> I’ll check some of the Art Satherley interviews
>>    and see what I find, as this won’t take long and may turn up some
>> evidence. Of course, Uncle Art was reflecting after many decades, and
>> his memory might not be accurate.
>>
>>
>> Another thing to
>> consider is that the Carter Family—enormously popular and with the
>> support of 500,000-watt Border Radio, never sold that many copies of a
>> single. Considering that 30,000 to 40,000 was considered
>>    a decent, profit-making country sale in the prosperous late 1940s and
>> 1950s, I just find it hard to believe that “Cowboy’s Sweetheart” sold 1
>> million units.
>>
> So, in other words, the truth was a lie.
>

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