| I Wanna Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart | |
| Cover: | patsy-prairie ramblers.jpg |
| B-Side: | Ridin' Old Paint |
| Written: | 1934 |
| Published: | 1935 Bob Miller, Inc.[1] Universal - On Backstreet Music Inc. 1965 |
| Released: | November 1935 |
| Recorded: | August 16, 1935[2] |
| Studio: | ARC Studios, New York City |
| Genre: | Country (Hillbilly), Western |
| Label: | Melotone 51156 |
| Producer: | Art Satherley |
"I Wanna Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" is a country and western song written and first recorded in 1935 by Rubye Blevins, who performed as Patsy Montana. It was the first country song by a female artist to sell more than one million copies.[3]
Montana wrote the song in 1934 when she was feeling lonely and missing her boyfriend; it was recorded a year later when producer Art Satherley, of ARC Records, needed one more song at a Prairie Ramblers recording session. Montana was the group's soloist at the time. Her song is based on Stuart Hamblen's western song Texas Plains: he is therefore credited as a cowriter. Patsy Montana embellished the simpler musical pattern of the original, especially with her yodeling. Patsy also used a lot of the original words: the song is somewhat of a feminine answer to its precursor.
Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.[4] In 2012 her record was added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry list of "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important" American sound recordings.[5] [6]
"I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" has been recorded by, among others,