Format CD, Maxi-Single, Vinyl Length 3:44 (Radio edit) | Recorded 1997 Label Columbia | |
Released 1997 (US, Australia, Austria, Netherlands), 1998 (Europe, UK) Genre Alternative rock, hip hop, R&B | ||
"Legend of a Cowgirl" is a song by American singer-songwriter and rapper Imani Coppola. The song reached its peak of No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 on the week ending October 25, 1997. Although radio airplay and sales were good, it was the elaborate music video that made the song a hit. Her next single, "I'm a Tree", only reached No. 98 on the US pop charts and was the only one after "Cowgirl" to chart, effectively making Coppola a one-hit wonder. VH1 ranked the song at number 21 on their list of "40 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the '90s."
Contents
Behind the scenes
Among the album's tracks, the song "Legend of a Cowgirl" became a hit on MTV. According to Coppola, the rap song, which includes a sample of Donovan's "Sunshine Superman", started as an idea she had for a movie about women who "love 'em and leave 'em and ride off into the sunset." Part of Coppola's marketing included a music video for "Legend of a Cowgirl" that received heavy rotation on MTV. "It was very uncomfortable 'cause we had no room and their penises and their bums are just flopping around," says Coppola. "It was like, 'Whoops, sorry. Didn't mean to touch you!' But they were all gay, so it didn't really matter. They were cute though. It was a shame."
Synopsis
The video starts with a waitress in a restaurant standing in front of a door with the camera panned toward the floor. A fried pancake falls onto the floor behind her, leaving it to the viewer's imagination as to where it came from. The camera pans sideways over to Imani in the same waitress uniform pressing the play button on a huge boom box, which starts playing the subject song, visibly bored. A series of daydream sequences follow.
The first dream shows Coppola as a biker chick, wearing a leopard-print tank top with a low back and leather bell-bottoms. She rides on a motorcycle in the middle of the desert with two cowboys. She spots a guy she finds attractive, who hitchhikes a ride. She gets off her bike and kisses him on the lips while the cowboys begin to dance, and eventually they all take off. She is woken up from this dream by an old lady smoking and blowing the cigarette smoke in her face.
She then stares at a design on the pinball machine, which has outer space and spacecraft artwork, and the second daydream begins. This sequence shows Coppolla in an alien-themed background wearing a shiny black catsuit with stiletto heels, sitting on a rotating circle of white carpet while surrounded by futuristic red architecture and a window in the middle of the back giving the a view of outer space. She begins singing until two men covered in silver paint wearing skimpy silver swim briefs pick her up. She then dances and sings the chorus on a platform while silver painted male background dancers dance around her, a large metallic silver curtain blowing upwards behind them creating a rippling effect. Like the first daydream, she is woken from sequence, this time by a fire in the kitchen behind her. In a quick move, she picks up a microphone and jumps on the table, singing the bridge while the cook behind her, mesmerized, starts playing the acoustic guitar while customers begin to stare.
The third and final scenario begins with Imani as a '70s diva in a black and gold dress, stiletto heels, and a huge afro. She performs the final verse and chorus with a band behind her in an orange and yellow background (which changes to black and blue and swiftly switches back) with her first name spelled out in lights. She wakes out of this daydream on her own, and begins playing the violin and dances on the countertop of the restaurant. At the end the music stops when the waitress from the beginning stops the music from the boom box, signaling Coppola to get back to work. Aggravated, she complies.