B-side "Lovelight" Format 7" Genre Country, pop | Released May 26, 1975 Recorded February–March 1975 Length 3:15 | |
"Rhinestone Cowboy" is a song written by Larry Weiss and most famously recorded by American country music singer Glen Campbell with instrumental backing by the Wrecking Crew, L.A. session musicians. The song enjoyed immense popularity with both country and pop audiences when it was released in 1975.
Contents
Background and writing
Weiss wrote and recorded "Rhinestone Cowboy" in 1974, and it appeared on his 20th Century Records album Black and Blue Suite. It did not, however, have much of a commercial impact as a single. In late 1974, Campbell heard the song on the radio, and during a tour of Australia, decided to learn the song. Soon after his return to the United States, Campbell went to Al Coury's office at Capitol Records, where he was approached about "a great new song" — "Rhinestone Cowboy".
Several music writers noted that Campbell identified with the subject matter of "Rhinestone Cowboy" — survival and making it, particularly when the chips are down — very strongly. As Steven Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic put it, the song is about a veteran artist "who's aware that he's more than paid his dues during his career ... but is still surviving, and someday, he'll shine just like a rhinestone cowboy."
Chart performance
Released in May 1975, "Rhinestone Cowboy" immediately caught on with both country and pop audiences. The song spent that summer climbing both the Billboard Hot Country Singles and Billboard Hot 100 charts before peaking at number one by season's end - three nonconsecutive weeks on the country chart, two weeks on the Hot 100. Billboard ranked it as the number-two for 1975.
During the week of September 13 — the week the song returned to number one on the Billboard country chart, after having been nudged out for a week by "Feelins'" by Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn — "Rhinestone Cowboy" topped both the country and Hot 100 charts simultaneously. This was the first time a song had accomplished the feat since November 1961, when "Big Bad John" by Jimmy Dean did so.
"Rhinestone Cowboy" was one of six songs released in 1975 that topped both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Country Singles charts. The other songs were "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" by Freddy Fender, "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" by B.J. Thomas, "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" and "I'm Sorry"/"Calypso," both by John Denver, and "Convoy" by C.W. McCall.
The song was also the sole Glen Campbell track in a promotional-only compilation album issued by Capitol records titled The Greatest Music Ever Sold (Capitol SPRO-8511/8512), that was distributed to record stores during the 1976 holiday season as part of Capitol's "Greatest Music Ever Sold" campaign, which promoted 15 "Best Of" albums released by the record label.
Re-recorded Version
Glen Campbell recorded a new version of the song in 2013 on his final studio album titled, See You There.
Awards
"Rhinestone Cowboy" was certified gold for sales of 1 million units by the Recording Industry Association of America.
The song became one of Glen Campbell's signature songs and won numerous awards from the Country Music Association, Academy of Country Music, and American Music Awards. It also obtained nominations for a Grammy Award for Best Country Song as well as for Record of the Year, but did not win.
Use in films
"Rhinestone Cowboy" served as the basis for the 1984 movie Rhinestone, starring Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton.
The song also continues to be heard in movies and television, making the soundtracks of High School High and Daddy Day Care, as well as being used in an episode of "Desperate Housewives", "The Jamie Foxx Show", and "Red Oaks".
A few lines of the song were also sung by the vicar in an episode of Keeping up Appearances who was in good spirits because he had not been hassled by Hyacinth Bucket for a week.
Notable cover versions
"Rhinestone Cowboy" has been covered by Thom Yorke and Radiohead, Soul Asylum, Belle and Sebastian, Lloyd Green, Charley Pride, Loretta Lynn, White Town, David Hasselhoff, DJ Z-Trip & DJ P, Daz Sampson, and Chris Ledoux.
Belgian singer Claire recorded the song in 1975 as "Vreemde Vogels" ("Strange Birds") and had a substantial hit with her version in Flanders. She charted in July already, Glen Campbell just in October.
Slim Whitman covered the song in 1976 on his Red River Valley album.
Johnny Carson performed a comedic cover version to open the March 4, 1976 broadcast of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, one of the few occasions in which he was not introduced with Ed McMahon's "Heeere's Johnny!" catchphrase. The episode was released on DVD in 2016 along with other episodes from that particular week, with Carson referencing his preparations for the performance and Doc Severinson and the NBC Orchestra performing instrumental versions of the song each night. After his performance, Carson announced that songwriter Larry Weiss was in the audience, a fact he claimed to be unaware of when he sang it a few minutes earlier.
Renée Martel, a singer from Quebec, has made a French cover "Cowgirl Dorée" (lyrics by Robert Charlebois), as did French singer Michèle Torr ("Je M'appelle Michèle").
John Barrowman has made a cover version that he has sung during his UK concert tour.
Guns N' Roses performed the song live at the Tokyo Dome in Japan on December, 19, 2009.
Filipino singer/songwriter Fred Panopio recorded a Filipino novelty version titled "Kawawang Cowboy" ("Pitiful Cowboy").
"Tony Clifton" prominently featured the song in his national tour of "The Return of Tony Clifton", backed by his Katrina Kiss My Ass Orchestra.
South African singer Ray Dylan covered it on his album "Goeie Ou Country - Vol.3".
Micah Small & the Thrillbilly Band are recording and are scheduled to release their version of the song in 2015. It will be a single from their album "Falling Cow Zone" slated for release in September 2015.