In 1975, Cher performed it live during her The Cher Show. "Rhinestone Cowboy" has been covered by artists including Thom Yorke and Radiohead, Troy Cassar-Daley and Adam Harvey, Soul Asylum, Belle and Sebastian, Lloyd Green, Charley Pride, Chris LeDoux, Loretta Lynn and White Town.
( December 2014) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This section needs additional citations for verification. It also obtained nominations for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male, as well as for Record of the Year, but did not win. 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. "Rhinestone Cowboy" was certified gold for sales of 1 million units by the Recording Industry Association of America. Glen Campbell recorded a new version of the song in 2013 on his final studio album titled See You There. West Germany ( Official German Charts) Īll-time charts Chart (1958-2018) US Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
As of August 2017, there has been 368,000 downloads of the song had sold in the digital era in the United States. 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.Īfter Glen Campbell died in August 2017, "Rhinestone Cowboy" charted in Country Digital Song chart at No.
Thomas, " Thank God I'm a Country Boy" and " I'm Sorry"/" Calypso," both by John Denver, and " Convoy" by C. 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. "Rhinestone Cowboy" was one of six songs released in 1975 that topped both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Country Singles charts. This was the first time a song had accomplished the feat since November 1961, when " Big Bad John" by Jimmy Dean did so. 1 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. It also topped the charts in Canada and several other countries.ĭuring the week of September 13 – the week the song returned to No. 1 by season's end – three nonconsecutive weeks on the country chart, two weeks on the Hot 100. The song spent that summer climbing both the Billboard Hot Country Singles and Billboard Hot 100 charts before peaking at No. Released in May 1975, "Rhinestone Cowboy" immediately caught on with both country and pop audiences. but is still surviving, and someday, he'll shine just like a rhinestone cowboy." Chart performance As Stephen 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 . 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. 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". In late 1974, Campbell heard the song on the radio and, during a tour of Australia, decided to learn it. It did not, however, have much of a commercial impact as a single, although peaked at number 71 in Australia in August 1974. Weiss wrote and recorded "Rhinestone Cowboy" in 1974, and it appeared on his 20th Century Records album Black and Blue Suite.