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After months of research, I am getting ready to revise the 1943 year in Country music. As some may know, the first Folk-Hillbilly chart was published by Billboard in the Jan 8 1944 issue. But Billboard had been collecting reports nationwide going back to at least 1942, and publishing the information weekly or semi-weekly. I started out trying to repair the beginning of the 1944 chart. which I can easily do now, but I was surprised to find much more information on popular juke box records, with detailed descriptions of their surveys. It is by no means a rock-solid account, but after collecting the results in spreadsheet charts, I have a very useful list, all linked to published references. I have all the pages from "The Billboard" I am basing this on if anybody is interested. If my information is not useful here, I won't mind, I started out doing this for myself, and thought I could improve our pages. Thanks Dave Tillywilly17 ( talk) 17:19, 17 June 2021 (UTC)
1943 FOLK-HILLBILLY INFO
1943 was dominated by the
Musician's Strike, which since August 1942, had prevented the recording of commercial music by the record companies. As the strike dragged on, the labels began releasing material from their artists' back catalogues, until by mid-1943, that ran out too. Fortunately for Okeh records, they released Al Dexter's "Pistol Packin' Mama" (PPM), backed by "Rosalita", in April. It caught fire quickly, thanks to reports in Billboard magazine, and the nation's jukeboxes, which had run out of fresh material to play. Another double-sided hit for Okeh, "No Letter Today" / "Born To Lose", by Ted Dafan's Texans, ran second with PPM for the rest of 1943 into 1944. Although Billboard did not publish it's first Folk-Hillbilly chart until January 8, 1944, PPM became the first "Hillbilly" record to reach no. 1 on the U.S. Popular sales chart, on October 30, 1943, on it's way to selling 2 million copies. In Billboard's 1943 Yearbook, released in September, PPM by Dexter was the only hillbilly record to join Glen Miller and Tommy Dorsey in the best-selling record list.
Top vocalist Bing Crosby, always a major fan of "hillbilly" music, was finally able to record a cover version with the Andrews Sisters on September 27, when his label, Decca, became the first to settle with the union. The single, released October 21, followed Dexter's to the top, revitalizing popularity and sales into 1944.
I will post my references in here soon. The pages for PPM and Al Dexter should all be updated to give him proper credit, just read the reports. I won't make changes until all the references
are listed here, and anybody is welcome to work on it. These are not my pages. I will give you guys links to my scans.
Most of the information is from 'The Billboard', which has been around for almost 80 years. I have additional content for 1939-1942. I am sure some of you have seen it, but it is under-utilized imho Also this might not be best page for PPM info, based on the project info. Please advise.
I have many references but how can I apply to page XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
American Folk Records" column The Billboard
Billboard 1943-01-09 pg 63 Billboard 1943-01-16 pg 59 Billboard 1943-01-30 pg 62 Billboard 1943-02-06 pg 64 Billboard 1943-02-13 pg 63
Billboard 1943-02-20 pg 65 Billboard 1943-03-27 pg 63-64 Billboard 1943-04-17 pg 62 Billboard 1943-05-22 pg 64, 66 Billboard 1943-06-12 pg 64, 66 Billboard 1943-06-19 pg 64-66 Billboard 1943-07-03 pg 62, 65 Billboard 1943-07-31 pg 93 Billboard 1943-08-07 pg 65 Billboard 1943-08-21 pg 66 Billboard 1943-09-04 pg 64-65 Billboard 1943-09-11 pg 63 Billboard 1943-09-25 pg 68 Billboard 1943-10-02 pg 65, 68 Billboard 1943-10-09 pg 65 Billboard 1943-10-16 pg 65 Billboard 1943-11-06 pg 67 Billboard 1943-11-13 pg 66 Billboard 1943-12-04 pg 63 Billboard 1943-12-18 pg 63 Billboard 1943-12-25 pg 83
Tillywilly17 ( talk) 12:40, 12 July 2021 (UTC)