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I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart

1935 Song by Patsy Montana

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ1655293 ↗
Source-derived summary

"I Wanna Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" is a country and western song written in 1934 and first recorded in 1935 by Ruby Blevins, who performed as Patsy Montana. It was the first country song by a female artist to sell more than one million copies.

Background and release

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.

Reception

Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time. 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.

Cover versions

"I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" has been recorded by, among others,

Rosalie Allen, in a 1940s yodeling version,

Patti Page (as a single)

Suzy Bogguss (on her 1989 album Somewhere Between).

Editorial summary

“I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart” enters the record as 1935 Song by Patsy Montana. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Want, Cowboy's and Sweetheart can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1934, 1935, 2012, 1989—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1934. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Want, Cowboy's and Sweetheart.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Want, Cowboy's and Sweetheart provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1655293. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1934, 1935, 2012 and 1989.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart primary sources, I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart archive and Want research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.