On This Date: “Wanted! The Outlaws” Becomes Country Music’s First Platinum Record

Waylon Jennings country music

On this day in 1976, a compilation record from some of the genre’s best became the first Country record to sell over a million copies.

Wanted! The Outlaws contained 11 songs, 7 previously released and 4 new songs, by a few of the finest artists in history.

And who were these artists? Oh, just Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter and Tompall Glaser…

The album was created after both Willie and Waylon went on the offensive and wrestled back creative control over their music and were proven to be correct by the explosive popularity of Outlaw Country albums like Red Headed Stranger, Honky Tonk Heroes and This Time. 

Surprisingly, it took this superstar project to finally give country music a Certified-Platinum record. Even though the genre had already produced iconic artists like Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, and Bill Anderson, none of them had been able to crack the elusive million in sales for a single record.

Many, many more albums would go on to sell well over this amount (Shania Twain’s Come On Over sold around 30 Million copies) but it took this collaboration to break the ceiling and open the door for more mainstream acceptance of the genre.

Waylon, Willie and Jessi… man, it must have been fun to be in that studio…

“My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys”

“A Good Hearted Woman”

“T For Texas”

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STAY ENTERTAINED

A RIFF ON WHAT COUNTRY IS REALLY ABOUT

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