“PISTOL PACKIN‘ MAMA” - AL DEXTER [1943]
"Pistol Packin' Mama" was a "Hillbilly"- Honky Tonk record released at the height of World War II, that became a nationwide sensation, and the first "Country" song to top the Billboard Popular music chart. It was written by Al Dexter, and recorded in Hollywood, California on March 20, 1942, with top session musicians Dick Roberts, Johnny Bond and Dick Reinhart.
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. 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 National Best Selling Retail Records chart, on October 30, 1943, and spent sixteen weeks in the top 10, on it's way to selling 3 million copies. It entered the Jukebox chart on July 31, 1943, where it stayed for 28 weeks (the last 14 shared with Bing Crosby version), another unheard of achievement for a "Hillbilly" tune. In Billboard's 1943 Yearbook, released in September, PPM by Dexter was the only hillbilly record to join Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey in the best-selling record list.
