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.