Song · Paula Cole
“Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?” by Paula Cole
From the album This Fire (1996)
“Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?” by Paula Cole appears on 9 radio countdowns from 5 stations between 1997 and 2026. It was first released in 1996 on the album This Fire. Its best result is #66 on the X103.9 Top 103.9 Songs of 1997. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #296 alternative song of 1997 and #3,670 alternative song of all time.
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"Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" was the lead single from This Fire, Paula Cole's second album, hitting radio in September 1996 before the physical single followed the next spring. Cole wrote it alone, and it's a doomed love story in miniature: the verses move from infatuation and discovery through a disillusioned bridge to outright despair, while the chorus keeps asking what happened to her fantasy of a lifetime beside a Western-style hero. It never leaves its minor key, and the ache never lets up.
It took her to number eight on the Billboard Hot 100, her only US top-ten hit, and to number seven in Canada, her first top ten there. Critics were on board too: it earned Grammy nominations for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 66 | X103.9 Riverside-San Bernardino, CA | X103.9 Top 103.9 Songs of 1997 | 104 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 234 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1999) | 500 |
| 1999 | 1590 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 2000 |
| 2000 | 1590 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000) | 2001 |
| 2001 | 1590 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) | 2002 |
| 2002 | 1582 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002) | 2003 |
| 2022 | 951 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2022 | 603 |
| 2025 | 386 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Mood Booster Songs | 800 |
| 2026 | 1091 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
Also listed as: Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?; Where Have All the Cowboys Gone.
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