easy." Hits Dalhart had a hit single with his 1924 recording of "The Wreck of the Old 97", a classic American ballad about the derailment of Fast Mail train No. 97 near Danville, Virginia, in 1903. Recorded for the Victor Talking Machine Company, the song alerted the national record companies to the existence of a sizable market for country-music vocals. It became the first Southern song to become a national success. With "The Prisoner's Song" as the b-side, the single eventually sold as many as seven million copies, a huge number for recording in the 1920s. It was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and was the biggest-selling, non-holiday record in the first 70 years of recorded music. Joel Whitburn, a statistician for Billboard magazine, determined that "The Prisoner's Song" was No. 1 hit for twelve weeks in 1925–26. One of the recordings most associated with Vernon Dalhart, especially in the United Kingdom, is his 1925 track "The Runaway Train" (Talking Machine Co., Camden, New Jersey, Victor 19685-A, Shellac). This was played on BBC Radio's 'Children's Favourites' between 1954 and 1982, and even now almost every compilation of children's records in the UK includes this timeless favourite. Wanting to repeat the success of the single, the Victor Company sent Ralph Peer to the southern mountains in 1927 to facilitate the Bristol Sessions. These sessions led to the discovery of singer Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, after which Peer's royalty model would become the standard of the music industry. Death Dalhart died in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on September 14, 1948. Discography Albums Awards and honors Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, 1970 Country Music Hall of Fame, 1981 Grammy Hall of Fame Award, "The Prisoner's Song", 1998 Gennett Records Walk of Fame, 2007 Songs of the Century, "The Prisoner's Song" Grammy Hall of Fame Award, "Wreck Of The Old 97", 2021 References External links Partial discography Vernon Dalhart, Victor Library Dalhart in the Country Music Hall of Fame Vernon Dalhart cylinder recordings, from the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library. Vernon Dalhart recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings. Vernon Dalhart: from opera to country recordings - by Jack Palmer on Thomas Edison's Attic radio program, WFMU, February 7, 2006. About The Artist, Vernon Dalhart, By Jack Palmer, from Hillbilly Music Dawt Com. 1883 births 1948 deaths American male