OK, so here's something interesting. I have a copy of the Robbins American Cowboy Songs: Enlarged Edition, 96 pages, undated, price 95 cents, with an address for Robbins Music Corporation at 1540 Broadway, New York 36, NY (so it's from back in the days before ZIP codes. A quick look through the book comes up with 1960 copyright renewals on some of the songs.
I have another book, American Cowboy Songs: Revised Edition, also 96 pages, undated, no price, with some songs with 1971 copyright renewals. The publisher of this book is The Big 3 Music Corporation, New York, NY (no address or postal zone). It's basically the same book, but lots of songs are different - the "Cowboy" song that glares out at me is "Leaving on a Jet Plane."

Here are the songs in this book:

All For The Love Of Sunshine
Along A Texas Trail

The Big Corral
Big Rock Candy Mountain
Billy Venero
Bouquet Of Roses
Buffalo Skinners
Burning Bridges

Cigareetes, Whusky And Wild, Wild Women
The County Jail
The Cowboy's Dream
The Cowboy's Lament

The Dreary Black Hills
The Dreary, Dreary Life
The Dying Ranger

Everybody's Talkin'

The Gal I Left Behind Me
Gentle On My Mind
The Ghost Of Jim Lane
Good Bye Old Paint

Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane
Hear The Wind Blow
High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)
Home On The Range

I Wish I Was Single
I'm An Old Cowhand
I've Been Workin' on The Railroad
Indian's Death Song

Jack O' Diamonds
Jesse James

Knock Three Times

Last Long Trail
The Last Waltz
Leanin' On The Ole Top Rail
Leaving on a Jet Plane
Lonesome Cowboy

My Love Is a Rider

Night Herding Song

The Old Chisholm Trail

The Quilting Party

Red River Valley
Release Me
The Rio Grande
Roll Along Prairie Moon
'Round Her Neck She Wears A Yeller Ribbon

Sam Bass
She'll Be Comin''Round the Mountain
Shoo Fly!
Snowbird
Sweet Betsy From Pike

Taller Than Trees
Ten Thousand Cattle
The Tenderfoot
That Lucky Old Sun
Today
The Trail To Mexico
Turkey In The Straw

Utah Carroll

The Wabash Cannon Ball
When It's Springtime In The Rockies
When I Was Young And Foolish
When The Moon Comes Over The Mountain
When The Work's All Done This Fall
Whoo-Pee Ti Yi Yo
Windy Bill

The Yellow Rose Of Texas

Zebra Dunn

Looks like most of the added songs are pop songs from the 1960's, not cowboy songs at all. And they replace legitimate cowboy songs, which is a shame [well, I suppose they replace Tin Pan Alley cowboy songs, but I like Tin Pan Alley cowboy songs]. I'd say the earlier book is far better. Who wants to find Engelbert Humperdinck's "Release Me" in a book of cowboy songs (actually, it's a 1954 song, popularized by Humperdinck in the 1960's)

So, did Big 3 buy out Robbins, or just this series of books?
Thanks for starting this thread, Bob.

-Joe-