by Kurt Wolff
The term &outlaw& had been bandied about after Waylon Jennings' 1972 hit &Ladies Love Outlaws,& but it didn't permanently gel until the release of the album Wanted! The Outlaws in 1976. The songs in this packaged product weren't new -- the album contained previously released material by Jennings, Willie Nelson, Tompall Glaser, and Jennings' wife Jessi Colter (who had hit the charts a year earlier with &I'm Not Lisa&). But it marked the industry's recognition of the changing times, and as the center point of a campaign to publicize Nashville's new &progressive& breed, it worked like a charm. It quickly became the first country album to sell more than a million copies, and it boosted the careers of all involved.