The credits for Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter” album are finally trickling in, and we’re learning the secret sauce: real songs.

The real songs are by Paul McCartney, Dolly Parton, Chuck Berry, Brian Wilson, Linda Martell, Willie Nelson. The anchors of the album are all solid songs from the past that Beyonce reinterprets so well. They show off her voice to its best.

But what about that opening track, “American Requiem”? I had skipped over it a bit because of all the track about “Blackbird” and “Jolene.” Buried in the credits for “American Requiem” is one name of the twelve songwriters that shows that the song is based on a classic from the 1960s.

Indeed, the music for “American Requiem” is a reworked version of Stephen Stills’ “For What It’s Worth.” That’s why is it’s so catchy. It has different lyrics, but the song would not be singable without the familiar melody Stills introduced 60 years ago with his band, Buffalo Springfield.

This is called an “interpolation” these days. I call it a cover with different words. Beyonce and Jay Z have slapped their names on it, along with Jon Batiste.

There’s no “American Requiem” without the original American requiem by Stills. That song crystallized the resistance to the Vietnam war among young people, and the fight for civil rights. It’s all in the key verse:

There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

Let’s hope Stills’s reps got the bulk of that publishing, in perpetuity.

Last year Oliver Anthony was the overnight sensation of all time. An unsigned singer whose political bent was to the right, Anthony had a massive hit with a song called “Rich Men North of Richmond.”

A bunch of his tracks hit iTunes, and they were all over the top 100.

Anthony resisted a major record contract. The result is that today he dropped his first album, called “Hymnal of a Troubled Man’s Mind,” with no notice. In the middle of Beyonce Weekend. “Hymnal” debuted at number 4 on iTunes today.

Will the album or any of its tracks equal last year’s crazy popularity? The 38 minute collection contains Bible passages between the songs. Most of the songs have already been available. As far as individual tracks go, none of them have hit iTunes. Only “Rich Men,” which isn’t on the album, is in at number 94.

Good luck to Oliver. This may be his first, and last, album.

Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter” album will be a blockbuster smash this week.

On Friday alone, the country-fied album sold 130,000 copies including streaming. If that kept up for seven days, just think of the results.

Spotify says the album had 76 million streams on Friday. So the total above also includes Apple, Amazon, etc.

There are still no credits listed on Beyonce’s website, and nothing the Sony publicists can hand out. No one seems to know who wrote what beyond “Jolene” — by Dolly Parton — and “Blackbird” by the Beatles.

After I wrote that “Blackbird” was attributed to Lennon, McCartney, and Knowles Carter on Wikipedia, the entry was changed back to Lennon-McCartney only.

“Blackbird” was never a single from the 1968 Beatles “White Album.” It’s always been an album track. So its presence at number 4 on iTunes is pretty swell. Right now, Beyonce has the top 4 tracks on iTunes and a dozen or more titles scattered through the top 100.

One track I really like is “Protector,” sung with Beyonce’s daughter, Rumi. I hope we can credits and lyrics this week on that one and all the others.

Everyone is praising how this album has changed everything for Black country artists. But you do know Charley Pride was a superstar. And I told you about the album, “Rhythm, Country and Blues.” Has everyone forgotten Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road”? It caused quite a commotion when it was released.

Short memories help sales!