No artist in the history of country music has had a more stylistically
diverse career than Marty Robbins. Never content to remain just a country
singer, Marty performed successfully in a dazzling array of styles during
more than thirty years in the business. To his credit, Marty rarely
followed trends, but often took off in directions that stunned both his
peers and fans. Plainly Marty Robbins was not hemmed in by anyone's definition of
country music. Although his earliest recordings were definate weepers,
by the mid-'50s Marty was making forays into rock music, adding fiddles
to the works of Chuck Berry and Little Richard. By the late '50s, Marty
had pop hits of his own with teen fare like "A White Sport Coat (And a Pink
Carnation)." Almost simultaneously, he completed work on his Hawaiian Songs
of the Islands album. In 1959, Marty Robbins stretched even further with the hit
single "El Paso, " thus heralding a pattern of "gunfighter ballads" that
lasted the balance of his career. Marty also enjoyed bluesy hits like
"Don't Worry", which introduced a pop audience to fuzztone guitar in 1961.
Barely a year later, Marty scored a calypso hit with "Devil Woman." Marty
Robbins also left a legacy of gospel music and a string of sentimental
ballads, showing that he would croon with nary a touch of hillbilly twang.
[All-Music Guide].
|