MARTY ROBBINS, WEBB PIERCE, AND CARL SMITH IN BUFFALO GUN
Marty narrates this 1956 movie, beginning with, “That there’s Webb Pierce, and that’s Carl Smith, and that’s me, Marty Robbins. Sure can’t figure out why but we’re all in–” and the Jordanaires start singing “Buffalo Gun.” At the end of the song, narrator Marty says, “This story begins in 1875.  Me and Smith and Webb Pierce are on this cattle drive . . . .”  Webb is a government agent who deputizes Carl and Marty to help him find stolen buffalo guns. To show the level of authenticity, I’ll just give one example. Carl fights an Indian who runs off with his horse. Webb rides up, dismounts, and says, “Things like this just don’t happen in Nashville.” Read the rest of this entry »

MARTY ROBBINS AND RICHARD CHILDRESS
I sometimes describe biography writing as fitting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. For me, it’s pure excitement whenever a piece snaps into place. I experienced the feeling recently when working on the chapter about Marty’s 1974 NASCAR races. I had just described his career-high fifth place finish at Michigan and was writing about Charlotte, where he slammed into a concrete retaining wall to avoid broadsiding the driver’s side of Richard Childress’s car. Imagine my thrill when I came across a magazine article that quoted Childress, who finished sixth at Michigan, as saying there, “Marty Robbins is one man I don’t mind trusting my life to at one hundred eighty mph.” I dropped the quote into my manuscript and started the Charlotte paragraph by saying, “And that’s exactly what happened four months later.” Richard told me in an interview, “Marty turns right and goes into the wall instead of hitting me.” Who knows–if Marty hadn’t chosen to take the wall, there might not have been a NASCAR champion named Dale Earnhardt. Read the rest of this entry »

THE CHRISTMAS ALBUMS OF FARON YOUNG AND MARTY ROBBINS

Faron Young recorded an album of Christmas songs in 1979 for television sales. I couldn’t find a photo of the cover of A Christmas Card From Faron, perhaps because it was recorded for a private label and is rare. The album was reissued twice, as Silver Bells in 1988 and by Step One Records as Country Christmas in 1990. Faron’s secretary remembers him having trouble singing “Happy Birthday Jesus” in the recording studio. When she teased him about saying birsday instead of birthday, he snapped, “Well, you have your tongue half cut off, and see how you say birthday.”
Marty Robbins recorded Christmas With Marty Robbins in 1967. That summer he’d told Jeannie Pruett, who was one of his writers at the time, that he needed “a couple of good Christmas songs.” Read the rest of this entry »

This week marks the anniversary of when we lost Faron Young and Marty Robbins. Marty died of a heart attack on December 8, 1982, at age 57, and Faron died of a self-inflicted bullet wound on December 10, 1996, at age 64. Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story was published in 2007 by the University of Illinois Press, and the publication goal for Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins is 2012. Read the rest of this entry »

“EL PASO” IS FIFTY YEARS OLD
For the past two months I’ve been working on Marty Robbins chapters that talk about “El Paso” and the gunfighter ballads. Then one day I was shocked to realize this was FIFTY years go. I’m always a decade behind, and I’d thought it was forty years. Ranger Doug Green told me the Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs album is “part of Cowboy 101. It’s a must listen” for anyone who sings western music. My Internet searches often turn up references to this song and this album. How many others are routinely talked about fifty years after their release? 1959 closed with “El Paso” sitting in the number one spot nationwide on both pop and country charts. Three weeks before his death, Marty was asked how many times he’d sung “El Paso,” and he said, “Tell me how many personal appearances I’ve made since 1959, and then I will know.” Read the rest of this entry »

MARTY ROBBINS WRITING “TWO LITTLE BOYS”
I just finished the section of Marty’s biography where Hawkshaw Hawkins was killed in the plane crash with Patsy Cline in 1963, and I thought newsletter readers would enjoy the story of Marty writing a song in Hawk’s memory. Hawkshaw and his wife, Jean Shepard, had named their first son Don Robin, in honor of their friends Don Gibson and Marty Robbins. Their second son was born shortly after the plane crash, and Marty told Jean he wanted to write a song for her. “Marty, you can’t write a song for me,” she said, “because you don’t know how I feel.” He asked, “Can I try?” She consented. When he presented her with “Two Little Boys,” she realized it was a great song. Read the rest of this entry »

This periodic newsletter commemorates the lives of Faron Young and Marty Robbins. Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story was published in 2007 by the University of Illinois Press, and the publication goal for Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins is 2012. I’ve just finished writing chapter twelve and have reached the end of 1961 in Marty’s life.

MARTY ROBBINS IN THE COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME
Twenty-seven years ago this week, Marty Robbins was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, less than two months before his death. Marty said, “I don’t believe I deserve it yet, because there’s three other people I think who deserve it before I get it. One is Little Jimmy Dickens. The other is Webb Piece, and one is Carl Smith. Read the rest of this entry »

THE BIRTH OF MARTIN DAVID ROBINSON
“Born in the heat of the desert….” Eighty-four years ago this past Saturday night, twins Martin and Mamie were born in a shack (erected by their father and pregnant mother) in the desert north of Glendale, Arizona. Their older sister, Lillie, told the story this way: “One morning Grandma awakened the kids and told them there was a surprise in Mamma’s room, which was also the front room. When they went into the room, Mamma was still in bed, which was unusual. On a cot in the room were two tiny babies, each with a fist in its mouth. Grandma said the Doctor had come during the night and brought them two little twin babies. Lillie asked who was the boy and when Grandma proudly pointed, Lillie covered its face with the blanket. Read the rest of this entry »

MORE ON “SINGING THE BLUES”
Billboard once tracked three charts–store sales, jukebox plays, and radio plays–for each type of music. A compilation of January-February 1957 charts showed “Singing the Blues” at the top.  “Top Country and Western Records” listed Marty’s record in two number one slots and one number two slot. “Top Popular Records” did the same for Guy Mitchell’s version. And the other song at the top of both charts? “Young Love” by Sonny James. His country recording topped one country chart and one pop chart, and it held three of the number two slots. The pop version of “Young Love,” sung by Tab Hunter, was in the top ten of all three pop charts. Read the rest of this entry »