Born Martin David Robinson, Marty Robbins was one of ten children.  He left home at 17 to join the Army and served as an LCT coxswain during World War II, stationed in the Pacific.  It was during this time that Robbins learned to play the guitar and started writing songs.

Marty Robbins

I didn't choose a word or anything. I just wrote the song until it stopped.

The Beginning

Born Martin David Robinson, Marty Robbins was one of ten children.  He left home at 17 to join the Army and served as an LCT coxswain during World War II, stationed in the Pacific.  It was during this time that Robbins learned to play the guitar and started writing songs.  Upon his return home to Phoenix, he performed in local venues and hosted his own radio show.  When country singer Little Jimmy Dickens was a guest on his show, he helped Robbins get a record deal with Columbia Records.  

Robbins released two singles in 1952 that went unnoticed, but his third single, I'll Go On Alone,was a huge hit that went straight to #1 on the Billboard country charts.  He became a member of the Grand Ole Opry and moved his family to Nashville.  During the 1950s, Robbins recorded the albums, Rock 'N Rollin Robbins, The Song of Robbins, The Song of the Islands, and Marty Robbins.  While none of these albums were particularly outstanding in sales, the greatest hits album released in 1959 certified gold.

Life as a Country Star

Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs was released in 1959, and the album went to #6 on the country charts.  The album included the #1 hit, El Paso.  In 1960, he released the follow-up, More Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs which offered the #5 hit, Big Iron.  From 1960 through 1983, Marty Robbins released at least one album every year; some years he released two or three.  Over the course of his career, Robbins released forty-seven albums and thirteen compilation albums.  He had ninety-seven singles, thirteen of which went to #1.  

Throughout Robbins' extensive career, he won a number of awards.  In he won a Grammy Award for El Paso.  The album, More Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs won the Best Country song in 1970; also in 1970, he was named Artist of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music.  Robbins was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1975, and was granted a star on the the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Life Outside of Music

Next to country music, Robbins' second passion was car racing.   He competed in thirty-five NASCAR races with ten top-ten finishes, including the 1973 Daytona 500.  He was the driver of the Buick Century pace car for the sixtieth Indianapolis 500.

Robbins suffered the first of three heart attacks in 1963.  Despite doctor's orders, he refused to live the quiet life they prescribed.  He continued to tour, perform, and race.  He continued to record through the 1970s and early 1980s until his death in 1982.

Did you know . . .

1. Columbia Records gave Marty Robbins twenty songs from which to choose his first four recordings.  He chose to record four of his own songs, which offended the representative at Columbia so much that the recording almost did not happen.

2. Robbins was the fifteenth person in medical history to have bypass surgery, and the first person in history to have a triple bypass.

3. In the early years at the Opry, when the crowd did not cheer as much as Robbins wanted, he would cheer for himself.

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