Marty Robbins
Marty Robbins was an American country and Western singer-songwriter whose versatile, decades-long career spanned cowboy ballads, Hawaiian-flavored pop, and rock-and-roll. His 1959 narrative ballad “El Paso” became a signature of the Western genre, and he was an avid NASCAR driver in his off-hours.
Assisted by AI.
Spot something off? Help us fix it.
- Born Martin David Robinson on September 26, 1925, in Glendale, Arizona; died December 8, 1982, in Nashville.
- Released Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs (1959, Columbia), his highest-charting album.
- “El Paso” (1959) topped both the pop and country charts and won the first Grammy for Best Country & Western Recording.
- Won a second Grammy in 1970 for “My Woman, My Woman, My Wife.”
- Named Artist of the Decade for the 1960s by the Academy of Country Music.
- Competed in dozens of NASCAR Cup Series races, his final one about a month before his death.
- Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in October 1982, weeks before he died.
