El Paso (song)
| El Paso | |
|---|---|
| Marty Robbins | |
| publication | October 26, 1959 |
| length | 4:37 |
| Genre (s) | Tex-Mex , Country |
| Author (s) | Marty Robbins |
| Award (s) | Grammy, BMI Award |
| album | Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs |
El Paso is one of Marty Robbins written and sung Country - ballad from the year 1959. The in Tex-Mex song held style tells the story of a man who, after a Kneipenschießerei must flee and in the end finds death. The piece became a crossover hit and was awarded a Grammy .
History of origin
Country singer Marty Robbins had already conceived the piece in December 1957. He was inspired by the city of El Paso , Texas , through which he drove to his hometown of Glendale , Arizona , during the Christmas holidays between 1955 and 1957 . "The idea came to me while driving through the desert between El Paso and Phoenix, when the song developed like a movie story," he recalled. The composition was initially unpublished for more than a year.
On April 7, 1959, twelve tracks for the planned album Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs with Marty Robbins (vocals and guitar) and part of the Nashville A-Team were created in eight hours of recording time at Bradley Film & Recording Studios in Nashville under music producer Don Law as studio musicians , namely Grady Martin and Jack Pruett (guitar), Bob Moore (bass), Louis Dunn (drums) and the Glazer Brothers as choir accompanists. Guitarist Grady Martin, also arranger, presented a flamenco- like guitar game. The song, which sounds like mariachi and is based on a corrido, is about a man who duels because of the Mexican dancer Feleena in the saloon "Rosa's Cantina" in El Paso. At first there was no saloon of this name, it was only opened in 1961 at 3454 Doniphan Drive in the western foothills of El Paso. The protagonist shoots his rival, who is also in love with Feleena, and flees, but is killed himself on his remorseful return. The refrainless story song reflected the narrative art of a film drama with a touching story. The title El Paso was created in just three takes as part of the LP.
Publication and Success
The single El Paso / Running Gun ( Columbia Records 41511) was released in advance on October 26, 1959, the album came on the market in December 1959, reached number 6 on the LP charts and sold three million copies. The single El Paso , which hit the charts in November 1959 , sold over two million copies in just six months, and a total of five million copies. The song developed into an enormous crossover success, as it was number one in the country charts for seven weeks and number one in the pop charts for two weeks . The long single version has a playing time of 4:37 min, the edited radio version ("Special Radio Station Edition"; 2:58 min) omits the verse with the perpetrator's spontaneous remorse and allowed more frequent airplay on hit parade radio . In Great Britain the title reached number 19, in Germany to number 38 in the charts.
El Paso was the first country song to be awarded a Grammy in the category of "best male country song". Robbins also received the BMI Country Award 1960 and the BMI Pop Award 1960 for the song. The great success prompted the record label Columbia Records to re-release El Paso / A White Sport Coat (33013) on February 23, 1961. Country America magazine placed El In 1992 Paso ranked 6th among the "greatest country songs". The city of El Paso honored Marty Robbins and named an urban park and a recreation center after him. El Paso received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998. The title was ranked 338th in the Songs of the Century .
Cover versions
There are at least 21 cover versions . Vince Eager (January 1960 B-side of Why ), Bob Cort (January 1960) and Rikki Henderson (Feb 1960) brought first British sockets without charts effect out, Lolita and the Western trio brought El Paso with German text of Fini Busch on the Markt (EP Lolita ; May 1960; rank 15), followed by Lale Andersen (July 1960); The Brothers Four again brought the English version on the market (May 1963), Grady Martin presented an instrumental version (LP Instrumentally Yours ; October 2, 1963; published April 1965). Grateful Dead took over El Paso ten years after publication of the original on July 11, 1970 at the Fillmore East in their repertoire and often played it on tour. The Mills Brothers also covered El Paso in August 1992.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Diane Diekman, Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins , 2012, pp. 66f.
- ↑ Barbara J. Pruett, Marty Robbins: Fast Cars and Country Music , 2007, p. 111.
- ↑ https://www.discogs.com/de/Marty-Robbins-The-Drifter/release/3462152
- ↑ 'Rosa's Cantina': What is it Really the Inspiration for Marty Robbins' 'El Paso'? ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Newspaper-Tree, El Pasos Original Newspaper Source of January 29, 2014.
- ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 133
- ^ Roland Turner, The Annual Orbituary , 1982, p. 566.
- ^ Steve Sullivan, Encyclopedia of Popular Song Recordings , Volume 2, 2013, p. 214.
