Country Pop Bites: Marty Robbins – December 21

Did you know that on this day in Country Music History in 1959 the Marty Robbins classic "El Paso" took the top spot on the Billboard country chart?

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Here are 5 interesting facts about Marty Robbins.

• Martin David Robinson was born on September 26, 1925 in the desert town of Glendale, Arizona. He was one of nine children.
• His father was an amateur harmonica player, but it was the boy's grandfather, a traveling salesman and first-rate storyteller of old Western tales, who had the greatest influence on Robbins' musical development.
• As a boy, he was inspired by Western movies; he was especially taken with Gene Autry, the original "Singing Cowboy." Robbins would work out in the cotton fields before school in order to save up money to see each new Autry film.
• When he enlisted in the United States Navy in 1943 and was deployed to the Pacific Theater of World War II, it was his first time traveling beyond the borders of Arizona.
• He started out singing with local bands in bars and nightclubs around the Phoenix area. At the same time, he worked construction jobs; one day, while driving a brick truck, he heard a country singer featured on the local radio station KPHO and, convinced that he could do better, drove right down to the station and earned a place on the show.