Marty Robbins - The Essential

Pros

• "El Paso"
• "Big Iron"
• "Ribbon of Darkness"

Cons

• None.

Description

• Forty tracks on two CDs, all newly remastered with individual track information listed.
• Includes fifteen of Robbins' #1 hits.
• One of the very best of the Legacy "Essential" series.

Guide Review - Marty Robbins - The Essential

Marty Robbins has been all but forgotten these days by even country music scholars, yet there is little doubt that he was one of the finest vocalists ever to hit the country charts, and his influence stretched across every genre, from the classic pop hits "A White Sport Coat" and "The Story of My Life" to the original gunfighter ballads that sealed him forever as a country music legend, "Big Iron" and the remarkable "El Paso," a song which, despite being a long four-and-a-half minutes, topped both the country and pop charts in 1959.

Robbins proved himself as a tremendous songwriter as well as a remarkable singer, mixing his original compositions, "Carmen," "You Gave Me A Mountain," and "My Woman, My Woman, My Wife," with amazing covers, such as the Gordon Lightfoot "Ribbon of Darkness" and the Dean Martin chestnut, "Return To Me," which Marty took and changed from Italian to Spanish to salute his Southwestern roots.

Marty Robbins suffered a good part of his life from heart disease, a powerful coronary in 1969 leading to a then-risky triple bypass. He continued recording and singing for another decade before another series of heart attacks and surgeries led to his death on December 8, 1982. His final recording, the title song for Clint Eastwood's "Honkytonk Man," became his last Top Ten hit in 1983. Country, pop, calypso, and folk, Marty Robbins did it all. His remarkable legacy is indelibly captured on this collection, and an essential for any country music library.