| "El Paso" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:El_Paso_by_Marty_Robbins_single_cover.jpg) El Paso by Marty Robbins | ||||
| Single by Marty Robbins | ||||
| from the album Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs | ||||
| B-side | "Running Gun" | |||
| Released | October 26, 1959[1] | |||
| Recorded | April 7, 1959 | |||
| Studio | Bradley Studios, Nashville, Tennessee | |||
| Genre | Country, Tex-Mex | |||
| Length | 4:38 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Marty Robbins | |||
| Producer(s) | Don Law | |||
| Marty Robbins singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"El Paso" is a western ballad written and originally recorded by Marty Robbins, and first released on Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs in September 1959. It was released as a single the following month, and became a major hit on both the country and pop music charts, becoming the first No. 1 hit of the 1960s on both. It won the Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording in 1961. It is widely considered a genre classic for its gripping narrative which ends in the death of its protagonist, its shift from past to present tense, haunting harmonies by vocalists Bobby Sykes and Jim Glaser (of the Glaser Brothers) and the eloquent and varied Spanish guitar accompaniment by Grady Martin that lends the recording a distinctive Tex-Mex feel. The name of the character Feleena[2] was based upon a schoolmate of Robbins in the fifth grade, Fidelina Martinez.[3]
Members of the Western Writers of America chose "El Paso" as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.[4]
In 1998, the 1959 recording of "El Paso" on Columbia Records by Marty Robbins was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[5]
- ^ "Reviews of This Week's Singles". Billboard: 43. November 2, 1959.
- ^ Marty Robbins – The Drifter on discogs.com
- ^ Diane Diekman (2012), Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins, University of Illinois Press, p. 17, ISBN 9780252094200
- ^ Western Writers of America (2010). "The Top 100 Western Songs". American Cowboy. Archived from the original on 19 October 2010.
- ^ "GRAMMY HALL OF FAME AWARD". www.grammy.com. Retrieved 2023-07-18.