Opry star Jon Pardi and Drake Milligan Talk Marty Robbins’ “El Paso” | Opry 100 Greatest Songs

Marty Robbins’ 1959 classic, “El Paso,” carried the Old West to the country airwaves. Robbins had already secured #1 hits with lush romantic ballads and straightforward heartbreak songs, so writing a cinematic story of a Mexican beauty involved in a murderous love triangle seemed somewhat out of character.

However, Robbins didn’t underestimate the audience’s ability to follow the story (they loved Johnny Horton’s “The Battle of New Orleans,” after all), and he knew a whole generation of his fans grew up watching Westerns. However, radio programmers questioned the single’s running time of four minutes, thirty-eight seconds – far more than the standard three-minute length of most hits back then.

Robbins, an Opry member since 1953, simply asked them to give it a chance. (Reportedly, some disc jockeys also used it as an opportunity for a bathroom break.) The risk paid off, as “El Paso” reached #1 on the pop and country charts, and earned a Grammy for Best Country & Western Performance. – Craig Shelburne

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Opry star Jon Pardi and Drake Milligan Talk Marty Robbins’ "El Paso" | Opry 100 Greatest Songs
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