Martin David Robinson

 Martin David Robinson (September 26, 1925 – December 8, 1982), known professionally as Marty Robbins.

One of the most popular and successful country and western singers of all time for most of his near four-decade career, Robbins often topped the country music charts, and several of his songs also had crossover success as pop hits. At 17, Robbins left a troubled home to serve in the United States Navy as an LCT coxswain during World War II. He was stationed in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. To pass the time during the war, he learned to play the guitar, started writing songs, and came to love Hawaiian music. By 1960 Robbins' output was largely country music, his initial hits like "Singing the Blues", "Knee Deep in the Blues", "The Story of My Life", "She Was Only Seventeen", and "A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation" were generally regarded as more pop/teen idol material than his hits from 1960 onwards, such as "El Paso". When Robbins was recording his 1961 hit "Don't Worry", session guitarist Grady Martin accidentally created the electric guitar "fuzz" effect – his six-string bass was run through a faulty channel in a mixing console. Robbins decided to keep it in the final version. The song reached No. 1 on the country chart, and No. 3 on the pop chart. Robbins was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1975. He won the Grammy Award for the Best Country & Western Recording 1961 for his follow-up album More Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, and was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1970, for "My Woman, My Woman, My Wife".

Robbins was named Artist of the Decade (1960–1969) by the Academy of Country Music, and elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982. For his contribution to the recording industry, Robbins has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6666 Hollywood Boulevard. Robbins also loved NASCAR racing. With his musical successes, he was able to finance his avocation. Robbins always tried to run at the big race tracks (Talladega Superspeedway, Daytona International Speedway) every year and a smattering of the smaller races when time permitted. Robbins had a history of cardiovascular disease. After his third heart attack on December 2, 1982, he underwent quadruple coronary bypass surgery. He did not recover and died six days later, on December 8, at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville. He was 57 years old. Robbins is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee.