MARTY ROBBINS 78 GROWN UP TEARS / A WHITE SPORT COAT UK PHILIPS PB 696 E-/V+

	£		17
	$		23

AN EXCELLENT PLAYING COPY OF THIS CLASSIC MARTY ROBBINS 78  RARITY ON THE UK PHILIPS LABEL

GROWN-UP TEARS

b/w  A WHITE SPORT COAT

No artist in the history of country music has had a more stylistically diverse career than Marty Robbins. Never content to remain just a country singer, Robbins performed successfully in a dazzling array of styles during more than 30 years in the business. To his credit, Robbins rarely followed trends but often took off in directions that stunned both his peers and fans. Plainly Robbins was not hemmed in by anyone's definition of country music. Although his earliest recordings were unremarkable weepers, by the mid-'50s Robbins was making forays into rock music, adding fiddles to the works of Chuck Berry and Little Richard. By the late '50s, Robbins had pop hits of his own with teen fare like "A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation)." Almost simultaneously, he completed work on his Song of the Islands album. In 1959, Robbins stretched even further with the hit single "El Paso," thus heralding a pattern of "gunfighter ballads" that lasted the balance of his career. Robbins also enjoyed bluesy hits like "Don't Worry," which introduced a pop audience to fuzz-tone guitar in 1961. Barely a year later, Robbins scored a calypso hit with "Devil Woman." Robbins also left a legacy of gospel music and a string of sentimental ballads, showing that he would croon with nary a touch of hillbilly twang. Born and raised in Glendale, AZ, Robbins (born Martin David Robertson, September 26, 1925; died December 8, 1982) was exposed to music at an early age. His mother's father was "Texas" Bob Heckle, a former medicine show man who told his grandson cowboy stories and tales of the traveling show. Robbins became enraptured by the cowboy tales and, once he became a teenager, worked on his older brother's ranch outside of Phoenix, concentrating more on his cowboy duties than his studies. Indeed, he never graduated from high school, and by his late teens, he started turning petty crimes while living as a hobo. In 1943, he joined the U.S. Navy to fight in World War II, and while he was in the service, he learned how to play guitar and developed a taste for Hawaiian music. Robbins left the Navy in 1947, returning to Glendale, where he began to sing in local clubs and radio stations. Often, he performed under the name "Jack Robinson" in an attempt to disguise his endeavors from his disapproving mother. Within three years, he had developed a strong reputation throughout Arizona and was appearing regularly on a Mesa radio station and had his own television show, Western Caravan, in Phoenix. By that time, he had settled on the stage name of Marty Robbins. Robbins landed a recording contract with Columbia in 1951 with the assistance of Little Jimmy Dickens, who had been a fan ever since appearing on Western Caravan. Early in 1952, Robbins released his first single, "Love Me or Leave Me Alone." It wasn't a success and neither was its follow-up, "Crying 'Cause I Love You," but "I'll Go On Alone" soared to number one in January 1953. Following its blockbuster success, Robbins signed a publishing deal with Acuff-Rose and joined the Grand Ole Opry. "I Couldn't Keep From Crying" kept him in the Top Ten in spring 1953, but his two 1954 singles -- "Pretty Words" and "Call Me Up (And I'll Come Calling on You)" -- stalled on the charts. A couple of rock & roll covers, "That's All Right" and "Maybellene," returned him to the country Top Ten in 1955, but it wasn't until "Singing the Blues" shot to number one in fall 1956 that Robbins' career was truly launched. Staying at number one for a remarkable 13 weeks, "Singing the Blues" established Robbins as a star, but its progress on the pop charts was impeded by Guy Mitchell's cover, which was released shortly after Robbins' original and quickly leapfrogged to number one. The process repeated itself on "Knee Deep in the Blues," which went to number three on the country charts but didn't even appear on the pop charts due to Mitchell's hastily released cover. To head off such competition, Robbins decided to record with easy listening conductor Ray Conniff for his next singles. It was a crafty move and one that kept him commercially viable during the peak of rock & roll. The first of these collaborations, "A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation)," became a huge hit, spending five weeks at the top of the US country charts in spring 1957 and peaking at number two on the US pop charts, giving him his long-awaited breakthrough record. After "A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation)," Robbins was a regular fixation on both the pop and country charts until the mid-'60s. The Burt Bacharach and Hal David composition "The Story of My Life" returned Robbins to the US number one country slot in early 1957 (number 15 pop), while "Just Married," "Stairway of Love," and "She Was Only Seventeen (He Was One Year More)" kept him in teen-pop territory, as well as the upper reaches of the charts, throughout 1958..

A WHITE SPORT COAT (and a pink carnation)
(ROBBINS)

A white sports coat and a pink carnation
I'm all dressed up for the dance
A white sports coat and a pink carnation
I'm all alone in romance

Once you told me long ago
To the prom with me you'd go
Now you've changed your mind it seems
Someone else will hold my dreams

A white sports coat and a pink carnation
I'm in a blue blue mood.

I'm all dressed up for the dance
I'm all alone in romance

Once you told me long ago
To the prom with me you'd go
Now you've changed your mind it seems
Someone else will hold my dreams

A white sports coat and a pink carnation
I'm in a blue blue mood.

Amazingly Marty failed to make the UK charts with this classic - instead both Terry Dene and the King Brothers took their cover versions into the charts - with the King Brothers reaching number 6! - but this is the original and still the best!

DISC DETAILS

UK PHILIPS  10" 78rpm PB 696 SHELLAC

A SIDE:-  A WHITE SPORT COAT

B SIDE:-  GROWN UP TEARS

CONDITION  E- / V+

PLAYING SURFACE IS EXCELLENT AND THE RECORD PLAYS GREAT BUT THE COLOUR ON THE LABEL ON THE SPORT COAT SIDE HAS RUBBED AWAY IN PLACES (SEE SCAN)

HERE'S YOUR CHANCE TO PICK UP THIS UK MARTY ROBBINS 78! 

ONE ONLY AVAILABLE