Street to Be Renamed in Honor of Marty Robbins
A mile portion of Glendale Avenue stretching through the historic part of Glendale, Arizona will be renamed for country legend Marty Robbins. On Monday, September 26th in a ceremony to be held in Glendale’s Murphy Park, Glendale Avenue between 51st and 59th Avenues will forever be known as Marty Robbins Boulevard. September 26th is the birthday of Marty Robbins who was born in in Glendale in 1925.
Fans and early childhood friends of Marty Robbins are expected to attend the official unveiling of the street sign. The honor was made possible in part by the Glendale Arizona Historical Society.
The American Southwest looms large in the music of Marty Robbins, including some of his biggest hits such as “El Paso” and “Big Iron.” His mother was majority Paiute Indian, and his grandfather “Texas Bob Heckle” regularly told Marty and his nine brothers and sisters Western stories.
Marty lived in Glendale, AZ until he enlisted in the Navy at 17 and served in the Pacific Theater in World War 2. It was there he learned to play guitar, and like so many GI’s, fell in love with the steel guitar of Polynesian music. After Marty’s discharge, he started his career in nearby Phoenix, both as a performer and a DJ, and later with his own television show. An appearance by “Little” Jimmy Dickens on Marty’s TV program eventually resulted in Robbins signing to Columbia Records.
Marty Robbins would go on to chart 17 #1 hits and be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He died on December 8th, 1982 in Nashville at the age of 57.
READ: Marty Robbins Saves Life of NASCAR’s Richard Childress
I miss Steve Gaines
September 18, 2016 @ 6:23 pm
Marty kicked ass, Thanks Trigg!
Dalton
September 18, 2016 @ 6:45 pm
Great singer, and a great person. Risked his life to save Richard Childress during s race once. Turned his car straight into a wall to avoid hitting Childress when he was stuck on the track.
Dawall27
September 18, 2016 @ 8:54 pm
Should have stretched it all the way west to Loop 101 so that the football/hockey crowd would see it, although it may make all of the Glendale Glitters visitors in December look up Robbins out of curiosity. The city has seemed to want to pay homage to him in the last few years, with a plaque there at Murphy Park and now this. Well deserved, a much better Glendale musician to honor than Nate Ruess or Jordan Sparks haha.
Unknown Shredder
September 19, 2016 @ 10:06 am
Marty was awesome, so much deserved.
Martha
September 19, 2016 @ 1:56 pm
One of my personal favorites of all time. Love me some Marty Robbins.
Erik North
September 19, 2016 @ 4:01 pm
Among other things, Marty Robbins was one of the first to cover Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot (“Ribbon Of Darkness”, which was a #1 C&W hit in 1965). And of course nobody forgets the malfunctioning “fuzztone” bass guitar of his 1961 smash hit “Don’t Worry”, which not only got to #1 on the country chart (and stayed there for, I believe, ten weeks), but just narrowly missed #1 on the pop chart (peaking at #3).
He was quite a legend of his time (with more than a few of his hits also having hints of Mexicana to them), and Glendale, Arizona is wise to honor him the way they’re doing (IMHO).