Each Wednesday at 8 a.m. I join Cindy and Doug for the Country Classic Flashback.  We take a trip down memory lane to highlight a country legend.  This week we feature Marty Robbins.

Marty Robbins was born Martin David Robinson on September 26, 1925 near Glendale, Arizona.  He has a twin sister named Marnie and they were born into a poverty stricken family.  He ended up dropping out of school in his teens.

He was a jack of all trades who was very successful in the worlds of recording, stage performance, acting, writing/songwriting and stock car racing.  He had a very unique baritone voice which made him a successful crossover artist in the 1950's and 1960's.

Marty had a total of 94 charted records spanning his entire career, with 16 of them going to #1.  He joined the Grand Ole Opry in January of 1953, the same year he moved to Nashville.  Unarguably, his signature song is El Paso which was released in 1959.  The song won him a Grammy Award which was the first ever awarded to a country song.  In 1982 he was inducted in to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Stock car racing was a big part of Marty's life as well.  He raced in the 1950's and '60s and in 1966 he entered his first Nascar Grand National Stock Car Race.

In 1969 he suffered a heart attack and underwent bypass surgery, which was successful.  He suffered another heart attack on December 2, 1982 and died six days later at the age of 57.

Tune in each Wednesday at 8 a.m. for the Country Classic Flashback, which is brought to you by Midwest Machinery on East Highway 23 Sauk Rapids with eight other locations around Central MN.

For more of your Classic Country favorites tune into the 98 Country Classic Show each Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

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