[Vintage-Audio] Who Is On The Keyboard?

[Robert Nickels]

  On 9/16/2010 3:29 PM, Duane Fischer, W8DBF wrote:
>   It sounds a lot like the late Floyd Cramer. Was it?
Hi Duane,

Interesting question! I did some searching and found other instances 
where Floyd Cramer definitely played on Marty Robbins songs, but haven't 
been able to confirm that he was on "It's a Sin". Incidentally, Marty 
wrote the song you were listening to, "You gave me a Mountain", although 
he never released it as a single. Elvis did, and Frankie Laine took it 
to #1 on the Easy Listening chart and #24 on the Hot 100 in early 1969. 
Not bad for a 55 year old singer in the age of rock!

To answer your question, I was surprised to find (on Facebook of all 
places) a complete list of every Marty Robbins recording session, with 
details of time, musicians who performed, and which songs were recorded 
in each. It is a huge list that can be found here:
http://ko-kr.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=220133323733&topic=13531 Floyd 
Cramer is listed on several sessions in the early sixties, as per part 1 
of this guys list.

The first time your song was recorded was\ May 9, 1966, but no musicians 
were identified. The song was recorded again three years later, and this 
is probably the version that appears on your 1969 LP. That was on 
February 19, 1969 at Columbia Recording Studio, 804 16th Ave. South, 
Nashville 3, TN The Producer was Bob Johnston. but alas, the only other 
comment is " Marty Robbins (unknown musicians.)"

So I can't say for sure who it was, but by the late sixties Floyd Cramer 
would have been pretty deeply involved with RCA and Marty was with 
Columbia. So here's my educated guess: Looking at other recording 
sessions in the same time period, the name Bill Purcell appears 
freqently, and I'll bet that he's the man at the keyboard. There are few 
pianists I'd put in Floyd Cramer's league but Bill Purcell would be one 
of them. His "Our Winter Love" has to be one of the most beautiful songs 
of all time. And he's still around - according to Wikipedia, "Per Mr. 
Pursell, himself, as of August 2009, he has been working as a teacher at 
the Belmont University Music School for the last 28 years

The vast majority of the Marty Robbins sessions included the 
incomparable Grady Martin on guitar. He was the sound of "El Paso" and 
is also credited with inventing the fuzz guitar by accidentally plugging 
into the wrong amplifier channel, producing distortion. He along with 
Cramer, guitarist Hank Garland, bass player Bob Moore and other members 
of the "Nashville A Team" appear on most of the Robbins sessions. Which 
makes good sense, if you were Marty Robbins, you'd want and get the 
best! Just reading through the names on this list is like a who's-who of 
the music biz - Mitch Miller, Cy Zentner, Ray Conniff, Al Caiola, and a 
young guitar picker named Charlie Daniels on some of the last sessions.

We lost Marty in 1982, but he suffered the first of three heart attacks 
in 1968. A few months after recording the 1969 LP he was given only a 
year to live unless he underwent risky new surgery, and so Marty Robbins 
became the first person ever to have a triple coronary bypass operation. 
I found so much interesting stuff about Marty Robbins I'll just paste a 
summary in below - I'll bet there's at least one thing here that you 
didn't know!

73, Bob W9RAN



Born Martin David Robinson, September 26, 1925, in Glendale, AZ; died of 
a heart attack, December 8, 1982, in Nashville, TN; son of Jack Joe and 
Emma (Heckler) Robinson; married Marizona Baldwin, 1945; children: 
Ronnie (son), Janet.

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With K-Bar Cowboys, played in small 
clubs and on radio shows, AZ, late 1940s; host of local television show 
/Western Caravan/, c. 1950; solo recording artist and concert performer, 
1952-82. Film appearances include /Buffalo Gun/, 1962; /Ballad of a 
Gunfighter/, 1963; /Honkytonk Man/, 1982; /The Gun and the Gavel; The 
Badge of Marshal Brennan;/ and /Guns of a Stranger;/ star of syndicated 
television show /Marty Robbins’s Spotlight/, 1977. Raced stock cars on 
the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) circuit, 
1960s and 1970s. Author of /Small Man/ (novel), 1966. /Military 
service:/ U.S. Navy, 1944-48.

*Selected awards:* Grammy awards for best country and western recording, 
1960, for “El Paso,” and for best country song, 1970, for “My Woman, My 
Woman, My Wife”; voted Man of the Decade, 1970, Academy of Country 
Music; NASCAR Rookie of the Southern 500, 1972; inducted into Nashville 
Songwriters Association Hall of Fame, 1975; Gold Trustees Award, 
National Country Hall of Fame, 1979; inducted into Country Music Hall of 
Fame, 1982.