I Fell in Love With a Mexican Girl

“Out in the West Texas town of El Paso
I fell in love with a Mexican girl
Nighttime would find me in Rosa’s Cantina
Music would play and Feleena would whirl” – El Paso (Marty Robbins)

Marty Robbins’ fifth studio album – Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs – was released in September 1959. Although Robbins had enjoyed considerable success as a Country & Western artist, Columbia Records was not entirely sold on his idea of an entire album of cowboy-themed songs. Robbins further tested his label’s faith in him when a month later the groundbreaking song “El Paso” was released as a single from the album.

The industry trend at the time was for country songs to average between 2.5 to 3 minutes in length, and Robbins’ epic ballad clocked in at 4 minutes and 38 seconds. Believing that the song would never find favor with radio programmers in its original form, his label chose to release a promo 45 rpm that contained the original track, as well as an edited version that ran nearer the 3-minute mark. Lo and behold, disc jockeys and listeners preferred the full-length version, and “El Paso” would go on to become one of the most popular cowboy songs of all-time.

“Blacker than night were the eyes of Feleena
Wicked and evil while casting a spell
My love was deep for this Mexican maiden
I was in love, but in vain, I could tell” – El Paso (Marty Robbins)

Martin David Robinson was born September 26, 1925, in a shack in the desert outside Glendale, Arizona – a suburb of Phoenix. Martin was the sixth of nine children, and his family was often on the move due to his father’s hard-drinking and occasional thievery. His mother, who was of mostly Paiute Indian descent, worked hard to provide for her family, and although his father, who was an amateur harmonica player, worked a succession of odd jobs, the Robinson family frequently relied on county welfare for many of life’s necessities.

Martin suffered from extreme shyness as a child, but also had a strong desire for acceptance and attention, both of which he found through his ability to entertain others with his singing and harmonica playing.

While his troubled home life was not easy, Martin had fond memories of listening to his grandfather’s narratives of the Old West. His maternal grandfather, “Texas” Bob Heckle, was a traveling salesman, storyteller, and medicine man, and the tales with which he regaled young Martin would have a significant influence upon his songwriting. Later in life, Robinson would recall:

“He had two little books of poetry he would sell. I used to sing him church songs and he would tell me stories. A lot of the songs I’ve written were brought about because of stories he told me. Like ‘Big Iron’ I wrote because he was a Texas Ranger. At least he told me he was.”

Further inspiration was derived from the movies Martin watched as a boy. His favorite star was Gene Autry, and he would spend mornings before school working out in the cotton fields to earn the money to see each new Autry release. Robinson recalls sitting in the front row of the theater, “close enough so I could have gotten sand in the eyes from the horses and powder burns from the guns. I wanted to be the cowboy singer, simply because Autry was my favorite singer. No one else inspired me.”

When Martin was 12 years old his parents divorced, and he moved to Phoenix with his mother and his eight siblings. Later he dropped out of high school and spent time with his brother herding goats and breaking wild horses.

“One night a wild young cowboy came in
Wild as the West Texas wind
Dashing and daring, a drink he was sharing
With wicked Feleena, the girl that I loved” – El Paso (Marty Robbins)

In 1943, at the age of 17, Martin enlisted in the U.S. Navy, exploiting the opportunity to leave his troubled family environment behind. His wartime service as a coxswain found him deployed to the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, where as a crewman on a landing craft, he helped land U.S. Marines for the successful offensive to recapture the island of Bougainville from Japanese forces. It was during his military service that he taught himself to play the guitar, began writing songs, and acquired a fondness for Hawaiian music.

“So in anger, I challenged his right for the love of this maiden
Down went his hand for the gun that he wore
My challenge was answered in less than a heartbeat
The handsome young stranger lay dead on the floor” – El Paso (Marty Robbins)

Following the war and his discharge from the Navy, Martin returned to Arizona and began singing with local bands in bars and nightclubs in the Phoenix area. To make ends meet he worked construction jobs during the daytime. One day while driving a brick truck he heard a country singer featured on radio station KPHO. Convinced that he could do a much better job he drove down to the station and talked his way into a place on the show. Heeding the advice of a friend, Robinson changed his name to Marty Robbins and before long was hosting his own radio show, Chuck Wagon Times.

As the 1940s drew to a close, Robbins was hosting his own local TV show, Western Caravan, on KPHO-TV. Little Jimmie Dickens, who made an appearance on Western Caravan while touring with the Grand Ole Opry roadshow, has been credited with discovering Marty Robbins and convincing Columbia Records to offer him a recording contract.

Robbins signed a recording deal with Columbia Records in 1951 and moved to Nashville with his wife Marizona , whom he had wed in 1948.

“Just for a moment I stood there in silence
Shocked by the foul evil deed I had done
Many thoughts raced through my mind as I stood there
I had but one chance and that was to run” – El Paso (Marty Robbins)

The year after his arrival in Nashville, Robbins released his first single, “Love Me or Leave Me Alone.” Although the song was not a great success, he scored his first Top 10 hit in 1953 with “I’ll Go on Alone”, and followed that up a few months later with another hit, “I Couldn’t Keep from Crying”.

During this period Robbins was invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry, which at the time was the nation’s most popular country radio show. For the next 25 years Robbins remained a regular member of the Opry cast.

1956 saw Robbins achieve his first No. 1 hit on the country charts with the release, “Singing the Blues.” He would enjoy two more No. 1 songs the following year with “A White Sport Coat” and “The Story of My Life,” besides several other lower charting, but significant hits. Robbins’ star was undeniably on the rise, and hearkening back to the tales of the Old West from his youth, he had the idea of a new direction for his next major release.

“Out through the back door of Rosa’s I ran
Out where the horses were tied
I caught a good one, it looked like it could run
Up on its back, and away I did ride
Just as fast as I could from
The West Texas town of El Paso
Out to the badlands of New Mexico” – El Paso (Marty Robbins)

When Marty Robbins approached his label about recording an album of cowboy songs the execs balked. Columbia had originally paired him with producer Mitch Miller, marketing him as a pop act and they were not at all sure his idea of an album of cowboy & outlaw ballads was a good fit. In an effort to prove to the label that his intentions were not misguided he recorded “The Hanging Tree”, the title track of a 1959 western. The song went to No. 15 on the country charts in April of that year, and Columbia relented, allowing Robbins just one day to record his cowboy album.

“Back in El Paso my life would be worthless
Everything’s gone in life, nothing is left
It’s been so long since I’ve seen the young maiden
My love is stronger than my fear of death” – El Paso (Marty Robbins)

Employing a group of Nashville session men who were known collectively as the “A-Team”, Robbins managed to complete the tracks that would comprise Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs in just five hours, with the session produced by Don Law. The album was released by Columbia Records in September 1959, eventually peaking at #6 on the U.S. pop albums chart; it was certified Gold by the RIAA in 1965 and Platinum in 1986. In 2017, the album was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or artistically significant”, and AllMusic has called Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, “the single most influential album of Western songs in post-World War II American music”.

“I saddled up and away I did go
Riding alone in the dark
Maybe tomorrow a bullet may find me
Tonight nothing’s worse than this pain in my heart

“And at last here I am on the hill overlooking El Paso
I can see Rosa’s Cantina below
My love is strong and it pushes me onward
Down off the hill to Feleena I go” – El Paso (Marty Robbins)

A month later “El Paso” was released as the album’s first single. The story is told that Marty Robbins was traveling from Nashville to his home in Phoenix before Christmas 1956, and while driving through El Paso he remembered his youthful infatuation with the cowboy songs of Gene Autry and had the thought to write a song about the city. Being distracted by the road and his family he soon forgot the idea. The following year while making the same journey, he was again inspired to write a song about El Paso, but once again the idea was fleeting. Finally, on the family’s third pass through El Paso for Christmas of ’58, Robbins began composing a tune in his head.

They stopped near a bar in town, only to find it closed for the holiday. In an exchange with some locals he learned that the hills behind where he was stopped were in fact the “badlands of New Mexico” – a phrase that stuck in Robbins’ head, and made it into the song’s lyrics. When the family resumed their travel, Robbins continued composing “El Paso” on his guitar in the back seat of his turquoise Cadillac while his wife “Mari” drove. He claims that when the family arrived in Deming, New Mexico, a few hours later, the song was complete.

By the dawning of the new decade, “El Paso” would reach No. 1 on both the country and pop music charts, and go on to receive the first Grammy awarded for Best Country & Western Recording in 1961. Furthermore, “El Paso” became the first song longer than four minutes to top the Hot 100 chart, and for the year 1960, was more than a minute longer than any other song on that chart.

“Off to my right, I see five mounted cowboys
Off to my left ride a dozen or more
Shouting and shooting, I can’t let them catch me
I have to make it to Rosa’s back door

“Something is dreadfully wrong for I feel
A deep burning pain in my side
Though I am trying to stay in the saddle
I’m getting weary, unable to ride” – El Paso (Marty Robbins)

In 1966, Robbins revisits his song “El Paso” by releasing “Feleena (From El Paso)”, a more than 8-minute-long ballad that tells the story of the earlier song’s heroine, a character that Robbins named after a 5th-grade schoolmate, Fidelina Martinez. In 1976, he released “El Paso City” -a recording that would reach No. 1 on the country charts – again revisiting the story of the original song, and including themes that reference both of the earlier recordings. It has also been reported that Robbins intended to visit the theme one last time with “The Mystery of Old El Paso”, but had not finished the song prior to his death in 1982.

“But my love for Feleena is strong, and I rise where I’ve fallen
Though I am weary I can’t stop to rest
I see the white puff of smoke from the rifle
I feel the bullet go deep in my chest” – El Paso (Marty Robbins)

Marty Robbins’ best-known song has become an icon of popular culture. The song was a staple of The Grateful Dead’s live repertoire, being performed by the band nearly 400 times. On the album Ladies and Gentlemen… The Grateful Dead, Bob Weir introduces the song as the Dead’s “most requested number”.

The song has been recorded by numerous artists, including alternative, parody, foreign language and instrumental versions. And the series finale of the TV show Breaking Bad was titled “Felina”, with the opening scene featuring the song playing on the stereo of a stolen car.

Members of the Western Writers of America have chosen “El Paso” as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.

“From out of nowhere Feleena has found me
Kissing my cheek as she kneels by my side
Cradled by two loving arms that I’ll die for
One little kiss, and Feleena, goodbye” – El Paso (Marty Robbins)