"Don't Worry" is a song written and recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

artist

Marty Robbins Martin David Robinson (September 26, 1925 – December 8, 1982), known professionally as Marty Robbins, was an American country and western singer and songwriter. He was one of the most popular and successful singers of his genre for most o ...

. It was released in February 1961 as the third single from his compilation album ''More Greatest Hits''. The song was Robbins' seventh number one on the country chart and stayed at number one for ten weeks. The single crossed over to the

pop chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include re ...

and was one of Marty Robbins' most successful crossover songs, peaking at number three on the Hot 100.

Background

The track has an early example of guitar

distortion In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signal ...

. A faulty channel in the mixing desk at Bradley Studio B unexpectedly transformed

session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...

Grady Martin Thomas Grady Martin (January 17, 1929 – December 3, 2001) was an American session guitarist in country music and rockabilly. A member of The Nashville A-Team, he played guitar on hits such as Marty Robbins' "El Paso", Loretta Lynn's " Coal M ...

Danelectro Danelectro is a brand of musical instruments and accessories that was founded in Red Bank, New Jersey, in 1947. The company is known primarily for its string instruments that employed unique designs and manufacturing processes. The Danelectro com ...

six-string bass tone in the bridge section and brief reprise right at the end into an unusual distorted sound. Although Martin did not like the sound, Robbins' producer left the guitar track as it was. The effect was eventually reverse-engineered and developed into the

Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone The Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone was the first widely marketed fuzzbox#1960s: fuzz, distortion, and introduction of commercial devices, fuzz distortion guitar and bass effect. Introduced in 1962, it achieved widespread popularity in 1965 after the Rolli ...

, one of the first guitar pedals, produced by Gibson under the Maestro brand name. In a 1968 report on

sound effect A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. In m ...

s in pop for ''

Beat Instrumental ''Beat Instrumental'' was a UK monthly pop and rock magazine. Founded by Sean O'Mahony (aka Johnny Dean) and first published in May 1963 as ''Beat Monthly'', it became ''Beat Instrumental Monthly'' with issue 18 and ''Beat Instrumental'' from i ...

'', Crotus Pike believed the effect to be a result of the guitar being "played at a half speed", describing the resulting solo break as exhibiting "the tones of a rich, deep cello–a beautiful sound which no doubt attracted many buyers." He wrote that the effect was the opposite of the use of sped-up instrument solos used in other songs, such as Alan Price Set's " The House That Jack Built" and

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues that he develo ...

's "Walking the Boogie".

Chart performance

Cover versions

* The song was covered by Holly Dunn on her 1990 album, '' Heart Full of Love''. * The song was covered by

LeAnn Rimes Margaret LeAnn Rimes Cibrian (born August 28, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She originally rose to success as a country music artist at the age of 13 and has since crossed over into pop, contemporary Christian, and o ...

on her 1999 album, ''

''. * The song was covered by

Jimmie Dale Gilmore Jimmie Dale Gilmore (born May 6, 1945) is an American country singer-songwriter currently living in Austin, Texas. Life and career Gilmore is a native of the Texas Panhandle, having been born in Amarillo and raised in Lubbock, Texas. His ear ...

on his 2005 album, ''Come on Back''.

References

External links

* 1961 singles 1961 songs Marty Robbins songs Holly Dunn songs LeAnn Rimes songs Songs written by Marty Robbins Columbia Records singles Song recordings produced by Don Law {{1960s-pop-song-stub