Here’s a song that was very important to a young Marty Robbins back in 1956.
Fresh out of the Navy, Marty was working at a local TV station near his home in Arizona. That’s when an established star — West Virginia native Little Jimmy Dickens — discovered him and brought him to Columbia Records.
A few years later, Robbins was the first performer to record “Singing the Blues,” which, as reported here earlier, was written by singer-songwriter Melvin Endsley in 1954. The song, recorded at Bradley Studios in Nashville, cemented a career that over the next quarter of a century saw Robbins record more than 500 songs on 60 albums.
First Marty, Then Guy
In 1952, Robbins scored his first No. 1 hit with his original composition “I’ll Go On Alone.” But then came a four-year dry spell without any more gold, prompting some Columbia executives to wonder if that 1952 hit had been a fluke.
Sighs of relief could be heard at Columbia when Marty recorded the Endsley composition in August 1956. The track shot to No. 1, staying somewhere on the Billboard country charts for the next 13 weeks.
It also reached No. 17 on the pop charts. It might have gone higher, except that Columbia was more interested in pitching Marty as a country artist instead of investing his talents in that still-new and untested rock ‘n’ roll thing.
For that reason, Columbia brought in a different young artist to record “Singing the Blues” for the pop audience. That’s when Guy Mitchell enters our story.
Seventy years ago this very week, radio listeners began hearing a pop-oriented version of the tune with Mitchell’s vocals backed by Ray Conniff and his orchestra. Rock fans liked what they heard. When Mitchell’s take on the tune hit No. 1 on the pop charts two month later, it stayed there. And stayed there.
In fact, in the entire history of the rock era, only one other song — Elvis’s “Don’t Be Cruel / Hound Dog” — had a longer run at No. 1 than the 10 weeks charted by Guy Mitchell’s version of “Singing the Blues.”
Covers
Melvin Endsley’s baby definitely had legs. In Britain in 1957, Tommy Steele’s rendition of the song made it to No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart, sandwiched by two weeks when Guy Mitchell’s version charted there.
A trad jazz version of the song was waxed the following year by trumpeter Bob Scobey and banjoist/vocalist Clancy Hayes. In 1960, Bill Haley & His Comets took a turn with the tune, as did crooner Dean Martin in 1963.
In the next decade, Black Oak Arkansas had a version on their debut album in 1971, while Marie Osmond recorded it in ’75 on her In My Little Corner of the World album.
The song got back to its country roots later with Randy Travis’ 1989 take and The Kentucky Headheaders put it on their debut album Stomping Ground in 1997.
“Singing the Blues” was even performed live by Paul McCartney on the MTV show Unplugged in 1991 and was included on the subsequent soundtrack.
For more on the history of the song, including the story of its composer, click here to read our earlier back story.
More from the Room?
Meanwhile, back in the Floodiverse, if you’d like to hear more of what the old boys are playing nowadays, check out the 2026 playlist on Radio Floodango.
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