Marty Robbins - Today / Don't Let Me Touch You

Marty Robbins was the master of many musical realms: country and western songs, rockabilly and pop standards, Caribbean and Hawaiian music. Then also, of course, there are the Gunfighter ballads a genre that he virtually made his own.It was such music, along with those unforgettable stage performances, that earned him a well-deserved place in Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame, just a couple of months before his untimely death in December 1982.The two albums featured in this collection 'Today' (1971) and 'Don't Let Me Touch You' (1977) mainly spotlight Marty Robbins as a singer of ballads, material that perfectly shows off his effortless, distinctive vocal skills.'Today' with its cover portrait paying tribute to the singer's passion as a NASCAR racing car driver, created three Top 10 chart singles, 'Early Morning Sunshine' and the double sided 'Seventeen Years/The Chair' the latter giving Robbins the chance for a powerfully dramatic performance in the tale of a prisoner's final hours. 'Don't Let Me Touch You' contains two Top 10 singles, the title track (co-penned with Billy Sherrill) and 'Return To Me' a Spanish-flavoured cover of the 1958 Dean Martin hit.On both albums there are several fine Marty Robbins original songs proving that, in his third decade as a headlining star, he remained a leader of the country music pack.