Today in 1961, at the GRAMMYs, Marty Robbins won Best Country & Western Performance for “El Paso.”

First released on Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs in September 1959, It was released as a single the following month, and became a major hit on both the country and pop music charts, reaching number one in both at the start of 1960.  It is widely considered a genre classic for its gripping narrative which ends in the death of its protagonist, its shift from past to present tense, haunting harmonies by vocalists Bobby Sykes and Jim Glaser (of the Glaser Brothers) and the eloquent and varied Spanish guitar accompaniment by Grady Martin that lends the recording a distinctive Tex-Mex feel. The name of the character Feleena was based upon a schoolmate of Robbins in the fifth grade; Fidelina Martinez.