Well, defending Martin Gibson isn't easy but, I'll have a go at it.

To a casual collector, it would appear that Marty Robbins beat Elvis to the punch. Sure, Evis did record it month or so earlier, but Marty deserves some credit for making it a national hit. It's not as if Robbins was pulling a stunt perfected later by Pat Boone of taking an Elvis song or that of others, cleaning them up (thereby ruining them) and then regurgitating them for a white, middle class audience. I believe Robbins' version plays quite well today. I also like his version of 'singin' the blues.'

Marty Robbins may have gotten bogged down into western story songs later in his career, but early on, he was right there with the best of them. Mind you, I like his story songs. 'El Paso' is such a classic! Still, his flirtation with Blues was refreshing. I am, or course, far too young to have heard any of these in their day. I rediscovered them all by rooting through my Dad's record collection. I might be less charitably inclinded to Robbins' version of 'That's Alright' had I been a radio-listening teenager when those versions were duking it out for airplay.

Back when I worked in film development, I read a fabulous script called RED CAR which I believe remains unproduced. It was set in Los Angeles during the heady days when the raunchier versions of rock n'roll songs were being watered down for the masses. It featured a couple of teens who were obsessed with hunting down the originals. Great Screenplay! I wish I could recall the screenwriters name. I can only recall his agent's name, Dan Ostroff. The writer is a well known fellow, with lots of credits. His name escapes me at present.

RED CAR was a perfect little diamond of nostalgia not very well served by a somewhat weak mystery plot. Still, I lobbied hard to try and get it produced for Cable. It was the hook of the music that grabbed you when you read it and you could just imagine the referenced songs playing in each scene. I suppose I should go back and try and find that script and see if the rights are still available. What with all the nostalgia shows on US television these days such as AMERICAN DREAMS and those silly NBC mini-series about various decades such as THE SIXTIES and THE SEVENTIES...perhaps RED CAR could be turned into a swell limited run series.

Since the Mudcat is searchable, perhaps some other development exec will happen across this post some day. If they do, they should call Dan Ostroff!