PATSY YOUR ENTHUSIASM (24)
By:
September 25, 2026
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, analyzing and celebrating our favorite… Country Music of the Fifties (1954–1963)! Series edited by Josh Glenn. Qobuz playlist here.
MARTY ROBBINS | DON’T WORRY | 1961
When I was 11 I became fascinated… obsessed… with electric guitars, and particularly with the “fuzz” guitar sound. Fuzz creates an almost square wave style distortion that often includes harmonic overtones, and is dirtier than just an overdriven amplifier speaker. I’d develop a crush on Jimi Hendrix’s fuzzed-out guitar tones, and I thought The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” sounded strikingly cool. But it wasn’t until I heard The Cramps’ “Human Fly,” when I was almost 15, that I really felt the fuzz infect my brain.
The Fuzz guitar sound that blew my mind showed up on the country music charts in 1961 after Grady Martin recorded a six string baritone bass solo — for Marty Robbins’ “Don’t Worry” — into the blown-out channel of a mixing board at Bradley Studios in Nashville. The song went to number 1, where it stayed for ten weeks; it also crossed over to the Pop Charts and reached number 3 on the Hot 100 chart. Even if this wasn’t the first-ever use of fuzz as an effect, it was the first to make the world take notice. Country Music is steeped in tradition, but the “Don’t Worry” solo is just one example of the many ways that it has been incredibly innovative too.
“Don’t Worry” — written by Robbins — is a pretty traditional love song. But the solo is wild, unexpected, and unforgettable. It’s almost comedic, as it drops like a fat and bouncy bee at 1:25, and the fuzz imitators followed. (The Ventures attempted to do something similar on their song “The 2,000 Pound Bee” in ’62, and the list of others is too long to detail here.) As a result of the success of “Don’t Worry,” Gibson’s “Maestro” electronic division released the FZ-1 Fuzz-tone Pedal in ’62. The FZ-1 is a stomp box, simulating the sound of the solo on “Don’t Worry” using germanium transistors. Keith Richards used one on The Rolling Stones “Satisfaction.” Other instrument companies and electronic tinkerers took the idea and created their own versions.
My summers as a kid were spent driving between my Grandmama Rubye’s home in southern Georgia and her beach shack in northwest Florida. The music in heaviest rotation on the stereo in her Lincoln Continental? Marty Robbins. He sang in the Technicolor of Hollywood Westerns, and as miles of pine tree farms and alligator ponds flew by outside my back-seat window I would get lost in his songs. As far as I can recall, “Don’t Worry” wasn’t in rotation on those rides… but I’m glad that I eventually found my way to it… thanks to fuzz.
Thank you Marty Robbins, thank you Grady Martin, thank you Don Law, and thanks too to my Grandmama, Rubye Futch.
PATSY YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn. Nadine Hubbs on Marty Robbins’ EL PASO | Elizabeth Nelson on Dave Dudley’s SIX DAYS ON THE ROAD | Lynn Peril on Jean Chapel’s WELCOME TO THE CLUB | David Cantwell on Porter Wagoner’s MY BONFIRE | Will Hermes on Johnny Cash’s RING OF FIRE | Mimi Lipson on Loretta Lynn’s I’M A HONKY TONK GIRL | Charles Hughes on Roger Miller’s YOU DON’T WANT MY LOVE | Eric Weisbard on Lefty Frizzell’s THE LONG BLACK VEIL | Steacy Easton on Jean Shepard’s A SATISFIED MIND | Josh Glenn on Johnny Cash’s THE REBEL — JOHNNY YUMA | Carlo Rotella on Buck Owens’ CLOSE UP THE HONKY TONKS | Annie Nocenti on Patsy Cline’s THREE CIGARETTES IN AN ASHTRAY | Douglas Wolk on Lucky Starr’s I’VE BEEN EVERYWHERE | Will Groff on Ray Price’s NIGHT LIFE | Jonny Auping on Willie Nelson’s CRAZY | Brian Berger on Ernest Tubb’s THE YELLOW ROSE OF TEXAS | Jason Grote on Bill Browning and His Echo Valley Boys’ DARK HOLLOW | Peter Doyle on Willie Nelson’s FUNNY HOW TIME SLIPS AWAY | Sam Glenn on Johnny Cash’s BIG RIVER | Mark Richardson on Elvis Presley’s BLUE MOON | Adam McGovern on Elvis Presley’s BLACK STAR / FLAMING STAR | Chris Spurgeon on Ricky Nelson’s BELIEVE WHAT YOU SAY | Devin McKinney on George Hamilton IV’s ABILENE | Christmas Davis on Marty Robbins’ DON’T WORRY | Annie Zaleski on Patsy Cline’s WALKIN’ AFTER MIDNIGHT.
ALSO SEE: DOLLY YOUR ENTHUSIASM (25 of our favorite Country records from 1964–1973) | & more Country at HILOBROW, including short appreciations of Gene Pitney, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Buck Owens, George Jones, June Carter Cash, Charley Pride, and many others.
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