On the Charts 65 Years Ago, Marty Robbins Was at No. 1 With a Song That Accidentally Changed the Way Guitars Would Sound for Decades To Come

Sixty-five years ago today (March 19), Marty Robbins was at the top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart with “Don’t Worry.” It was his seventh No. 1 single. Additionally, it spent 10 consecutive weeks at the top of the tally, making it one of the biggest hits of the year. However, the song’s chart success isn’t what makes it special. Instead, it was a production mishap that led to the creation of guitar effects pedals that changed the music world forever.

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Robbins wrote “Don’t Worry” and released it as the second single from More Greatest Hits on February 6, 1961. Three weeks later, on February 27, it reached the top of the country chart. It was also a crossover hit, peaking at No. 3 on the Hot 100. The lyrics are from the perspective of a man who has just had his heart broken. However, the unintended impact the song would have on the music world at large has put smiles on guitarists faces for decades.

[RELATED: On This Day in 1956, Marty Robbins Was at No. 1 With a Song That Became an International Hit for Two Other Artists]

Session player Grady Martin plays a six-string bass on “Don’t Worry.” According to Vintage Guitar, a transformer in his preamp blew, giving the instrument a distorted sound. Martin wanted to re-record the track because he didn’t like the sound. Fortunately, producer Don Law chose to keep the track as-is. You can hear the sound in two sections of the video above. The first time starts at the 1:26 mark and only lasts 20 seconds. The distorted bass sound returns at the 3:03 mark and lasts until the end of the song.

How a Marty Robbins Hit Changed the Music World

Grady Martin eventually came to like the tone he got from the failing preamp he used on the Marty Robbins session. Later, he recorded an instrumental track called “The Fuzz” using the same equipment. He is widely credited with discovering the fuzz effect. However, he was not the first to use damaged equipment to achieve a distorted sound. Link Wray was overdriving his amplifiers and putting holes in his speaker cones in the late 1950s to achieve a “dirty”, distorted sound.

Eventually, the faulty preamp failed. As a result, recording engineer Glenn Snoddy and WSM radio engineer Revis Hobbs designed a device that would produce Martin’s fuzzy tone on purpose. They sold their design to Gibson. In 1962, the company released the Maestro FZ-1 FuzzTone pedal.

While the FZ-1 wasn’t the first-ever “fuzz box,” it was the first commercially available unit. Unfortunately, Gibson’s marketing team was unsure how to sell the pedal. Then, in 1965, Keith Richards did the heavy lifting for them. He used an FZ-1 on “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” The song was a major hit, and rock guitarists around the world began chasing the tone that was born during the “Don’t Worry” recording session.

Featured Image by Andrew Putler; via Getty Images