Ain’t This a Countdown: Ain’t I the Lucky One

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As Elvis Costello said, “Welcome to the working week, I know it don’t thrill you, I hope it don’t kill you.” That’s not grammatically correct, and neither is this monthlong look at songs with the word ain’t in the title. To nobody’s surprise, I’m going with a country music legend today. Ain’t I the Lucky One - Marty Robbins The notion that “country music doesn’t sound like country music” isn’t anything new. You had people complaining about Jimmie Rodgers having Louis Armstrong play trumpet on a song, and that was 1930!! Here we have another example. Marty Robbins was, is, and ever shall be certifiably country. However, with the advent of rock and roll, record labels were scrambling to find a way to keep country music sales out of the toilet. In came the “Nashville sound” with acts like Jim Reeves, Patsy Cline, and Ferlin Husky. Also in came things that, in retrospect, can only be called horrible mismatches. Like this. Here’s Marty Robbins, backed by the Ray Conniff singers, with Mitch Miller producing. That guitar break hardly sounds “country,” not to mention the “sing-along-with-Mitch” backing vocals. If this was a genuine intention to help sales, or an attempt to sabotage Robbins’ career (Mitch Miller was a notorious hater of rock and roll [and, based on jazz historian Will Friedwald’s quote in Wikipedia’s entry on Miller, not too fond of popular music, period]) is a matter of speculation. It didn’t work if it was the latter: this was a hit, as was the other song Miller produced for Robbins (“Just Married”). And Marty got revenge: he went back to traditional country, with his 1959 song “El Paso” becoming the first #1 song on the pop charts of 1960. It’s also the first song in pop music history to hit #1 with a length over four minutes. So take that, Mitch. Ain’t I the Lucky One Written by Melvin Endsley Recorded by Marty Robbins Released as a single, 1958 Feel like a son-of-a-gun: