Marty Robbins straddles the line in this early rock classic. He clearly wants to sing country but he also wants a teen hit. So, he bellows his way through a song of young love gone awry. There he’s standing with his pink carnation thinking about the girl who ditched him. The guitar (steel or acoustic?) mournfully sets the tempo behind him. And the play between Marty and his back-up singers is even better than most Elvis tracks. A good song marred by trying to be both country and rock. Marty later improved the formula with “El Paso”.
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