Introduction
Don’t Worry: A Country Hit Goes Electric (and Distorts)
Marty Robbins’ “Don’t Worry” isn’t just a catchy country tune that climbed the charts in 1961. It’s a song intertwined with the history of electric guitar effects. Released in February 1961, “Don’t Worry” was Robbins’ seventh number one on the country music charts, staying at the top spot for a mighty ten weeks. But its impact extended beyond Nashville. The song became a crossover hit, reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100, solidifying Robbins’ status as a country artist with mainstream appeal.
The origins of the song’s sound are as interesting as its success. During recording at Bradley Studios in Nashville, session guitarist Grady Martin plugged his Danelectro six-string bass into a faulty channel on the mixing console. This unintentional move resulted in a distorted, fuzzy sound during the bridge section and outro – a sound Martin himself wasn’t fond of. However, producer Weldon Myrick saw potential in the fuzz and decided to keep it in the final mix.
Little did they know, they’d stumbled upon a groundbreaking innovation. The distorted bass sound in “Don’t Worry” is widely considered the first commercially released recording to feature the now-iconic “fuzz” effect on an electric guitar or bass. This happy accident on “Don’t Worry” paved the way for further experimentation, eventually leading to the development of the Gibson Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone, the first mass-produced fuzz distortion pedal.
So, when you listen to “Don’t Worry,” you’re not just hearing a classic country song. You’re experiencing a piece of musical history, a song where a technical mishap birthed a sound that would forever change the landscape of guitar playing and rock music.