#24: Cap And Gown by Marty Robbins

City: London, ON
Radio Station: CKSL
Peak Month: July 1959
Peak Position in London ~ #8
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #57
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #45
YouTube: “Cap and Gown”
Lyrics: “Cap and Gown”

Martin “Marty” David Robinson was born Glendale (AZ) in 1925. His parents divorced when he was 12. He quit school and got work as an amateur boxer, dug ditches, drove trucks, delivered ice, and served as a mechanics assistant. At 17, Robbins left home to serve in the United States Navy as an landing tank craft coxswain during WWII. He was stationed in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. To pass the time during the war, he learned to play the guitar, got introduced to Hawaiian music and began songwriting. After his discharge from the military in 1947, Robbins got married. The next year he started to play at local venues in Phoenix. In the early 1950s Marty moved on to host his own show on KYYL (Mesa, AZ) and then his own television show Western Caravan on KPHO-TV in Phoenix. His show got on the radar of Columbia Records after Little Jimmy Dickens made a guest appearance on Western Caravan.

Robbins got a contract with Columbia and released his debut single in 1952 titled “I’ll Go On Alone”. The single climbed to #1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Most Played on Jukeboxes chart on January 24 and February 7, 1953. His followup release, “I Couldn’t Keep From Crying”, peaked at #5 on the country chart. In 1955, Robbins recorded a cover of Elvis Presley’s 1954 hit
“That’s All Right” which peaked as #7. In August 1955, Robbins released a cover of Chuck Berry’s R&B chart-topper “Maybelline”. Robbins cover climbed to #9 on the country chart. In late 1956, Robbins covered the new Guy Mitchell song “Singing The Blues”. While Mitchell topped the pop charts in Australia, the UK and USA, Robbins cover stalled at #17 on the pop charts. However, Marty Robbins version of “Singing The Blues” topped the country chart. While Tommy Steele and the Steelmen also covered “Singing The Blues” and reached number-one in the UK with their version as well.

In 1957, Robbins “Knee Deep in the Blues” reached #3 on the country charts. He had his third number-one hit on the country charts with “A White Sport Coat”. The single crossed over to the pop charts and climbed to #2 in the USA and #1 in Australia. Late that year “The Story of My Life” topped the country charts, and to #2 on the pop charts in both Australia and Canada. In the UK, Michael Holliday had a number-one hit with his cover of “The Story of My Life”.

In 1958, Marty Robbins had another number-one hit on the country chart with “Just Married”. The single reached #2 on the pop chart in Australia. As well, “She Was Only Seventeen (He Was One Year More)”, was a #2 pop hit in Australia in 1958. The next year Marty Robbins recorded “The Hanging Tree” which was the theme song for The Hanging Tree. It was nominated for Best Original Song at the 1960 Academy Awards.

Robbins next release in 1959 was “Cap and Gown”.

“Cap and Gown” was cowritten by Roy Bennett and Sid Tepper. Bennett was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1918 with the birth name Israel Brodsky. His family were recently arrived Eastern European immigrants. While he was a child he met Sid Tepper, who was also born in 1918, but in New York City. They began writing songs from the age of eleven. They both were drafted into the U.S. Army in World War II. In 1945 they began to publish songs in the Brill Building on Broadway.

When they were in their twenties, Bennett and Tepper got their first big break with “Red Roses For A Blue Lady”, a #4 hit for Vaughan Monroe in 1949. They co-wrote “Suzy Snowflake” for Rosemary Clooney who had a Christmas hit with the tune in 1951. The Ames Brothers had a hit by this songwriting team in 1954 that climbed to #3 titled “The Naughty Lady Of Shady Lane”.

In 1955, Bennett and Tepper wrote “Nuttin’ for Christmas”, a #6 hit for Art Mooney and His Orchestra, featuring six-year-old Barry Gordon. Then in 1958 Tepper and Bennett scored a #6 hit for Perry Como titled “Kewpie Doll”. In 1960 they wrote “(There’s A Little Song A-Singing) In My Heart” for Carl Dobkins Jr. Tepper and Bennett wrote five songs for the Elvis Presley film and soundtrack of Blue Hawaii. They wrote 37 other songs that Elvis recorded including “G.I. Blues” and “Puppet On A String”. They also penned the only Presley song nominated for an Oscar, “It’s a Wonderful World” (which was in Roustabout). Other recording artists who recorded Tepper and Bennett tunes include Jo Stafford, Dean Martin, Wayne Newton, Eartha Kitt, Dave Brubeck, Gogi Grant, Carl Perkins, Jim Reeves, Connie Francis, Joanie Sommers, Conway Twitty, Helen Shapiro, Jerry Keller, “D in Love” for Cliff Richard, and The Searchers.

Between 1945 and 1970 the songwriting team published over 300 songs. Both Bennett and Tepper died in 2015, months apart.

In the song “Cap and Gown” a guy is fantasizing that when sees his girlfriend in her cap and gown at a graduation ceremony, he imagines that its her wedding gown. He pictures not her graduation ring, but a wedding ring on her finger. Instead of the Alma Mater, the graduates are singing “our wedding song.” He hopes that his fantasy is shared by his sweetheart.

“Cap and Gown” peaked at #6 in Baltimore, and Montgomery (AL), #7 in Burlington (VT), and #8 in London (ON), and Washington DC.

At the end of 1959, Marty Robbins released his biggest hit single titled “El Paso”. The song peaked at #1 in Canada, South Africa and the USA. It also made the Top 20 in both Italy and the UK.

In the 1960s, Marty Robbins racked up more number-one hits on the country charts. These include “Don’t Worry”, “Devil Woman”, “Ruby Ann”, “Begging to You”, Gordon Lightfoot’s composition “Ribbon of Darkness”, “Tonight Carmen” and “I Walk Alone”.

In 1970, Robbins number-one song, “My Woman, My Woman, My Wife”, won a Grammy Award for Best Country Song. Over the decade Robbins scored his 15th and 16th number-one country hits with “El Paso City” and the 1927 pop standard “Among My Souvenirs”.

In 1982, Marty Robbins had Top Ten hits with “Some Memories Just Won’t Die” and “Honkytonk Man”. The latter was his 45th Top Ten hit on the Billboard country chart. Robbins died at the age of 57 late in 1982 of a heart attack.

February 12, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
Jon Pareles, “Marty Robbins, Singer, 57, Won a Grammy for ‘El Paso’,” New York Times, December 10, 1982.
Carmel Dagan, “Roy C. Bennett Dies at 97; Wrote Songs for Sinatra, Elvis, the Beatles,” Variety, July 9, 2015.
Nick Deriso, “Elvis Presley Songwriter Sid Tepper Dies at 96,” Ultimate Classic Rock.com, April 26, 2015.

CKSL 1410-AM London (ON) Top Ten | July 24, 1959