Inductees | Don Robertson

Don Robertson

Induction Year: 1972

Birth Name: Donald Irwin Robertson

Birth Date: 12-05-1922

Place of Birth: Peking, China

Death Date: 03-16-2015

Place of Death: Lake Sherwood, California

Don Robertson wrote numerous classic country and pop songs, including hits for Eddy Arnold, Hank Snow, the Chordettes, Hank Locklin and Elvis Presley.

A pianist who developed the "slip-note" technique popularized by Floyd Cramer, Robertson was born in Peking, China, the son of a physician father (who headed Peking Union Medical College's Department of Medicine) and a mother who played piano and wrote poetry and plays. He grew up in Chicago, where he sang in a church choir and played piano. By 14, he was playing piano in dance bands. He studied orchestration, composition and piano in college, and found work as a musical arranger at Chicago radio station WGN.

In 1945, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a music career, playing nightclubs, making demonstration recordings and working as a rehearsal pianist at Capitol Records. His start as a songwriter came in 1953, when he began collaborating with West Coast songsmith Hal Blair (also a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame). The two would go on to write one of 1960's biggest country hits, "Please Help Me, I'm Falling" (Hank Locklin), but by then Robertson had already co-written country chart-toppers for Eddy Arnold ("I Really Don't Want To Know") and Hank Snow ("I Don't Hurt Anymore").

Robertson wrote the 1955 Les Paul and Mary Ford hit "Hummingbird" by himself, inspired by a bird he saw outside his North Hollywood studio window. That same year, he scored a Top 10 pop record of his own, with the self-penned tune "The Happy Whistler." And in 1956, his "I'm Counting on You" caught the ear of Elvis Presley, who would go on to record 15 of Robertson's songs.

Robertson's biggest country hit was "Please Help Me, I'm Falling," a 14-week #1 that changed the way Nashville studio piano parts were played. Robertson played and sang on the demo, and producer Chet Atkins admired the way Robertson slid into the melody on the piano, in a style similar to something that might be played on a guitar. Atkins asked his session pianist, Floyd Cramer, to approximate Robertson's demo, and the song's extraordinary success brought the new "slip-note" style into vogue.

Robertson penned his first pop #1 hit in 1964, when Lorne Green's version of "Ringo" topped the chart. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972.

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Song Catalog Highlights

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"Born to Be with You"

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"Does My Ring Hurt Your Finger"(written with Doris Clement, John Crutchfield)

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"I Don't Hurt Anymore"(written with Jack Rollins)

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"I Really Don't Want to Know"(written with Howard Barnes)

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"Ninety Miles an Hour (Down a Dead End Street)"(written with Hal Blair)

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"Please Help Me, I'm Falling"(written with Hal Blair)

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Song Catalog

"(I Can't Help You) I'm Falling Too"

(written with Hal Blair)

Skeeter Davis

1960

#2 country, #39 pop

"Anything That's Part of You"

Elvis Presley

1962

#31 pop

Billy "Crash" Craddock

1968

"Autumn on the Trail"

(written with Hal Blair)

The Sons of the Pioneers

1963

Riders in the Sky

1998

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"Born to Be with You"

The Chordettes

1956

#5 pop

Sonny James

1968

#1 country, #81 pop

Dave Edmunds

1973

Leo Kottke

1974

Sandy Posey

1978

#21 country

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"Does My Ring Hurt Your Finger"

(written with Doris Clement, John Crutchfield)

Charley Pride

1967

#4 country

"Hummingbird"

Les Paul & Mary Ford

1955

#7 pop

Frankie Laine

1955

#17 pop

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"I Don't Hurt Anymore"

(written with Jack Rollins)

Hank Snow

1954

#1 country

Dinah Washington

1954

#3 R&B

Narvel Felts

1977

#37 country

Linda Cassady

1977

#92 country

Prairie Oyster

1990

#70 country

"I Love You More and More Everyday"

Al Martino

1964

#9 pop, #3 adult contemporary

Sonny James

1973

#4 country

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"I Really Don't Want to Know"

(written with Howard Barnes)

Eddy Arnold

1954

#1 country

Les Paul & Mary Ford

1954

#11 pop

Ronnie Dove

1966

#22 pop

Elvis Presley

1971

#21 pop, #23 country, #2 adult contemporary

Charlie McCoy

1972

#19 country

Jason & the Scorchers

1985

Jerry Lee Lewis & Gillian Welch

2010

"I'm Counting on You"

Elvis Presley

1956

Kitty Wells

1956

"I'm Yours"

(written with Hal Blair)

Elvis Presley

1965

#11 pop

"I've Come to Say Goodbye"

(written with Hal Blair)

Faron Young

1963

#30 country

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"Ninety Miles an Hour (Down a Dead End Street)"

(written with Hal Blair)

Hank Snow

1963

#2 country

Bob Dylan

1988

John Berry

1995

"Not One Minute More"

(written with Hal Blair, Ella Robertson)

Della Reese

1960

#16 pop

The Isley Brothers

1960

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"Please Help Me, I'm Falling"

(written with Hal Blair)

Hank Locklin

1960

#1 country, #8 pop

Hank Locklin & Danny Davis

1968

#70 country

Janie Fricke

1978

#12 country

"Ringo"

(written with Hal Blair)

Lorne Green

1964

#1 pop, #1 adult contemporary, #21 country

"The Happy Whistler"

Don Robertson

1956

#9 pop

"There's Always Me"

Elvis Presley

1961

Ray Price

1979

#30 country

Jim Reeves

1981

#35 country

"You're Free to Go"

(written with Lou Herscher)

Carl Smith

1955

#6 country

Sonny James

1977

#9 country

Other Media

Undated photo of Don Robertson with songwriting memorabilia, including a single of the 1968 No. 1 country hit he wrote for Sonny James,
Don Robertson receives his Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame induction award from Ralph Emery, country disk jockey and TV host, in 1972.
In 1965, Don Robertson released Heart On My Sleeve (RCA), on which he performed 12 of his hits.