| R.I.P. 1922 - 2015 Donald Irwin Robertson was born in Beijing, China 1922 to O.H. and Ruth Robertson. His father, a noted physician and medical scientist (developer of the first Blood Bank), was then head of the Department of Medicine at Peking Union Medical College. His mother, herself a talented pianist and poet/playwright, noticing his interest in the piano, started him on lessons at age four. He began composing simple songs around age seven.
Don was fascinated by all kinds of music from cowboy songs to the symphonic music that nightly issued from his father's vast record library, as well as for the hymns he sang in the church choir on Chicago's South Side. Today, among his manuscripts, you will find everything from jazz to symphonic works. In order to join the high school band (which did not use piano) Don also learned to play brass instruments and joined the marching band playing trombone and tenor horn. During high school and college he played piano in local dance orchestras and was earning money at it by age 14. In college, beset with conflicts, he was torn between following in his father's footsteps (as both his brothers did) and his love of music. He enrolled as a pre-med major and music minor at the University of Chicago, where his father was Professor of Medicine, but dropped out before completing pre-med and subsequently, through the help of musician friends, piano & organ team Harry Frohman & Dick Platt, he landed a job as musical arranger at Chicago Radio Station WGN, arranging for a girl's trio, the Brandt Sisters.
In 1945 he travelled to Los Angeles, as accompanist and arranger with another Chicago girls's trio, the Dinning Sisters. For a time, he played in Los Angeles area night clubs and, along with Lou Dinning, made demo records for publishers and songwriters. In the early fifties he worked for several years as a rehearsal pianist at Capitol Records in Hollywood, occasionally playing on record sessions as a keyboard sideman. Don dates his professional career as a songwriter from about 1953, when he began collaborating with Hal Blair. In 1954 he scored his first major hit with I REALLY DON'T WANT TO KNOW (co-written with Howard Barnes and first recorded by Eddy Arnold). Close to two-hundred different versions by major artists have been recorded on this song since, with combined sales of dozens of millions. That same year, I DON'T HURT ANYMORE (Hank Snow), co-written with Jack Rollins, was the top selling song on the Country Charts for half a year. In this same period he also scored with: CONDEMNED WITHOUT TRIAL (Eddy Arnold); GO BACK YOU FOOL (Faron Young); BORN TO BE WITH YOU (The Chordettes); YOU'RE FREE TO GO (Carl Smith); HUMMINGBIRD (Les Paul & Mary Ford); and I'M COUNTING ON YOU (Kitty Wells, Elvis Presley). In 1956 Don had a hit record of his own on Capitol with THE HAPPY WHISTLER.
In 1960 PLEASE HELP ME I'M FALLING, co-written with Hal Blair, was one of the biggest country hits of the year and was a Top Ten Pop Hit as well. It has since become a country standard. Don's piano and voice demo on this song also spawned the so-called Floyd Cramer piano style. In 1964 RINGO, co-written with Hal Blair and recorded by LORNE GREENE, went to #1 on the Billboard Pop Hot 100. In 1967 DOES MY RING HURT YOUR FINGER, co-written with Jack Clement and John Crutchfield, went to #1 Country and earned a Grammy Nomination for best C&W song of the year. The artist was CHARLEY PRIDE. Don also played piano on Pride's RCA recording, produced by Jack Clement. Don had a total of 14 songs recorded by ELVIS PRESLEY, six of which are in Presley movies. As a pianist, probably Don's greatest contribution to the music world to date is the creation of the unique piano style now known as "Slip-Note Piano" or "Nashville Piano" (a misnomer, as it originated in Don's studio in Los Angeles), which was first adopted and popularized by, and is associated, as noted above, with the name of pianist Floyd Cramer. Don has also played piano or other keyboards for many top recording artists including: CHET ATKINS, NAT KING COLE, JESSI COLTER, DUANE EDDY, WAYLON JENNINGS, ANN MARGRET, AL MARTINO, ELVIS PRESLEY, RAY PRICE, CHARLEY PRIDE, JOHN PRINE, JERRY WALLACE, NANCY WILSON. Repeat successes written by Don include: THERE'S ALWAYS ME (Ray Price); PLEASE HELP ME I'M FALLING (Janie Fricke); BORN TO BE WITH YOU (Sonny James, Sandy Posey); YOU'RE FREE TO GO (Sonny James); I DON'T HURT ANYMORE (Dinah Washington) and in the Hot Hundred for the sixth time, I REALLY DON'T WANT TO KNOW (Elvis Presley). On her album, "Burlap and Satin", Dolly Parton teamed up with Willie Nelson for a particularly beautiful rendition of I REALLY DON'T WANT TO KNOW. As with this song, many of Don's songs have been repeat hits abroad as well as in the U.S. Some have been translated into as many as eight languages. In addition to 25 singles, Don recorded an album for RCA: "Heart On My Sleeve" in which he sings and plays 12 of his hits. For many years, visitors to Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida and Disney Parks in Japan and France could hear Don (in his disguise as Gomer the computerized bear) featured at the piano playing his own innovative composition, PIANJO, in the opening number of the "Country Bear Jamboree."
In the mid-eighties Don teamed up with Billy Swan (famous for I CAN HELP) and their efforts produced three National Country Chart songs, via Billy Swan recordings on Epic Records: WITH THEIR KIND OF MONEY AND OUR KIND OF LOVE; YOUR PICTURE STILL LOVES ME (co-written with John Crutchfield) and YES. Over the years, Don collaborated many times with Sheb Wooley (of PURPLE PEOPLE EATER fame). Sheb's outstanding CD, "Tales from How The West Was Won," includes several of these songs. Don described the present era as a golden age for keyboard players, since nearly every instrumental sound known can be reproduced via the keyboard. In 1984 he also arranged, performed and recorded sound tracks for two short films, in one of which he appears as a piano bar entertainer. His activities in past years also included appearances with the Waylon Jennings show (playing piano for Jessi Colter) at the Sahara Tahoe, with the Kris Kristofferson show (working with Billy Swan) at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, and appearances at Nashville clubs playing keyboards for such artists as Jack Clement, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, and Sheb Wooley. In 1967 his name was added to the Walkway of Stars at Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum where some of his work was put on permanent exhibit. In 1972, he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Association's Songwriter's Hall of Fame.
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At
the time when I used to visit the Sandburg home, he was working
on a collection of folk songs which later was published in
a book called The American Song Bag. Carl often played
guitar and sang. One time he showed me a few chords for me
to play on my $6 Sears&Roebuck guitar. My parents didn't
think much of cowboy songs but they admired 
Sandburg,
and Sandburg loved those songs. That was inspiring to me.
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