Fifty years ago this month, Marty Robbins signature song "El Paso" began a seven week run at the top of the Billboard Country Chart.

I was reminded of this via a post at cmt.com. The writer pointed out that the song’s length of

about 4 ½ minutes was unusually long for that era, and was played more frequently in-part because the long length allowed the DJ to take a break. "El Paso" was the first of what would be dubbed a ‘bathroom song’.

You see, back in the old days, before automated systems and computers made it possible to play songs back to back, we had to play each song manually. By the early 90's most radio stations had equipment that could play songs consecutively, just like an ipod. Before then the DJ had to push a button or flip a switch to play every song, commercial, jingle or soundbite. As the normal airshift was 4-6 hours, and most country songs were less than three minutes long, well I’m sure you can imagine the problems that might come up. "El Paso" solved the biggest one for the first generation of country DJ’s, and opened the door for the relief of those of us who followed, by making it okay for songs to be long enough for us to, uh, take a break.

At four and a half minutes, "El Paso" was barely more than average length by today’s standards.

Since then many, perhaps hundreds of country songs have been released that ran much longer.

In no particular order, here are some of my all-time favorites;

My Home’s in Alabama- Alabama, 6+ minutes,

Every Thing That Glitters-Dan Seals, 5+

You Still Move me-Dan Seals, 5+

Boot Scootin’ Boogie (dance mix)-Brooks & Dunn, 6 ½

Kay-John Wesley Ryles, 5+

Red-Headed Stranger Album-Willie Nelson, ? (there’s no space between the songs, so it could be played as long as needed.)