Eddy Arnold
Eddy Arnold got his Tennessee Plowboy sobriquet growing up working the family farm in rural Tennessee. The image likely helped along in the early years performing locally where he often arrived on a mule with his guitar slung over his back. Better that than the image he might have picked up earning early career income working as a mortuary assistant.
Fortunately radio came to the rescue in 1937 with a gig at WTJS AM in Jackson, Tennessee. From Jackson he went on Memphis (WMPS) and a succession of ever larger markets in St. Louis (KWK), and Louisville (WHAS). He got to the Grand Ole Opry (WSM) in 1943 and there signed Colonel Tom Parker as manager. Parker picked up another artist who had something to do with the explosive popularity of Rock ‘N Roll. Elvis something or other as I recall.
Parker got Eddy started recording at RCA Victor with “Each Minute Seems a Million Years” topping the charts at number five. Eddy would go on to chart 57 top ten singles, 19 at number one over the next ten years. Arnold hit the small screen with The Eddy Arnold Show, summer replacement (remember those) for Perry Como and Dinah Shore. He hosted Ozark Jubilee on a run from ’55 – ’60.
The mid-fifties rise of Rock ‘N Roll saw Arnold’s record sales slide. It led to orchestral arrangements for songs like “The Cattle Call” and “The Richest Man in the World.” Songs that came to be called “The Nashville Sound.” In 1965 Eddy Arnold gave us his signature “Make The World Go Away,” a song we will ever remember him for. A song that saw Arnold become the youngest inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the first CMA Entertainer of the Year.
Eddy Arnold charted 147 songs selling 85 million records over a career spanning six decades. “Make The World Go Away” received Grammy Hall of Fame recognition by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Eddy Arnold is a National Medal of the Arts recipient and holder of the Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Next Week: Conway Twitty
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Ride easy,
Paul
Fortunately radio came to the rescue in 1937 with a gig at WTJS AM in Jackson, Tennessee. From Jackson he went on Memphis (WMPS) and a succession of ever larger markets in St. Louis (KWK), and Louisville (WHAS). He got to the Grand Ole Opry (WSM) in 1943 and there signed Colonel Tom Parker as manager. Parker picked up another artist who had something to do with the explosive popularity of Rock ‘N Roll. Elvis something or other as I recall.
Parker got Eddy started recording at RCA Victor with “Each Minute Seems a Million Years” topping the charts at number five. Eddy would go on to chart 57 top ten singles, 19 at number one over the next ten years. Arnold hit the small screen with The Eddy Arnold Show, summer replacement (remember those) for Perry Como and Dinah Shore. He hosted Ozark Jubilee on a run from ’55 – ’60.
The mid-fifties rise of Rock ‘N Roll saw Arnold’s record sales slide. It led to orchestral arrangements for songs like “The Cattle Call” and “The Richest Man in the World.” Songs that came to be called “The Nashville Sound.” In 1965 Eddy Arnold gave us his signature “Make The World Go Away,” a song we will ever remember him for. A song that saw Arnold become the youngest inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the first CMA Entertainer of the Year.
Eddy Arnold charted 147 songs selling 85 million records over a career spanning six decades. “Make The World Go Away” received Grammy Hall of Fame recognition by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Eddy Arnold is a National Medal of the Arts recipient and holder of the Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Next Week: Conway Twitty
Return to Facebook to comment.
Ride easy,
Paul
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