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    Country Star Eddy Arnold Dead at 89

    http://pal2pal.com/BLOGEE/index.php?/site/country_star_eddy_...
    120 days ago in Pal2pal · Authority: 36

    Another one of country music greats has died. A legend who inspired singers from Kenny Rogers to Elvis. One of Nashville’s pioneers of what has been called the “Nashville Sound” with album sales reported as more than 85 million. May he go with God and rest in peace. NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Eddy Arnold, whose mellow baritone on songs like “Make the World Go Away” made him one of the most successful country singers in history, died Thursday morning, days short of his 90th birthday. Arnold died at a care facility near Nashville, said Don Cusic, a professor at Belmont University and author of the biography “Eddy Arnold: I’ll Hold You in My Heart.” His wife of 66 years, Sally, had died in March, and in the same month, Arnold fell outside his home, injuring his hip. Arnold’s vocals on songs like the 1965 “Make the World Go Away,” one of his many No. 1 country hits and a top 10 hit on the pop charts, made him one of the most successful country singers in history. Folksy yet sophisticated, he became a pioneer of “The Nashville Sound,” also called “countrypolitan,” a mixture of country and pop styles. His crossover success paved the way for later singers such as Kenny Rogers. “I sing a little country, I sing a little pop and I sing a little folk, and it all goes together,” he said in 1970. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966. The following year he was the first person to receive the entertainer of the year award from the Country Music Association. The reference book “Top Country Singles 1944-1993,”’ by Joel Whitburn, ranked Arnold the No. 1 country singer in terms of overall success on the Billboard country charts. It lists his first No. 1 hit as “What Is Life Without Love,” 1947, and for the following year ranks his “Bouquet of Roses” as the biggest country hit of the entire year. Read more And this song by Eddy was a song we sang at camp. I had the thought when listening to it again today that it is song that Barack and Michelle Obama ought to listen to and take to heart. A sentiment, it seems, shared by Reliapundit, who has also posted it along with the lyrics by a “star for bitter white folks.”