Eddy Arnold

Eddy Arnold died yesterday. He was 89. He recorded one last album a couple of years ago, which some people criticized, but I love to hear old people sing. He was coming from a vantage point many of us will never achieve. I loved his early stuff. When I was a kid I had some 78rpm records by "Eddy Arnold, the Tennessee Plowboy and his Guitar" -- Molly Darling, Bouquet of Roses, I'd Trade All of My Tomorrows (For Just One Yesterday), Don't Rob Another Man's Castle, It's A Sin -- all of them featuring the ting-a-ling non-pedal steel of Little Roy Wiggins. In 1947 he had a massive hit with an old Emmett Miller song called "Anytime." Two years later, brash newcomer Hank Williams had a massive hit with an old Emmett Miller song called "Lovesick Blues." Eddy was that influential. Before he came on the scene, country singers sang mountain style. He was the first one to sound as if he might have heard a Bing Crosby record. He knocked off the edges and paved the way for Red Foley and Jim Reeves. He took some flack for going uptown in the 1960s with his "world" songs, all of them done to the nines with orchestra and chorus, but he was resolute. He was in the business of selling records. "I've been poor," he said, "and I don't ever want to be poor again." He made me a little richer with his wonderful music. Rest in peace.