I’m a guy. I like movies like Smokey and the Bandit and The Waterboy. I’m also a country music fan. Therefore, it’s a sad day because Jerry Reed has died due to complications from emphysema. We’ll miss you, Snowman.

Jerry Reed on Wikipedia

The Fox News Story

Andy Griffith helps Brad Paisley out.

Eddy Arnold passed away today.

When I was in high school and spinning vinyl (yes, vinyl) at KITO in Vinita, Eddy was certainly on the playlist. At the time, he also released a new album on CD, titled “Last of the Love Song Singers,” that included old hits and new recordings. It was a good album, and I remember giving some of the singles some airplay.

Country music is a broad spectrum of sounds and styles, and Eddy Arnold was a pioneer of what has become known as the Nashville sound. According to Wikipedia:

With the advent of rock and roll, Arnold’s record sales dipped in the late 1950s. Along with RCA Victor label-mate Jim Reeves, he continued to try to court a wider audience by using pop-sounding, string-laced arrangements, a style that would come to be known as the Nashville sound.

As a fan of much music, I have appreciated both Eddy Arnold and Jim Reeves. Some of the Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline duets were great. I can’t sing at all, but I sure have tried to replicate, “Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone…”.

But, back to Eddy. NewsOK reports that Eddy has several Oklahoma ties:

Oklahoma ties
Arnold made many trips to Oklahoma City during his lengthy career, as a performer, business mogul and crusader against music piracy.

The crooner made his first concert stop in Oklahoma City on March 2, 1949, performing two shows at Municipal Auditorium.

He also performed in Oklahoma City in 1950 and 1967.

Arnold returned for a pair of shows in 1969 at Civic Center Music Hall. Arnold received the title “Cowboy Extraordinaire,” a distinction given to famed film and stage stars, from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. The late John Kirkpatrick presented the singer with a Western hat and a certificate naming him an honorary life member.

Along with Conway Twitty, Charley Pride and Henson Cargill, Arnold spoke passionately to the state House Judiciary Committee in 1974 in support of a bill to prohibit reproductions of stereo tapes without written permission from the owner of the master records.

The Legislature passed the tape pirating ban in 1975.

In 1977, the singer/businessman returned to the city on behalf of his food company to introduce his line of Eddy Arnold Country Style Beans.

Eddy must have made pretty penny off the songs and the beans, because one of the lines in the Statler Brothers’ song, “How to Be a Country Star,” gives this advice:

Be rich like Eddy Arnold.

In his career he worked closely with two of my other favorites, Chet Atkins and Floyd Cramer.

Eddy made it to 89, and he is just another part of a great heritage of music that we are losing day by day. I’ll be listening to some Eddy Arnold recordings tonight in his memory, and I’m sure they’ll include this:

Make the World Go Away (lyrics and music by Hank Cochran)

Make the world go away
Get it off my shoulder
Say the things we used to say
And make the world, make it go away

Do you remember when you loved me
Before the world took you away
Well if you do, then forgive me
And make the world, make it go away

Make the world go away
Get it off my shoulder
Say the things we used to say
And make the world, make it go away

Now I’m sorry if I hurt you
Let me make it up to you day by day
And if you will please forgive me
And make the world, make it go away

Make the world go away
Get it off my shoulder
Say the things we used to say
And make the world, make it go away

Rest in peace, Eddy. The shoulders are bound to be a bit lighter now.