Country Music Hall of Fame member Eddy Arnold recording in Nashville's historic RCA Studio B. Photo courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
May 8, 2008 — Some 40 years ago, Eddy Arnold showed up at Nashville's RCA Studio B with a small rhythm section, an orchestra and a backing vocal group for the second of three successive days of recording. To close the proceedings, he whipped out "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye," which songwriter John D. Loudermilk had performed just two months prior when Eddy hosted a national TV special. Neither Eddy nor producer Chet Atkins knew it at the time, but it would be the last No. 1 single in one of country music's most prolific and successful careers.
Eddy gave a permanent goodbye early Thursday, May 8, just two months after Sally, his wife of 66 years, died. In his parting, he left an incredible imprint on Nashville and on American culture. Forced to quit school in the 10th grade to support his family by working on a farm, he managed to turn the language of love—rather than the soil of Tennessee—into his life's work. Before he turned 30 he earned his first hits, and he continued to launch records into the Top 15 on the Billboard country singles charts in five consecutive decades.
Originally nicknamed the Tennessee Plowboy, he reinvented himself as a debonair crooner in the 1960s, eschewing fiddles and steel guitars in favor of the pop-influenced instrumentation of the Nashville Sound, exemplified in the session for "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye." Along the way, he became one of the first 10 people inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the first artist named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association.
Country Music Hall of Fame member Eddy Arnold. Photo courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Here's a quick timeline of one of country's most influential performers:
• May 15, 1918 – Eddy Arnold is born in Henderson, Tenn., the son of a farmer.
• May 1929 – His father, Will, dies on Eddy's 11th birthday. Less than two years later, their property is purchased at auction. The family becomes tenant farmers, rather than landowners.
• January 1938 – Less than a year after landing his first radio show in Jackson, Tenn., Eddy takes a job on a Memphis station. The job lasts less than a month, but during his stay, Eddy's voice is recorded for the first time.
• January 1940 – Eddy becomes the lead singer for Pee Wee King's Golden West Cowboys.
• November 1941 – Eddy marries Sally Gayhart in Nashville.
• December 1944 – He holds his first session at the WSM Studios in Nashville. The date includes "The Cattle Call," which becomes a theme song for the early part of his career.
• December 1945 – Eddy and Sally have a daughter, Jo Ann.
Country Music Hall of Fame member Eddy Arnold. Photo courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
• July 1948 – Country music airs on national television for the first time. Eddy is part of the broadcast, along with Kitty Wells and Johnny & Jack.
• September 1948 – Eddy quits the Grand Ole Opry to host "Hometown Reunion" on the CBS Radio Network. His theme song is "The Cattle Call."
• January 1949 – Eddy and Sally have a son, Richard.
• September 1950 – The NBC Radio Network debuts "The Eddy Arnold Show." His theme, once again, is "Cattle Call."
• July 1952 – "The Eddy Arnold Show" debuts as a summer replacement series on CBS.
• April 1955 – Eddy records a new version of "The Cattle Call" with Hugo Winterhalter's orchestra in New York.
• December 1955 – Eddy records "You Don't Know Me," in which he is billed as a co-writer with Cindy Walker. In addition to his own version, the song becomes a hit later for Ray Charles and for Mickey Gilley.
Eddy Arnold's 1966 induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Photo courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
• June 1965 – Eddy records "Make The World Go Away" in Nashville.
• October 1966 – Eddy joins the Country Music Hall of Fame.
• October 1967 – He wins the CMA's first Entertainer of the Year honor.
• April 1968 – Eddy records "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye" and begins a seven-week run as the host of NBC's "The Kraft Music Hall."
• February 1970 – Eddy is presented an award in New York recognizing 60 million record sales.
• August 1971 – Eddy's son, Dickey, suffers an automobile accident in Alabama and spends nine weeks in a coma.
Country Music Hall of Fame member Eddy Arnold.
• May 1984 – Eddy accepts the Academy of Country Music's Pioneer Award.
• March 1990 – Eddy has double-bypass heart surgery.
• May 1999 – Eddy performs his final concert in Las Vegas.
• December 2000 – Eddy receives the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton.
• March 2008 – Eddy breaks his hip when he falls on his driveway. Sally dies nine days later.
• May 8, 2008 – Eddy dies in a Nashville care facility.
• May 12, 2008 – RCA Nashville was planning to release a special single to radio to mark what would have been Eddy's 90th birthday (on Thursday, May 15th). That song, "To Life," will be released as planned, in the spirit that it was originally intended -- to celebrate the life and career of the man that Billboard ranks as the No. 1 Country Artist of All Time.