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Take a spin with Golden Graham's choice album reviews

 

 Eddy Arnold Eddy Arnold

After All These Years

RCA 82876-707102

 

Originally dubbed The Tennessee Plowboy, Richard Edward Arnold started singing on radio station WTJS Jackson, Tennessee in 1936. Arnold played various venues during the following years and in 1943 was playing six-days a week on WSM, before signing to RCA Records. Arnoldan early photo of Eddy made his country chart debut in 1945 with "Each Minute Seems A Million Years" and saw his first number-one in 1947 with "What Is Life Without Love". His thirteenth number-one came in 1955 with "Cattle Call" and hit the charts again 54 years later with that very same song when he recorded a new version with the up-and-coming starlet LeAnn Rimes in 1999. By 1966 Arnold had earned a new nickname 'The Ambassador Of Country Music' after his softer technique brought him success with pop and easy-listening arrangements.

After All These Years is a brand new CD that Eddy has been working on for some time. This is his 100th album release and not many other artists, if any can claim the same achievement. 12 tracks with all but one song being New…in as much as Eddy has not recorded them before. The one song that he revisits is his golden classic "You Don't Know Me" from 1956. After All These Years comes with no studio enhancement of his voice…this is the way he wanted it!!! Now aged 87 Eddy Arnold's voice has lost a lot of its strength, but my goodness can the man still sing and make you sit-up and listen after almost 70 years in the CD cover business. Stylistically Eddy's voice still has that wonderful, rich and warm feel about it that has kept him at the top of the tree all these years.

Teaming up with producer "Cowboy" Jack Clement, Eddy Arnold offers his own interpretation to standards "When I Dream" and Roger Miller's "King Of The Road". With an emotional weight of lyrics and romantic sensibility, other notable songs to be found here include the sweetly-yearning "I'm Gonna Be Home With You", "If I Lived My Life Without You", "After All These Years", plus the nostalgic "Old Porch Swing" kicking-off this prestigious set.

Billboard magazine ranked Eddy as the Eddy Arnold No1 country star of all-time, with record sales that are said to have topped 85 million. He has had 92 top-ten hits, with 28 sitting on the top-spot. Eddy's career has seen a total of 145 weeks spent at the No 1 spot, which is unmatched by any other star. In 2000 the White House presented Eddy with the National Medal of Arts. Similarly the Recording Academy gave Eddy its Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005

The leading American magazine USA TODAY is planning on doing an article around this CD. At the age of 87 will we see Eddy Arnold chart again!!! Journalist Robert K. Oermann who has written the liner notes has the last word. "Cherish this music and cherish this man. We will not see his like again".