1956 (Sales):Singing the Blues — Marty Robbins (Columbia)
1956 (Jukebox): Singing the Blues — Marty Robbins (Columbia)
1956 (Disc Jockeys): Singing the Blues — Marty Robbins (Columbia)
1966: Somebody Like Me — Eddy Arnold (RCA)
1976: Somebody Somewhere (Don’t Know What He’s Missin’ Tonight) — Loretta Lynn (MCA)
1986: You’re Still New to Me — Marie Osmond with Paul Davis (Capitol/Curb)
1996: Strawberry Wine — Deana Carter (Capitol)
2006: Before He Cheats — Carrie Underwood (Arista)
2016: Blue Ain’t Your Color — Keith Urban (Capitol)
2016 (Airplay): Middle of a Memory — Cole Swindell (Warner Bros.)
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My Kind of Country 
1965 was Eddy Arnold’s “comeback” year. Absent from the top of the charts for more than a decade Eddy scored two number one country hits with “What’s He Doing In My World” and “Make The World Go Away.” The latter song also became his only top ten pop hit. That success paid huge dividends in 1966 when Eddy achieved multiple career milestones. He began the year with a January trip to England where his TV and radio appearances helped to propel “Make The World Go Away” into the British top ten. On February 14th Eddy and his wife Sally traveled to Washington, DC at the invitation of President Johnson to attend a state dinner at the White House. Four days after his 48th birthday Eddy headlined his first Carnegie Hall Concert in New York on May 19th. During the first nine months of 1966 he scored country hits with “I Want To Go With You” [#1], “The Last Word In Lonesome Is Me” [#2] and “The Tip Of My Fingers” [#3]. But the highlight of Eddy’s year came on October 19th when he was inducted to the Country Music Hall Of Fame. Unfortunately Eddy was suffering from a bout of the flu and had to leave his sick bed to accept the unexpected honor.
Back in those days induction to the Country Hall Of Fame was was generally made to artists posthumously or to acts that had passed their prime hit-making years. But in Eddy’s case he was in the midst of an amazing career revival that would continue for years to come. At the time of his Hall Of Fame induction RCA Victor had just released a new Eddy Arnold single. After making his comeback with orchestrated Nashville Sound ballads featuring strings and background voices Eddy changed his pace with a medium tempo song from Wayne Carson Thompson. “Somebody Like Me” began with a subdued intro and built to a crescendo featuring a prominent brass section. The catchy sing-along lyrics propelled the single to a four week stay at the top of the country chart bringing a most memorable year to a close.
The original 2:26 hit version of that song is linked to above. However when RCA Victor released Eddy’s Best Of Volume II album in 1970 they mistakenly included a shorter alternate version of the song [2:00] that features a slightly different arrangement and omits the final verse.
Eddy Arnold had an amazing career. While I think that his best material was from the 1945-1952 period, others disagree and prefer his 1960s renaissance. Eddy was the first performer to win the CMA Entertainer of the Year after being elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame (George Strait and Garth Brooks did it recently)
It has always bugged me that Eddy never received the Kennedy Center Honors – he was of far greater significance than many of the honorees
Ken is correct as to his assertions about the early inductees to the CMHOF. The initial three (Hank Williams, Fred Rose and Jimmie Rodgers were deceased, but that is to be expected from an inaugural class for a genre of 30+ years standing. From there the inductees were the still living Roy Acuff (1962), Tex Ritter (1964), Ernest Tubb (1965). Two of Four 1966 inductees were still alive in 1966 and two of four 1967 inductees were still with us in 1967. There was such a huge backlog that the voters literally could not get to currently charting stars until the early 1980s when Johnny Cash and Marty Robbins were inducted. The 57 year old Robbins had only a few more months to live when inducted, something that I’m sure most of the voters suspected, but whether a sympathetic vote or not, no one is more qualified to be in the CMHOF than Marty Robbins
Like Marty Robbins Eddy has several “phases” to his career and I actually enjoyed all of them. He easily handled all type of songs and was at ease with a traditional country band or a symphony orchestra or just his guitar. I’ve always thought his mid-to-late 60’s songs were superb and loved the great arrangements created by Bill Walker. I have been very disappointed that although his albums from that period sold in huge numbers to country and pop fans only one of those has been reissued on CD.
Never giving Eddy the Kennedy Center Honor is unfortunate. There was a concerted effort about a decade ago to make that happen. A petition was circulated to present to the decision makers. It apparently fell on deaf ears or perhaps those that made the selections at that time were not aware of Eddy’s significance.
It took more than a decade after the awards were first instituted [1978] for an artist from the country genre to be chosen. Roy Acuff was selected in 1991 and since then Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, George Jones and Merle Haggard. Other honor-worthy country names that were alive during the course of the awards include Chet Atkins, Gene Autry, Buck Owens, Roy Rogers and Kitty Wells to list just a few others that were overlooked.
The only two glaring misses from country and related music who would indisputably have qualified for the Kennedy Center honors–based on longevity and the continued relevance of their music–but failed to receive the award, in my view, would be Eddy Arnold and Bill Monroe.
I don’t know if the people pushing for Arnold to be awarded got the Senators from Tennessee–or from any other state–to back their effort, but I think that’s the sort of thing that’s often done.
It’s interesting to figure which currently living country artists should receive that award in the future. I can’t think of anyone who’s a “lock,” but ones who may yet qualify would be Reba McEntire, George Strait and possibly Alan Jackson.