Eddy Arnold – Somebody Like Me (1966/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 29:10 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RLG – Legacy

It is telling that Somebody Like Me, one of the blandest middle-of-the-road pop records Eddy Arnold made in the ’60s, was also one of his most commercially successful. Its strong sales performance explains why the so-called Tennessee Plowboy came to make such an abundance of easy listening records: a lot of people were buying them. There are several good songs, but the sweet, languid arrangements lack the moodiness and atmospherics of his best easy listening records. The limp interpretation of Bill Anderson’s “The Tips of My Fingers” was a number three hit, and “Somebody Like Me” spent a month at number one. The appearance of “Lay Some Happiness on Me” a year before either Dean Martin or Bobby Wright had a hit with it is notable, but chart status notwithstanding, Somebody Like Me is not one of Arnold’s strongest albums.

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Eddy Arnold – Romantic World of Eddy Arnold (1968/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 34:51 minutes | 794 MB | Genre: Country, Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA – Legacy

Eddy Arnold moved hillbilly music to the city, creating a sleek sound that relied on his smooth voice and occasionally lush orchestrations. In the process, he became the most popular country performer of the 20th century, spending more weeks at the top of the charts than any other artist. Arnold not only had 28 number one singles, he had more charting singles than any other artist. More than any other country performer of the postwar era, he was responsible for bringing the music to the masses, to people who wouldn’t normally listen to country music. Arnold was initially influenced by cowboy singers like Gene Autry, but as his career progressed, he shaped his phrasing in the style of Pete Cassell. Nevertheless, he was more of a crooner than a hillbilly singer, which is a large reason why he was embraced by the entertainment industry at large, and frequently crossed over to the pop charts. Arnold’s career ran strong into the ’90s. Although his records didn’t dominate the charts like they did during the ’40s and ’50s, he continued to fill concert halls and reissues of his older recordings sold well.

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Eddy Arnold – Loving Her Was Easier (1971/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 25:57 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA – Legacy

Richard Edward Arnold (May 15, 1918 – May 8, 2008) was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a Nashville sound (country/popular music) innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts, second only to George Jones. He sold more than 85 million records. A member of the Grand Ole Opry (beginning 1943) and the Country Music Hall of Fame (beginning 1966), Arnold ranked 22nd on Country Music Television’s 2003 list of “The 40 Greatest Men of Country Music.”

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Eddy Arnold – I Want to Go with You (1966/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 29:57 minutes | 1,06 GB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RLG – Legacy

“I Want to Go With You” spent six weeks at the top of the country chart and crossed over to the pop Top 40, becoming one of the biggest hits of the year and one of Eddy Arnold’s biggest hits in the ’60s. The song is a pure pop ballad with a luxuriant vocal chorus that sounds more like something Vic Damone would have recorded in the ’50s than the product of a country artist, and that may be why Arnold’s huge easy listening hits from the ’60s are not as highly regarded today as his earlier country recordings: In the ’60s, he had a huge following among older, traditional pop lovers who have since sailed to glory on the ebb tide. Easy listening vocal music is a hard sell to most younger listeners and, consequently, Arnold’s ultra-smoothie phase faces an ever-shrinking pool of potential listeners. The handful who remember Arnold from his heyday and appreciate the font of old-fashioned pop music he became will enjoy most of the album I Want to Go With You because it is molded in the image of its big hit single. A couple of mildly countrified cuts are slipped in toward the end to placate the country crowd, but the album is mainly a string-laden extravaganza of pop vocal music (even though many of the songs were written by Nashville songwriters) ably sung and arranged for maximum crossover appeal.

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