CMT Country Music Hall of Fame Member Eddy Arnold Dies at Age 89

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Pioneer of the "Nashville Sound" Took Country Music to a Wider Audience

May 8, 2008; Written by Ronnie Pugh

• Before Garth Brooks came along, Arnold was easily country music’s biggest record-seller. Sales of his discs from the mid-1940s to the present, in every recorded medium from 78s to CDs, have topped 80 million. Along the way, Arnold became a key figure in “urbanizing” country music — smoothing it out, opening it to influences from the wider world of pop music — a trend you could almost guess by knowing that his early musical favorites were Vernon Dalhart, Gene Autry, Gene Austin, and Bing Crosby. The list of those he influenced is headed by Marty Robbins and Jim Reeves.