Arnold was born on May 15, 1918 on a farm near Henderson, Tennessee. His father, a sharecropper, played the fiddle, while his mother played guitar. As a boy Arnold helped on the farm, which later gained him his nickname—the Tennessee Plowboy. Arnold attended Pinson High School in Pinson, Tennessee, where he played guitar for school functions and events. He quit before graduation to help with the farm work, but continued performing, often arriving on a mule with his guitar hung on his back. Arnold also worked part-time as an assistant at a mortuary.
In 1934, at age 16, Arnold debuted musically on WTJS-AM in Jackson, Tennessee and obtained a job there during 1937. He performed at local nightclubs and was a permanent performer for the station. During 1938, he was hired by WMPS-AM in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was one of its most popular performers. He soon quit for KWK-AM in St. Louis, Missouri, followed by a brief stint at WHAS-AM in Louisville, Kentucky.
He performed for WSM-AM on the Grand Ole Opry during 1943 as a solo artist. In 1944, Arnold signed a contract with RCA Victor, with manager Colonel Tom Parker, who later managed Elvis Presley. Arnold's first single was little noticed, but the next, "Each Minute Seems a Million Years", scored No. 5 on the country charts during 1945. Its success began a decade of unprecedented chart performance; Arnold's next 57 singles all scored the Top Ten, including 19 number one scoring successes.
In 1946, Arnold scored his first major success with "That's How Much I Love You". In 1948, he had five successful songs on the charts simultaneously. That year he had nine songs score the top 10; five of these scored No. 1 and scored No. 1 for 40 of the year's 52 weeks. With Parker's management, Arnold continued to dominate, with 13 of the 20 best-scoring country music songs of 1947–1948. He became the host of Mutual Radio's Purina-sponsored segment of the Opry and of Mutual’s Checkerboard Jamboree, a midday program shared with Ernest Tubb that was broadcast from a Nashville theater. Recorded radio programs increased Arnold’s popularity, as did the CBS Radio series Hometown Reunion with the Duke of Paducah. Arnold quit the Opry during 1948, and his Hometown Reunion briefly broadcasted in competition with the Opry on Saturday nights. In 1949 and 1950, he performed in the Columbia movies Feudin’ Rhythm and Hoedown.
Arnold began working for television in the early 1950s, hosting The Eddy Arnold Show. The summer program was broadcast successively by all three television networks, replacing the Perry Como and Dinah Shore programs. He also performed as a guest and a guest host on the ABC-TV show Ozark Jubilee from 1955–60. Arnold featured in the syndicated Eddy Arnold Time from 1955 to 1957. From 1960 to 1961, he hosted NBC-TV's Today on the Farm.
With the rise of rock and roll in the 1950s, Arnold's record sales declined, though he and fellow RCA Victor recording artist Jim Reeves had a greater audience with popular-sounding string-laced arrangements. Arnold annoyed many people of the country music establishment by recording with the Hugo Winterhalter Orchestra at RCA's studios in New York. The pop-oriented arrangements of "The Cattle Call" and "The Richest Man (in the World)", however, helped to expand his appeal beyond its country music base. This style, pioneered by Reeves and Arnold, became known as the "Nashville Sound". During 1953, Arnold and Tom Parker had a dispute, and Arnold dismissed him. From 1954 to 1963, Arnold's performances were managed by Joe Csida; during 1964 Csida was replaced by Jerry Purcell.
Arnold embarked on a second career that brought his music to a more diverse audience. In the summer of 1965, he had his first Number One country song in ten years, What's He Doing in My World and struck gold again six months later with the song that would become his most well-known Make the World Go Away accompanied by pianist Floyd Cramer on piano and featuring the Anita Kerr Singers. As a result, Arnold's rendition became an international success.
Bill Walker's orchestra arrangements provided the lush background for 16 continuous successes sung by Arnold in the late 1960s. Arnold performed with symphony orchestras in New York City, Las Vegas and Hollywood. He performed in Carnegie Hall for two concerts, and in the Coconut Grove in Las Vegas.[9] During 1966, Arnold was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the youngest performer to receive the honor. The following year Arnold was voted the first-ever awarded Country Music Association's Entertainer Of The Year. Two years later, Arnold released an autobiography named It's A Long Way From Chester County.
Having been with RCA Victor since his debut during 1944, Arnold left the company in 1973 for MGM Records, for which he recorded four albums, which included several top 40 successes. He returned to RCA in 1976.
During the 1980s, Arnold declared himself semi-retired; however, he continued recording. In 1984, the Academy of Country Music awarded Arnold its Pioneer Award. His next album, You Don't Miss A Thing wasn't released until 1991. Arnold performed road tours for several more years. By 1992, he had sold nearly 85 million records, and had a total of 145 weeks of No. 1 songs, more than any other singer.
In 1996, RCA issued an album of Arnold's main successes since 1944 as part of its 'Essential' series. Arnold, then 76 years old, retired from active singing, though he still performed occasionally. On May 16, 1999, the day after his 81st birthday, he announced his final retirement during a concert at the Hotel Orleans in Las Vegas. That same year, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences inducted the recording of "Make The World Go Away" into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2000, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. In 2005, Arnold received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy, and later that year, released a final album for RCA entitled After All These Years.
Eddy Arnold died from natural causes at 5:00 a.m. Central Time on May 8, 2008 in a nursing home in Nashville, exactly one week before his 90th birthday. His wife of 66 years, Sally Gayhart Arnold, had preceded him in death by two months. They were survived by two children (Richard E. Arnold, Jr., and JoAnn Arnold Pollard), two grandchildren (K. Michelle Pollard and R. Shannon Pollard, Jr.), and four great-grandchildren (Katie E. Pollard, Sophie Pollard, Rowan Pollard and Ben Johns).
On May 31, 2008, RCA released "To Life", as a single from the album After All These Years. It debuted at No. 49 on the Hot Country Songs charts, Arnold's first entry in 25 years and the recording by the oldest person to chart in Billboard magazine. It set the record for the longest span between a first chart single and a last: 62 years and 11 months ("Each Minute Seems Like a Million Years" debuted on June 30, 1945), and extended Arnold's career chart history to seven decades.
Lonely Again
Eddy Arnold Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Were foolish to cause me to cry
And just when I learned to adore you
You kissed one more dream goodbye
And left me lonely again
Just like you found me
Lonely again
Just when I'm sure
That my heart is secure
And my tear drops are dry
With a warm glow inside
And this love of mine
Till the end of the line
That's always the time
That I'm lonely again
You told me you wanted me only
That this time and this love would last
You told me I'd never be lonely
And now you belong to the past
And I'm so lonely again
Just like you found me
Lonely again
No arms around me
Just when I'm sure
That my heart is secure
And my tear drops are dry
With a warm glow inside
And this love of mine
Till the end of the line
That's always the time
That I'm lonely again
The lyrics to Eddy Arnold's "Lonely Again" are a raw, emotional confession of heartbreak and disappointment. The singer of the song has fallen for someone who promises to love them and keep them company, only to leave them alone once again. The first stanza of the song demonstrates the cyclical nature of this heartbreak - just as the singer starts to feel safe and secure in their relationship, their lover leaves them. The second stanza highlights the broken promises made by the lover, who swore that the singer would never be alone, only for that promise to be broken in the end.
The chorus of the song is the heart of the emotion, as the singer is left alone without arms around them. The feelings of loneliness are palpable, and the singer confesses that even when they feel sure that their heart is secure and their tears have dried up, they always end up feeling lonely once again. This is a powerful and relatable sentiment, as so many people have experienced the heartbreak of being left alone by someone they love.
Overall, the lyrics to "Lonely Again" are a poignant portrayal of the pain of heartbreak and the never-ending cycle of loneliness that can result from it.
Line by Line Meaning
You told me that others before you
You claimed that others had made me cry before you came into my life
Were foolish to cause me to cry
You implied that those who hurt me in the past were not worth my tears
And just when I learned to adore you
Right when I had fallen completely in love with you
You kissed one more dream goodbye
You shattered one more hope or aspiration that I had for our future together
And left me lonely again
You abandoned me once more
Just like you found me
Just as I was when we first met - isolated and alone
Lonely again
Back to feeling the familiar emptiness of solitude
No arms around me
Without someone to hold and comfort me
Just when I'm sure
The moment when I feel most confident
That my heart is secure
That my emotions are stable and under control
And my tear drops are dry
When I have cried all the tears that I have to shed
With a warm glow inside
Feeling content and happy within myself
And this love of mine
This affection that I had hoped would last forever
Till the end of the line
Until our love came to a natural conclusion
That's always the time
It seems that when love runs its course, that is when
That I'm lonely again
I end up feeling alone once more
You told me you wanted me only
You professed to only want to be with me
That this time and this love would last
You promised that our relationship would endure
You told me I'd never be lonely
You guaranteed that I would never experience loneliness again
And now you belong to the past
Now you are no longer a part of my present or future
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: JEAN CHAPEL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind