Country music legend Eddy Arnold has died.

Country Music Hall of Famer Eddy Arnold died this morning (May 8 ) at an assisted living center near Nashville. He was 89 and would have celebrated his 90th birthday on May 15. Arnold is considered the top country artist ever in terms of overall chart performance in Billboard.

Known as the Tennessee Plowboy, the Tennessee native enjoyed both pop and country hits, including “Make The World Go Away,” “I Want To Go With You,” “Turn The World Around,” “I Really Don’t Want To Know” and “You Don’t Know Me.”

Arnold notched 28 Billboard No. 1 country singles, from 1947 until 1968, and had 92 top 10 hits, including 67 in a row, more than any other artist. Arnold’s 1947 song “I’ll Hold You in My Heart” spent 21 weeks at No. 1, and “Bouquet Of Roses” spent 19 weeks atop the chart in 1948. In the entire year of 1948 only one record that wasn’t by Arnold topped the country chart.

Arnold was also a savvy businessman, investing in hundreds of acres of real estate and other business concerns.

His 100th album, “After All This Time,” was released in 2005 on RCA.

Source: Billboard - Country Star Eddy Arnold Dies

For a timeline of Eddy Arnold’s accomplishments and career milestones, see:

• The Legacy of Eddy Arnold

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Eddy Arnold Country Music Hall of Fame Induction in 1966

Eddy Arnold, live performance of “Cattle Call” from an appearance on “Salute To The ’50s” on TNN.

Eddy Arnold, live performance of “Anytime” from an appearance on “Salute To The ’50s” on TNN.

Eddy Arnold performing “Make The World Go Away” introduced by Minnie Pearl

Eddy Arnold performing “Richest Man in All the World”

R&B Soul singer Al Wilson, best known for his 1974 Billboard No. 1 hit single “Show and Tell,” has died at 68.

Wilson died Monday of kidney failure at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fontana, according to his son, Tony Wilson of Yucaipa.

“He was always singing,” his son said. “He would call me in the middle of the night with a new song that he had written.”

Wilson was born on June 19, 1939, in Meridian, Miss. He sang in the church choir as a boy and had his own spiritual singing quartet. His family moved to San Bernardino in 1958 and he found work as a mail carrier, office clerk and janitor.

He toured for four years with the group Johnny “Legs” Harris and the Statesmen before joining the Navy. Following a two-year stint, he moved to Los Angeles and played with the Jewels and their successor group, the Rollers. A drummer, he also worked with the instrumental group the Souls.

In 1966, he was spotted by manager Marc Gordon, who introduced him to singer Johnny Rivers, who signed him to his Soul City label. Wilson’s first single, “The Snake” in 1968, was a hit and was followed by “Do What You Gotta Do.”

“Show and Tell” was released in 1973 and the next year was No. 1 on the Billboard Top 100 chart.

Wilson charted with several other 1970s singles, including “La La Peace Song,” “I’ve Got a Feeling (We’ll Be Seeing Each Other Again)” and “Count the Days.”

Source: Soul singer Al Wilson dies of kidney failure at 68

Al Wilson performing “Show and Tell” on Soul Train.



Al Wilson singing “The Snake”

Al Wilson singing “I’ve Got a Feeling”

Keyboard artist Danny Federici was one of the founding members of the E Street Band. Playing organ, glockenspiel, and accordion, Federici made a major contribution to the band’s distinctive sound. He worked alongside Bruce Springsteen for 40 years on numerous hits, from “Hungry Heart” through “The Rising.”

Danny Federici and Bruce Springsteen

Federici, who had battled melanoma for three years, died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. News of his death was posted late Thursday on Springsteen’s official Web site.

He last performed with Springsteen and the band last month, appearing during portions of a March 20 show in Indianapolis.

“Danny and I worked together for 40 years — he was the most wonderfully fluid keyboard player and a pure natural musician. I loved him very much … we grew up together,” Springsteen said in a statement posted on his Web site.

Springsteen concerts scheduled for Friday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Saturday in Orlando were postponed.

Federici was born in Flemington, N.J., a long car ride from the Jersey shore haunts where he first met kindred musical spirit Springsteen in the late 1960s. The pair often jammed at the Upstage Club in Asbury Park, N.J., a now-defunct after-hours club that hosted the best musicians in the state.

It was Federici, along with original E Street Band drummer Vini Lopez, who first invited Springsteen to join their band.

By 1969, the self-effacing Federici — often introduced in concert by Springsteen as “Phantom Dan” — was playing with the Boss in a band called Child. Over the years, Federici joined his friend in acclaimed shore bands Steel Mill, Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom and the Bruce Springsteen Band. (More.)

“4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” - Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ, 1978

Danny Federici plays “Sandy” - November 19, 2007

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band take their bows in Boston on November 19th 2007,
with special tribute to Danny Federici, on his last performance before taking a leave of absence.

Danny Federici’s last performance with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, March 20, 2008