1955 Top Ten Songs: Just Call Me Lonesome (#8)

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Way back in 1955 the music was an interesting mashup of R&B, doo-wop, early rock and roll, pop, and country. I’ve given you examples all month long. Today it’s a focus on the country side (which means Linda? NO!!!!!! ) of things, with the owner of the Billboard country singles chart. #8: Just Call Me Lonesome - Eddy Arnold This is no relation to the Radney Foster song from the early 90s, except that they’re both GREAT country songs (that share a song title but nothing else). I’ve mentioned it before, but he’s back on the list so I’m going to mention it again: in a two-year period between 1947 and 1949, Eddy Arnold was #1 on the Billboard country charts almost non-stop. There was only ONE act (Jimmy Wakely) who could manage to pry Arnold songs out of the top spot in that period. I haven’t seen the most recent Whitburn, but all of the Whitburns previously have Eddy Arnold as the #1 singles artist, with George Jones #2 and George Strait #3 (although I think by now Strait and Jones have swapped places). They put Arnold in the Hall of Fame as soon as they could (1966, the 25th year after his career started [as a member of Pee Wee King’s Golden West Cowboys]), and the next year he won the Entertainer of the Year award. Yeah, this guy was something. When I say it’s a great honor that I got to meet him (about a year before he died), you can understand why. This man’s contributions to music were simply astonishing. I mentioned that 1955 brought a lot of change in music, and that included Arnold’s music. Prior to this, you would have heard Little Roy Wiggins on steel guitar all over this song. Country music was changing, too. Just Call Me Lonesome Written by Rex Griffin Recorded by Eddy Arnold Released as a single, 1955 If I must live and love alone: