A heartbreakingly beautiful toast to life, given by a man humbled by the blessings he’s been given over the years. “Life,” he sings, “you served your finest wine. I drank it down to find my glass was always full.”
Listening to this, I couldn’t help but remember watching an old clip of Eddy Arnold being given the ACM Pioneer Award. He accepted with his voice cracking, and said that “I don’t want accolades. I just want to sing.” That is the man singing this song, always the country gentleman.
Arnold recorded “To Life” three years ago, and RCA has chosen to release it as a single in the wake of his death. So perfect is the sentiment of the record, so truly sincere is the performance, that sending this record out is a most fitting tribute to the man and his music.
Written by Ken Leray and Dan Tyler
Grade: A+
Listen: To Life
Buy: To Life
It’s sad to see him go, he was one of my favorites. There’s been so many legends passing on lately, it’s a shame. I cried the day Porter Wagoner passed away, and I had to cry again when Eddy Arnold followed.
Yes, it’s sad that Eddie Arnold is gone. Not being from his time, he didn’t come onto my radar until LeAnn Rhime’s duet with him, “Cattle Call.” I thought it was a sweet duet and it made me look into him a little more. I saw parts of an interview with Bill Cote that GAC has been running since his death and there’s no doubt that he was a classy gentleman.
A toast to Eddy Arnold.
Does any one know where I can find the song. The link on the review doesn’t work on my computer and I really want to hear it.
Gorgeous.
Cowboy, you can find it on iTunes.
I’ve not heard this single yet, and I’m not sure I really want to since I remember Eddy well from his halcyon days of the 1960s (and have most of his 40s & 50s recordings. His voice had deteriorated considerably by the time of 1999’s duet with Ms Rimes and, as with Sinatra, I prefer to remember him the way he sounded at his peak
While many, like myself, often derided Eddy’s choice of material from 1968) onward (which was rather bland easy listening music), his voice remained in peak form until about 1985 by which time he was in his mid 70s.
There are few vocalists, country or otherwise whose voices could compare with Eddy Arnold and known who sang with such ease
There is certainly a decided difference/decline in Eddie’s voice as he got older, but I still love the duet with Rimes. While his voice had aged, I was still impressed with his ability to sing the song and that he was asked to do so. I think that song was from ’96.