EDDY ARNOLD died on May 8.  ARNOLD scored 145 hits on the country charts since the 1940s.  He became one of country music’s most prolific hit-making artists, placing high on the charts from the 1940s through the 1960s and scoring Top Ten hits up to 1980.  ARNOLD helped bring country music into the mainstream.  Born Richard Edward Arnold on May 15, 1918 in Chester County, TN, he took an interest in music at an early age.  He borrowed a guitar from his cousin and learned to play with help from his mother and by listening to records by Gene Autry, Bing Crosby and Jimmie Rodgers on a wind-up Victrola.  He sang in school and in church.  His father died when ARNOLD was eleven and the family became sharecroppers during the Great Depression.  ARNOLD sang wherever he could.  At age 17, he sang on radio and in beer joints while working a day job as an undertaker’s driver.  In 1940, ARNOLD became a featured singer with Pee Wee King’s Golden West Cowboys, working the Grand Ole Opry and the 1941-42 “Camel Caravan” tour of military bases in the US and Central America.  Early in his career, he signed with Colonel Tom Parker (who later became Elvis Presley’s manager).  He struck out on his own in 1943 and was brought to the attention of RCA Records.    ARNOLD dominated the Billboard country charts for the last half of the ‘40s with “That’s How Much I Love You,” “I’ll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You In My Arms),” “Anytime,” and “Bouquet of Roses.”  Many of his hits crossed over into the pop market, paving the way for later crossover acts such as Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline.  More radio shows widened ARNOLD’s exposure along with the CBS network series, “Hometown Reunion.”  ARNOLD also appeared in the Columbia films, “Feudin’ Rhythm” and “Hoedown.”  He was one of the first country artists to appear in Las Vegas.  In 1949, ARNOLD appeared on “The Milton Berle Show” and hosted his own summer replacement series in 1952 and 1953.  ARNOLD hosted two regular TV series: “Eddy Arnold Time” in 1955 and “The Eddy Arnold Show” in 1956.  ARNOLD always saw the need for reaching beyond boundaries to expand his appeal.  He understood that “love songs” worked best for his voice.  Country music began a late-1950s slump and ARNOLD’s record sales fell off, but his career enjoyed resurgence with hit songs, “What’s He Doing in My World” and “Make the World Go Away” in 1965.  His nightclub and TV work increased and led to international tours.  In 1966 ARNOLD became the youngest inductee to the Country Music Hall of Fame.  He won the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year Award in 1967.  In 1970, RCA awarded ARNOLD for reaching the 60 million mark in lifetime record sales, a number that topped 80 million by 1985.  He continued to tour until he announced his retirement from the stage in 1999.  He continued to record, however, and his 100^th album After All This was released in 2005.  ARNOLD donated his vast collection of materials documenting his career to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in 2003.  The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences inducted his recording of “Make the World Go Away” into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 and gave ARNOLD a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

ROBERT GOULET, baritone and legendary star of stage, screen and recordings passed away on Oct. 30 after suffering from a rapidly progressive form of pulmonary fibrosis.  Considered one of the greatest baritones of our time, GOULET’s career included over 60 best-selling albums, international concert appearances, motion pictures, numerous television specials along with many variety & episodic television guest appearances.  He was born Nov. 26, 1933 in Lawrence MA, the only son of French-Canadian parents, and began singing at family gatherings at age five.  His father died when GOULET was just 13 after admonishing him from the deathbed, “God gave you a voice – you must sing.”  The family moved to Canada where he spent his formative years.  GOULET’s first professional performance was at age 16 with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.  After a 2-year stint as a radio announcer, he was awarded a singing scholarship to the Royal Conservatory of Music, University of Toronto.  He became popular in Canada in the 1950s, appearing in theatrical, radio and television productions.  He took Broadway by storm in 1960, winning the Theatre World Award for his debut as “Sir Lancelot” in the original cast of Camelot, starring along with Richard Burton and Julie Andrews.  He won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist of 1962.  GOULET’s stage credits include: Little Women, Sunshine Town, Thunder Rock, The Optimist, Dream Girl, Carousel, Finian’s Rainbow, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Pajama Game, Beggars Opera, Bells Are Ringing, Meet Me In St. Louis, The Happy Time (for which he won a Tony Award), I Do, I Do, On a Clear Day, Kiss Me Kate, The Fantasticks, South Pacific, Camelot (as “Lancelot” in 1960 & as “King Arthur” 1992-1994 & 1998), Moon Over Buffalo (1996), Man Of La Mancha (1996-1997), South Pacific (2000) and La Cage Aux Folles (2005).  His film credits (appearances & voiceovers) include: Gay Puree, Honeymoon Hotel, I’d Rather Be Rich, I Deal in Danger, Underground, Atlantic City, Beetlejuice, Scrooged, Naked Gun 2 ½, Mr. Wrong, Toy Story II, G-Men From Hell, The Last Producer and Everything Is Illuminated.  Among GOULET’s television appearances are: “An Hour With Robert Goulet,” “The Robert Goulet Special,” “The Bob Goulet Special Starring Robert Goulet,” “The Name of the Game,” “Big Valley,” “Police Story,” “Cannon,” “Dream Merchants,” “Fantasy Island,” “make My Day,” “In the Heat of the Night,” “The Simpsons,” “Burke’s Law,” “Get Smart,” “Just Shoot Me,” “Two Guys and a Girl,” “Las Vegas,” “King of Queens” and PBS special, “My Music.”  GOULET also appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” seventeen times.  He received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1975 and a Star on the Canadian Walk of Fame in 2006.  GOULET had been in intensive care at Cedars Sinai since Oct. 14.

LUCIANO PAVAROTTI, legendary operatic tenor, passed away on Sep. 6 at his home in Italy following a battle with pancreatic cancer.  He was 71.  He had been known as the greatest tenor of his generation with a crossover appeal which turned him into a global superstar.  PAVAROTTI was born on Oct. 12, 1935 in Modena, a town in northeast Italy, to a baker father who liked to sing and a mother who worked in a cigar factory.  He started singing in church at age 9.  As a teenager sang in the local opera chorus with his father.  He would also attend Mario Lanza movies, then come home and imitate Lanza in the mirror.  He sold insurance to pay for singing lessons.  PAVAROTTI won a local competition in 1961 and made his operatic debut as ”Rodolfo” in Puccini’s La Bohème.  After a series of successful appearances in small opera house in Europe, PAVAROTTI’s big break came when he stood-in for opera great Giuseppe di Stefano in a performance of La Bohème at Covent Garden in 1963.  He performed in Europe before coming to Miami FL in 1965 to co-star with Australian soprano Joan Sutherland in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.  PAVAROTTI debuted at La Scala in 1965, San Francisco Opera in 1967 and at the Metropolitan Opera in 1968.  He constantly struggled with his weight which reportedly got as high as  396 pounds in 1978.  At the height of his career, he was known as the “King of the High C’s” for the ease with which he was able to sing the nine high C’s in the aria “Ah! Mes amis” in Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment at The Met in 1972.  PAVAROTTI began to reach an audience outside opera when he sang “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini’s Turandot at the 1990 World Cup finals in his native Italy.  His appearance as one of “The Three Tenors” - with Plácido Domingo and José Carreras – and the annual “Pavarotti and Friends” concerts in Moderna were crossover highlights of his career.  In 1991, a crowd of 150,000 braved the rain and cold in London’s Hyde Park to hear him in concert.  In 1993, his concert in New York’s Central Park drew 500,000 attendees.  In recent years, PAVAROTTI embraced music outside the operatic world, collaborating with pop stars such as STING, SHERYL CROW and U2.  He performed many benefit concerts to raise money for victims of tragedies.  His last full-scale concert was in Taipei in December 2005 and his final opera appearance was in Puccini’s Tosca at The Met in March 2004.  His last major performance was at the opening of the Winter Olympics in Turin in February 2006.  Since undergoing surgery in July of last year, PAVAROTTI had at least five rounds of chemotherapy.  He was hospitalized again on August 8 and underwent another battery of tests.  PAVAROTTI went home to Modena on August 25, but reportedly remained optimistic and confident that he would recover and return to the stage to complete his farewell tour.  His funeral took place inside Modena’s cathedral and thousands watched the invitation-only service from a huge television screen in the town’s main piazza.  For two days prior to the service, PAVAROTTI’s most famous works were played in the piazza.  Funeral guests gave PAVAROTTI one last standing ovation when a 1978 recording of “Panis Angelicus” duet he sang with his father, Fernando, was played.