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Bob Pinson
By Michael D. Freda; Westport and London: Greenwood Press, 1997. 368 pp. 0-313-30388-6.$69.50.
Even a current, in-the-limelight super-star is unlikely to witness three career-documenting, newly-published books hitting the market place almost simultaneously. Yet, veteran performer and Country Music Hall of Famer, Eddy Arnold, had this distinction in 1997. Suddenly appearing (more than a quarter century after Arnold's 1969 autobiography, It's A Long Way From Chester County, ) were two new biographical works: Eddy Arnold--Ill Hold You In My Heart by Don Cusic (Ruttledge Hill Press) and Eddy Arnold--Pioneer Of The Nashville Sound by Michael Streissguth (Schirmer Books). While the latter biography does contain a laudable discography, it's Michael Freda's major discographical work, Eddy Arnold Discography, 1944-1996 , that prompts this review.
Freda's discography, consisting of commercial recordings, but no radio transcriptions, comprises five sections, plus four appendices. The bulk of relevant data is in Section I, which contains session dates, locations, musicians, matrices, songs, composers and issue data. Section II lists all singles releases...