Legendary country music singer Eddy Arnold died on Thursday at 89 in Nashville after a lengthy illness, the Associated Press reports. He died at a care facility, said Don Cusic, a professor at Belmont University and author of the biography “Eddy Arnold: I’ll Hold You in My Heart.”

Arnold earned many awards as he moved from pure country into pop-oriented arrangements that attracted a wider audience. In addition to “Make the World Go Away” he scored 16 other consecutive hits in the 1960s. Arnold’s concerts sold out in New York’s Carnegie Hall and he performed in Hollywood’s Coconut Grove and top clubs in Las Vegas.

“I sing a little country, I sing a little pop and I sing a little folk, and it all goes together," he said in 1970,” quoted by the A.P.

Eddy Arnold was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966, and the following year he was the first person to receive the entertainer of the year award from the Country Music Association.

The country singer released a new RCA album, “After All These Years,” in 2005 before he had retired from active performing.

Arnold managed to sell more than 85 million records and had 147 songs hit the charts.

Among others, his hit singles include “Cattle Call,” “Just Call Me Lonesome,” “After Loving You,” “I Want to Go With You” and “Tennessee Stud.”

He lived in Brentwood, a Nashville suburb. Survivors include a son, Richard Edward Arnold Jr., and daughter, Jo Ann Pollard, both of Brentwood. Arnold’s wife, Sally, died earlier this year.