According to Eddy Arnold, one of the big turning points of his career was when Steve Sholes took over the A & R duties for RCA Victor Records.

Eddy commented, “back in those days, there were no recording studios in Nashville. I did my recording in the radio station studios.  We’d go up there and everybody would gather around one microphone and they would play and I would sing. The Victor Company would put them out. None of them were what you would call a hit, but the company made money from them. Then one day I received a letter in the mail from Mr. Frank Walker, the man I dealt with at Victor, telling me that he was leaving the Victor Company and a Mr. Steve Sholes  would be taking his place. That really scared me. I didn’t really know Mr. Walker and I sure didn’t know this Mr. Sholes. I thought that I would meet him but instead he called me on the telephone. I thought he was probably just gonna drop me from the company. But instead, he had heard my records and wanted to bring me to Chicago to record. So my musicians and I went to Chicago and recorded.

Steve Sholes turned out to be the greatest thing that happened to me. He found good songs for me to record. I got two hit records out of that first session. We recorded “I’ll Hold You in My Heart” and “That’s How Much I Love You.”  As soon as they released “That’s How Much I Love You,” it was on every jukebox in the country. Back in those days, getting your records on jukeboxes was very important.”

“That’s How Much I Love You” entered the country music charts October 12th, 1946 and made it to number two, where it stayed for 4 weeks, It was Eddy's 3rd charted song and was on the country charts for 17 weeks.

Doug Davis
Country Music Classics