Country Music Star Charlie Louvin Dies at 83

Tim Mosenfelder/Getty

Charlie Louvin, half of the country and gospel music duo the Louvin Brothers, has died at the age of 83 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. The singer had undergone surgery to treat the cancer in July, but his health had been declining steadily in recent weeks.

Photos: Random Notes

Along with his brother and musical partner Ira, Louvin was a pioneer of the country music genre known as close harmony. The duo were best known for their mid-Fifties and early Sixties hits "When I Stop Dreaming" and "I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby." Louvin was also a successful solo artist with hits such as the Top Five single "I Don't Love You Anymore" in 1964.

Charlie Louvin Dies at age 83 [Country Weekly]

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter