From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Mon Apr 21, 2003  2:09 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Carl Belew
 
CARL BELEW (By Shaun Mather)

Born Carl Robert Belew, 21 April 1931, Salina, Oklahoma
Died 31 October 1990, Salina, Oklahoma

Carl Belew is one of a long list of performers who moved on from making
small rockabilly records to country music fame as both a singer and
songwriter. His rockers include Cool Gator Shoes and Folding Money
on Four Star for whom he made his debut in 1955 after being brought to 
the company's attention by Marvin Rainwater.

His big breakthrough came when Johnnie And Jack took Belew's Stop The
World (And Let Me Off) into the charts (# 7 country in 1958). It's a great song 
which was covered in blistering style by Waylon Jennings for an early RCA 
single. Lonely Street was also a turning point for him, the ballad becoming a
Top 10 hit for Andy Williams, and covered in fine style by our Shaker Gene 
Vincent. Gene seemed to like the ink that flowed from Belew's pen, cutting 
a cover of Am I That Easy To Forget? which was a # 9 country hit for Carl
himself and a pop hit for Debbie Reynolds in 1960. Eight years later it hit in
the UK for Engelbert Humperdinck. Other notable cover versions came from 
Jim Reeves and Don Gibson. 

Strangely for such a great writer, he scored two hits with Crystal
Chandeliers and Hello Out There, neither of which he penned. Other
songwriting success came with Eddy Arnold's US country number 1, 
What's He Doing In My World? (1965).

I've never heard That's When I See the Blues in Your Pretty Brown Eyes, 
but what a great title. 

He died from cancer in November 1990. Two years after his death he won
the Music City News award for Best Song with Look At Us. It's a beautiful 
ballad (If they want to know what true love should be, they'll just look at us),
which was a massive hit for Vince Gill.

Discography: http://www.luma-electronic.cz/lp/b/Belew/belew.htm
There are no Carl Belew CD's in print at this time of writing.