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The Nashville Sound (also known as Countrypolitan) arose during the late 1950s as a sub-genre of American country music, replacing the chart dominance of the Honky Tonk sound which was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Key production features where the use of "smooth" strings and background vocals, and a crooning style of lead vocal typified by Jim Reeves and Eddy Arnold.

The Nashville Sound was pioneered by staff at RCA Records and Columbia Records in Nashville, Tennessee, including manager Steve Sholes, record producers Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson, and recording engineer Bill Porter. They invented the form by replacing elements of the popular Honky Tonk style (fiddles, steel guitar, nasal lead vocals) with "smooth" elements from 1950s Pop music (string sections, background vocals, crooning lead vocals), and using "slick" production, and pop music structures.

Singers Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves, along with pianist Floyd Cramer, were among the most famous of the artists leading the way to the smooth crooning style of the Nashville Sound's original era.

In the early 1960s, the Nashville Sound began to be challenged by the rival Bakersfield sound. Nashville's pop song structure became more pronounced and it morphed into what was named "Countrypolitan". Countrypolitan was aimed straight at mainstream markets and it sold well throughout the later 1960s into the early 1970s. Among the architects of this sound were producers Billy Sherrill, (who was instrumental in shaping Tammy Wynette's early career) and Glenn Sutton. Artists who typified the Countrypolitan sound initially included Wynette, Glen Campbell, Lynn Anderson, Charlie Rich, and Charley Pride.

The Bakersfield sound and later, outlaw country, dominated country music among aficionados while Countrypolitan reigned on the pop charts.

Upon being asked what the Nashville Sound was, Chet Atkins would reach his hand into his pocket, shake the loose change around and say "That's what it is. It's the sound of money."

Classic examples of Nashville Sound recordings:

• "The Three Bells" by The Browns, 1959
• "Four Walls" by Jim Reeves, 1960
• "He'll Have to Go" by Jim Reeves
• "Last Date" by Floyd Cramer, 1960
• "I Fall to Pieces" by Patsy Cline, 1961
• "A Little Bitty Tear", "Call Me Mister In-Between", and "It's Just My Funny Way of Laughin'" by Burl Ives, 1962
• "The End of the World" by Skeeter Davis, 1963
• "Here Comes My Baby" by Dottie West, 1964
• "Make the World Go Away" by Eddy Arnold, 1965
• "Misty Blue" by Wilma Burgess, 1966

• "Suspicious Minds" by Elvis Presley (1969)
• "(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden" by Lynn Anderson (1971)
• "Kiss An Angel Good Mornin'" by Charley Pride
• "Behind Closed Doors" by Charlie Rich (1973)
• "The Most Beautiful Girl" by Charlie Rich (1973)
• "Rhinestone Cowboy" by Glen Campbell (1975)