Belew's composition Stop the World (And Let Me Off) hit the Top Ten in 1958 in a rendition by Johnnie Jack; the following year, Andy Williams hit the Top Five with Lonely Street, a song which would become Belew's trademark tune thanks to subsequent covers by Cline, Vincent, and Rex Allen, Jr. Later in 1959,Belew wrote Am I That Easy to Forget, a Top 40 pop hit for actress Debbie Reynolds that was later recorded by Engelbert Humperdinck, Skeeter Davis, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, and Leon Russell. Belew's own rendition hit the Top Ten in 1959.
In 1960, Belew released his self-titled debut LP; in the same year, he notched a Top 20 hit with the single Too Much to Lose. Two years later, a label change prompted another eponymous effort; the single Hello Out There earned him another Top Ten hit, his last. Between 1964 and 1968, Belew released an album a year, beginning with Hello Out There and continuing with Am I That Easy to Forget?, Country Songs, Lonely Street, and finally Twelve Shades of Belew. His last studio album, When My Baby Sings His Song, a record of duets with Betty Jean Robinson, was issued in 1972, while one final single, Welcome Back to My World, appeared in 1974.
Throughout his career, Belew's songs continued to be popular with (and popularized by) other singers; Eddy Arnold hit number one in 1965 with What's He Doing in My World, while Jim Reeves scored a posthumous success in 1968 with That's When I See the Blues (In Your Pretty Brown Eyes). Stop the World (And Let Me Off) also reached the Top 20 twice more thanks to a 1965 cover by Waylon Jennings and a 1974 version by Susan Raye. Carl Belew died of cancer on Halloween in 1990 at the age of 59. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi