( CNN ) -- Ray Price , the Nashville star whose trademark `` shuffle '' beat became a country music staple , has died at age 87 , his agent said Monday . Price 's 1956 single `` Crazy Arms '' spent 20 weeks atop the country charts and introduced a bass-driven , four-four rhythm that became a touchstone of the Nashville sound -- a rhythm later dubbed the `` Ray Price beat . '' `` Ray expanded country music to the masses , '' Bobby Roberts , Price 's agent , said in a written statement . `` He was a true gentleman that absolutely cared about his fans . '' He had started singing while in veterinary school , after coming back to Texas from World War II . His first records drew little notice , but he caught the attention of Hank Williams , who took Price on tour with him in 1951 and brought him to Nashville , where he began to sing with the Grand Ole Opry . Price `` had one of the greatest voices in country music history as well as a great sense of humor , '' Roberts said . His other hits included `` Heartaches by the Number '' in 1959 , a heavily orchestrated 1967 version of the traditional `` Danny Boy '' and the Kris Kristofferson-penned `` For the Good Times '' in 1970 . Price was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in November 2012 , according to the Country Music Hall of Fame , which inducted him in 1996 . He died Monday afternoon , Roberts said . People we 've lost in 2013 . CNN 's Carolyn Sung contributed to this report .
The 1956 hit ` ` Crazy Horse '' introduced what 's now dubbed the ` ` Ray Price beat '' He died Monday at age 58 after battling cancer . He started singing during veterinary school ; Hank Williams took him on tour in 1951 .