NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Hank Cochran, a singer and songwriter who wrote major hits for Patsy Cline, Burl Ives and Eddy Arnold and whose songs appeared on the country charts for more than four decades, died Thursday at his home in Hendersonville, Tenn., near Nashville. He was 74.

His death was announced by his publicist, Martha Moore, who said he had been suffering from pancreatic cancer.

Heartache was Cochran’s great theme as a songwriter. For Cline he wrote the lovelorn “I Fall to Pieces” (with Harlan Howard), and for Arnold the angst-ridden ballad “Make the World Go Away.” Distinguished by their shuffling rhythms, sweeping melodies and emotional candor, both songs became No. 1 country singles and crossed over to the pop chart.

Scores of pop singers, from Bing Crosby to Etta James to Elvis Costello, have recorded songs written by Cochran. His greatest impact, though, came as a composer of country hits, including No. 1 singles like Vern Gosdin’s “Set ’Em Up Joe” and George Strait’s “Chair.” Jeannie Seely’s version of Cochran’s torch ballad “Don’t Touch Me” won a Grammy Award for best female country and western vocal performance in 1967. She and Cochran were married from 1969 to 1979.

As a performer, Cochran placed three hits in the country Top 40 in the early 1960s. Songwriting, however, increasingly became his focus after he moved to Nashville to take a job as a writer and song plugger.