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Post by topgsfan on Feb 5, 2013 17:40:57 GMT -5
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Post by topgsfan on Feb 7, 2013 23:36:40 GMT -5
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Post by topgsfan on Mar 31, 2013 21:46:01 GMT -5
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Post by topgsfan on Apr 2, 2013 22:18:55 GMT -5
An early portrait of Jim that was not
widely circulated.
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Post by topgsfan on Apr 2, 2013 22:23:55 GMT -5
JIM REEVES Jim Reeves was an American country/pop music singer-songwriter and musician. Famed for pioneering the now renowned ‘Nashville sound’, Reeves was known throughout his career as Gentleman Jim. Born 20th August 1923 in Galloway, Texas, Reeves took an interest in music from a young age, listening to artists like Jimmie Rodgers, Moon Mullican, Eddy Arnold and Frank Sinatra. Although he began his working life playing baseball in the minor leagues with St. Louis Cardinals, a back injury picked up during a game in 1957 ended his athletics career for good and so he decided to focus on his first love – music. Reeves’ big break came when he was working as an announcer on the country music TV show Louisiana Hayride. The singer Sleep LaBeef was late for a performance and Reeves was asked to fill in, and he was an instant hit. This led to a recording contract with Fabor Records in 1956. The singer released seven studio albums before the end of the 1950s and scored country chart number ones with the singles Mexican Joe, Bimbo, Four Walls and Billy Bayous – as well as Top 5 hits with the singles I Love You (ft. Ginny Wright), Penny Candy, Yonder Comes a Sucker, According to My Heart, Am I Losing You?, Anna Marie, Blue Boy, Home and Partners. Reeves’ popularity grew even further in the early 1960s, as he gained mainstream success in the US and hordes of new fans in the UK and across Europe. His biggest hits during this period were He’ll Have to Go, I’m Gettin’ Better, Losing Your Love, I’m Gonna Change Everything and Make the World Go Away. However, just as he was riding a wave of success, Reeves was tragically killed on 31st July 1964 when his plane to Nashville, Tennessee crashed. He was just forty years old. Since his death, Jim Reeves has scored six further number one country chart hits: I Guess I’m Crazy, This Is It, Is It Really Over?, Distant Drums, Blue Side of Lonesome and I Won’t Come In While He’s There. mycountrysinger.com/jim-reeves/jim-reevesEdited to add this photo of Jim Reeves in his baseball uniform.
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Post by topgsfan on Apr 2, 2013 22:31:59 GMT -5
"Gentleman" Jim Reeves
Chet Atkins warned his good friend “Gentleman Jim” Reeves about being his own pilot.
“I remember cautioning him about flying those little planes,” recalled Chet. “I said, ’Have you taken any instrument instruction?’ He said, ’No.’ I said, ’Darn it, you have to be careful.’ “I told him that right after Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins got killed in a plane crash. Their pilot was a know-it-all. Pilots get too much confidence and that’s when they get into trouble.”
Thirty-five years ago—on July 31, 1964—singing legend Jim Reeves hurtled toward trouble while flying into Music City from Arkansas with his piano player and road manager, Dean Manuel. Just minutes from the Nashville airport, at the controls of a rented plane, Jim ignored warnings from the control tower and tried to punch a shortcut through a thunderhead. On the ground, according to Jim Reeves biographer Michael Streissguth, session pianist Bill Pursell watched the sky. “I looked directly at a black cloud, and I remember thinking to myself, I wouldn’t fly through that cloud if you paid me.” Blinded by sheet rain and lightning, Jim misread his instruments, experts theorize, then lost control of the four-seater and just before 5 p.m., death-spiraled into history.
One of country’s most timeless singers ran out of time just 20 days before he would have turned 41. Jim’s legacy goes beyond his 80 charted singles, including 51 Top 10s, such as the No. 1s “He’ll Have To Go,” “Four Walls,” “Distant Drums” and “I Guess I’m Crazy.” It goes beyond 33 charted albums, four of which reached No. 1. Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1967, his bronze plaque reads, “The velvet voice of Gentleman Jim Reeves was an international influence. His rich voice brought millions of new fans to country music from every corner of the world.”
More than three decades after the crash, Chet can’t find words to express his grief, “It was just a terrible, terrible blow. I’ll never get over it. Over three days, we combed all those hills around Brentwood for the plane.” Eddy Arnold, Marty Robbins, Floyd Cramer, Bill Pursell and other artists—along with hundreds of volunteers—scoured the densely wooded area south of Nashville for the wreckage, which was concealed beneath a canopy of branches. The Browns—Jim Ed, Maxine and Bonnie—were on the road when news of the crash came over the radio. Jim Ed says, “We just pulled over to the side of the road and cried.”
“We searched and searched,” says Eddy Arnold. “My office is within a half a mile of where his plane went down. I was in a helicopter looking for him. I arrived within a half-hour of when they found him.” Dean Manuel’s body was still in the plane, but Jim had been thrown clear. A driver’s license confirmed Eddy’s identification of the body. A Nashville chapel overflowed with mourners. Chet, Eddy, Floyd and The Browns were joined by Red Foley, Skeeter Davis, Ferlin Husky, Webb Pierce, Dottie West, The Jordanaires and other performers and fans. “People were outside the chapel, down the street,” says Eddy. “People were everywhere.”
Gentleman Jim was buried where his life began—in Panola County, Texas. Fans still treat the statue at Jim’s grave—which overlooks U.S. 79 between Carthage and De Berry—like a shrine. James Travis Reeves was born Aug. 20, 1923, the last of nine children in a poor farming family. Jim was a successful high school and college baseball player who was wooed into a prolonged affair with minor league professional baseball. Then an injury forced him into pursuing his second love—music.
Beginning as an announcer on local radio stations, Jim cultivated the clear diction and rhythmic delivery that, combined with his naturally deep, resonant voice, would make him a singing sensation. In December 1952, Jim talked himself into a job as an announcer on KWKH radio, in nearby Shreveport, La. Soon, he was introducing acts on KWKH’s famous Louisiana Hayride.
Jim had cut some minor Western-flavored local hits, but in 1953 he struck gold with an upbeat, Tabasco-flavored dittie about a happy-go-lucky caballero called “Mexican Joe.” Jim’s debut on the Billboard country chart lasted 26 weeks, including nine at No. 1. By the end of 1955, “Mexican Joe” had taken Jim into the musical big leagues of Nashville with an RCA recording contract and membership in the Grand Ole Opry.
RCA hooked him up with producer Chet Atkins. Together, they built on the so-called countrypolitan style that Chet and Eddy Arnold developed to broaden country music’s appeal. Urban and overseas music lovers, who rankled at Southern accents and Western twang, warmed up to Jim’s crooning purr. Lush horn arrangements and full string sections replaced fiddles and steel guitars. Jim became the voice of what would come to be called the Nashville Sound. Eddy says, “He was a mellow, romantic, smooth singer who pronounced his words where you could understand them. He wasn’t a nasal singer.” “He was one of the greatest songstylists I’ve ever known,” says Jim Ed. “He knew how to make every word mean something. He had a lot of heart and put that feeling into his songs. “Jim had the ability to find the feelings behind the words, put himself in that position and then relay them to his listeners—almost like an actor reading play lines.”
At first, Jim had been kept away from the microphones to avoid distorted recordings, but Chet moved him into whispering distance. “They were always worried about popping P’s,” says Chet. “If you popped a P on a record, especially a 78, it would skip on jukeboxes.” But, Jim’s announcing experience helped him control his voice and work a special magic. “He got great presence by singing close in and softly,” says Chet. “It was just a wonderful sound.”
Jim maintained the “Gentleman Jim” image as carefully as his voice. He avoided the stereotypes of earlier country performers, eschewing rural clothing and props such as haybales and wagon wheels. Instead, Jim insisted on dignity and sophistication. He wore tailored suits or sport coats. But no rhinestone wagon wheels or cacti for Gentleman Jim. Jim’s patrician good looks, gracious good manners and personal generosity were also an aspect of his image.
“Jim was not only a smooth singer,” said Sarah Colley, the college-educated Nashville socialite who portrayed Minnie Pearl, “he was a smooth gentleman. Jim would have fit in anywhere and did.” “He was a charming person,” says Jim Ed. “He loved people and he had a lot of character. He worked hard to make other people successful along with him.” But you didn’t mess around with Jim in the studio. “He was very, very professional and worked much harder than most people at his craft,” says Chet. “He was a perfectionist. He was very difficult with some of the singers and background singers and some of the musicians and engineers. “He had a hell of a temper. He didn’t take anything from anybody.”
As Jim winged his way toward doom on that Friday in July, he could be proud of many accomplishments beyond hit records. Jim was one of the early artists to export country music overseas—leading to stardom in Great Britain, Europe, South Africa, Scandinavia, Ceylon, India and other countries that rivaled his American following. Chet recalls a tour to South Africa. People lined the road for miles. At the hotel, fans ripped pieces from Jim’s suit until police stepped in. Chet says, “It was as if Elvis had arrived.”
Jim launched a promising movie career in a South African film called Kimberley Jim, and he owned a successful music publishing company.
In death, Jim’s career took on a life of its own thanks to the hard work of his wife, Mary, and a collection of demo tapes he had cut for that publishing company. Mary kept his memory alive with that music and the Jim Reeves Museum.
In all, Billboard reports that 33 of Jim’s singles charted after he died, including 13 Top 10s and five No. 1s. As late as 1982, technology allowed Jim and Patsy Cline to reach No. 5 with a duet called “Have You Ever Been Lonely (Have You Ever Been Blue).” He didn’t vanish from the charts until 1984. Of Jim’s 33 albums on the Billboard chart, only three entered the chart before his death.
Jim’s legacy will continue, according to Ed Gregory of United Shows of America, which recently purchased all the rights to Jim’s estate.
“Jim’s presentation and voice are so unique that they will probably never be duplicated today,” says Gregory, who remembers courting his wife to Jim’s “Four Walls.” “His record sales today are astonishing 35 years after he died.” Labels such as Heartland, Time-Life Music, Reader’s Digest Music and more continue to carry Jim Reeves’ music.
Until it closed in May 1995, the Jim Reeves Museum still received letters from fans who didn’t know he was dead. >United Shows plans to open a museum, incorporating a large display of Jim Reeves memorabilia, honoring American cowboys and country music this fall in Nashville.
Jim’s style still influences modern singers. “Joe Diffie can do a pretty good imitation of Jim,” says Chet. “He has sung some of Jim’s hits in one or two performances I’ve seen. He’s got enough range that he can get pretty close to it.”
“Jim’s bigger in death than he was in real-life,” says Jim Ed. “His music could outlive us all."
Man! I LOVED this guy and his singing!
_________________
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Post by topgsfan on Apr 20, 2013 9:55:03 GMT -5
Sure do miss him. The smoothest singing voice ever! Jim's Love Of PoetryAn inscription on the monument honoring Jim at Carthage, Texas, talks about the goal of a singer. Everyone assumes Jim wrote it. He did not. He adapted it from the following poem (author unknown): And if a lowly singer dries one tear, Or soothes one humble human heart in pain, Be sure his homely verse to God is dear, And not one stanza has been sung in vain. As he often did with song lyrics and poems he read, Jim made subtle changes that gave the words more meaning or personalized them: If I, a lowly singer, dries one tear, Or soothes one humble human heart in pain, Then my homely verse to God is dear, And not one stanza has been sung in vain. Jim read books on poetry, and carried one with him on the road. He said it gave him song ideas. On his daily radio show he even featured what he called a "poetry corner." One favorite of his -- though not well known -- is the following. Ironically, it even mentions a man named Jim: AROUND THE CORNERAAround the corner I have a friend, In this great city that has no end; Yet days go by and weeks rush on, And before I know it a year is gone, And I never see my old friend's face, For Life is a swift and terrible race. He knows I like him just as well As in the days when I rang his bell And he rang mine. We were younger then, And now we are busy, tired men: Tired with playing a foolish game, Tired with trying to make a name. "Tomorrow," I say, "I will call on Jim, Just to show that I'm thinking of him." But tomorrow comes -- and tomorrow goes, And the distance between us grows and grows Around the corner! -- yet miles away... "Here's a telegram, sir..." "Jim died today." And that's what we get, and deserve in the end: Around the corner, a vanished friend. --Charles Hanson Towne
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Post by topgsfan on Apr 20, 2013 10:47:18 GMT -5
 This is one of the two Macy's recordings Jim did that launched him on his career in 1949. This was a small regional label associated with the Macy's department store chain based in Texas. Hence distribution was limited and the few surviving copies of this release are quite valuable. The song "My Heart's Like A Welcome Mat" was co-written by Jim along with Al Courtney, a radio colleague. (From the collection of Larry Jordan) |
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Post by topgsfan on Apr 20, 2013 13:56:31 GMT -5
 "As longtime lead gutiarist and right-hand man Leo Jackson confirms, a good way to get yourself fired from Jim's staff was to mention this song -- "Beatin' On the Ding Dong." Although a lot of us think it's just another cute novelty number from the early Reeves repertoire, Jim apparently did not share our appreciation of it! This Abbott release -- done at the insistence of label owner Fabor Robison -- is likewise very rare." (from the collection of Larry Jordan) |
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Post by topgsfan on Mar 3, 2016 12:32:46 GMT -5
Jim Reeves on the Grand Ole Opry "Live"
He sings several songs.
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Post by topgsfan on Apr 1, 2016 10:48:30 GMT -5
I have gotten to love this man's music more and more and listen to my CD's of his a LOT! I know he was a fellow Texan, but I'd love his music even if he wasn't!  |
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Post by youneverknow on Apr 2, 2016 11:58:06 GMT -5
I will always love Gentleman Jim....Texan or not.
I grew up listening to him.
I have online friends in England who still love Jim too.
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Post by topgsfan on Apr 6, 2016 14:52:53 GMT -5
Jolene, I have a really super nice black lady at church that is originally from Africa and she LOVES Jim Reeves. I've read that Jim Reeves was really big in Africa. They love him there. If I'm not mistaken he was the first country artist to go to Africa and perform.
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Post by youneverknow on Apr 28, 2016 11:03:04 GMT -5
I didn't know that Jane. That's really neat.
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Post by topgsfan on May 6, 2016 12:26:23 GMT -5
From Doug Davis....Country Music Classics
STORY BEHIND THE SONG
Back in the 50’s – a lot of recording sessions were done in radio stations – one
of which was Jim Reeves 4th single release – his first charted single and his
first number one!
Jim’s Abbott Record single “Mexican Joe” was recorded at KWKH Radio in
Shreveport, Louisiana. He was a KWKH announcer/D.J. and a Louisiana Hayride
emcee at the time.
Floyd Cramer was a Hayride staff musician at the time and played on Jim’s
“Mexican Joe” session.
Jim’s “Mexican Joe” came on the country charts March 28th, 1953 and made it to
number one – where it stuck for nine weeks. It was his first charted song and
his first number one. The single was on the charts for 26 weeks.
Jim Reeves placed 80 songs on the country charts between 1953 and 1984 –
including duets with Ginny Wright, Dottie West, Patsy Cline and Deborah Allen.
The duets with Cline and Allen were produced electronically after his death.
He joined The Grand Ole Opry in 1955 and was inducted into The Country Music
Hall Of Fame in 1967.
Jim Reeves died in a plane crash in 1964.
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