Jim Reeves

Jim Reeves was one of the best of the "Nashville Sound" style country and western singers. His fame was widespread, not only in the USA, but also in Britain, India, Scandanavia and South Africa. Born in 1923 in Panola County, Texas, Jim after college began to pursue a professional baseball career but was sidelined by an injury to his leg while a pitcher with the Houston Buffaloes. He also for a brief period was a full-time radio announcer.

Many accounts incorrectly give Jim's date of birth as August 20, 1924 (including his plaque at the Country Music Hall of Fame and the liner notes on one of his albums). Both his birth certificate and his gravesite give his date of birth as August 20, 1923.

Chet Atkins, Jim's principal producer at RCA, said in an interview shortly before his death that he thought the reason Jim recorded so many songs was because he didn't think he would live a normal lifespan. He had some serious health problems of which most fans were unaware: he had an enlarged heart (which caused him to be rejected by the military in 1941) and suffered from high blood pressure. The men in his family had a history of dying at a relatively young age (Jim's father died at the age of 42). Chet said Jim told him he didn't know if he would live much past 50, and he wanted to get as much done as he could in the time he had allotted to him.

He began his recording career in 1945, and also composed his own songs.

Wore a toupee, which he and his wife Mary Reeves kept a closely guarded secret. She even tried to keep the fact unknown for many years after his death, once suing an overseas magazine for reporting it. His manager in the early 1950s, Charlie Lamb, acknowledged Jim wore a toupee, and said he discussed with Jim whether he should wear it on his first guest appearance on the Opry in 1953. Lamb' said, "He decided to go with the toupee".

Was originally hired by the "Louisiana Hayride " radio showing 1952 as an announcer, not a singer. The "Big Daddy" who ran the Hayride, Horace Logan, didn't like Jim's singing style (which, early in his career, was more of a high-pitched style as opposed to the smooth, mellow style he developed after "Four Walls" in 1957). After "Mexican Joe" became a hit in 1953, Jim took some time off from the Hayride to tour and promote the record. Logan told him, "You'll be back. As a singer, you make a great announcer." In his later years Logan admitted he was wrong about Jim.

Was a member of the Grand Ole Opry from 1955 until his death.

According to his secretary, Joyce Jackson, Jim smoked Parliament cigarettes up until 1958, when he quit because he was afraid they would ruin his voice.

The peak of his career came in late 1959-early 1960 with the success of the single "He'll Have To Go", which reached number 2 in the U. S. hit record charts and number 12 in Britain, ultimately reaching three million in sales. After his success he made successful tours of the U. S.

Made the eventually unfortunate decision to learn to fly himself after a commercial airliner he was on encountered turbulent weather on a return flight from South Africa in 1962. He wanted to be "in control" of the situation. He was taught to fly by the same instructor who taught Randy Hughes (Patsy Cline's manager and pilot) to fly, and received his pilot's license in March 1963 shortly after Cline's plane crashed.

, Scandinavia and South Africa, where he starred in a film, Kimberley Jim (1963) (released in the U. S.

Jim had been planning more tours and television appearances at the time his Beechcraft Debonair aircraft went down in bad weather on July 31, 1964, in Hendersonville, Tennessee, near Nashville - taking the lives of Jim and his business manager.

in 1965) and recorded songs in the local Afrikaans language. Jim was well known as the singer with the velvet voice and the gentlemanly manner.

His biggest posthumous hit, "Distant Drums" (which was #1 in the UK for 6 weeks in 1966), was actually recorded as a "demo" at Starday Studios in 1961. Producer Chet Atkins didn't think the words to the song (about a young man going off to war) were relevant to the times in 1961. According to Cindy Walker, the song's writer, Jim made the demo as a personal favor to her. In 1966 (with the war in Vietnam heating up) Chet overdubbed his vocal with new background music at RCA's Studio B, and it was released that summer, becoming a huge hit.

According to Billboard Magazine, Jim had eleven #1 hits on the Country charts - five while he was alive ("Mexican Joe", "Bimbo", "Four Walls", "Billy Bayou", and "He'll Have To Go"), and six after he died ("I Guess I'm Crazy", "Is It Really Over", "This Is It", "Distant Drums", "Blue Side Of Lonesome", and "I Won't Come In While He's There"). Jim's last #1 song, "I Won't Come In While He's There", hit the top of the Country charts in May, 1967, a little less than three years after his death.

A prolific recording artist, many of his posthumously released songs became hits many years after his death, such as 1970's "Angels Don't Lie".

Recorded 444 songs in his career- which were released on a multi-volume CD set by the Bear Family in Europe in the late 1990's.

His fan-base in Norway is so huge his widow, Mary Reeves, has received countless gold, platinum and even diamond (!) records from Norway up till this day. There was even a special album made for Norwegian fans: "Jim Reeves - Norwegian hits" in 1999. In the early 1960s Reeves was the first US artist to sell to gold in Norway, and after his death he dominated the Norwegian charts through the entire 1960s. To top it all, one of the last live recording made of Reeves was from his concert in Njårdhallen, Oslo, Norway, three months before his death.

In a survey taken by the BBC of the Top 100 songs of the 20th Century in the United Kingdom (which included all types of music- rock, pop, country, etc.) Jim's version of "I Love You Because" was ranked #11.