ROOTS of Country Music

The Professional Work of Jim Reeves

Career Track

(Aug. 20, 1924 ~ Jul. 31, 1964) 

No. 13 Country Music Artist (1944-1993)

Grand Ole Opry -1955

Band Name: The Blue Boys

Barn Dance Affiliate: Louisiana Hayride -1953

Film, Radio & TV 

• Ernest Tubb’s  Midnight Jamboree, 2
• Kimberly Jim, 1

1-Film, 2-Radio

Billboard Chart Data

• No. 1 Singles: 11
• Top-10 Singles: 51
• Crossover Singles: 4
• Charted Singles: 80
• Chart Years Active: 1953 - 1984

Awards

Country Music Association

Country Music Hall of Fame (1967)

Billboard Top-10 Singles

1. Mexican Joe* -1953
2. Bimbo*
3. I Love You -1954
4. Penny Candy
5. Drinking Tequila -1955
6. Yonder Comes A Sucker
7. My Lips Are Sealed -1956
8. According To My Heart
9. Am I Losing You -1957
10. Four Walls*#
11.  Two Shadows On Your Window
12. Anna Marie
13. Overnight -1958
14. I Love You More
15. Blue Boy
16. Billy Bayou*
17. Home -1959
18. Partners
19. He'll Have to go*#1
20. I'm Getting Better# -1960
21. I Know One
22. I Missed Me
23. Am I Losine You#
24. The Blizzard -1961
25. Losing Your Love
26. How Can I Write on Paper
27. Adios Amigo -1962
28. I'm Gonna Change Everything
29. Is This Me -1963
30. Guilty
31. Welcome to My World -1964
32. Love Is No Excuse,2
33. I Guess I'm Crazy*
34. I Won't Forget You
35. This is It* -1965
36. Is It Really Over*
37. Snow Flake -1966
38. Distant Druns*
39. Blue Side of Lonesome*
40. I Won't Come In While He's There*-1967
41. I Heard A Heart Break Last Night
42. That's When I See The Blues -1968
43. When You Are Gone
44. When Two Worlds Collide -1969
45. Nobody's Fool
46. Angels Don't Lie -1970
47. Missing You -1972
48. Don't Ley Me Cross Over,3 -1979
49. Oh, How I Miss You Tonight,3 -1980
50. Take Me in Your Arms and Hold Me,3
51. Have You Ever Been Lonely,4 -1981

*-No. 1 Single

#-Crossover Single

1-Biggest Single

2-With Dottie West

3-With Deborah Allen

4-With Patsy Cline 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Distant Drums: The Jim Reeves Story

Gentleman Jim Reeves was perhaps the most successful male star from 1953 through 1973. During that span, Jim placed sixty-four top-twenty singles on the country charts. His smooth mellow baritone voice delivered a sound that echoed around the world. Jim was capable of singing many styles, but he made his greatest impact with country-pop ballads.

Jim Reeves was born on August 20, 1923 inGalloway,Texas. Tragically, his father died when Jim was only ten months old, leaving the single mother to raise her family. At the age of five, he was given an old guitar and by the time he was 12 years old, he had appeared on a radio show in Shreveport,Louisiana. Influenced by such artists as Jimmie Rodgers, Moon Mullican and Eddy Arnold, it wasn’t long before he got a footing in the country music industry.

Jim began performing as an amateur, appearing both as a solo artist and as the front-man for Moon Mullican's band. In 1949, Reeves cut a number of songs for the small independent Macy label, none of which were particularly successful.

Reeves broke into radio broadcasting with station KGRI,Henderson,Texas. Over the next few years, Reeves held positions as a disc jockey and newscaster at KGRI, before moving on to KWKH inShreveport,Louisiana(1952), where he became host of the popular Louisiana Hayride. In 1952, Hank Williams failed to make an appearance on the show, and Reeves sang in his place.

His performance was warmly received, and accordingly Abbott Records signed him to a recording contract. Mexican Joe (No. 1, 1953) was Reeves' debut single for Abbott, and it quickly rose to the top of the charts and was followed by Bimbo (No. 1, 1953). The following year, Jim charted his only single with Fabor Records, I Love You (No. 3, 1954) a duet with Ginny Wright. During 1954 and 1955, Jim had four other hit singles for Abbott, a subsidiary of Fabor.

Jim then joined RCA in 1955, where his first release, Yonder Comes a Sucker (No. 4, 1955) broke into the top-ten. His debut number one single for RCA, Four Walls (No. 1, 1957) was the turning point in Jim’s career, proving to both Reeves and his producer, Chet Atkins that his main source of success would come from ballads.

As a result, Reeves became an even bigger star, not only inAmericabut throughout the world. Reeves toured Europe andSouth Africa, building a strong following in countries that rarely had been open to country music in the past. Reeves' international popularity during the 1960s at times surpassed his status in theUnited States.

At RCA, Jim began to develop the distinctively smooth and pop-oriented style that made him a superstar and earned him the nickname Gentleman Jim. With the support and collaboration of Chet, Jim virtually dominated the charts with a string of upper-level hits. In fact, from March 1953 to April 1974, Reeves placed sixty-four singles on the Billboard top-twenty country chart. The string of hits would have been consecutive had it not been for a disappointing, ill-fated song, Good Morning Self (No. 44, 1964).

At the end of the decade, Reeves racked up a number of major classics, including Anna Marie (No. 3, 1958), Blue Boy (No. 2, 1958) and Billy Bayou (No. 1, 1958). The following year, Jim charted his biggest single, He'll Have to go (No. 1, 1960).

The song was the second biggest in country music that year as it claimed the top chart position. The song met heavy competition with Hank Locklin’s Please Help Me, I’m Falling and Cowboy

Copas’ Alabam. All three singles claimed the top chart position that year. Both He’ll Have to go and Please Help Me, I’m Falling held the top chart spot for fourteen consecutive weeks, while Alabam claimed the top spot for twelve weeks. Hank’s song however, was certified as the biggest in country music that year as it spent more time on the charts overall.

In 1964, Jim was at the pinnacle of his career when he died in a plane crash. To that point he had amasses thirty-seven top-ten singles. His final was I Guess I’m Crazy (No. 1, 7/11/64). Prior to that however, he charted Love Is no Excuse (No. 7, 3/28/1964), with his RCA label mate, Dottie West. Incidentally, Dottie was the only artist that Jim made studio recordings with. His duets with Patsy Cline and Deborah Allen were electronically overdubbed after he died.

Throughout the sixties, RCA released a series of posthumous singles, including This Is It (No. 1, 1965), Is It Really Over (No. 1, 1965), Distant Drums (No. 1, 1966), and I Won't Come in While He's There (No. 1, 1967). His songs continued to chart for years following his death. In fact, during the '70s and '80s, he continued to have hits with both unreleased material and duets with Deborah Allen and Patsy Cline, who perished in an airplane crash, in 1963. Jim was inducted posthumously into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1967.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Accident

On July 31, 1964, Reeves and his manager Dean Manuel leftArkansasen route toNashvillein a single-engine Beechcraft Debonair aircraft, with Reeves at the controls. While flying over Brentwood, Tennessee, they encountered a violent thunderstorm. The plane faded from radar screens and radio contact was lost. Coincidentally, both Reeves and Randy Hughes, the pilot of Patsy Cline's ill-fated plane, were trained by the same instructor.

On the morning of August 2, 1964, the bodies of Reeves and Manuel were found in the wreckage. Thousands turned out to pay their last respects at his funeral on August 4. The coffin, draped in flowers from fans, was driven through the streets of Nashville and then to Reeves' final resting place near Carthage, Texas where the 39-year-old singer once roamed the red hills of East Texas.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Researched, compiled and written by Richard Bell, Roots of Country Music. Mar. 21, 2011.