August 20
GENTLEMAN JIM DAY
No steel guitar, no fiddle for Jim Reeves. The man who turned country into pop-country, becoming the first big country-crossover artist, and possibly, the most popular, was born on this day in 1923 in Galloway, Panola County, Texas.
In his short life (he died in a plane crash near Nashville in 1964), Jim Reeves played minor-league baseball hoping to pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals (that career was ended by an injury), was a radio announcer and an entertainer (Louisiana Hayride), and had more than forty top-ten country hits and over two dozen in the pop Hot 100.
His second release, Mexican Joe, was #1 and was quickly followed by the #2 hit, Bimbo. He wrote and performed the hits Yonder Comes a Sucker, Am I Losing You, and I’m Getting Better. A slew of #2 hits, including Losing Your Love, Adios Amigo, I’m Gonna Change Everything and Welcome to My World were only slightly overshadowed by the number ones, Billy Bayou, He’ll Have to Go, I Guess I’m Crazy and his biggest pop and country hit, Four Walls.
‘Gentleman’ Jim Reeves was elected posthumously to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1967, with his fans continuing to make his songs into #1 hits. From 1964 through 1967, there was This is It, Is It Really Over?, Distant Drums, Blue Side of Lonesome, I Won’t Come in While He’s There. Singers Deborah Allen and Patsy Cline did duets with Reeves through the magic of electronic recording. Deborah sang Take Me in Your Arms and Hold Me with Reeves for a 1980 hit, and Cline sang with Reeves’ voice in the 1981 hit, Have You Ever Been Lonely?
Reeves’ international popularity at times has surpassed his popularity in the United States. The world lost Gentleman Jim but his music lives on in the hearts of his many fans.
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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