JIM REEVES-DING DONG

Jim Reeves was born in Galloway, Texas, a small rural community near Carthage. He became known as a crooner because of his warm, velvety voice. His songs were remarkable for their simple elegance highlighted by his rich light baritone voice. Songs such as "He'll Have to Go," "Adios Amigo (song)," "Welcome To My World," and "Am I Losing You" demonstrated this approach. Jim Reeves' Christmas songs have been perennial favorites, including songs such as "Silver Bells," "Blue Christmas," and "An Old Christmas Card". For many years, Reeves mixed college life with baseball and music. Influenced by such Western swing artists as Jimmie Rodgers and Moon Mullican as well as popular crooners Bing Crosby, Eddy Arnold and Frank Sinatra, it was not long before he got a foothold into the music industry. For a time, he was a member of Moon Mullican's band and also worked as a DJ and announcer with local radio stations. He made some early, Moon Mullican-style recordings like "Each Beat of my Heart" and "My Heart's Like a Welcome Mat" in the late 1940s/early 1950s. After an injury cut short his minor-league baseball career with the St. Louis Cardinals farm system, his musical break came while working as announcer on KWKH Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Singer Sleepy LaBeef could not make it on time for a performance on the Louisiana Hayride, according to former Hayride emcee Frank Page, and Reeves was asked to fill in. (Other accountsâ€"including Reeves himself, in an interview later released on the RCA album Yours Sincerelyâ€"name Hank Williams as the absentee.) Reeves' singing career was launched In 195960 Reeves scored his greatest hit with the Joe Allison composition "He'll Have to Go," which earned him a platinum record. He had a posthumous No.1 hit on the United Kingdom pop charts in 1966 with "Distant Drums," a song written for him by Cindy Walker. Jim Reeves was one of the few Western singers, including music acts such as Boney M and ABBA, who became widely known in the non-European world, including Africa, India and Southeast Asia. To this day he is affectionately referred to as "Gentleman Jim" in those parts.

Author: oldcountrytunes
Keywords: music country Jim Reeves
Added: January 10, 2009