JIM REEVES 1962 "Touch of Velvet" RCA LSP-2487(S) Vinyl Record

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Jim Reeves

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A Touch of Velvet

1962 RCA Victor label LSP-2487

Album VG++ condition

Jacket VG+ condition - colors vivid, no split seams, front ring wear

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James Travis "Jim" Reeves (August 20, 1923 – July 31, 1964) was an American country and pop singer.

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 accounts—including Reeves himself, in an interview later released on the RCA album Yours Sincerely—name Hank Williams as the absentee.) Reeves' singing career was launched.

His first country hits included "I Love You" (a duet with Ginny Wright), "Mexican Joe", "Bimbo" and other songs on both Fabor Records and Abbott Records. Eventually, Reeves began to tire of the novelty bracket he had been forced into, and left for RCA Victor.

Indeed, by 1955 it was becoming apparent that RCA was very willing to sign Jim, and offered him a 10-year recording contract. Reeves signed, and the Abbot label had released a singer who was due to become one of country music's biggest and brightest stars. (Incidentally. the man who clinched the deal for RCA, Stephen H. Sholes, produced some of Jim's first recordings at RCA, and later in 1955 he completed a memorable "double" when he signed a young Elvis Presley for the company.)

In his earliest RCA Victor recordings, Reeves was still singing in the loud style of his first recordings, a style considered standard for country-western performers at that time. He sought to soften his volume, using a lower pitch and singing with lips nearly touching the microphone, but ran into some resistance at RCA—until in 1957, with the support of his producer Chet Atkins, he used this new style on his version of a demo song of lost love, written from a woman's perspective (and intended for a female singer). "Four Walls" not only took top position on the country charts, but went to number eleven on the popular charts at the same time. Reeves had not only opened the door to wider acceptance for other country singers, but had also helped usher in a new style of country music, using violins and lusher background arrangements, soon called "The Nashville Sound."

Jim Reeves on one of his albumsIn 1959–60 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.

Indeed, Jim scored a major success when, in 1966, his record "Distant Drums" went to number one in the British singles chart and remained in pole position for a remarkable five weeks - beating off stiff competition from such acts as The Beatles with "Yellow Submarine" and "Eleanor Rigby" (a double-sided "A" release) and the Small Faces' "All Or Nothing". In addition, "Distant Drums" also held off many other songs from living artists who were in the UK charts at that time. In all, "Distant Drums" remained in the UK charts for a staggering forty-five weeks as well as topping the US country music charts. Not bad going for a song which had been recorded by Jim for its composer Cindy Walker only under the impression it was for her personal use only and had been deemed "unsuitable" for general release by Chet Atkins and the RCA record company. "Distant Drums" was named 'Song of the Year' in the UK in 1966 and Jim had the distinction of being the first American artist to receive that particular accolade.

Although he is no longer featured in the singles charts, Jim Reeves compilation albums, containing well-known standards, continue to sell well. "The Definitive Collection" reached #21 in the UK album charts in July 2003 and "Memories are made of this" #35 in July 2004. Bear Family Records in Germany produced a 16-CD boxed set of Jim's studio recordings and a handful of demos, but since 2003 VoiceMasters has issued over 80 previously unreleased recordings by Jim, including new songs that fans have not heard, as well as newly overdubbed material. Among them is "I'm A Hit Again," the last song Jim recorded in his basement studio just a few days before his death. VoiceMasters overdubbed this historic track in the same studio in Jim's former home (now owned by another Nashville record producer). Reeves fans have urged BMG to re-release some of the songs overdubbed in the years after Jim's death which have never appeared on CD.

He was elected posthumously to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1967, and in 1998 he was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in Carthage, Texas, where the Jim Reeves Memorial is located.

Reeves' inscription at the Country Music Hall of Fame reads -

"The velvet style of 'Gentleman Jim Reeves' was an international influence. His rich voice bought millions of new fans to country music from every corner of the world.

Although the crash of his private airplane took his life, posterity will keep his name alive because they will remember him as one of country music's most important performers."

The inscription on the Jim Reeves Memorial reads:

"If I, a lowly singer, dry one tear, or soothe one humble human heart in pain, then my homely verse to God is dear, and not one stanza has been sung in vain."

Information obtained from www.wikipedia.org

Track listing:

Side 1

Have You Ever Been Lonely (Have You Ever Been Blue)

There's Always Me

Just Walking In The Rain

Be Honest With  Me

Welcome To My World

(It's No) Sin

Side 2

I Fall To Pieces

Am I That Easy To Forget

Blue Skies

All Dressed Up And Lonely

Wild Rose

I'm A Fool To Care

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* Records are thoroughly sight graded, not play graded.

* Prices and condition ratings for records are based on information in the Goldmine Record Album Price Guide, 8th Edition (2015) by Dave Thompson.

Records are carefully padded, packaged and shipped in new 12" x 12" expandable cardboard boxes.