Disco de Jim Reeves: “Essential Jim Reeves [RCA]”

When the weather drops below -20 degree celsius over here it's nice to have the music of Jim Reeves around. A true country great and a friend of Scandinavia. He came over here three times in the early sixties, when he had big hits with "Adios Amigo" and "Welcome to my world". This is country music done with style!

this cd contains a rare take of welcome to my world which was released by bear family on their welcome to my world box set, great quality and great songs make for a wonderful cd

Gentleman Jim Reeves was THE epitome of country singers, past or present. With this CD, Jim gives it his all. He is second to none. I highly recommend this recording to anyone.

After Jim Reeves died tragically in a plane crash on July 31, 1964 at age 39, his legion of fans simply refused to let go. From that point to 1984 no less than 34 of his RCA single releases would make the Country charts, seven of them crossing over to the Billboard Pop Hot 100. Not even the late, great Hank Williams or Elvis Presley received that ultimate honour.

I can therefore well understand the difficulty faced by producer Paul Williams in putting this 20-selection compilation together under the title "The Essential Jim Reeves." To please everyone would be nigh on impossible considering the fact he had 80 Country hit singles between 1953 and 1984, 27 of which crossed over to the Hot 100, six to the Adult Contemporary charts (which didn't begin until 1961), and one to the R&B charts. Never mind the hundreds of equally-wonderful selections from his many EPs and LPs.

All in all, however, I'd say he did a fairly credible job, augmented by five pages of liner notes by Colin Escott and three more photos of Jim, including one with wife Mary at an Awards ceremony. A partial discography of the contents is also included, but without any chart details.

All but track 20 [recorded in 1958 and included on an early LP] were hits for Jim, 18 of them pop crossovers [only track 4 made only the Country list, going to # 2 early in 1959]. His version of the old standard, I Love You Because, was recorded in 1962 and was first released on the RCA Victor LP Gentleman Jim and, in 1976, became a # 54 Country hit as a single.

Note, too, that the version of Am I Losing You was the one cut in 1960 and released on RCA Victor 7800, going to # 8 Country/# 31 Hot 100 as the flipside of I Missed Me [# 3 Country/# 44 Hot 100 and not included here], The first version, done in 1957 [# 3 Country], remains a bit difficult to find.

The earliest hit represented here, and the one that leads off the disc, is Four Walls [# 1 Country for EIGHT weeks in 1957] which was his initial pop crossover [# 11]. However, this came after 13 Country hits beginning in 1953 with Mexican Joe [# 1 for NINE weeks credited to Jim Reeves And The Circle O Ranch Boys].

So I tend to agree with another reviewer who says that at least one of those should have been included in an "essential" CD. Not counting the first six, five of which were for the Abbott label and one, I Love You, a # 3 duet with Ginny Wright on the Fabor label, there were seven RCA cuts to choose from. The best of these included the afore-mentioned Am I Losing You, as well as Yonder Comes A Sucker and According To My Heart, both # 4s.

Still, it's hard to be critical of this fine effort which richly deserves every one of the maximum 5 stars.

Here is a fine collection from the smoothest voice in Country Music (well, besides Roy Drusky). 20 numbers here, and all original recordings, sung by the only voice that could sing them. There are the expected songs "Four Walls", "He'll Have to Go", and "Am I Losing You", and there are the less popular, but still worthy, "This is It", "I Love You Because", and "Suppertime". Also includes a small, but fine, booklet of info regarding the late Jim Reeves. I do wish some of his older work would've been included (ie "Bimbo", and "Snowflake"), but I'm very satisfied with the 20 numbers included here......and so will you.