JIM REEVES- NOT THAT EASY TO FORGET

31 July 1964. Popular singer Jim Reeves, piloting his own plane and accompanied by his business partner and manager, Dean Manuel, takes offr from a town in Arkansas for Nashville for a business deal. En route, the plane runs into a violent thunderstorm and goes missing. 2 days later, a search party locates the wreckage of the plane and two bodies. Jim Reeves and Dean Manuel are declared dead. A pall of gloom descends over millions of Jim Reeves fans all over the world.

In early 1950s, when I first started listening to English popular music, 'crooners' were the rage. The advent of better microphones gave rise to a new soft and intimate style of singing which came to be known as 'crooning'. Singers like Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Perry Como were its top proponents with romantic songs which touched the heart and on which one could do a close slow foxtrot or waltz with a chosen partner!

Then music became loud, and for many, raucous, with a heavy beat. Rock and Roll made its entry with Bill Haley and His Comets hollering 'Rock Around The Clock' in 1954. Other artistes followed: Little Richard (Good Golly Miss Molly, Tutti Frutti) with his screaming voice and Jerry Lee Lewis (Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, Great Balls Of Fire) stepping on the piano and playing with his feet while singing in rapid fire mode. And the top of the pops, Elvis 'The Pelvis' Presley with his gyrating hips and distinct style of singing and mumbling numbers like 'Heartbreak Hotel', 'Hound Dog', 'Jailhouse Rock' and 'Don't Be Cruel'. The youth had moved from slow, close dancing to frantic jiving.

But they wanted more. So Chubby Checker came with 'The Twist' getting them to shake one's whole body and legs to twist and rotate. Older people tried to follow suit and it is said that no other dance form has caused more injuries than the Twist!

A movie titled 'Fire Down Below' popularised another craze- the 'Limbo'. My generation would be familiar but for today's youth, to do the Limbo, one had to pass under a low horizontal bar without dislodging it. Consider it the opposite of high jump, but here instead of jumping, one had to bend one's body backwards parallel to the floor and shuffle the legs under the bar usually with music and a drink in one hand! The popular exhortation was, 'How low can you go?' I was amazed to read that the world record for Limbo is held by a Denis Walston passing under a bar at a height of 6" from the ground. Unbelievable!

Amidst all the noise and wild dancing, James Travis Reeves, better known as Jim Reeves or 'Gentleman Jim', was creating his own niche and a big one too! He started off as a standard country and western singer and scored his first no.1 hit on the US country charts with 'Bimbo' in 1954. Soon he developed his own style with low volume and soft tones of his voice accompanied by lush strings and background vocals which came to be known as the Nashville sound. His baritone voice was rich, velvety and smooth that made it ideal for deeply emotional, romantic and passionate songs. What a welcome and refreshing change it was to listen to his soothing voice in contrast to the loud and frenzied Rock and Roll music. One could romance with a slow foxtrot or waltz once again!

'He'll Have To Go' was Jim Reeves' biggest hit which remained on top of music charts the world over for months with the lovely lines, 'With your sweet lips a little closer to the phone, let's pretend that we're together all alone.... and you can tell your friend there with you, he'll have to go!' A song which enchanted me was 'I'd Like To Be' which he sang in a happy, peppy way with delightful lyrics which go-  'I'd like to be...That lucky chair that holds you every night, I'd even like to be the apple that you bite... And when you're old enough to want to marry, I'd like to be the one who steals your heart away'. 

His range of hits went from 'Welcome To My World' to 'Adios Amigo' and included 'I Love You Because' (I love you for a hundred thousand reasons, But most of all I love you 'cause you are you), 'Am I Losing You','Danny Boy', 'Distant Drums' and 'Four Walls'. He also sang a number of Christmas and gospel songs which were hugely popular.

Mostly, he was his own songwriter and sang many songs with 'forget' as the theme. There was 'I'm Beginning to Forget You....like you forgot me'. Then 'Trying to Forget....the times you broke my heart.... but I'll forget, I'll forget, I know I will'. In 'I Won't Forget You' he sings, 'I"ll forget many things in my lifetime, but my darling, I won't forget you'. And the most touching, 'Am I That Easy to Forget.... Before you leave be sure you find, You want his love much more than mine, 'Cause I"ll just say we've never met, If I am that easy to forget'.

Did he fear he would be forgotten? Well, his songs kept hitting the charts for more than 20 years after his crash. He remains popular with his old fans even now.

No, Jim Reeves, you needn't have feared: you are not 'That easy to forget'!