Jim Reeves – Pioneered Crossover
One of the crossover pioneers was Jim Reeves. He was a top artist in both the pop and country fields. With his velvet voice, Jim referred to his singing style as a “happy medium”; between the two, “happy” it was for Jim and his listeners. The wonderful, warm Jim style earned him a string of hits that hark back to country winners like Mexican Joe and Bimbo and continued through an amazing succession of pop successes. In 1962 he had even greater success with his recording of Adios Amigo. For the ones who don’t know Jim, at the age of ten he was given his first professional job. For $15 he sang with the staff band at KRMD in Shreveport, Louisiana. At one point, Jim set his sights on a career in major league baseball and he was actually signed by the St. Louis Cardinals as a pitcher and sent to their Mobile, Alabama, farm club. A back injury suffered during a game forced Jim to give up baseball and the accident turned out to be the music world’s gain. Jim went on to become a featured performer on radio’s Louisiana Hayride and Grand Ole Opry. His successive best-selling records and sell-out personal appearances made him a worldwide star, until his death in a plane crash on the 31st July, 1964. God rest his soul.
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