Jim Reeves and South Africa

Jim Reeves was one of the best of the "Nashville Sound" style country and western singers. His fame was widespread, not only in the USA, but also in Britain, India, Scandinavia and South Africa. After his success he made successful tours of the U.S., Scandinavia and South Africa, where he starred in a film, Kimberley Jim (1963) (released in the U.S. in 1965) and recorded songs in the local Afrikaans language. 

Jim was well known as the singer with the velvet voice and the gentlemanly manner. Jim had been planning more tours and television appearances at the time his Beechcraft Debonair aircraft went down in bad weather on July 31, 1964, in Hendersonville, Tennessee, near Nashville - taking the lives of Jim and his business manager. Jim's widow, Mary Reeves, kept many of the recordings unreleased after his death in backlog and had them released, little by little over the years, to great success - so much so that younger executives in the record business had to be reminded that Jim has been gone for over 35 years! 

He even had an album reach Gold status in Denmark in 1999! It is a source of great frustration to Jim's fans and family that his great catalog of music does not get equal airplay today in the U.S. compared with other artists who have gone on such as Patsy Cline. But Jim's legacy still lives on, as one of the greatest voices in recorded music, country or otherwise.

Here he sings a South African folk song in Afrikaans. Enjoy!