Larry have you ever done a discography of all of Jim Reeves recordings with the dates of recording and release?
Re: Discography
Posted by Larry Jordan on November 13, 2013, 7:17 pm, in reply to "Discography"
It's a nice idea but it's impractical. No one will really ever know how many recordings Jim made. Although most of his official masters for Macy, Abbott and RCA at least to some extent are documented, Reeves also had random demo sessions, and cut songs in his home basement studio, that have proven impossible to completely research. Given the fact that both Jim and Mary were pack rats who kept EVERYTHING, I theorize that there was, at one time, paperwork in the Reeves files that would have established exactly what recordings he made. But this is long gone.
Then if you factor in the many TV and radio appearances that Jim made around the world, some of which were probably recorded (and which I reveal for the first time in my book, "Jim Reeves: His Untold Story,") the difficulty of compiling a complete list of all his songs only increases.
It is a 100% certainty that unheard Jim Reeves recordings exist that are either in the possession of people who do not realize their historic importance, or who DO understand their significance but choose to hoard them instead.
The much vaunted James Newberry collection, for example, was said to have included unreleased material on Jim, including two live Canadian shows that over the years Mr. Newberry repeatedly described in glowing terms…but to my knowledge never let anyone hear. A book could be written about James Newberry's decades-long, very aggressive pursuit of anything he could get his hands on that pertained to Reeves. His ingenuity in tracking down these rarities was astounding, especially in the days before the internet. A California resident, he literally circled the globe and spent a small fortune buying items, or convincing people to donate Reeves rarities to him, with the assurance he was going to someday open a museum. But this never materialized. Instead, these items remained locked up in professional storage and were even unavailable to me, despite my friendship with James.
Finally, he decided a few years ago he wanted to find a permanent home for his collection.
He sought my advice and, after talking with someone who had been close to Jim, I recommended to Mr. Newberry that he contact Nashville businessman/music mogul Mike Curb, (who bought RCA Studio B, the Quonset Hut and various other historic properties). In hindsight, I now very much regret that I personally recommended Curb.
The negotiations between Newberry and Curb took over a year to complete and I am privy to many of the private details (though the terms have never been revealed). It was certainly my hope (if not my expectation), that once these items were transferred to a new owner, they might become available to the fans.
The day the Newberry collection arrived by semi trailer truck in Nashville, Richard Weize of Bear Family Records just "happened" to be in town (?) and must have had some communication with Arie den Dulk, who proceeded to send word to me through an intermediary asking me for details on any unreleased material in the Newberry collection. It isn't unreasonable to assume that Richard had hoped to strike a deal with Curb to release some of these recordings but so far, nothing has materialized.
I was very surprised and quite amused that either of these guys would try to contact me in the hope that I would share what I knew with them. They apparently made this attempt out of desperation as they could not get any answers from James Newberry. I likewise did not cooperate.
Although Mr. Newberry had loaned some historically significant items of Jim's to the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame, this did not include any recordings. Sadly, Mr. Curb has proceeded to lock everything up in storage just the way Newberry had done for so many years.
To put this in context, you must realize that within the Reeves fan world there is a very closed little society comprised of diehard collectors with deep pockets, who are obsessed with secrecy and selfishness when it comes to Jim Reeves. They don't want the world to derive any enjoyment out of Jim's irreplaceable recordings because to do so would mean they'd have to give up "bragging rights" that they have something nobody else has.
Good luck trying to find out what Mr. Curb's intentions are with regard to what he now owns of Jim Reeves. I used to call James Newberry "the Howard Hughes of the Reeves set" for his obsession with privacy and unreachability by ordinary fans. But I believe Mr. Curb is the most insular individual I have encountered, and I have literally met and interviewed Presidents of the United States with greater success.
Instead, Mr Curb dispatches flunkies like Don Cusic, who was sent to California to discuss Curb's acquisition of Newberry's Reeves collection. Even though he is a writer, historian and professor of music within the Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, you won't get any straight answers out of Cusic either.
(As an aside, Mr. Cusic is the same guy who chaired the Belmont Award committee that bestowed "Best Book on Country Music" honors in 2011 on "The Starday Story" and author Nathan Gibson, after which Mr. Gibson committed the embarrassing fau pau of publicly thanking Cusic for all his pre-publication, hands-on help with his book prior to his "winning" the award. Mr. Gibson also served on a committee staging the award. This egregious conflict of interest is tantamount to one of the judges in the Miss America pageant sleeping with the winning contestant, and in the real world would not be tolerated. But Cusic saw nothing wrong with it, nor did people like Alanna Nash and Diane Pecknold -- who served on the award committee. They denied knowing of Mr. Cusic's assistance to the winning author but didn't see any conflict. Chet Flippo, who was also on the committee, is one of the most inaccessible people I've ever run across. Mike Curb was also made privy to Mr. Cusic's actions, which surely undermined the integrity of the Belmont book award and the supposed impartiality of the judges. But he turned a blind eye toward it.
Mr. Gibson wrote a dreadful book that was so distorted in portraying Starday owner Don Pierce in glowing terms, (with which Ray Baker, formerly of Jim Reeves Enterprises even publicly took issue), and failed to mention the biggest hit ever recorded at Starday studio — Jim Reeves' "Distant Drums." Gibson admitted to me he was UNAWARE OF IT. No matter. He "won" anyway. The fix was in. This is NOT, as you may surmise, a matter of "sour grapes" on my part, as my book supposedly came in "second," though Cusic took great pains to praise it as in a league with Pulitzer Prize winning books. But I resented being deceived and sucked into their little charade, as should the other nominees, some of whom wrote outstanding books on country music figures that year and were very deserving of winning in preference to a man who received insider and furtive help from the head judge of the "impartial" awards committee.)
My point here is to illustrate the politics involved. Some of the people who have control over Jim Reeves recordings operate within a very elitist and closed society. They don't like me because I have released a lot of music on Jim that otherwise would never have been heard, and this is anathema to the hoarders.
It is sad but true that many of Jim's songs are irretrievably lost. As I have said many times, "inaccessibility is just another form of DESTRUCTION."
Re: Discography
Posted by Duke on November 14, 2013, 7:40 am, in reply to "Re: Discography"
WOW I hate to know that a lot of Jims music will never have a chance to be heard by his fans.
Would a discography of the songs he did for the in actual sessions be proper the ones that have seen release over the years? I am interested in the songs he recorded twice Welcome to my world What Would You do According to my heart Poor Little Doll
Which versions were first and second and why the rerecords?
Re: Discography
Posted by Gary Bryson on November 14, 2013, 10:21 am, in reply to "Re: Discography"
Larry, can you comment on your reasons for recommending Curb as the buyer for Newberry's collection? And, why did you not try to find a way to buy it yourself, or partner with someone? Thanks.
Re: Discography
Posted by Larry Jordan on November 14, 2013, 11:05 am, in reply to "Re: Discography"
Newberry's collection was once appraised at over a million dollars. I'm not a millionaire.
Re: Discography
Posted by Larry Jordan on November 14, 2013, 11:15 am, in reply to "Re: Discography"
On "The New Recordings" that I produced in 2012, I used what I regarded as a superior version of "What Would You Do". The vocal was better and the accompaniment more sparse, such that I could add different instrumentation. (You can hear audio samples on my website at: www.jimreevesbook.com)
Jim cut a beautiful version of "Welcome To My World" with the cascading strings but RCA wouldn't release it as a single as they thought it was too "pop." They vacillated between wanting him to be a country and a pop artist. Reeves was infuriated by their refusal to release the song on a 45, so he re-cut it and that version was definitely inferior; very lifeless.
Things came to loggerheads for Jim and RCA as 1963 came to a close, and although they released his original version of "Welcome To My World" in early 1964, and it charted all over the world, Jim boycotted sessions. He was unhappy with the label's lack of promotional support (he had to buy 1000 copies of each of his releases from them and send them to deejays himself), and he was infuriated when he saw a full page ad for John Gary (a fellow RCA artist) which the label had placed.
So he boycotted sessions for months and refused to record anymore for them. New York panicked and assigned about the only member of senior management that Jim still trusted, to deal with the recalcitrant artist. Finally, their differences were settled, and Reeves signed a 5-year renewal of his contract, guaranteeing him $50,000 a year.
He was pleased with that, so returned to the studio in late May 1964 to resume recording some singles and an album.
It was the fact that Jim was going to have an influx of money into his account that he went on a property buying spree. He found a ranch in Texas and put money down on it; he went to Arkansas to look at the possibility of acquiring some land as a hunting and fishing resort. He was killed on the way home.
As for the other songs you mentioned, Chet Atkins told me one day on the golf course that "Jim was always recording songs and then deciding he didn't like them." That's why some weren't released in his lifetime. In other instances he would re-record.
Re: Discography
Posted by Gary Bryson on November 14, 2013, 12:03 pm, in reply to "Re: Discography"
I understand. But it is unfortunate that Jim's things could not be under the control of someone who not only has an appreciation for the artist, but who also wants to share Jim's work with his other admirers.
Re: Discography
Posted by Larry Jordan on November 14, 2013, 12:10 pm, in reply to "Re: Discography"
I agree. And the feedback I was hearing during the negotiations between Newberry and Curb was that Mr. Curb did, indeed, want to share this material with the fans. I believe this was Mr. Newberry's impression as well. But Curb has had years to do so but so far there is no evidence he ever will.
Re: Discography
Posted by Manendra Pedris on November 14, 2013, 1:41 pm, in reply to "Re: Discography"
What a wealth of info. Thanks, Larry.
Re: Discography
Posted by David MacBeth on November 24, 2013, 10:34 am, in reply to "Re: Discography"
As I have mentioned before,RCA had Elvis on their books,so were they really that bothered about Jim?