Oh yes, Eddy was such a good friend of Jim's, that he had his attorney help Barbara Manuel sue Mary Reeves when Jim's plane went down, and even took the lawyer to the crash scene.
Eddy had no big hits after Jim arrived in Nashville, and the day Reeves died Arnold was in the studio trying to record in the Afrikaans language. He changed his appearance to tuxedos and even adopted some of Jim's mannerisms.
RCA betrayed Mary and so did Chet Atkins by allowing Eddy to cover "Make the World Go Away." Though it had been released in an album in 1965, Mary had envisioned it as a single. Instead, Eddy covered it and it became a huge hit for him, so much so he was invited to host "The Tonight Show" when Johnny Carson was gone. Of course Eddy also recorded Jim's signature song, "Welcome To My World."
Jim himself had a jaded view of Arnold, who was known around Nashville as a ruthless, penny pinching real estate tycoon. Reeves called Eddy Arnold "the poor man's Jim Reeves" and was acutely aware how Eddy was trying to sound like him.
Later, Eddy tried to appease Mary by narrating the story of Jim's life. But I will never forget standing in line at the deejay convention in Nashville one year and hearing some guys behind me talk about how appalled they were at Eddy's actions in trying to replace Gentleman Jim. Mary personally told me how upset she was that RCA and Chet betrayed her agreement with the label and let Eddy cover "Make the World Go Away," thus depriving Jim of what surely would have been a major posthumous hit.
There is more I could tell you about Eddy, including a woman who alleged he sexually harassed her, and how Michael Streissguth's fawning obsession with Arnold is what led him to trash Jim in his book to try to denigrate Jim so as to build up Eddy's image.
But I ask you this: Do you think Eddy Arnold is as popular today around the world as Jim Reeves still is?
I like some of the songs that Eddy Arnold did. But, I would not think that Arnold is as popular anywhere as Jim Reeves is. He certainly is an inferior singer to Jim. But then, so is everyone else, in my opinion. I always thought that Arnold's career was helped by Jim's death, which caused a void that Arnold, and others, tried to fill. Unsuccessfully, of course.
After what Arnold had done, I wonder why Mary chose to ask him to narrate Jim's story. I also question why Arnold would bring attention to Jim by doing things like he did on this video, since Arnold was obviously trying to fill Jim's shoes, so to speak.
I would guess that, since it is money that drives the music business, that had a lot to do with things that were done.
I never liked the way Eddy Arnold sang,I always thought he couldn't sing worth a darn.Plus,he was ugly to boot.He even had album covers that looked like Jim's posthumous releases.It was obvious Arnold was trying to steal Jim's "thunder"! Anita L. Cooper
Oh Yes the rigth word about Eddy Arnold is what Jim Reeves Call poor man Jim Reeves Eddy Sound never like Jim there Will allways be one Jim Reeves No one Can take his place Sincerely Mogens Jensen Copenhagen Denmark
I happened to come across a video of the said Mr Arnold on you tube performing one of jims songs.i can't remember what the song was but I do recall that he was dressed in a tuxedo and attempting to do this song in the style of Jim. I have to say though that i was not all that impressed with the performance. There can only be one Jim reeves, nobody yet even comes close.
on January 5, 2017, 3:22 pm