On this day (September 3) in 1964, Jim Reeves was on a seven-week run at No. 1 on the country chart with “I Guess I’m Crazy.” It was the first of Reeves’ six posthumous chart-toppers. It was also the final No. 1 single he released before his death in July 1964.
Werly Fairburn wrote “I Guess I’m Crazy” and Tommy Collins released the first recording of the song in 1955. Reeves also recorded it that year, but it wasn’t selected as a single. Instead, RCA released it as the lead track from The Best of Jim Reeves Vol. II in June 1964.
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Reeves recorded for RCA Records with Chet Atkins overseeing most of his sessions. As a result, he was an early adopter of the lush Nashville Sound. The success of his singles like “Billy Bayou,” “Home,” “He’ll Have to Go,” and “Partners” in the late 1950s helped to popularize the production style, which dominated the bulk of Nashville’s output throughout the next decade. The style’s prolonged prominence allowed Reeves’ material to remain successful for decades after he died.
Jim Reeves’ Posthumous Success
The fact that Jim Reeves notched six No. 1 singles after his death is, without a doubt, impressive. However, that doesn’t tell the whole story. His chart-topping songs–“I Guess I’m Crazy,” “This Is It,” “Is It Really Over,” “Distant Drums,” “The Blue Side of Lonesome,” and “I Won’t Come in While He’s There”–were released before the end of the 1960s. The last one reached No. 1 in early 1967.
Those were far from Reeves’ final hits. He scored six posthumous top 10 hits before the end of the decade. Then, his singles continued to chart throughout the 1970s and ’80s. Reeves landed five more posthumous top 10s in the 1970s and two more in the following decade.
Reeve’s final hit song saw him teaming up with Patsy Cline, another artist who helped popularize the Nashville Sound. Their duet, “Have You Ever Been Lonely (Have You Ever Been Blue),” reached No. 5 on the country chart in early 1982. It was also Cline’s final hit single.
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Group shot of English rock and roll band The Rolling Stones posed in 1968. Clockwise from top left: Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Brian Jones (1942-1969), Mick jagger and Keith Richards. (Photo by Mark Hayward Archive/Redferns)
