But it wouldn't be make-believe, if you believed in me

Continuing my trip back through the 1965 album charts.

31/01/65 : Moonlight And Roses - Jim Reeves


I've never listened to a Jim Reeves album - I'm not expected to like it, but at the same time, I'm not entirely sure what it's going to sound like. So maybe I should just be a bit more open-minded, eh?

You know what? It's awfully dated, but he's got a nice voice and the songs are all well done so I can much more easily understandable the appeal of this than something like Val Doonican - for all those who wanted to hark back to the good old days and avoid the racket them Beatles and Stones were making, I imagine this hit the spot nicely.  I have to admit I liked "Moon River" (we've had a few versions of that over the years) and "It's Only A Paper Moon" - they just glided past nicely. None of this is essential, but it's certainly not offensive.

We're at #12 in the charts this week on his 23rd week of a 25 week run, with it having peaked at #2 in its fourth, sixth and eleventh weeks during a twelve consecutive week run in the top five - they loved this kinda thing back then, didn't they? The top five this week were The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Kinks, Val Doonican and The Bachelors (seriously?) and there were a couple of new entries for Gene Pitney (#17) and Gerry & The Pacemakers (#19).

Wikipedia tells us it's "an album released by Jim Reeves" - and when you look at his complete discography you understand why they don't give it a number. There's millions of the things - he put four out in '63 and five in '64, but this is somewhere around his twentieth. It was the last one put out in his lifetime (but believe me, death hardly slowed him down) and his first to get to #1 in the BIllboard country music album chart.

I'm glad I've listened to a Jim Reeves album now - I have a suspicion that once you've heard one, then you've heard them all but it appears I'm going to get the chance to find out whether that is the case in '60, '63, '64 and '66! Maybe one of them will be his Scandi death metal offering and really surprise me - but somehow I doubt it. 

24/01/65 - The gravy train rolls on
07/02/65 - Some most peculiar songs

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