In the late 1950s, slick orchestral arrangements and silky vocals began to replace the screeching steel guitar and fiddles that had previously dominated country music. Perhaps no artist was more emblematic of this shift than Jim Reeves, whose velvety baritone transported the genre to new heights on songs like "He'll Have to Go" (1960) and "Four Walls" (1957).
On this day (July 31) in 1964, Reeves was still enjoying his commercial peak when his life and career were cut tragically short in a plane crash near Nashville.
Just 40 years old, Reeves perished alongside his manager, Dean Manuel.
The Crash
On July 31, 1964, Jim Reeves and Dean Manuel boarded the country singer's private plane and left Batesville, Arkansas, to attend a real estate meeting in Nashville.
With Reeves at the controls, the single-engine Beechcraft Debonair aircraft ran into a severe thunderstorm near Brentwood, Tennessee.
According to forensic analysis, a panicked Reeves attempted to turn the plane toward the Franklin Road corridor to reach the nearby airport.
This decision went against the advice of air-traffic control, which urged Reeves to head away from the storm.
His visibility limited, Reeves lost...
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