My Top 21 Jim Reeves Songs: Distant Drums (#13)

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I'm continuing a series of discussions saluting my all-time favorite singer, Jim Reeves. I began on July 31, the 52nd anniversary of his death, and it'll conclude on August 20, the 93rd anniversary of his birth. Here's the next song. #13: Distant Drums Yesterday I mentioned that Cindy Walker, the great Hall of Fame songwriter, loved Jim doing her songs. She wrote this explicitly for Jim to record. And Jim did record a demo of it and took it to the studio when it came time for a new album. Chet Atkins, Reeves' producer and head A&R man at RCA (not to mention being a pretty good guitarist), balked at the song. The rumblings in Vietnam were beginning, and a war-weary world (in the words of a song by the Call) recovering from World War II, Korea, and the ever-present "Cold War" threat just might not appreciate a war song. So, Reeves took the demo tape home with him. (Roy Orbison heard the song and had no such objections, recording it in 1963.) Then came Friday, July 31, 1964, and Reeves' death in a plane crash. That put this song in a completely different light: not just a man singing about war in the literal sense but singing about the possibility of dying. Music was overdubbed onto Reeves' demo (which was just him, the soft drum you hear at the beginning and end, a bass, and a soft electric guitar), and it was released in 1966. Despite all of those things that Atkins objected to being more prevalent in 1966 than when Reeves originally brought him the song in 1962, the public ate the song up. It went to #1 on the country charts for a month, and was nominated for a Grammy award. (Reeves never won one.) And, of course, there's trivia: Reeves attempted to enlist in the Army during World War II. He was discovered to have a heart defect and was ruled 4-F. The "distant drums" of war never sounded for him. Distant Drums Written by Cindy Walker From Distant Drums, 1966 Reeves' Grammy-nominated classic: