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SOUTH AFRICA
During the early 1960s, Reeves was more popular in South Africa than Elvis Presley and recorded several albums in the Afrikaans language. In 1963, he toured and was featured in a South African film, Kimberley Jim. The film was released with a special prologue and epilogue in South African cinemas after Reeves' death, praising him as a true friend of the country. The film was produced, directed, and written by Emil Nofal. Reeves was one of an exclusive trio of performers to have released an album there that played at the little-used 16? rpm speed. This unusual format was more suited to the spoken word and was quickly discontinued for music. The only other artists known to have released such albums in South Africa were Elvis Presley and Slim Whitman. From Wikipedia. INDIA & SRI LANKA Reeves had many fans in both India and Sri Lanka since the 1960s, and is probably the all-time most popular English language singer in Sri Lanka. His Christmas carols are especially popular, and music stores continue to carry his CDs or audio cassettes. Robert Svoboda, in his trilogy on Aghora and the Aghori Vimalananda, mentions that Vimalananda considered Reeves a gandharva, i.e. in Indian tradition, a heavenly musician, who had been born on Earth. He had Svoboda play Reeves' "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" at his cremation. NIGERIA In Africa's most populous nation, country isn’t really considered a stand-alone genre. Instead, it was listened to as part of what was called “sentimental” music, a catch-all category that essentially referred to everything Western that wasn’t dance music. Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Jim Reeves — they were all heard in much the same way. Yet unlike Cole or Armstrong, people still listen to Reeves in everyday life.  |
