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Yonder Comes A Sucker





                   Railroad, steamboat, river and canal          music). Known as “Gentleman Jim”, his songs
                Yonder comes a sucker and he’s got my girl       continued to chart for years after his death. Reeves
            And she’s gone gone gone and she’s gone gone gone    died in the crash of his private airplane. He is a
                      And I’ll bid her my last farewell          member of both the Country Music and Texas
                                                                 Country Music Halls of Fame. Reeves’ initial efforts
                   I fell in love with a pretty little thing     to pursue a baseball career were sporadic, possibly
                  I thought that wedding bells would ring        due to his uncertainty as to whether he would be
                    She was as sweet as sweet could be           drafted into the military as World War II enveloped
                    Till I found out what she did to me          the United States. On 9 March 1943 he reported
                                                                 to the Army Induction Center in Tyler (Texas) for
                   Railroad, steamboat, river and canal          his preliminary physical examination. However, he
                Yonder comes a sucker and he’s got my girl       failed the exam (probably due to a heart irregulari-
            And she’s gone gone gone and she’s gone gone gone    ty), and on 4 August 1943 an official letter declared
                      And I’ll bid her my last farewell          his 4-F draft status. Reeves began to work as a radio
                                                                 announcer, and sang live between songs. During the
                      I asked her mother to let her go           late 1940s, he was contracted with a couple of small
                 She whispered mother please tell him no         Texas-based recording companies, but without
                   Though he may think that I am true            success. Influenced by such Western swing-music
                   There’s plenty more who think so too          artists as Jimmie Rodgers and Moon Mullican, as
                                                                 well as popular singers Bing Crosby, Eddy Arnold
                   Railroad, steamboat, river and canal          and Frank Sinatra, it was not long before he was a
                Yonder comes a sucker and he’s got my girl       member of Moon Mullican’s band, and made some
            And she’s gone gone gone and she’s gone gone gone    early Mullican-style recordings like “Each Beat of my
                      And I’ll bid her my last farewell          Heart” and “My Heart’s Like a Welcome Mat” from
                                                                 the late 1940s to the early 1950s.
                       Now I won’t cry my life away
                    Some other sucker will have to pay           He eventually obtained a job as an announcer for
                    And when he finds that she is gone           KWKH-AM in Shreveport, Louisiana, then the home
                    I guess I’ll hear him sing this song         of the popular radio program Louisiana Hayride.
                                                                 According to former Hayride master of ceremonies
                   Railroad, steamboat, river and canal          Frank Page, who had introduced Elvis Presley on the
                Yonder comes a sucker and he’s got my girl       program in 1954, singer Sleepy LaBeef was late for
            And she’s gone gone gone and she’s gone gone gone    a performance, and Reeves was asked to substitute.
                      And I’ll bid her my last farewell          (Other accounts—including that of Reeves himself,
                                                                 in an interview on the RCA Victor album Yours
                           Source: Musixmatch                    Sincerely—name Hank Williams as the absentee.)
                         Songwriters: Jim Reeves
              Yonder Comes a Sucker lyrics © Sony/atv Tree       Reeves’ last recording session for RCA Victor had
                               Publishing                        produced “Make the World Go Away”, “Missing You”,
                                                                 and “Is It Really Over?” When the session ended
                        To listen follow this link.....          with some time remaining on the schedule, Reeves
                                                                 suggested that he should record one more song. He
             ames Travis Reeves (August 20, 1923 – July 31,      taped “I Can’t Stop Loving You”, in what was to be his
           J1964) was an American country and popular            final RCA recording. He made one later recording,
           music singer-songwriter. With records charting from  however, at the little studio in his home. In late July
           the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a     1964, a few days before his death, Reeves recorded
           practitioner of the Nashville sound (a mixture of     “I’m a Hit Again”, using just an acoustic guitar as
           older country-style music with elements of popular    accompaniment. (Source Wikipedia)



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