Del Reeves notched a string of country-chart successes throughout the second half of the 1960s while frequently composing his own songs. Born Franklin Delano Reeves in Sparta, North Carolina, in 1932 as the youngest of eleven siblings, he picked up guitar by using instruments left behind by brothers serving in World War II. By age twelve he had already become a local radio favorite, later studying at Appalachian State College and enlisting in the Air Force, an experience that brought him to Sacramento. From 1958 to 1961 he appeared regularly on The Chester Smith Show before relocating to Nashville and cutting his first sides for Decca, whose initial chart entry arrived in 1961 with “Be Quiet Mind.” Together with his wife he formed a songwriting partnership that supplied material to Carl Smith, Rose Maddox, Roy Drusky, and Sheb Wooley. Brief periods at Reprise and Columbia ended when he joined United Artists, where “Girl on a Billboard” gave him his first number-one single in 1965. Its successor, “The Belles of Southern Bell,” climbed into the Top Five, and “Women Do Funny Things to Me” reached the Top Ten early in 1966. Between 1968 and 1969 three additional singles—“Looking at the World Through a Windshield,” “Be Glad,” and his signature recording, “Good Time Charlie’s”—all landed inside the Top Five, while he also teamed with Bobby Goldsboro and Penny DeHaven on several duets over the ensuing years. Reeves returned to television as host of Del Reeves’ Country Carnival and took parts in multiple feature films during the late 1960s. His final major Top Ten entry came with 1971’s “The Philadelphia Fillies,” yet he remained with United Artists through the decade, issuing further duet recordings with Billie Jo Spears in 1976. He left the label in 1979 and later worked as a music executive, helping secure the contract that launched Billy Ray Cyrus.
