June 15, 2011

Ray Stevens: Nostalgia Valley, Part 24...

Good morning all...on this day back in 1974 guess who was sitting at #1 in the United Kingdom...none other than Ray Stevens with "The Streak". Ray had reached #1 in America several weeks prior with the streaking single...but it became an international hit and eventually sold more than five million copies worldwide. The single reached #1 in America and England plus it hit #1 in several other countries along the way. The song was written, produced, and arranged by Ray and it became a longer lasting hit than the actual streaking phase. The streaking fad seemed to dominate the news during the spring and summer of 1974 (judging by my research) and here was a song poking fun at the craze. It may have been a surprise to critics when the single finished in the Top-10 among 1974's biggest hits of the year...but then again it may not have been a surprise as it was a huge commercial hit.

The music critics then, like today, are notorious for panning novelty songs and this one is no exception. Given that it was a multi-million selling hit it created even more contempt and disgust among many music critics. Some radio stations stopped playing the song while it was still in the Top-10...and most stations stopped playing the song by summer's end. The single was so topical, of course, that it wasn't treated like a recurrent. Usually the singles that get airplay are played solidly for a couple of months and then the airplay slacks off...but some of the songs continue to get played for months on end long after the song has dropped out of the charts. The songs that get this treatment are said to have gone "recurrent". "The Streak" not getting a lot of recurrent airplay caused it's year-end Top-10 ranking to be even more of a surprise to some.

You should never underestimate the power of sales...and it was a huge seller!

On the strength of it's initial chart performance in the spring and summer of 1974, combined with the millions in sales it obtained, "The Streak" was ranked among the Top-10 for all of 1974.

In 1992 Ray made a music video of the song and included it in his million selling home video, Comedy Video Classics. The video was uploaded onto You Tube in 2009 and it's gotten 1,011,287 views so far. Here's a brief snap-shot of Ray's successful music videos on You Tube. Below are the music video's from Ray that have gotten at least half a million views (so far):

1. Come to the USA- 5,266,126 views

2. We The People- 4,402,155 views

3. Mississippi Squirrel Revival- 1,161,865

4. Osama Yo' Mama- 1,085,266

5. The Streak- 1,011,287

6. God Save Arizona- 748,058

7. Throw the Bums Out!- 731,957

3 comments:

  1. The 45 sold so fast, they could not keep it in the stores. After hitting several stores, I finally found one that had a box of them. That's right, they just kept the box by the register for those who wanted one! My copy has a plain white label, as obviously Barnaby was farming out the pressing of the 45s to meet demand. I don't remember what the "B" side was.

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  2. I wasn't around to witness "The Streak" when it was new but I discovered the song in 1987 on MCA's GREATEST HITS release. The one with a model and Ray dressed as Bonnie and Clyde. I remember the phenomenal success of his COMEDY VIDEO CLASSICS. The commercials ran a lot on TV and it was fun seeing Ray's commercial appearing all over the various networks and seeing ad's for it in newspapers. I remember being in line at K-Mart in 1993 and seeing a couple with a copy of COMEDY VIDEO CLASSICS in their shopping cart. I was 16 back then. It was a million selling home video.

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  3. I got distracted by re-telling how I found "The Streak" and the COMEDY VIDEO CLASSICS era in Ray's career that I forgot to answer the question...the B-side of "The Streak" is "You've Got the Music Inside". The song originally appeared on his 1973 NASHVILLE album and then a re-recorded and more mellow version appeared on 1978's BE YOUR OWN BEST FRIEND album. I like both versions...yet the 1973 recording is the better take simply due to the way he sings the word "baby" prior to the song's title.

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