Ray Stevens: Singing about Women, Part 2

Hello once again Ray Stevens fans!! We're on the eve of the annual tradition of setting our clocks ahead one hour at 2am. I don't if the State you live in participates in the clock changes (spring forward/fall back) or not but it's something we've done for decades. One of the main points of this limited blog series was to spotlight some of the songs Ray Stevens has recorded that deal with women. I originally wanted to pinpoint songs that feature a woman's name in the title but then I figured I'd also toss in some notice to songs that are about women, in general, and therefore those would fall into the love song category.

Although a casual music listener probably wouldn't think of love songs or deep, romantic ballads when they hear the name, Ray Stevens, but he's recorded and written a lot of love songs. Some of those love songs actually do involve a lot of mature, straightforward lyrics. The issue has almost always been that music listeners can't separate the funny man from the serious one and once he gained a reputation for comedy/novelty it was almost written in stone in the ears and minds of music listeners and music critics that Ray shouldn't be taken seriously. We all know that Ray was able to overcome the novelty/comedy image throughout much of the 1970s and into the early 1980s. His recordings were very well done, immaculately produced, and arranged. Ray is his own music producer and music arranger and those talents continue to show up on his most recent recordings, too. I decided to use that particular pose of Ray because I feel it captures him deep in the performance. His eyes are open so you can't say he's lost in the feeling but it's a capture that captures a side of Ray Stevens that gets overlooked. So, then, in my second part of this mini-blog series devoted to women's history month we begin with a song Ray wrote and recorded in the late 1960s. The song originally appeared on his 1969 album, Have a Little Talk With Myself. "The Little Woman" celebrates the joy of domestic living and the pride one has in living a modest lifestyle. It also, as you'll find out when listening to the song, demonstrates the strength of a marriage. In the song's storyline Ray is approached by a woman who has perhaps a one night stand on her mind but he gently turns her down and states how much he loves his wife who's waiting on him at home. Ray explored this theme of domestic tranquility in a previous recording a year earlier in 1968 on the song, "The Great Escape". In that one he criticizes the hectic pace of working in the city and all that's one his mind is making the escape back to the tranquil suburbs and returning to his wife and their subdivided house. In the embed below it's the audio track of "The Little Woman".

In 1970 one of Ray's albums, Unreal, featured numerous love songs. One of them, in particular, dealt with the sad side of love. "Islands" tells the story of a couple who've drifted off into their own separate worlds. The woman has left the guy and the song is something of a lover's plea for her to return. Sad love songs tend to outnumber positive love songs on that 1970 album. A couple of other sad ones are "Night People", "Imitation of Life", and the war ballad "Loving You on Paper". The album had it's share of positive and inspiring songs, though, such as "Come Around", "Can We Get To That?", and "America, Communicate With Me". In the video clip below you'll hear Ray perform "Loving You On Paper" from a May 1971 episode of the BBC music series, In Concert.

In Ray's 1973 album, Nashville, there are all kinds of love songs on it. First off is the title track. "Nashville" isn't necessarily about a woman but it's a love song directed at the city of Nashville, Tennessee. In several interviews Ray mentioned that he wrote the song while touring Australia and was homesick. He missed being in Nashville and being with his family. Ray's take on "Never Ending Song of Love" is fabulous as is the love ballad "Love Me Longer". The album features the original recording of "You've Got the Music Inside" which he would re-record five years later. In the latter recording from 1978 he gave it a softer music arrangement to mirror his softer vocal performance. 

As was the case in 1970 with the release of two albums Ray released two albums in 1973, too: Nashville and Losin' Streak. Some of the love songs on Losin' Streak were a re-recorded version of "Just One of Life's Little Tragedies" (originally recorded by Ray in 1963), "Idaho Wine", a mid-tempo recording of "Easy Loving", and a bluesy rendition of "Bye Bye Love". The Losin' Streak album isn't officially uploaded onto YouTube and neither is Have a Little Talk With Myself but if you manually search for songs from either of those two albums you'll come across the audio tracks. I'll follow up with part three later on this week.  

Ray Stevens: Singing about Women, Part 1

Hello one and all...all you fans of Ray Stevens!! March is Women's History  Month and I thought it would be neat/fun to take a look back in the long  career of Ray Stevens and single out some of his recordings about women or those that have the names of women in their title. This is going to be a multi-part blog entry and so I'm not going to start off with the obvious ones. Also, as you could guess from the picture sleeve, I'll be going in chronological order from earliest to present day. Now, having said that, it doesn't mean that I'm going to spotlight each and every song dealing with the subject matter. It's just a sampling. In this first installment I'm focusing on three recordings in particular. The first comes from 1964 and was issued as a single only release. The song would eventually find it's way onto an album a few years later. "Bubble Gum the Bubble Dancer" is a novelty song about a bubble dancer. Ray tells us the story of how the dancer, named Bubble Gum, excites the patrons at a club called the Blue Rendezvous. As he's singing about how wild she's driving the men in the audience he adds in some vernacular from the time period such as using the term, cats, to describe the audience. He also gets in the slang expression, hullaballoo, which was such a recurring expression in the early to mid '60s that a television teenager dancer show was created with that title. When you hear the song, and even though it was recorded in the early 1960s and Ray's vocals and the music reflect this, there are moments in the song where you'll detect the phrasing that would come to the forefront in future recordings. When Ray gets to the line where he sings "..and then the music stopped and the house was still..", the way he enunciates the words, stopped and still, are certain to catch your ears. The B-side is a chilling song, "Laughing Over My Grave". Ray sings about a woman who's had enough and she has the man worried about what she's got planned for him. In his worst thoughts he thinks his days are numbered and he can hear her laughing over his grave.

In 1967, by now on the Monument record label, Ray released a single titled "Mary, My Secretary". In this toe-tapper of a song we hear Ray sing about how a secretary that works for him is creeping into his thoughts and is causing his eyes to drift toward her...and while he tries to hold back temptations he ends up once again calling his wife to explain that he's going to be late getting home, again. Ray belts out how his secretary, Mary, is breaking up his happy home. It was a single-only release. The other side of the single happened to be "Answer Me, My Love", a song that deals with a man pleading to his wife that he's never been unfaithful. 

In 1970 Ray signed with the Barnaby Records label. In the final month of the year he released the novelty song "Bridget the Midget the Queen of the Blues". As is the case with most any single that's released within the last 2 or 3 months in a calendar year it reaches it's greatest peak in the first few months of the following year. Early in 1971 "Bridget the Midget the Queen of the Blues" peaked in the Top-50 of the Hot 100...reaching number 50, as a matter of fact. It reached the Top-10 in the United Kingdom...stalling in the runner-up position for several weeks. The song is about a tap dancer working at a Go-Go on Sunset Strip. Ray tells us about Bridget's success as he acts as the narrator and emcee spotlighting Bridget and her backup group, Strawberry and the Short Cakes. During various moments in the song the performance takes a backseat to a rabid fan, possibly drunk, who interjects his enthusiasm into the goings on. The fan hollers "Uh huh I dig it, I really dig it!!" to which Ray, acting as a combination emcee/security guard, hollers back "you can't do that, fella!!". Eventually as Bridget and her group dazzle with more tap dancing the fan hollers out how much he digs it and Ray hollers "watch out, fella, you can't come up on the stage!!!". It's a very funny novelty song written, produced, and arranged by Ray Stevens. It was originally released as a single-only late in 1970 and it wouldn't make it's appearance on a studio album until four years later. It was placed on the 1974 Boogity Boogity album. 

He also made a limited animation music video of the song several decades later and I'm including it in this blog entry, too. I'll be writing part 2 of this blog series soon.

Ray Stevens: Festive Feast Fun

Hello all of you Ray Stevens fans!! We're getting closer to Thanksgiving 2023...as I write this blog entry we're a little more than a half an hour away from the 22nd and then it'll be one more day until one of my favorite holidays of the year. Ever since I began this fan created blog I've often posted holiday-themed blog posts whenever we get near a major holiday. This year it's no different. We're nearing Thanksgiving and as in time's past I'm here to spotlight several audio tracks from Ray Stevens which go a long way at explaining why we're so thankful for his brand of music. It's not all comedy songs yet that's what a general public knows him for. The menu for our Thanksgiving will be what we usually have: turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stove top stuffing, homemade macaroni, chicken and noodles, pumpkin pies, dinner rolls, and some other items. 

One of the audio tracks I'm sharing in this blog entry is a 1975 recording by Ray of "Lady of Spain". If you have not heard his rendition of the pop standard then prepare to be entertained as Ray gives us a vocal impression of Fats Domino. When you listen you're going to hear Ray call out the name, Norman. The person he's referring to is the saxophone player, Norman Ray. 

Now, after listening to that great rendition, wasn't it festive and fun?? As you can see from the video embed, "Lady of Spain" is from Ray's 1975 'Misty' album. That entire album, well, most of it, contains Ray's rendition pop music standards. The two original songs on that album were "Sunshine" and a song from the pen of Layng Martine, Jr. called "Take Care of Business". The album has other festive, up-tempo tracks, too: "Deep Purple", the previously mentioned "Sunshine", "Cow-Cow Boogie", and the title track, "Misty". 

A year later, 1976, Ray found himself on the Warner Brothers label. He had been on the Barnaby Records label since 1970. Ray's first album release for Warner Brothers, 'Just for the Record', emerged months into 1976 and the lead-off single from that album was his up-tempo rendition of "You Are So Beautiful". Elsewhere on the album is another up-tempo, festive and fun track titled "Can't Stop Dancin'". That particular song would get covered by the pop music duo, Captain and Tennille. The duo gave the song a different arrangement and it sounds a bit different than how Ray recorded it. 

One of the up-tempo romps from a series of comedy albums Ray recorded for MCA Records in the mid to late 1980s came along in 1988 in the form of "Language, Nudity, Violence, and Sex". As you may be able to guess from the song's title it's about the warnings that accompany movies that get shown on cable television. In this particular time period consumers were growing their entertainment options...cable television, once referred to as pay-TV, was becoming more and more accessible as part of a person's basic cable service. Satellite television was also a big thing...how many people remember driving around in their cars and seeing certain houses, usually in the wealthier side of town, with a huge dish antenna sitting in the front or back yard? The song on Ray's 1988 album satirizes cable/satellite television and delivers a comical point of view from a newly subscribed customer. The album from 1988 is titled I Never Made a Record I Didn't Like. Listen for a veiled reference to Dr. Ruth within the recording. 

Ray Stevens: Today's Nashville Interview...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! A few blog entries ago I wrote about an appearance from Ray Stevens on a lifestyles show titled Today In Nashville. This may sound confusing to follow along with but there's also another television program called Today's Nashville. Ray taped an interview for that series several weeks ago at the CabaRay showroom and it became available on YouTube yesterday. The Today's Nashville series is religious based. Although the entire interview wasn't centered around religion there were numerous aspects within the interview where the host, Terry Squires, asked Ray about several gospel songs he'd recorded plus his satirical 1987 recording, "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?". Ray spoke at length about his career and his experiences in the music industry. Since the interview takes place within the CabaRay they spoke about the showroom and he spoke about some of the photo's that are on the walls of the showroom. "Everything is Beautiful" was discussed along with the reason for it's creation...he needed a theme song for a future TV show he was going to host in the summer of 1970 for Andy Williams on NBC. There were several aspects of his career from beginning to present day that were discussed. When you watch the video you'll see a few snippets of Ray from video shoots and from TV appearances. A couple of photos of the CabaRay's interior are also shown...including the album cover wall and the trophy case. 

In the photo at the beginning of this blog entry it features Ray showcasing how the traditional vocal of "Love Lifted Me" is performed in church and on countless gospel albums but then he demonstrates his arrangement of the song. He did an upbeat recording for his 1972 album, Turn Your Radio On...almost sounding like rock and roll. Barnaby Records released the song as a single and the only place it hit was in Bangkok. When you look in Billboard magazine's Hits of the World section in 1972 (the magazine's archives are available online) you'll eventually come across Ray's recording of "Love Lifted Me" among the top selling single releases in Bangkok. There is a brief discussion of another song, "If Jesus Is a Stranger", from the pen of Don Cusic. Ray's recording appears on his 2014 gospel album, Gospel Collection Volume One. The album was distributed by the Bill Gaither organization. 

The interview is a little less than half an hour. You'll probably, if you have a keen eye, detect a couple of edit marks within the interview. Edits are almost always commonplace in any taped interview and most of the time the edits are did to keep the interview crisp and on-topic in case the interviewer or the subject of the interview trails off into different directions...and edits are also done if there's some sort of mechanical/technical issue that comes along during the live-to-tape recording. Such issues can be edited out prior to being broadcast. Also, a taped interview with edit marks indicate where commercials should be inserted if being aired on commercial television. Here's the Ray Stevens interview...click to play...

Ray Stevens: The "Unreal" YouTube Playlist

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! As the title of this blog entry suggests I'll be sharing a link to the YouTube playlist of Ray's 1970 album, Unreal. I've written about this particular album in several blog entries over the last 10 plus years but like so many albums and songs by Ray Stevens one never gets tired of talking/writing about them. I've only recently began to put some spotlight on the YouTube playlists of his albums. I used to not share them in my blog posts because, at the time, I preferred that people purchase albums but over the course of time I've began embracing the fact that exposure by any legitimate, legal means available is a good thing. So, I've come around to adapting that point of view. Oh, I still purchase his albums...but I no longer preach against listening to music "for free". In some of my older blog posts you'll come across commentary from me pertaining to that subject matter...but back then I wasn't thinking how positive it works in a recording artist's favor having their music available for all to hear...particularly when the traditional way (radio airplay) is non-existent. I also come to the realization that record companies and the artists themselves are compensated when links to audio and video are clicked throughout the social media landscape. It seems unreal, yes? Some reading this might think to themselves "oh my Lord.. he's only NOW figuring this out??". Well, I didn't just figure it out...I've known about it for awhile...but it's only recently that I've began adding album playlists of Ray Stevens from YouTube into my blog entries. I'm doing my modest part in exposing the great songs of Ray Stevens to those that otherwise wouldn't know of him.      

In the above paragraph I name dropped one of the songs on Ray's 1970 album. "Come Around" is one of two songs on the album that wasn't written by Ray. "Come Around" was written by a writer identified as B. Smith. The other song, "Talking", was written by Ray's brother, John Ragsdale. The thing that inspired me to write this blog entry, other than sharing the YouTube playlist, is a snobbish comment I come across earlier today on social media regarding "Come Around". The song was released as a single, overseas, with "Monkey See, Monkey Do" as the B-side. The social media user ripped the song to shreds and more or less insulted the intelligence of anyone that finds the song even the slightest bit entertaining or exciting. It's the social media user's opinion, of course. Now, to be clear, opinions are opinions. I have plenty of opinions, too...but, with my being a huge fan of Ray Stevens and loving the song, and the fact that I author this fan created blog page, it gives me the ability to speak out against any opinion that I don't agree with and by-pass argument/debate; and, as a result of not directly engaging with those I disagree with, I avoid being drawn into any of those annoying online flame wars. 

** An opinion that I'll forever have regarding the music of Ray Stevens, and him as an entertainer, is that he and his music have an audience. We appreciate the kinds of songs he sings, his stage presence, and his talents...and while it might not excite, thrill, or entertain the so-called hip, important people within the music industry or those who think of themselves as all-knowing when it comes to music, he and his songs thrill, excite, and entertain all of us, his fans, which is why we've always remained fans of Ray Stevens. **

This blog entry started with my promoting the YouTube playlist of the Ray Stevens 1970 album, Unreal...so let's get to it...the album features 11 songs. As I pointed out Ray wrote 9 of the 11 songs. The single releases, here in America, were "America, Communicate With Me" and "Sunset Strip". Those two singles hit the Hot 100 pop chart and the Top-20 Adult-Contemporary chart. Although "America, Communicate With Me" is heavily topical with contemporary goings-on in American pop culture it nevertheless became a pop hit in Canada, too. In fact, it holds a distinction of being a Top-40 pop hit in Canada whereas in America it peaked just a few notches short of pop Top-40 status. The album's other single, "Sunset Strip", is a gorgeous song...and it's during the song's chorus that the name of the album, Unreal, is repeatedly heard. 

The 1970 Unreal album is great music and with Ray Stevens you know you're going to not only going to be entertained by the songs but given his skills as a music arranger you're going to also love hearing the way the songs sound! A lot of people overlook the importance of music arrangements...but not Ray Stevens! 

Take a listen to Unreal on YouTube.    

Ray Stevens: Re-Visiting the Accolades

The Grammy Awards were aired tonight (representing 2022) and so I felt it was time to revisit the accolades and honors racked up by legendary Ray Stevens over the decades. As most of you know, if you've read some of my blog entries, I'm something of a perfectionist when it comes to lists and a pet peeve of mine is inaccuracy. In my blog introduction I mention that one of the main inspirations of mine for creating this blog page was my frustration with the lack of accurate information circling around on the internet about Ray Stevens. So, one of my goals is to have accuracy. There are several online sites that omit a large number of accolades and awards received by Ray throughout his career and in my blunt opinion it's laziness on the part of website operators to focus only on a select few organizations and then call the award list complete and accurate. The list that I provide always includes a disclaimer that the list is accurate to the best of my knowledge. There are many, many music publisher awards that Ray Stevens has been the recipient of...I've seen them hanging on his walls in photographs...but I've not seen every one of them to accurately state which recording received a publisher award from the BMI organization. I know, from research, some of the recordings but I've never seen a complete list. I wish one day to find out all of the Ray Stevens songs that BMI has recognized with a publisher certificate. In addition to the publisher accolades, he's also received a lot of nominations for various awards...and let's not forget the Gold and Platinum songs, albums, home videos, and multi-million social media videos. The latter of which has never been formally recognized with any award but for pure aesthetics I wish a series of plaques would emerge with the YouTube logo, a thumbnail image from the video, and a commemoration of a video's unique views. The threshold to receive such an award would be 100,000 unique views or more. If such an award existed Ray Stevens could line another wall at his CabaRay showroom with those awards. There wasn't such a thing as a Platinum sales certification prior to 1976. Anything that sold one million copies or more was certified as a Gold Record. When the Platinum award was created the sales thresholds were more defined. A Gold Record would indicate a song or album that sold between 500,000 copies and just under 1,000,000. The Platinum would be awarded to music selling 1,000,000 copies or more. Also, keep in mind, the RIAA certification year isn't when the sales reached their requirement. Record companies and, or, the artist themselves have to put in an audit request to formally begin the sales certification process. The RIAA doesn't automatically certify music sales. When you see Ray's 1985 comedy album receiving a Gold certification in 1989 that's merely the year the audit was conducted...not necessarily the year it achieved half a million in sales. It's  long been my suspicion that several more of his comedy albums from the 1980's are Gold or Platinum in sales but there's not been any audit done. 

The list will also include nominations in additions to wins. 

1969: Gold Record: "Gitarzan" (1,000,000 copies sold)

1970: Grammy nomination "Gitarzan"; Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Male

1970: Gold Record: "Everything is Beautiful" (3,000,000 RIAA certified sales)

1971: Grammy nomination: "Everything is Beautiful"; Best Contemporary Song

1971: Grammy nomination: "Everything is Beautiful"; Best Arrangement

1971: Grammy nomination: "Everything is Beautiful"; Song of the Year

1971: Grammy nomination: "Everything is Beautiful"; Record of the Year

1971: Grammy win: "Everything is Beautiful"; Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Male

1973: Grammy nomination: "Love Lifted Me"; Best Inspirational Performance

1974: Gold Record: "The Streak" (5,000,000 RIAA certified sales)

1974: CMA Award nomination: "The Streak"; Single of the Year

1974: CMA Award nomination: "The Streak"; Song of the Year

1976: Grammy nomination: "Misty"; Best Country Vocal Performance, Male

1976: Grammy win: "Misty"; Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist

1977: Gold Record (as Publisher): "Way Down" recorded by Elvis Presley

1980: Grammy nomination: "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow"; Best Comedy Recording

1980: Georgia Music Hall of Fame election

1980: Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame election

1986: Music City News Comedian of the Year

1987: Music City News Comedian of the Year

1987: Gold Album: He Thinks He's Ray Stevens (1984 release; 500,000 copies sold)

1988: Grammy nomination: "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?"; Best Comedy Recording

1988: Music City News Comedian of the Year

1989: Music City News Comedian of the Year

1989: Gold Album: I Have Returned (1985 release; 500,000 copies sold)

1990: Music City News Comedian of the Year

1991: Music City News Comedian of the Year

1992: Gold Album: Greatest Hits (1987 release; 500,000 copies sold)

1993: Music City News Comedian of the Year

1993: Platinum Album: Greatest Hits (1987 release; 1,000,000 copies sold)

1993: Gold VHS Video: Comedy Video Classics (1992 release; 500,000 copies sold)

1993: Multi-Platinum VHS Video: Comedy Video Classics (1992 release; 3,000,000 copies sold)

1994: Platinum VHS Video: Ray Stevens Live! (1993 release; 100,000 copies sold/mail order)

1994: Music City News Comedian of the Year

1994: Platinum Album: He Thinks He's Ray Stevens (1984 release; 1,000,000 copies sold)

1995: Country Weekly Golden Pick Award- Best Comedian

1997: Double-Platinum VHS Video: Get Serious! (1995 release; 200,000 copies sold/mail order)

1997: Gold Album: Greatest Hits, Volume Two (1987 release; 500,000 copies sold)

1998: Gold Album: His All-Time Greatest Comic Hits (1990 release; 500,000 copies sold)

2005: Multi-Platinum VHS Video: Comedy Video Classics (1992 release; 4,000,000 copies sold)

*** I interrupt the awards and honors list to include the following: Ray Stevens has enjoyed a lengthy string of highly visible music videos throughout social media beginning around 2009/2010. There are currently 30 music video uploads by Ray Stevens that have been seen by at least 1,000,000 people (this number doesn't reflect the amount of repeat viewings). There is a video upload on Ray's channel of Bobby Goldsboro on an episode of Ray's CabaRay Nashville show singing "Honey" and that video's gotten more than 1,000,000 unique views, too, bringing the total on Ray's YouTube channel to 31 video uploads of 1,000,000 unique views or more. Overall, more than 168 million have accessed Ray's channel/watched his video uploads since 2009. Now, back to the awards and honors list. ***

2018: Music City Walk of Fame

2019: Country Music Hall of Fame election

2019: Midsouth Regional Emmy nomination: "Ray Stevens Special"

2022: Musicians Hall of Fame election

2022: Cecil Scaife Visionary Award (co-recipient with Brenda Lee)

Throughout various points in time I have come across information stating that Ray is also a member of an Atlanta Music Hall of Fame (election year, 2001) and a Christian Music Hall of Fame (election year, 2012) but I can't find any verification online of either of those Halls of Fame but I remember reading about them online and I remember Ray Stevens mentioned as a member of each. In a goal to be accurate that's why I left out those two organizations in awards and honors list. I also didn't include any of the publisher awards he has received...because it would be an incomplete list if I only listed a few that I know about. The 2019 Midsouth Regional Emmy nomination I'm quite sure was for the PBS television special that aired during pledge breaks in 2018. If you sent in a donation to the local PBS channel airing the show you'd receive, as a gift, a DVD copy of the exclusive Ray Stevens Special. I have a copy of that special in my collection. I made a donation to a local PBS station airing CabaRay Nashville at the time. They've since removed the series from their line-up but I'm glad I made the donation because that special has never, ever become available anywhere. It's an obscurity. Well, I hope you enjoyed taking a look at the various awards and honors that have come Ray Stevens way over the decades and enjoyed my commentary/composition...and that you continue enjoying the music of Ray Stevens!  

Ray Stevens: Cass Elliot summer 1970 performance...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! A video upload surfaced on Ray's social media earlier today...a performance of Cass Elliot singing "New World Coming". This performance comes from the summer 1970 television show that Ray hosted for Andy Williams on NBC. The show opened with a line from Ray's "Everything is Beautiful"...the show always closed with an instrumental of the song as the credits rolled. It was this summer show that inspired the need for a theme song...and Ray come up with "Everything is Beautiful". Cass Elliot, of the disbanded The Mamas and the Papas super-group, was a cast member of Ray's 1970 summer show. As a result of being a regular cast member and the fact that she had a lengthy history as a vocalist meant that she would likely get recurring singing spots on the show...as did another cast member of the show, British performer, Lulu. 

Ray has uploaded video of Cass Elliot on previous occasions...video of her from the 1970 summer show singing "One Way Ticket" emerged last year and prior to that a compilation of sketches and performances by her on Ray's 1970 summer show hit the internet. That compilation video clip, more than 9 minutes long, has racked up more than 58,000 unique views. "One Way Ticket" has more than 22,000 unique views. This time Ray's uploaded Cass Elliot singing "New World Coming"... 

Ray Stevens: June 20, 1970...

Hello all of you Ray Stevens fans!! On this date in 1970 NBC-TV debuted Andy Williams Presents the Ray Stevens Show???. The summer television show aired in place of a vacationing Andy Williams...although he appears on the first episode of the season. A running joke, as you can see with the three question marks, was built around the fact that someone who wasn't a television star was suddenly the host of a summer show for a television star like Andy Williams. A lot of the publicity from the time period pointed out that while Ray may not be a household name with television viewers he was one of the top recording artists of the day and his name was very much familiar to music consumers. Ray's 1970 summer show featured an extensive cast...among them were Mama Cass, Steve Martin, Billy Van, and Lulu.  

In the embed below you'll see a complete episode of the summer show. Ray Stevens back then, much like today, is a consummate entertainer...he'll do practically anything that comes to his mind. The show was taped in Toronto, Canada and aired from June 20, 1970 until August 8, 1970. The show's theme song, "Everything is Beautiful", was reaching it's peak when the summer show made it's debut. The song's weekly exposure on the national television show no doubt helped it reach even more people than it perhaps otherwise would have...more people watch television than listen to the radio...and the single of "Everything is Beautiful" sold more than 3,000,000 copies and the song won two Grammy awards. One award went to Ray in the category of Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and a second went to gospel artist Jake Hess in the category of Best Sacred Performance.  

Ray Stevens speaks fondly of B.J. Thomas...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens! I'm almost certain you've heard the news that B.J. Thomas passed away yesterday at the age of 78. The moment I heard the news I immediately began thinking about "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" and how that song is not only tied to B.J. Thomas but also how there's a Ray Stevens connection to it. The writers of the song, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, contacted Ray Stevens in 1969 and asked if he'd fly out to California and listen to a song they'd written...a song that was going to be in a movie. Ray flew out to California and listened to the song and based on recollections that have been published in several magazine articles and newspaper stories he overall liked the song but didn't like some of the lyrics...however, the main reason that Ray turned down the chance at recording the song is because he had just finished recording a brand new song by one of the hottest songwriters in the business, Kris Kristofferson. Ray spent a lot of time musically crafting, arranging, and singing "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down". The song was scheduled as his next release on Monument Records and so he passed on "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head". As we know, B.J. Thomas recorded the song and it became a gigantic hit for him and for some people it's the highlight of the movie it appeared in, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Ray's rendition of "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" wasn't a 'Top-40' hit but it did appear on the Country singles charts in America and Canada as well as on the Pop chart in both countries. In fact, Ray's "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" marked his first appearance on the Country singles chart.  

Anytime "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" is being written about it's always mentioned that Ray Stevens turned it down. There was one particularly snotty, so-called music historian that I came across online today referring to Ray turning down "Raindrops..." for what he called the 'corny' "Everything is Beautiful". The historian shown that he is not only snotty but incredibly ignorant about Ray Stevens. It's the ignorant "critics" that drive me up the wall. For that critic's information "Everything is Beautiful" had similar success for Ray Stevens as "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" had for B.J. Thomas. Each song sold millions of copies and ranked among the Top-10 pop songs of 1970. Ray's 1969 million selling novelty hit, "Gitarzan", was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance category and B.J.'s recording of "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" was also nominated in that category at the same 1970 Grammy Awards (which honor the previous year's music). Joe South's recording of "Games People Play" was nominated, too. It was on this date in 1970 that Ray's "Everything is Beautiful" reached the top of the Hot 100 for it's first of two weeks at number one. 

Ray, at the 1971 Grammy telecast, won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Everything is Beautiful"...at the time of the ceremony he was on tour overseas and the Grammy was accepted by Glen Campbell and then passed along to Ray. 

In the photo above we have B.J. Thomas and Ray Stevens on the set of Ray's television series, CabaRay Nashville. In this episode B.J. asks Ray about the story behind why he turned down "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head". The two speak about "Billy and Sue", a song that B.J. recorded and had a hit with...featuring Ray Stevens playing the organ. B.J. says how much he loved Ray's song "Mr. Businessman" and so he recorded it...but remarked to Ray in the interview that it was the first time he'd seen a song with so many words. This is what Ray said in a press release regarding the passing away of B.J. Thomas...

“BJ Thomas was one of the most natural singers I ever knew. He was a pleasure to know and to work with. The Angels were there when he recorded ‘Rain Drops’ and he’s now added his unique voice to their eternal choir.” -Ray Stevens

Ray Stevens sings "I'm Movin' On"...

Hello all once again!! I'm a fan of Ray Stevens...and that's not a big surprise...and you probably could guess that I'm a fan of classic country music, too. Earlier today a video clip emerged of Ray Stevens from 1970 singing "I'm Movin' On" which had originally been a huge hit for Hank Snow. This performance comes from Ray's summer 1970 television show and he re-arranged the song...but he's never recorded it. The song was written by Hank Snow. If you know your country music history then you'll know that Hank Snow was Canadian and had a very successful recording career in Canada before coming down to the United States. 

"I'm Movin' On" was just one in a series of massive hit singles for Hank Snow...numerous singles from him spotlighted his uncanny ability to sing up-tempo songs with alliterative and tongue twisting lyrics with the highlight being "I've Been Everywhere". I don't know who the arranger was for Hank Snow's up-tempo songs but most of them had that delivery to where, if you tried singing along, you'd mess up once or twice attempting to keep pace and navigate through all of the lyric gymnastics. Hank's recording of "I'm Movin' On", in 1950, hit number one and stayed there for 21 weeks. So, then, here's Ray Stevens in 1970 singing one of Hank Snow's classics, "I'm Movin' On", and performing it his own way...in a medley with Joe South's "These Are Not My People"...so it's "I'm Movin' On" and then an insertion of "These Are Not My People" and then it returns to "I'm Movin' On". It's a showcase for Ray's arranging skills...

Ray Stevens sings about the "Hit Record"...

Well, here we are in February and I'm once again writing another fan created blog entry about Ray Stevens!! Earlier today there was a video clip posted on-line of Ray singing a song called "Hit Record" from his summer 1970 television series. The summer show was on the air while Andy Williams was on vacation. Ray had become a recurring guest on Andy's television show starting in 1969 and based upon viewer mail Ray was the one that received the most correspondence of all the guest stars. So, the producers of Andy's television show decided to ask Ray to fill-in for Andy during the summer months of 1970. Incredible timing and planning came together when Ray's single, "Everything is Beautiful", flew up the Hot 100 pop chart in 1970 with added exposure of the song coming from the summer 1970 television show...Ray was using it as the television show's theme song. 

The summer show was taped in Canada and it aired, nationally, on NBC television each Saturday night for a month and a half. Ray sang a lot of songs on the summer show...some of them were songs that appeared on his albums while some songs he performed were his versions of other artist's songs. In addition to this he also sang songs that he'd written that weren't on any previous album and didn't appear on any future album. "Catchy Little Tune" happened to be one of those and I've embedded that performance in a previous blog entry. This "Hit Record" song I am guessing is from the pen of Ray Stevens because at various moments in the song he slips in lyrics from his previous hits: "Gitarzan", "Along Came Jones", "Mr. Businessman", and "Everything is Beautiful". The song explains, in simplest terms, all that it takes to have a "Hit Record". I decided to leave the video embed in it's original size. I usually shrink the video screen smaller so that it doesn't take up so much space in the body of the text but this time I'm going to leave the video's size right where it is...

As of this date episodes of the Ray Stevens summer show haven't been made available on DVD. They used to be available in a subscription service Ray operated several years ago but the company that was hosting the site, according to information I found, decided to do other things and so Ray's subscription site went off-line as a result. The site had video content of a large number of television appearances Ray had done in his career up to that point in time. All episodes of the summer 1970 show were available to watch. The same held true for the episodes of an on-line sitcom he produced and starred in, We Ain't Dead Yet; also, it was a place to go and watch episodes of Rayality TV and his current series, CabaRay Nashville, before that series began airing on local PBS stations. Throughout his career he's dabbled in video and television productions. I'm sure you're going to love his performance of "Hit Record"!!

Ray Stevens: The 1970 George 'Goober' Lindsey Sketches...

Oh it's me once more!! Several days ago was the birthday of the late entertainer, George Lindsey. (December 17, 1928 - May 6, 2012). He had a varied career...television, movies, stand-up comedy...and for most of that career he was known primarily for his role as Goober Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry RFD, and Hee Haw. He had a serious, charitable side that didn't get a lot of national publicity and he appeared in his fair share of dramatic work in films but it's his comedy and the 'Goober' character that cemented his claim to fame. In the screen cap off to the left you can see Ray anticipating something crazy and wild to come forth from George Lindsey. You'll see the results in the video embed at the bottom of this blog entry. He and Ray Stevens were good friends...in Ray's memoir he writes about their friendship and how he and George were both members of a small group of people that met most Saturday mornings at a local restaurant for breakfast. It was informally called the Nashville Breakfast Club and based on the description/stories about the group contained in Ray's memoir I think Ray was the leader of the group. In the summer of 1970 Ray Stevens hosted an NBC program for Andy Williams. In those days variety show hosts went on vacation during the summer months and rather than show reruns all summer the networks would have fill-in hosts take over. The fill-in hosts were usually part of the regular cast if it happened to be an ensemble show and sometimes a fill-in would be a popular guest star familiar to the audience. Ray Stevens happened to be the most popular recurring guest on Andy's television show. Andy had made his return to weekly television in 1969 and throughout the 1969-1970 television season the guest that received the most fan mail and attention was Ray Stevens. Ray was chosen to be the host of the upcoming summer show for Andy Williams (debuting in late May of 1970). Ray had an ensemble cast (which included British singer, Lulu; 'Mama' Cass Elliot of The Mama's and the Papa's; and comedian Steve Martin among others). The show also featured guest stars and one of those making several appearances happened to be George Lindsey.

Earlier this month Ray issued a video clip featuring several comedy sketches of George Lindsey from the 1970 summer show. There aren't too many people that realize George provided vocals for several Walt Disney animated films...in addition to this I'll bet it's a little known national fact that every year the University of North Alabama hosts a George Lindsey Film Festival. The annual event began in 1998. There were also numerous charitable events and scholarships in George's name...charitable events that raised hundreds of thousands and in some cases millions of dollars for various organizations through celebrity golf tournaments and other celebrity sports events. In 2012 the George S. Lindsey Theatre was completed. George had known about the building being under construction and it's eventual grand opening prior to his passing away on May 6, 2012 at age 83. In case you're wondering the University of North Alabama is the college George Lindsey attended and began his acting journey. In the screen cap it's Ray Stevens reacting to something George said. I have another screen cap of Ray in the midst of hysterical laughter as he reacts to an outright silly bit of absurdity hurled his way from George...who happens to wear a strange hat while delivering the remarks. There's footage of Ray and George bantering as well as extended sketches of George playing the part of the large singing group who doesn't seem to fit in too well. Those sketches are funny...but don't be surprised if you don't catch yourself feeling sad by how much George's character wants to fit in but always comes up on the losing end. 

 

Ray Stevens: Andy Williams performs on The Ray Stevens Summer Show...

I didn't know exactly if I should title this blog entry Andy Williams Sings on the Ray Stevens Show or Andy Williams performs on the 1970 Ray Stevens Summer Show, etc. I knew that whatever title I'd come up with would be wordy and so I settled on the title that I came up with. Andy Williams was a very important figure in the career of Ray Stevens. Andy allowed Ray to appear on several occasions on his NBC television series during the 1969-1970 season. The networks, by and large, didn't want to air repeats of variety shows during the summer months and so when the star of a show took off for the summer break there was the need for a replacement host. Andy and associates chose Ray Stevens to host the 1970 summer show. Ray had recently signed to Andy's record label, Barnaby, after a lengthy run on Monument Records, and Ray wanted his debut for the company to be a hit and something that could be used as a theme song for the upcoming summer show. In the video clip you'll hear Ray refer to Andy as "my daddy and the sweetheart of the south" and he says that about Andy out of respect. I say that because someone asked on one of Ray's social media accounts if Andy was Ray's father. The answer to that would be, no! Ray's father happened to be a man by the name of Willis. The show having Andy on as a guest lent itself to a lot of comedy because it was actually Andy's show that Ray was guest hosting during the summer break. The appearance gave Andy some jokes to level toward Ray...asking him how he's been doing since taking over the show, and as they begin to chit chat, music starts playing and the announcer tells us that the reason they're drowning out the conversation is because, frankly, they feel their chit chat is boring, which draws a lot of laughs but then, after the music stops, the scene ends with Andy asking Ray a question that had become a running joke throughout the 1970 summer series. Andy sings "One Day of Your Life" which was a huge hit for for him on the Adult-Contemporary chart...peaking in the runner-up position. It's more adult oriented and that's why it had it's greatest impact on radio formats that played pop music that adults preferred to listen to and purchase. Andy croons out the song in his typical delivery. The song is from the pen of Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield and it was issued as a single in June of 1970. The release came between Andy's version of "Can't Help Falling in Love" and "It's So Easy".  

Ray Stevens: Updated "Everything is Beautiful" nearing 6,000 unique views...

In my look into the most recent unique views for the 50th anniversary music video of "Everything is Beautiful" it's received 5,927 unique views as of this writing. This is a pickup of 1,107 unique views from my previous blog entry early yesterday morning. The video debuted this past Monday (November 9th) and it was paired with a medley video on the same day. "Everything is Beautiful" / "United We Stand" premiered at the same time as the full performance of "Everything is Beautiful". The combined unique views of both music videos is above 10,000. The medley music video has 4.2K at the moment. The songs are available as Mp3 digital downloads for those that want the audio tracks in your music library. I purchased them the day they were released (October 30th) and have watched the music videos several times this week.

The music video is enjoyable both as a music video but the graphics, visuals, and the updated arrangement make it even better. I continue to think back to the updated narration that Ray kicks the song off with. He's fully aware that the ones who are calling for unity are the ones that are being the most divisive and the most reckless. A call for unity and civility is in order...a call for tolerance...having the freedom to express your beliefs and not get threatened from other people in society and certainly not threatened from elected Government officials for speaking your mind...it's possible for unity where people of all political, religious, and economic backgrounds co-exist. There's a movement going on to undermine the country's founding and strip away it's ideals and it's principles. It's those who seek to divide that are the most dangerous in society. A country's citizens having differences and having the freedom of being tolerant or intolerant is what makes us the United States...the scheme to overthrow societal norms and "reimagine" America as something it isn't, well, that's a dangerous mindset in my opinion.    

Ray Stevens: Another update on "Everything is Beautiful"...

Hello all...there's been a brisk pickup of unique views for the 50th anniversary music video of "Everything is Beautiful" on YouTube. A couple of blog entries ago I reported that the video was sitting at 2,765 unique views. The most recent update sees a pickup of 2,155...bringing the unique view total to 4,920!! It looks to be on pace to break 5,000 unique views at some point later today. When a YouTube video is uploaded there are instances where view counts can get suppressed in the early stages of it's availability and this is explained in a lengthy report detailing the inner workings and the statistical calculations of YouTube and the process in which view counts are verified as real or the result of bots. This is usually a factor when a YouTube music video is embedded in a wide variety of websites across the internet. Ray's 50th anniversary "Everything is Beautiful" music video hasn't been embedded on a wide variety of internet sites (yet) and so it side-stepped the usual viewer count freeze of 301+ which is often applied to video content that gets tens of thousands of unique views within hours of it's debut. As reported the music video, at the moment, is nearing 5,000 unique views. 

I don't know if this updated version of the song or the medley, which is also grabbing unique views, is going to appear on any future Ray Stevens album. Curb Records is the one distributing the Mp3 digital downloads of the full performance and the medley. I've written a number of blog entries spotlighting the Mp3's. They're available for purchase on Amazon and other on-line music sites. The two music videos are, in essence, competing against one another...a combined unique view count of "Everything is Beautiful" and the medley, "Everything is Beautiful" / "United We Stand", equals 8,454 unique views. The medley has a unique view count of 3,534 in case you may be wondering. Technically, all of Ray's YouTube videos compete against one another, but when you release two music videos on the same day one will take off while the other usually plays catch up. On top of these two music videos there's two additional music videos from Ray that are just as active...one of them being a music video from earlier this year, "The Quarantine Song", which is approaching 2,000,000 unique views and the other being "Grandpa Voted Democrat", from 2012, obtaining a fury of new video activity given this being an election year. I wrote a fairly recent blog entry about the video's resurgence this election season and at that point in time the video had 2.7 million unique views. It's now gotten 2.8 million unique views. We still have awhile before the recent music video releases from Ray approach hundreds of thousands of unique views...the first milestone is for one or both of the music videos released this past Monday to make it to 5,000 unique views and then 10,000 and then 20,000 etc., etc.     

Ray Stevens: Follow-up on "Everything is Beautiful" at 50...

In my quest to be one of the most detailed and thorough Ray Stevens fans in existence here I am with another blog entry spotlighting the 50th anniversary rendition of "Everything is Beautiful". In my previous blog entry I remarked that the video had gotten 1,680 unique views. I just returned from YouTube and the unique views for the music video have jumped to 2,765. This is a pickup of 1,085 unique views. In the closing narration of the song Ray remarks that it's hard to believe 50 years has passed since he released the song in 1970. 

I've posted this image in some of my previous blog entries and I also included it in the pictorial time-line that runs along the side of the page. If you glance through the time-line you'll see I cut off in 1980 and then jump to 2012. I've been meaning to have a full fledged album discography running along the side of the page along with other images of Ray but midway through the construction of the time-line I figured it would just be too many images and so I deliberately jumped 32 years to spotlight more contemporary releases from Ray. There is no CD copy of the song (so far) but nevertheless on-line music stores are using the image as a publicity photo for the 50th anniversary Mp3 release. The medley music video has also risen...it's now sitting at 2,067 unique views at the moment. So, as you can see, both music videos have made it into the 2,000 unique view range. 702 unique views separate both music videos at the moment. Predictably the full version of "Everything is Beautiful" is getting the most impact rather than the medley where it shares the same stage with "United We Stand". I'm making the assumption that one day this week the music videos, perhaps one or the other or both, will ultimately breakout and start racking up the unique views at an even more frenetic pace and get into that 10,000 range. An aggressive publicity campaign can accomplish the feat. A round of on-line interviews or other such publicity will draw viewers to the videos. I'll be keeping track of the numbers throughout the week and next Monday we'll see what the unique views on YouTube happen to be after a full week of on-line availability on the video hosting site.

Ray Stevens: Update on "Everything is Beautiful" music video...

I'm back once again!! I was going to write a blog entry later this evening but I decided to just go ahead and write a blog entry now since I'm still at the laptop. Oh, I've taken breaks...I was never going to sit at the laptop for the entire day and literally monitor the unique views of Ray's new music videos...but I find myself back in front of the laptop and so I decided to check in on the unique views of the 2020 rendition of "Everything is Beautiful". Earlier this afternoon the music video was sitting at 1,345 unique views. The most recent count is 1,680 as of 4:16pm eastern. A pickup of 345 additional unique views on YouTube. There were a number of people on social media sites earlier today sharing links to both of the music videos and so it's going to take several hours or a couple of days before we know which music video will have the most impact with on-line viewers. The medley music video is up over the 1,000 unique view threshold, now. Specifically it's sitting at 1,387. The "Everything is Beautiful" / "United We Stand" medley is embedded below...

In a previous blog entry I remarked that the medley music video had gotten 831 unique views. 2020 is the 50th anniversary of "Everything is Beautiful"...hitting originally in the late spring of 1970 and being one of the biggest hits during the summer of 1970. It spent two weeks at number one on the Pop chart and three weeks at number one on the Easy-Listening chart. The latter chart was renamed Adult-Contemporary in 1979. The song won a Grammy for Ray at the 1971 telecast in the category of 'Best Male Pop Vocal Performance'. A cover version by gospel singer, Jake Hess, also won a Grammy with the song for 'Best Sacred Performance'. Here is the other music video...the full performance from Ray of "Everything is Beautiful"...

Here's a quick reminder to keep the music video's straight and I'm using compass directions. The medley music video features the image of Ray seated at the piano and facing the West. The full performance music video of "Everything is Beautiful", directly above, features Ray seated at the piano and facing the East. I'll be keeping track of the music video throughout the day. 

Ray Stevens: "Everything is Beautiful" 50th anniversary video Update...

Hello once again! In my previous blog entry I mentioned that I'd be tracking the unique views of the two music videos that Ray Stevens uploaded this morning. The "Everything is Beautiful" / "United We Stand" medley video, as of this writing, has 831 unique views. The "Everything is Beautiful" full performance video has more than 1,300 unique views so far. The two music videos debuted at the same time this morning and it looks as if the full performance music video is the one receiving the most impact. I'm sure the reason for that is because it's a full performance and isn't a shortened performance blending into "United We Stand". The full performance video is racking up the unique views. It had been in the 1.2K range for about 10 minutes when I refreshed the page and seen the video had risen above 1,300. I'm going to look at the unique views for that particular video in a couple of minutes and have those numbers in this blog entry.

 

I just taken a look over on YouTube and the unique views for "Everything is Beautiful" sits at 1,345 as of 12:38pm eastern. In my previous blog entry I posted the medley music video, too. This time around I'm only going to embed the full performance music video since it seems like that's the video that is getting the most plays/shares on YouTube. He hasn't uploaded the video to his video list at Facebook yet. He's posted a link to the YouTube video, though. I'll take a look at the unique views later this evening and discuss them at that point in time. 

Ray Stevens: "Everything is Beautiful" music videos debut today...

Hello all fans of Ray Stevens!! I just finished watching/commenting on Ray's social media sites in relation to the premiere of two music videos this morning. A little earlier than usual...Ray often premieres a new music video in mid-morning but this time around the premiere took place at 8am central, 9am eastern. I was watching the premiere of "Everything is Beautiful" and made some commentary in the chat section while the video was playing. I also copied and pasted those comments I made into the comment section below the music video. 

It was 50 years ago that Ray emerged in the spring of 1970 with "Everything is Beautiful". The single ultimately hit the top of the Hot 100, sold more than three million copies, and hit the top of the Easy-Listening chart. It was used as the opening theme to the summer show he hosted for Andy Williams. The single was reaching it's peak during the opening weeks of the summer show. It's the most covered song that Ray's written. There were countless artists that recorded Ray's song in the early '70s. 

As readers of this blog may already know the Mp3 single releases of "Everything is Beautiful" and the medley "Everything is Beautiful" / "United We Stand" were issued back on October 30th. I wrote reviews of those two releases at the time. You can find the reviews over on Amazon, too. Today, obviously, is the first time we've seen the two music videos in their entirety. 

I happen to like the video's graphics, the visuals, the selection of people used...and if you hadn't heard this 2020 reworking of "Everything is Beautiful" until today then you're going to be treated to a new opening narration suited to contemporary times. He also closes the song with a narration. The video design on YouTube features a rectangle design. It's not necessarily letterbox format but it's not the standard square design. The two music videos more or less compete against one another. They both had their premiere at 8am central, 9am eastern. As of this writing the full performance of "Everything is Beautiful" has a slight edge in unique views. It has 273 unique views to the medley video's 200. Now, of course, as we go throughout the day those unique view totals will certainly skyrocket as more people see it and share the videos.

The video above is "Everything is Beautiful". This new Blogger design doesn't allow me to actually resize the video to my specifications like it used to. I still haven't explored/learned much about the new Blogger's capabilities. I'll, of course, be tracking the unique views of each video as the days and weeks go by. The medley music video is located below. If there's any sort of news release or write-up from any country music website/blogger surrounding these videos or of Ray's career, in general, I'll provide links to those articles.  

Ray Stevens: New Music Videos on the horizon...

Well, now, it's me again!! You can say I'm playing catch up...going through some of the social media posts from Ray Stevens during what turned out to be an election day stretching out to nearly an election week. The media projects a winner but it's not official yet...so the counting of ballots goes on...as to potential lawsuits and recounts. In the meantime Ray Stevens will debut a pair of new music videos in the coming days. Well, actually, it'll be tomorrow since it's past midnight here (November 8th). On Monday November 9th Ray will debut a music video for the reworked rendition of "Everything is Beautiful" (which became available as an Mp3 download on Amazon back on October 30th) and he'll also be debuting a second music video, the "Everything is Beautiful" / "United We Stand" medley. The videos, as of now, are scheduled to be uploaded at 8am Central, 9am Eastern. Ray posted a sneak preview of one of the videos but rather than posting a snippet of a video I'll instead post a screen cap from the upcoming music video...

I have several other screen caps but I decided to post that one. Why? Well, it resembles a photo of Ray from the back of an album cover for a Greatest Hits album Barnaby Records issued on Ray in 1972. The photo was in black and white and Ray was clean shaven at that time but it shown him looking very studious at the piano. I'll be posting that photo a little later on in this blog entry. A lot of commentary on Ray's social media pages centers around the piano. Ray has appeared on stage and in video with a very distinctive red piano...he has numerous red pianos. One of them appears in his music video of "Freddie Feelgood". The red piano became very popular with his fans back in the early 1990s when he owned and operated his own theater in Branson, Missouri. Millions of people came through Branson during that time period and the red piano was certainly an eye catcher. The millions that purchased his 1993 VHS tape, Ray Stevens Live!, seen the red piano for the first time. He has also appeared with the more traditional black colored piano in some of his music videos but it's rare that he appears behind a white piano. If you remember some of the early publicity photo's at the CabaRay showroom there's some photos of him sitting behind a white piano. He changed it to the more familiar looking red piano soon after. I think the audiences/fans began asking him during autograph and photo sessions at the CabaRay of whatever happened to the red piano. When the two music videos debut tomorrow morning at 9am Eastern I'll be embedding them in a blog entry. I'll also be sharing that blog on social media sites in addition to adding commentary about the music videos on Ray's social media sites. It's playing out to be a very busy Monday morning! Here's the photo of Ray Stevens from the early '70s and I put it in a side-by-side frame with the photo of Ray from the 2020 music video...