Ray Stevens: Singing about Women, Part 5

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!!! As we wind down women's history month and as we wind down the examination of love songs and comedy songs that Ray has sung that fit the theme of this limited blog series during women's history month we begin with 1981 and the release of the fabulous album titled One More Last Chance. This album is chock full of love songs...everything from full-on passionate pleas of longing to heartache and heartbreak. It's a ballad heavy album and the title track features a neat combination of steel guitar and electric guitar trading solo's within the song. It starts out with an electric guitar but eventually you'll hear the steel guitar. "One More Last Chance" is a song about a broken relationship and how the guy realizes his mistakes/faults and begs forgiveness. The woman has apparently taken him back time and time again and given him one last chance each time but now, as he says, he wants her to give him just "One More Last Chance". The album's title track was the second single release from the album. The first single had actually hit several months before the album was released. Late in 1980 "Night Games" emerged. The bouncy song is like a page right out of any night club all over the country. In 1980, when the topic of bar rooms was brought up, what would immediately come to mind is the movie, Urban Cowboy, and the bar/nightclub featured in the movie was called Gilley's. The bar was a business venture between country singer Mickey Gilley and a businessman named Sherwood Cryer. It was located in Pasadena, Texas and was in operation from 1970 until it literally burned to the ground in 1990. The album cover shows Ray in the clothing that most, if not all, country music and aspiring country music singers as well as fans were wearing in the aftermath of the 1980 movie. The bar and movie popularized the mechanical bull, too. 

"Night Games", as mentioned, fits into that era as we hear about a single's bar where we're told the story of two strangers hoping to find romance. The thing that happens, however, is the two have a one night stand and they wake up to find they're not compatible and feel just as strange to one another as the moment they met the night before. Elsewhere on the album is his up-tempo rendition of "Pretend" plus we have a big ballad titled "Certain Songs". Heartbreak is the subject in the ballad "Just About Love". A tale of a couple with opposite personalities and backgrounds is told in "Melissa". We're not told why the woman is no longer in the relationship, however, but from Ray's singing we're informed that he's missing her. In a ballad-heavy album "Pretend" is the only song that's really super charged up-tempo. "Night Games" is a bouncy sing-a-long whereas "Let's Do It Right This Time" and "One More Last Chance" are a combination between ballad and mid-tempo. 

In 1982, from the Don't Laugh Now album, Ray returns to a more balanced approach of up-tempo and ballad recordings. The album kicks off with the rocking "Such a Night". The retro feel of the music arrangement might be the reason the album's title is written in a '50s neon design.

The album, produced by Ray Stevens and Bob Montgomery, is fun to listen to as are so many of Ray's albums. "Such a Night", "Take That Girl Away", "Oh, Leo Lady", and practically the entire album is devoted to love songs as well. The two songs that were issued as single releases were "Written Down in My Heart", a ballad, and the gospel-flavored "Where The Sun Don't Shine". The cleverest song, "Oh, Leo Lady", takes the sound of yodeling as in oh-lee-oh-lady-hoo but transform it into a love song using astrology. In the song Ray sings about being in love with a Leo in spite of his horoscope saying that a Leo isn't part of his destiny. It's the only song, that I'm aware of, that uses astrology as a backdrop and incorporates Leo, Gemini, Pisces, Jupiter, Scorpio, etc. into the lyrics. The album's title track is a slow ballad that visits the theme of unrequited love. In the song Ray sings about a guy that's in love with a woman and he tells her how much he loves her and for how long he's had feelings for her. He asks that she "Don't Laugh Now" given how she's always seen him as a friend and nothing more. "Country Boy, Country Club Girl" is a song about two people from different backgrounds finding one another. He's a country kid who worked as a lifeguard inside a ritzy country club. He falls for a woman named Mary Lou Pickett. Her father happened to own a mill in town and he raised his family in an eight column house.

In 1983 Ray left the RCA label (signed with them in the latter half of 1979) and signed what turned out to be a one album deal with Mercury Records. He'd been on that label in his past. He recorded for them from 1961 until 1965. The results of the newest partnership began showing up in the latter half of 1983. A series of single releases emerged as well as the album, Me. 

In hindsight there wasn't a lot of publicity surrounding the album. The album contains 10 songs and it features a combination of up-tempo, mid-tempo, and ballads. In recent years through social media several songs from the album have been discovered by fans...one, in particular, is the fun "Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee". The song should have been used for Nashville tourism or Tennessee Tourism but it never was. The single releases happened to be "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out", "Mary Lou Nights", and "My Dad". The latter, written by Dale Gonyea, is a salute to fathers. Although it has the eye catching title of "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out" it's a serious recording about mental stress and the anguish that being in love, or losing love, will bring. "Game Show Love" is my all-time favorite from the album. Through the incorporation of game show titles and catch-phrases we hear a song about how a woman was never serious about a relationship and all she did was string him along. The opening line in the song's chorus: 'love, is just a game to you...'. In "Yolanda" we hear a song about a guy's desire for a Spanish woman and in spite of his not being able to speak the language he nevertheless can't get her off of his mind. Have you ever heard a song about an anniversary of a break-up? In "Special Anniversary", a phrase we don't hear until the end of the song, Ray sings about seeing a woman that he used to love and wonders if his running into her is just a coincidence given that it had been exactly one year since the two broke up. It was a fantastic album and much, if not all, of the brief publicity for the album and it's songs arrived in the first couple of months in 1984. However, the Me album was ultimately overlooked and overshadowed by some big changes that took place in Ray's career in 1984. Seen below is Ray performing "My Dad" from an episode of his CabaRay Nashville television series.

Ray left Mercury Records and signed with MCA Records. Although the entire terms of the recording contract will never be public it was reported in country music media that he was signed as a comedy act. It was the first time in his career where he shifted his full attention to comedy and the first time he fully embraced being marketed as a comedy performer. His first five albums for the label were all comedy and the first four were huge record sellers. The 1984 debut, He Thinks He's Ray Stevens, contained what became an immediate classic... "It's Me Again, Margaret". This comedy song, in case you hadn't heard it, is about a prank caller named Willard McBain who calls up his victim, Margaret. In a series of phone calls he embarrasses the woman until she finally gets the police involved. They eavesdrop and hear Willard's latest verbal assault and he's arrested. There were some other songs on that album dealing with women. "Happy Hour is the Saddest Time of the Day" is a nutty comedy song about a pair of alcoholics. She's sobered up and left him which is why Happy Hour is a sad time for him. "I'm Kissin' You Goodbye" is the album's opening track. This is a very funny song, if you listen to it carefully, but it's performed seriously with an up-tempo bluegrass flavored arrangement. 

This concludes my look at love songs (both non-comical and comical) from Ray Stevens. Now, don't let this overview lead you to think he's not recorded much more than what I've covered in this 5-part series. He's recorded more since 1984. In 1985, for example, there was "Punk Country Love" and then there was "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?" in 1986. In 1987 there was "The Flies of Texas", which in spite of it's title, is a love song about a guy who thinks he's marrying into money only to learn that his potential father-in-law owns a fleet of garbage trucks. "The Three Legged Man" tells the wild story of a guy who steals a woman away from another man. The other man happens to have a wooden leg and he steals it, too. So, now, he's a guy with three legs with a woman who has two legs and they're being chased by a one legged man.  

Ray Stevens: Audio Diary 6

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! As Ray was departing from RCA Records in 1983 the record company issued a compilation album on him simply titled Greatest Hits. Ray had signed with the record company late in 1979 and his album debut for RCA arrived very early in 1980. Those who are fans of Ray, as I am, often cite his Warner Brothers years (1976-1979) as the turning point where the marketing of his music, overall, shifted from a general pop music audience to a country music audience. I agree with that but I'll further add that when he joined the roster of RCA Records he became even more woven into the fabric of country music...becoming very visible on all kinds of country music programming on television, increasing his appearances at county and state fairs across the country, and performing/appearing at country music themed awards show. Now, of course, this isn't to say that Ray was a stranger to county fairs, country-oriented television shows, and nightclubs prior to his signing with Warner Brothers or RCA...it's just that when you see him on television programs from the early to mid 1970s and then see him on television in the late 1970s and into the 1980s you'll notice some subtle changes in his stage presence and delivery...and obviously you'll notice that the beard became permanent in the late 1970s. A lot of Ray's comedy songs I'd categorize as fun songs, recordings that are heavy with southern comedy/southern humor, but there are plenty that can be categorized as topical and satiric. 

The 1983 Greatest Hits album that RCA released I've written about and spotlighted numerous times during the life of this fan created blog page. The collection includes 10 songs...and Ray wrote 9 of the 10 recordings. The mystery that I don't think will ever be solved about this album is why the record company decided to feature just two recordings that Ray did for the company (from 1980) and fill the rest of the album with songs from decades past. Ray recorded three studio albums for RCA during the years 1980, 1981, and 1982. In that three year time frame RCA released 6 singles on Ray...5 of the single releases reached the national best selling charts...and so it's baffling why those single releases weren't spotlighted on the 1983 album. The track list of the 1983 album: "Shriner's Convention" (1980), "Ahab the Arab" (1969 recording), "The Streak" (1974), "Everything is Beautiful" (1970), "Mr. Businessman" (1968), "The Moonlight Special" (1974), "Misty" (1975), "Gitarzan" (1969), "Freddie Feelgood" (1969 album cut), and "The Dooright Family" (1980). Do you want to know what single releases on RCA that could have been included on this 1983 album but weren't? Here they are: "Hey There" was released in 1980 in international markets instead of "Shriner's Convention". "Hey There" and "Shriner's Convention" contained the same B-side, "You're Never Goin' To Tampa With Me". "Night Games" was issued in the latter half of 1980 as the first single from his yet to be released 1981 album. The title track of that 1981 album, "One More Last Chance", was issued as a single in the first half of 1981. 

Inexplicably, RCA never released another single or album on Ray throughout the rest of 1981. This brings us to 1982 and the release of Don't Laugh Now. This album contained the final two single releases on Ray from RCA: "Country Boy, Country Club Girl" and "Where The Sun Don't Shine". As mentioned, 5 of the 6 single releases charted on the various best selling charts.. the one that didn't happened to be "Hey There". I have not, to date, come across any weekly sales or airplay chart from overseas that lists his comical take on "Hey There" as having made the charts. The other RCA single releases all reached the Top-100 best selling singles charts here in the United States. 

Now, from the 1983 Greatest Hits album, is the 1974 audio track of "The Moonlight Special". Ray wrote this song as a parody of the television series, The Midnight Special, upon which it's announcer was disc jockey Wolfman Jack. It's an example of how Ray's music played to a general, pop music audience at that time. I don't know if country music audiences at the time were even aware that TV show even existed?! You can listen to the track by clicking HERE. 

Ray Stevens: "Me" at 40...

Isn't it wonderful having the music of Ray Stevens to enjoy?? This particular album, Me, is 40 this year. This album was released on the Mercury Records label and featured co-production work from Jerry Kennedy. If you've visited Ray's CabaRay showroom in west Nashville you know doubt have seen photos of Jerry Kennedy as well as noticed the red leather booth named for him. There are several red leather booths located inside the showroom named for other music industry producers, too: Shelby Singleton, Fred Foster, Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley, and Billy Sherrill. Now, just in case you're curious, Jerry Kennedy was one of the top record producers for the Mercury Records label and their subsidiaries. He is also a musician and played on all kinds of recording sessions...and is an important person in the career of Ray Stevens. When Ray was originally on Mercury Records in the early 1960s the recording sessions were usually, but not always, produced by Shelby Singleton and Jerry Kennedy. Ray Stevens, in addition to being a singer/songwriter/musician he is also a music arranger and so in addition to being his own music arranger he would arrange the songs that other recording artists on Mercury or a subsidiary (such as Smash Records) would be recording. When Ray returned to Mercury Records in 1983 a lot of time had passed between those early recordings during 1961-1965 and then-present year, 1983. Jerry Kennedy had racked up dozens upon dozens of number one hits as a record producer for much of the Mercury Records country music roster throughout the '60s and '70s. Those recordings included songs by the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, The Statler Brothers, Roger Miller, and Tom T. Hall...just to name a few. 

The legend, Ray Stevens, strikes a familiar pose in this 1983 photo. Mercury Records issued the Me album in the latter half of the year. I don't have any kind of inside information or anything detailing his recording contract but apparently it was a one-album deal and Me came along late in 1983. Cashbox magazine featured a brief news item in their March 26th issue about Ray signing a recording contract with Mercury/Polygram. There were a series of single releases that weren't promoted much, if at all, until the release of "My Dad" in the latter half of 1983. From the pen of Dale Gonyea this ballad was a tribute to fatherhood and fathers in general. It is not the same song that Paul Petersen recorded in the 1960s from The Donna Reed Show. I feel the need to mention that because you'd be surprised by the amount of internet sites that credit the song, "My Dad", as being a song recorded by both of them with no explanation given that the two songs share the same title but nothing more. More on that single release later. However, the first single release from Me happened to be the ballad, "Mary Lou Nights". It's such a great song...a bouncy yet bluesy love ballad detailing the not so romantic topic of a couple breaking up. The harmonica is the main instrument. Cashbox magazine did a brief write-up of the single in their June 4, 1983 issue. In the September 10, 1983 issue of Cashbox there was a passing mention of a new single release from Me titled "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out". This song, too, is a wonderful twist on the heartbreak ballad with a joyous/up-tempo chorus. Those two single releases, in particular, are just more reason why we fans love the music of Ray Stevens so much. You're often not going to get the same old-same old with a Ray Stevens recording. It doesn't matter whether he's the writer or co-writer or if it's an outside song written by somebody outside the inner circle of the umbrella of Ray Stevens Music. Ray's skill as a record producer and music arranger means every song he records will seem as if he wrote it. This talent is why a lot of people just assume that he writes everything he records...his reputation as a writer precedes him. 

Mercury Records released the Me album in September 1983...and in doing research months ago I came across a Cashbox magazine album review in their September 24, 1983 issue. It was a positive review that mentioned several of the songs from the album and pointed out that the album cover was one of the most memorable...referring to the fact that other recording artists at the time were content to have large close-up's or a generic publicity photo serve as an album cover. One of the long standing traditions in Ray's career are his eye catching album covers. The B-sides of the first two single releases happened to be: the bouncy "Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee" was the original B-side to "Mary Lou Nights". The B-side of "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out" happened to be the clever "Game Show Love". I challenge any of you that find that song online to try to pick out all of the catchphrases and game show titles within the lyrics.

Mercury released "My Dad" as a single in December 1983 and the publicity surrounding it arrived at the midway point in January 1984. The sentimental and sensational ballad entered the Cashbox country singles chart on February 11, 1984...his first appearance on the country music singles chart in almost 2 years. Throughout most of 1984 Ray promoted the Me album and continued touring the country and making himself familiar to viewers of The Nashville Network...as other country music artists were doing (well established and newcomers). Ray had been a familiar face on local, regional television outlets for at least a decade by 1984...appearing in print advertisements and doing TV commercials for Farm Best and their successor, Flav-O-Rich Dairy. The B-side of "My Dad" is the album's title track, "Me". The Me album, turning 40 this year, is a great album and one that has not been re-issued in the digital age. His daughter, Suzi, has a guest vocal on the song, "Yolanda". As mentioned in the beginning of this blog entry Me happened to be a one-album deal for Ray Stevens while at Mercury Records...reuniting, creatively, with Jerry Kennedy one more time. Me would also be, as of 2023, the last studio album from Ray Stevens to feature a co-producer. His 1982 album, Don't Laugh Now, featured Bob Montgomery as a co-producer...but having a co-producer is something of a fluke for Ray Stevens since almost all of his studio albums have never included a co-producer. There were exceptions very early on in his career, obviously, but from 1970 onward he was almost always working on the production of his albums by himself. I have the Me vinyl album in my personal collection. Have you ever heard this ultra rare 1983 album? He deliberately re-recorded some of the songs from the album for a release nearly 30 years later. Here is the track list of the 1983 album...

1. Love Will Beat Your Brains Out

2. Mary Lou Nights

3. Special Anniversary

4. Piedmont Park

5. Me

6. My Dad

7. Yolanda

8. Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee

9. Kings and Queens

10. Game Show Love 

Down below are a couple of video clips. The first one, from 1983, features Ray performing "Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee" in March 1983 during the launch night of then-new cable channel, The Nashville Network. 

This second video clip isn't from Ray's YouTube channel but I'm including it anyway. It's a performance by Ray of "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out".

Ray Stevens: The RCA Single Releases

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! Whenever I'd go and look through some of my statistics for this blog I'm always seeing several visits to a blog entry I wrote quite awhile ago focusing on the Barnaby Records single releases on Ray Stevens. It got me thinking...and I've written so many blog entries over the last 10 or so years...that perhaps it's time to re-visit that type of blog entry and focus on the Ray's RCA Records single releases. Ray was officially on the RCA roster for four years (1979-1983). In that time period the record company issued three studio albums, a Greatest Hits album, and six single releases from Ray Stevens. His greatest commercial hit happened to be his debut for the label, "Shriner's Convention", which hit early in 1980. This is a song that had been tested out beforehand in concert and in a couple of television appearances in the latter half of 1979. The single would become a Top-10 Country hit as would the album of the same name. The album peaked within the Top-5 on the Country Albums chart. Ray's tenure at RCA was short but the music he recorded while at the label was fabulous in my opinion. Ray's RCA catalog has never been properly kept readily available in the online digital age beyond a few recordings. Non-fans would say it's because there's a lack of 'hit songs' during that time period (an untrue statement, by the way) but Ray Stevens fans, like myself, will argue and say it's because the record company has no interest in releasing his studio albums to the digital market...and, IF that's really true, it's a shame. If it's NOT true then I'd like to hear an official explanation as to why his RCA recordings aren't widely available in a digital format.

1980: Shriner's Convention / You're Never Goin' To Tampa With Me

1980: Hey There / You're Never Goin' To Tampa With Me (released in Canada and overseas)

1980: Night Games / Let's Do It Right This Time

1981: One More Last Chance / I Believe You Love Me

1982: Written Down In My Heart / Country Boy, Country Club Girl

1982: Where The Sun Don't Shine / Why Don't We Go Somewhere and Love

The three studio albums Ray recorded for RCA are titled: Shriner's Convention (1980), One More Last Chance (1981), and Don't Laugh Now (1982). When RCA released a Greatest Hits album on Ray in 1983 they only included two RCA tracks. They should have featured five or all six of the A-side single releases and a few older tracks. However, a few years later, RCA issued several albums called Collector's Series. The series focused on past and present RCA recording artists. Ray's collection arrived in 1985 and then it got re-released in 1987. It was an album of 8 songs and they were all from his RCA years. Yes, a skimpy collection, but nevertheless it was an introduction to his RCA years for a lot of his younger fans who discovered Ray in the mid to late 1980s. Believe it or not Collector's Series remains the only official overview of Ray's RCA years. Unless you have the studio albums in vinyl or cassette format the Collector's Series remains the most widely released overview of his early 1980's music.  

Ray Stevens: "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out" performance

Hello once again!! Some of you may have seen this video by now but just in case you haven't I came across an early 1980's performance from Ray Stevens of "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out". If you're as deep into the music of Ray Stevens as I am then you are probably aware of this song. It was written by Ray and debuted on his 1983 Mercury Records album, Me. This studio album was a one-album deal for Mercury. He had been on the RCA Records roster the last several years (1979-1983) and in the latter half of 1983 he began work on Me. In fact, the album become available right at the end of the year and much of what publicity and marketing it generated didn't come along until 1984. There were three singles released from this album. Listed A-side/B-side: "Mary Lou Nights" / "Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee" was issued first followed by "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out" / "Game Show Love" and then "My Dad" / "Me". Ray wrote most of the songs on the 1983 album. Dale Gonyea wrote "My Dad". Ray co-wrote, with Buddy and Carlene Kalb, "Special Anniversary". Buddy and Carlene wrote "Piedmont Park". "Yolanda", which features a guest vocal by Ray's daughter, Suzi Ragsdale, is credited to writers named J. Hooper and K. Sutherland. The remaining 7 songs were written entirely by Ray Stevens. The 10 song track list of the 1983 Me album:

1. Love Will Beat Your Brains Out

2. Mary Lou Nights

3. Special Anniversary

4. Piedmont Park**

5. Me

6. My Dad**

7. Yolanda**

8. Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee

9. Kings and Queens

10. Game Show Love

Song titles with an asterisk are those not written or co-written by Ray Stevens. I'm not going to embed the video of Ray singing "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out" just in case it's removed from YouTube at some point in the future. I will, however, provide a link to it. You can watch the video of Ray's performance when you click HERE. 

Ray Stevens: 1983 salute to Marty Robbins...

Hello to the fans of Ray Stevens!! Earlier today a video was uploaded of Ray Stevens and Tammy Wynette presiding over a tribute to Marty Robbins in 1983. Ray nor Tammy sang any of his songs in this video clip but they shown performance clips of Marty over the years. Marty Robbins passed away, unexpectedly at age 57, on December 8, 1982. He was born September 26, 1925. The grief and heartbreak was massive and numerous tributes in newspapers and magazines filled the retail racks of shopping stores. His having passed away in December 1982 meant that country music awards organizations had to wait until the following calendar year before they could properly pay tribute to him. 

The Music City News organization had annually put together a television special to spotlight the hit songs of the previous year. These specials were almost always produced in December and they would get syndicated all over the country throughout the first half of the following calendar year. The 1983 Music City News Top Country Hits of the Year, reflecting on country music and events of 1982, was hosted by Ray Stevens and Tammy Wynette and the first airtimes were set for January 1983. The two hosts sang solo songs and they opened the show singing "We've Got the Music Here Tonight". The salute to Marty Robbins was part of the 1983 television special. Here's the video clip of Ray and Tammy presenting the tribute...it features performance clips of Marty singing his songs. The somber tone of Ray and Tammy's voices appropriately convey the emotions among the overall country music community during the taping of this program...

Ray Stevens and Tammy Wynette: 1983 Video Clip...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! This video I'm embedding in this blog entry is something that many of you have probably seen but it's officially been uploaded onto Ray's YouTube channel and so I'm going to officially feature it in this blog entry even though I may have featured it years ago when it first became available online. In 1982 the Music City News organization chose Ray Stevens and Tammy Wynette to host the year-in-review program, Top Hits of the Year. The star-studded television special promoted the hit songs and the music, in general, from 1982. Some of the recording artists appeared and sang their songs but some chose not to appear...and in those instances Ray or Tammy performed the song. 

The two opened the show with a duet called "We've Got the Music Here Tonight". The song is officially titled that on Ray's social media pages even though, for more than 10 years, I thought the song was called "We've Got the Music In Music City". This 1983 television special, taped in 1982, aired in local syndication. The Nashville Network didn't go on air until March 1983 and the Top Hits of the Year special began airing in January. I mention that for those that may wonder if this premiered on The Nashville Network. The show may have aired later in the year after the cable channel was firmly established but then again it probably wouldn't have made much sense for a television special to air in the summer or fall of 1983 spotlighting songs from 1982...so it probably never aired on TNN. 

I have the television special on DVD. I don't know if Ray wrote or co-wrote the song that he and Tammy sing. If I ever find out I'll make a note of it. Here's Ray Stevens and Tammy Wynette singing "We've Got the Music Here Tonight" and then there's some bonus footage of some of their banter. It looked like it caught Tammy off guard when Ray blew the whistle during the referee joke...she was visibly rattled...or it could have been a planned reaction. 

Ray Stevens: Launch of The Nashville Network in 1983...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens!! March 7th is the anniversary date of a once very important television network for country music artists. A cable television channel, The Nashville Network, went on the air on March 7, 1983. As is the case with most networks on launch day it showcases a wide arrange of performances and experiments...trying to find what works and what doesn't work. In the case of this channel everything on launch day was live. The celebrations were taped all over Nashville with a bulk of the festivities taking place inside a television studio on the Opryland grounds. Ray was part of the network's opening day in 1983 in two places. He performed several songs at the Opry house and then he appeared at the festivities taking place at the television studio at Opryland. Ralph Emery, who had been chosen to host the network's nightly live show, Nashville Now, was on hand to host a program that introduced the Nashville Now concept/format to the audience. It would be a country music version of The Tonight Show...Ralph would walk from offstage and do an opening monologue standing in front of the set (a greeting; often tell a joke aimed at either the show's announcer or someone in the band or about one of the guests appearing that night; and then he'd go into further detail of the guests that'll be appearing; then, after commercial, Ralph would be seated behind a desk with a couch off to his right). I wonder if there's any footage of Ralph interviewing Ray during this launch event? If there is I hope it gets uploaded, too!! In the video clip below Ray is singing "Such a Night" during the Ralph Emery portion of the launch. Ray had recorded that song on his previous album, Don't Laugh Now.

Ray previously uploaded a couple of other video clips from the 1983 launch of The Nashville Network. Almost a year ago he uploaded a performance of him singing "Everything is Beautiful" and exactly one year ago he uploaded a video clip of him singing "Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee" from his current album at the time, Me. The first clip is his performance of "Everything is Beautiful" followed by "Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee". The performances below are from the Opry house.  

Ray Stevens: Official video upload of "Close Enough to Perfect"...

Hello all...it's me once again!! Several months ago I had featured a duet between Ray Stevens and Sylvia, "Close Enough to Perfect", and I included some screen-caps and a link to where you could watch the video. The video had been uploaded previously and I shared it with all of you in a blog entry. Now I'm going to share it all with you once again because it's become part of the official Ray Stevens YouTube channel. The Music City News Top Hits of the Year happened to be a syndicated program that honored the songwriters who wrote the previous year's biggest songs. Ray used to host, co-host, or frequently perform on the various awards programs presented by Music City News. It's the Music City News organization that held a fan-voted awards event every year in Nashville and typically centered around Fan Fair week when a lot of the performers and the fans were in Nashville...fans sent in their choice of 'Best Male Artist', 'Best Female Artist', 'Favorite Duo', 'Favorite Group', etc. etc through the mail. In the early years it was done through the mail by subscribers of the magazine but later on the awards became a major event on television and soon the voting opened up to subscribers and non-subscribers through a national 1-800 number advertised on television. 

Ray won 'Comedian of the Year' from the Music City News for 9 consecutive years. His first award arrived in 1986 and he continued winning in this category through 1994. The hold on this category by Ray Stevens came to an abrupt end in June 1995 when a well established stand-up comedian tickled the funny bones of those who voted in the annual awards program. The comic brought his nearly decade long schtick to the country music marketplace in the early '90s and the fans responded with their votes in 1995. Even though Ray didn't win 'Comedian of the Year' in 1995 from the Music City News he was voted 'Best Comedian' by a new publication, Country Weekly. This magazine created a fan-voted Golden Pick Award and Ray was named 'Best Comedian' by the Country Weekly organization in 1995...but let's back up to 1983! Ray Stevens and Sylvia performed "Close Enough to Perfect" on the telecast...a song written by Carl Chambers which had become a massive hit for the band, Alabama. The historic version of Music City News magazine went out of print in 2000. It was co-founded by country singer Faron Young in 1963 who sold his interests in the publication in the 1970s. The awards began in 1967 but a televised awards show never began until 1978. Country Weekly magazine was in publication from 1994 until 2016.  

Ray Stevens: Singling Out Game Show Love...

Me and Ray Stevens single; 1983

Well, in this second blog entry of the Singling Out series, I'm taking a look at the vinyl single from Ray Stevens released in 1983. The A-side of the single is "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out" and contrary to what you might think prior to hearing it's not a novelty song. In the image off to the left it's the A-side, from the pen of Ray Stevens, and it's the lead-off track on his 1983 Mercury album, Me. The song is a love ballad...but it contains an uptempo sing-a-long chorus...as it tells the story of a man who has reached the end of his patience after one too many failed attempts with relationships gone wrong. Ray sings from the point of view of a man that's had enough and has come to the conclusion that it's not worth the pain and agony...and therefore he feels that "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out". Now, of course, the song's title itself is eye catching but for some it's either one of the funniest song titles they've ever heard or it's one of the worst song titles of all-time. Obviously I consider it one of the funniest song titles...and unlike a lot of people I've actually heard the song to know it's a serious love ballad in spite of it's title. Some of the inaccuracies that occur on the internet, frequently, are from those that make assumptions about recordings by Ray Stevens given his reputation for comedy...often time assuming that a recording from Ray 'must be funny'. In the opinion of some people it's a travesty whenever Ray sings something serious.

Me and Game Show Love; 1983

The single's B-side is also from the pen of Ray Stevens and it's called "Game Show Love". In the late '90s when I was a member of the since closed Ray Stevens FFFOL fan club one of the things I received in the mail was a discography. It listed almost all of the studio and compilation albums in Ray's career to date including the song titles on all the albums. The 1983 Me album had some of the more bizarre/unusual song titles...in addition to "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out" there's a song on that album called "Mary Lou Nights" as well as "Special Anniversary" and then there's "Game Show Love", the B-side of "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out". I know these images are small and perhaps barely visible but if I were to post them in in a larger size my text would be pushed well off to the side of the photo and appear disoriented and have a jumbled together look...which I don't like...so that's why I'm posting these web-camera images smaller. "Game Show Love" became an immediate favorite because I have a long history of being a game show watcher. I don't watch them hardly at all anymore...I've seen them enough (classic games once found in abundance on Game Show Network). However, pertaining to the game shows I once watched, I still know the game play, panelists, and hosts from those shows and because of that I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable of classic game shows in general. The song cleverly uses the names of game shows and their catchphrases to tell the story of a woman that strings a man along in their relationship...leaving him to realize that love to her is just a game and she's not to be taken seriously.

I named this blog entry after the B-side of "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out" and I did this because "Game Show Love" is a shorter title and therefor it wouldn't clutter up the blog's title with so many words. "Game Show Love" isn't a novelty song...the clever use of game show titles and catchphrases may cause some to consider it a novelty or something off-the-wall but actually it isn't.

Ray Stevens and Loretta Lynn...

Loretta and Ray; 1983

Hello to all the fans of Ray Stevens!! Earlier today Ray's social media sites featured a video clip from 1983 of a performance by Ray Stevens and Loretta Lynn. Today is Loretta's 88th birthday. Now, if you're not aware, Ray isn't an artist known for singing duets. On special occasions Ray will perform a duet or participate in a group performance but as far as being known for duet recordings it's next to non-existent. However, in 1983, Ray performed a duet with Loretta Lynn on the CMA Awards 25th Anniversary special. The two performed a medley of Patsy Cline hits. It was an interesting pairing and an unusual one, too. Ray had long been established within the pop music and country music circles as had Loretta...but the unusual pairing of Ray and Loretta reminds me of a punchline to a Jerry Clower story when he went into detail over how much of a country boy he happened to be but he ended his story by saying, and I'm paraphrasing: "...but, folks, let me tell ya, compared to Loretta Lynn I'd be called a city slicker".



Last year Loretta made a rare public appearance in which she attended a concert at the Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom. She and her family/friends sat in the Owen Bradley booth. If you hadn't been to the showroom prior to the COVID-19 pandemic or haven't looked at the interior, available for viewing on-line, there are several corner booths named for legendary record producers. Owen was Loretta's long-time record producer.

Loretta and Ray; 2019

Ray Stevens: Tornado Donations...

Ray Stevens 2019

Hello all you Ray Stevens fans!! As all of you know there were a couple of deadly tornados that passed through middle Tennessee last week...impacting downtown Nashville as well as Cookeville, Tennessee and the surrounding area...I hadn't posted a blog entry since March 1st. The tornado's hit early Tuesday morning (March 3rd) during the overnight hours while most people were asleep. When I first heard about it I immediately thought of Ray and his CabaRay showroom. Afterwards I learned that the town of Cookeville had gotten the worst of the damage...but there's damage everywhere the tornado touched down. If you've read some of my recent blog entries then you'll know that Cookeville is home to PBS station, WCTE, the distributing station of Ray's television series, Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. Ray is scheduled to appear at the WCTE Annual Dinner this coming March 24th at the Leslie Town Center. I have no idea if that dinner is going to be canceled, postponed, or if it'll still go on as planned with the proceeds going to the tornado relief efforts. This week, March 12th, the third season of concerts at the CabaRay will kick off. Earlier this morning Ray made an appearance on Fox News Channel and spoke of the damage and mentioned that the tornado, luckily, didn't strike his area of town. He spoke about how the proceeds from the CabaRay's third season opening night, this coming March 12th, will be donated to the tornado victims. He mentioned a website where people, from all over the country, can donate on-line. The site's link is here: CFMT.ORG and once you open the link you'll see a screen pop up with a tornado donation button. However, you can also visit this LINK and it'll take you right to the donation page.

Have you seen the photo's that have graced social media from Ray Stevens over the last several days? One photo has him wearing a Mickey Mouse hat and another photo has him in Las Vegas in what looks like a performance of "Ahab the Arab" in the late 1980s surrounded by some not to be forgotten too soon extra's...one of them being Louise Mandrell.

I decided to post the photo of Ray wearing the Mickey Mouse hat. I can't tell the point in time when this photo was taken. He has his Clyde pinky ring and the beard looks a bit thin...as if it's still growing out...so it could be the early or mid 1970s...there was a period of time when he had a beard, occasionally, in the 1970s before keeping it, permanently, in 1978. If you're new to this fan created blog then I should explain that Ray's facial hair is often the subject of some of my blog entries. Whereas such a thing is not exactly the topic I dwell on I've been known to write blog entries about, or making note of, whether Ray is bearded or clean-shaven in a photo or television appearance. I just think it lends a certain personal touch to my blog entries...and one of the things I try to do is be different from other writers/bloggers that populate the internet. But anyway, the photo emerged in the hours following the March 3rd tornado's. In the comments section of his social media sites there were dozens upon dozens of inquiries about Ray and the CabaRay and if everyone was safe. In the meantime did you see the brief video clip from yesterday? The clip is for the brief song "If Your Hair's Too Long There's Sin in Your Heart". It's so funny I wonder why a lengthier performance wasn't forthcoming?!? In addition to singing the song Ray is also playing the piano and wearing a Jimmy Carter mask. I don't know the name of the female vocalist...it isn't Ray. I know his falsetto voice and this is a genuine female voice.



While putting this blog entry together I opened a separate window to browse the internet and I see that Ray's uploaded an incredible video clip from 1983...during his appearance at Opryland during the launching of The Nashville Network. The famed country music cable channel launched on March 7, 1983 and remained on the air until September 24, 2000. After this point in time the channel changed formats and name, The National Network, before ultimately becoming Spike TV in 2003. The Nashville Network, however, was re-launched as a digital channel in 2012 and was re-titled Heartland TV in 2013. In this 1983 appearance Ray performs "Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee", from his Me album. After the song Ray speaks about launch night of The Nashville Network...the video clip leaves you wanting more, however...

Ray Stevens and Sylvia: Close Enough to Perfect...

Hello one and all...welcome to the last day of February...and I'm sure all the Ray Stevens fans are glad to see March right around the corner. The month of March will be something of a busy month for Ray...for it's the month that Season Three of CabaRay concerts gets underway. The first concert of the season is March 12th...so we still have a couple of weeks left before the showroom re-opens. The bulk of activity will be the CabaRay concerts, of course, but let's not forget that later in the month Ray will appear in Cookeville, Tennessee at the Leslie Town Centre at the annual WCTE dinner. The event will be held on March 24th. WCTE is the PBS affiliate handling national distribution of Ray's locally syndicated television series, CabaRay Nashville. I don't know how many local PBS stations air his television series but I know it airs here, regionally, on KET2 each Saturday night at 8pm.

There have been a couple of YouTube video clips uploaded featuring vintage Ray Stevens performances from the early 1980s. The two video's are uploaded by Ron Newcomer. One of the video clips, uploaded on February 26th, is from a Music City News program taped early in 1983 called Music City News Top Hits of the Year...co-hosting with Ray Stevens is Tammy Wynette. The two perform a duet, "We've Got the Music in Music City". This television special, specific performances I should clarify, had been released on DVD quite a number of years ago and I own a copy of it...but Ron's upload omits Ray's solo performance of "Country Boy, Country Club Girl" from that special. Ray's performance is on the DVD copy that I have. I don't know if Ron deliberately edited it out prior to his uploading the footage onto the internet or if he didn't tape that performance when he was recording the show in 1983. I left a question over on the video's YouTube page asking about Ray's performance not being part of the footage. Whatever the case you can watch performances from that 1983 television special when you click HERE. The upload also features the tribute to Marty Robbins and you'll see footage of Marty and see Ray and Tammy serve as hosts of the tribute segment. However, the DVD that I have, doesn't include the Marty Robbins tribute segment.

Ray Stevens and Sylvia

On February 27th performances from 1984's edition of Top Hits of the Year were uploaded onto YouTube. In this edition Ray and Sylvia perform "Close Enough to Perfect", a hit for Alabama a year earlier. Ray performs "My Dad"...a rarity...but the performance features some lyrical and musical omissions that I believe must have been dictated due to time constraints. The Top Hits of the Year series from Music City News focused on the hit songs of the previous year. The show was locally syndicated and typically aired within the first couple of months of the new year. Ray had recorded his Me album for Mercury Records in 1983 but publicity/promotion was practically non-existent until the first half of 1984. "My Dad" is from that 1983 album...issued as a single in 1984...and performed by Ray on the 1984 telecast.

In the photo to the left Ray Stevens is singing his heart out on his Mercury Records single from mid 1984, "My Dad". You can watch Ray and Sylvia perform "Close Enough to Perfect" and watch him perform "My Dad" when you click this LINK. The screen cap is from his performance of "My Dad". I could have captured more but I chose that image...it demonstrates the emotion and feeling he packed into the performance...and made it look effortless. It's long been said that a trait of the truly gifted and talented is the art of making hard work look effortless. Ray continues to make it look effortless...and on March 12th his CabaRay showroom opens it's third season of concert performances. You can find out all the information when you click HERE. The website, TripAdvisor, awarded the CabaRay a Certificate of Excellence in 2019 based upon the positive feedback from travelers. As of this writing there have been 158 reviews of the venue. This number is broken up into various categories: Excellent, Very Good, Average, Poor, and Terrible. The response, so far, has Excellent leading the pack with 136 while 15 rate it Very Good. This leaves 7 more traveler ratings. 3 people rated their experience Average, 1 person rated it Poor, and 3 people gave their experience a Terrible rating. I don't have the time to go through the pages and pages of reviews to find the negative commentary...I wish I could...maybe later I'll sift through all the pages and see exactly why someone would come away with a negative experience; but with 158 reviews total on TripAdvisor and 151 of them either being Excellent or Very Good I don't necessarily think the negative experience of 7 people needs dissecting...that feedback opinion is definitely in the minority.

Ray Stevens: The Fall Guy episode...

Hello one and all!! Earlier today a couple of YouTube video clips from Ray Stevens appeared on-line. The video clips center around his guest appearance on an episode of The Fall Guy from November 1983. The Fall Guy, a classic action-adventure series, starred Lee Majors as Colt Seavers...a stuntman in Hollywood...who earns a better living, just as dangerously, as a bounty hunter. Lee sings the theme song, "The Unknown Stuntman". The series ran five years (1981-1986) and was among the Top-20 during two (1982-1984) of it's five seasons. The episode that Ray Stevens guest starred in is titled Pirates of Nashville. I've spoke of this guest appearance before but, as far as I know, I've never embedded any video footage from that episode onto the blog. Ray's video clips gather his appearances from that episode.



Doesn't Ray seem like a natural in front of the camera?? Well, of course he does...which is why he's had such success with television appearances and video content throughout his career. How did you react when you seen the face slap? The first clip is the lengthiest at over 6 minutes. In the first scene, which takes place inside a car, you'll hear Ray on the radio singing a piece of "Country Boy, Country Club Girl"...a song from his 1982 Don't Laugh Now album. You'll see a lot of scenic shots throughout the clip...including a shot of The Ryman Auditorium which, in 1983, had not been updated/upgraded/renovated yet. The Ryman revival wouldn't begin until the early 1990s. The scene with Ray and company wasn't actually inside the Ryman...the producers of the series simply used the facility as an exterior shot. The shot of Ray with the guitar features the closing notes of "Honky Tonk Waltz", a song Ray hit the Country Top-20 with in 1976 on Warner Brothers. You can hear pieces of the song in the bar scene.

1983

In the second video clip Ray's singing "Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee" from his Me album. This album was released in the latter half of 1983 on the Mercury label...it was the first time Ray had recorded for Mercury since the early '60s. The shirt that Ray is wearing is very similar to the one he wore on the 1983 Greatest Hits album for RCA. If you don't look carefully you'd think it was the same shirt...as I did for quite a number of years. In both video clips you'll see brief appearances by Dottie West and in the second clip you'll see Charlie Daniels, too.

Ray Stevens: The Road to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Part Twelve...

Hello once again!! As we move along the road leading up to the Country Music Hall of Fame induction of Ray Stevens we arrive in 1982. Ray was in the middle of his recording contract with RCA Records and had issued two studio albums, so far, for the company. A third studio album arrived in the form of Don't Laugh Now. This fabulous album blended country music, bluesy country music, and rock and roll flavors within the ten songs found on the album. The album's cover photo features Ray looking very serious and holding a smiling mask. The photo that appears on the back of the album has a smiling Ray Stevens holding a frowning mask. Ray, of course, was continuing to make music of a more serious nature and on this album he splits time between love ballads and uptempo love songs. The previous album featured heavy use of slow love ballads. The 1982 album kicks off with the uptempo "Such a Night" (a song Ray would use several decades later to open up his shows). RCA issued the first single from this album early in 1982...the love ballad "Written Down In My Heart". This single reached the Country Top-40 and if you happened to be a viewer of Barbara Mandrell's television show then you would've seen him perform this song in one of his appearances. The love ballad was backed with a mid-tempo love song, "Country Boy, Country Club Girl". In the production of this album Ray enlisted Bob Montgomery as a co-producer. This was the first time since 1969 that a Ray Stevens studio album featured a co-producer with Ray. The studio albums from 1970 to 1981 were produced solely by Ray.

In the spring RCA Records issued "Where the Sun Don't Shine"...this particular song is given a southern gospel music arrangement and it's considered a novelty song as one would think when looking at the song's title...it's more than a novelty song, though...it's a break-up song more or less and Ray tells the woman what she can do with everything in the house she owns as well as her friends and family. This bouncy single made the Country charts in the summer of 1982 and it turned out to be Ray's final single release on RCA Records. The rest of the year consisted of Ray out on the road touring and appearing on various television programs. He had become a familiar face on the annual fan-voted Music City News awards telecast...co-hosting several of the telecasts dating back to 1980. The organization used to telecast a Songwriters Awards event...and given Ray being a songwriter as well as a music publisher he either co-hosted or performed on this telecast frequently throughout the early to mid 1980s. In the meantime the calendar rolled into 1983 and while Ray hadn't issued a single since the spring of 1982 nor an album since Don't Laugh Now, RCA was still obligated contractually to release a compilation album on Ray. This Greatest Hits arrived in the summer of 1983 and it made the Country album chart...but strangely enough RCA didn't fill the album with too many recent hits from Ray...instead they placed "Shriner's Convention" and "The Dooright Family" on the compilation album (both songs, on RCA, come from 1980) but the remainder of the album collects specific hit singles from the period of 1968 through 1975. Ray, in the meantime, signed a contract with Mercury Records...the label upon which he became a major recording artist in the early '60s. In the annual Fan Fair event (now called CMA Music Fest) Ray performed on stage during the Polygram Records show. Polygram is/was one of Mercury's subsidiary labels. Ray's latest studio album arrived in the latter half of 1983 with the unusual title of Me.  It reunited him, professionally, with Jerry Kennedy and the two of them are credited as the record producers of the 1983 album.

The album, as I've stated several times in this fan created blog, is one of my all-time favorites from Ray Stevens. Me comes across as such a departure from some of the albums he recorded in this era but I've never really been able to explain how so. There's a melancholy feel throughout the album...a number of love songs on here are about lost love...and the mood of the music goes hand in hand with the somberness. The album's first single, "Mary Lou Nights", is one of those bluesy country songs...with the harmonica taking center stage in the performance. The B-side, on the other hand, should have been an anthem for state tourism and adopted by the Chamber of Commerce as a jingle but it wasn't. The song I'm referring to is "A Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee". It's such a great song...the lyrics paint a portrait so well that it sounds like it was destined to be turned into a music video. It's very catchy...as is another song on here called "Game Show Love". No, it isn't a novelty song, even though music critics past and present may try and label it as such given the catchphrases and titles of game shows mentioned throughout. It's a break-up song, actually, about a man finally learning that the woman he's loved wasn't serious...it's all been a game to her. The album's lead-off song became the second single release from the album. The title of the song sounds like a novelty but when you listen to it you'll get goosebumps: "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out". The ballad featured "Game Show Love" as it's B-side on the single release. Not released as a single but an incredible song is "Special Anniversary". Mercury released a third and final single from the album in early 1984...the emotional "My Dad" from the pen of Dale Gonyea. "My Dad" was backed with "Me" on the single release. "My Dad" dealt with the importance of father's and it made an appearance on the Country singles chart in the first half of 1984 but it didn't reach the Top-40...and after the one album deal with Mercury Records it was time to shop around for another record label.

You might say that Ray was at a crossroads in his career at this point in time. Yes, for much of the 1960s, 1970s, and into the early 1980s he recorded his share of serious songs and he produced, arranged, recorded, published, and or played on many, many serious recordings of his own and for other recording artists...and yet even with all of this his public image was one of a comedian/novelty artist/clown. It might seem like an easy decision now or perhaps destiny but Ray decided to make a major career move in 1984. Some critics and historians may downplay this career decision as not 'major' but something done out of necessity or they may take another approach and determine it isn't much of a career move if one were to look at his public image. The change in music direction arrived in the late summer of 1984...pretty much 35 years ago this month. Ray had signed with MCA Records upon the conclusion of his Mercury contract and the early results shown up in September of 1984 with his first single release for the label...the uptempo, bluegrass flavored "I'm Kissin' You Goodbye". This single featured the satirical "Joggin'" as it's B-side (a novelty about joggers and exercise fanatics). A funny thing happened, though. MCA released his debut album for the label, He Thinks He's Ray Stevens, in November of 1984. "I'm Kissin' You Goodbye" was, frustratingly, still in the 'testing' stage at radio stations. Country disc jockeys began playing another song from the album on the air...the satirical "Mississippi Squirrel Revival". Well, one thing led to another, and MCA had a hit on their hands...one after the other word of mouth spread about this squirrel song and MCA issued it as a single in November of 1984. The B-side is "Ned Nostril", a song in which Ray does a Johnny Cash impression throughout. "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" became such a hit that Country radio had no choice but to play it...and the results helped the single catapult into the Country Top-20 in early 1985 and the album became an enormous hit as well...and I'll get more into detail about the album and the resurgence in Ray's overall popularity when I pick things up in Part Thirteen.

Ray Stevens performs "My Dad"...

Hello all...it's Father's Day! Last year around this time (June 17, 2018) Ray Stevens uploaded a performance he did of the song "My Dad" from his CabaRay Nashville television series. I never created a blog entry title centering around that performance/video clip but I decided to do so today. As mentioned it was uploaded a year ago tomorrow...for Father's Day fell on June 17th last year. I never knew the specifics but it's always the third Sunday in June which marks Father's Day and so this time around it falls of June 16th but last year it was June 17th.

Anyway...there are a couple of websites I came across in the past that mistook the title of Ray's recording and claimed it's a cover of an earlier song by the same title from actor Paul Petersen. A glaring mistake on their part, obviously, because both songs are different even though they share the same title, "My Dad". Isn't it revealing how very little research actually goes into the construction of some websites out there? I'm not posting the early '60s recording simply because this is a Ray Stevens fan created blog page and so his recording of the completely different song, also titled "My Dad", gets total deference.

Ray originally recorded the song in 1983 for his Mercury album, Me. It's from the pen of Dale Gonyea. Ray re-recorded the song for inclusion on his 2011 album, Bozo's Back Again, which is a mix of re-recordings and some obscurities. The song, "Ruby Falls", made it's CD debut on that release but the song itself had been available as an Mp3 single for almost a decade. "Priceless" had never been available while "Just For The Hell of It" had originally appeared in the soundtrack for the 1981 movie, Cannonball Run. In the 2011 recording of the song Ray includes an opening verse not heard in the 1981 soundtrack recording. In the 1981 recording the song begins with the chorus. He retains the same music arrangement for the 2011 re-recording.

"My Dad", as mentioned, was one of the re-recorded songs on that 2011 CD and here's Ray performing it on an episode of CabaRay Nashville...

Ray Stevens and the abc's of RCA...

Hello one and all...as I made mention in a previous blog entry the current season of the Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville television series wrapped up a couple of weekends ago and so most of my blog entries are going to be more along the lines of the kind I used to do before I began devoting most of my time to writing reviews and comments of his television program.

A couple of blog entries ago I wrote about Ray's under-rated stay at Warner Brothers Records in the late 1970s (1976 through 1979) and I revealed a collage that I created revolving around his music of that period. You can read that blog by clicking HERE. I posted it back on July 10th but it's something that I'm going to periodically refer to from now on because of my desire to spotlight those recordings to anybody that visits this fan created blog page.

Although I don't really need to remind anyone I'll go ahead and do so for any new readers that come across the blog:

I celebrate/spotlight all areas of Ray Stevens career. I also take pride in the fact that I offer accurate, fact based information when it comes to albums, music videos, or appearances from both the past and present by Ray Stevens. I also never marginalize any aspect of his career. There are some music historians and music fans, in general, that only blog about the widely known aspects of Ray's career and offer very little else about him or they offer partially accurate information due to sloppy research. I came across a discography of Ray Stevens from some website...it was an image taken from one of those music guide books...that discography had more skips than a well worn vinyl album. Albums were omitted and some had the wrong year of release. Sloppy...sloppy...need I type it again? Sloppy!

But let's move along to the subject of this particular blog entry. I call it the abc's of RCA and I title it as such because I'm going to shift some focus onto his RCA recordings in the early 1980s. I've written on this subject before...my older blog entries indicate as much...but I like to update my commentary and revisit past subjects rather than let previous thoughts and analysis rest in the archives. These RCA recordings were on the heels of the under-rated Warner Brothers recordings and like the recordings on that label his RCA material is rarely, if ever, available for purchase in any detailed quantity.

The RCA years in the career timeline of Ray Stevens cover 1979 to 1983. Ray signed with RCA in the latter half of 1979 and he went to work on his first album for the label...the results surfaced very early in 1980 in the form of the single, "Shriner's Convention", in February. The comedy album, Shriner's Convention, surfaced as well. The single and the album both hit the Country Top-10. I have a vinyl copy of the 1980 album in addition to the cassette release. The single received a lot of publicity in various country music trade magazines of the time period and given that the song and album were devoted to comedy (his first comedy album in 6 years) it forever more cemented his image as a comedy/novelty act among country music consumers. Around the same time that "Shriner's Convention" was hitting in America RCA issued one of the tracks from the album as an international single. "Hey There" was issued as a single in Canada, The United Kingdom, Germany, and in the Netherlands. That single's B-side is "You're Never Goin' To Tampa With Me" which is also the B-side of "Shriner's Convention". I've never been able to find any chart data on "Hey There"...no data on chart statistics or what month the single was released...but there are plenty of images of the single available on-line and I'll post one of those images later in the blog entry.

Anyway, upon the fast climbing success of "Shriner's Convention", just as in times past, whenever Ray saw success with a comical project he'd almost immediately distance himself from it and return to serious, non-comedy recordings. After the meteoric success of "Shriner's Convention" and everything that came with it early in 1980 he ultimately began work on a serious follow-up. In the fall of 1980 Ray emerged with "Night Games". Sufficient enough time had lapsed between the release of the rollicking "Shriner's Convention" in February and "Night Games" in August. Ray performed "Night Games" on a 1980 television special honoring his long time friend and sometimes business associate, Chet Atkins. On this same television special he and Chet performed a rendition of "Frog Kissing" which Chet had a hit with in 1976. Ray produced, arranged, and published the recording session. In the era of the Urban Cowboy fad "Night Games" told the story of life in singles bars and the relationships that form in darkness but often vanish in the light of day. The song climbed into the Top-20 on the country music chart.

The B-side of "Night Games" is a love ballad called "Let's Do it Right This Time". Each of these recordings, from the pen of Buddy Kalb, appear on Ray's 1981 album, One More Last Chance.

As you see in the above collage in panel two Ray is dressed in cowboy attire with an alluring woman at his side. On the back of the album Ray appears in a casual shirt and wearing the cowboy hat that the alluring woman is wearing on the front of the album. I have the album on vinyl but not in cassette which is why there isn't a photo of myself and a cassette version. Prior to the release of his 1981 album, however, the title track was issued as a single in January 1981 and it eventually became a Top-40 hit on the country charts. "One More Last Chance" is a super recording...stellar use of steel guitar and electric guitar...and you've heard songs referred to before as a lover's plea...well, this one is a highly emotional lover's plea. So much was put into the production...it's also a lengthy recording. There are numerous lengthy recordings on this 1981 album...it's ballad heavy...but some are kind of uptempo but still lengthy. The B-side of "One More Last Chance" is "I Believe You Love Me".

It is such a great album and, for me, it remains a mystery as to why no further single releases or publicity arrived for the rest of the calendar year concerning the One More Last Chance album. If you were at the movies in the summer of 1981 you no doubt heard Ray singing on The Cannonball Run movie. He sang the theme song, "Cannonball", and a love ballad, "Just for the Hell of It". The movie opened in theaters on June 19, 1981. Prior to this he appeared on the soap opera, Texas, and performed "One More Last Chance" on camera. It's credited on-line as episode 217...the original air-date being June 10, 1981. So, no, it wasn't like 1981 was a bleak year or anything in his career. What turned out to be Ray's final studio album for RCA arrived early in 1982 in the form of Don't Laugh Now. This album was far less ballad heavy and it also represented some changes on the technical side. Ray enlisted a co-producer, Bob Montgomery, and on several recordings the arranger was Ron Oates. On practically every studio album by Ray Stevens dating back to 1970 Ray is credited as both producer and arranger...and the keyboard/piano/organ/synthesizer player.

On this album Ron Oates is credited with keyboards and is the credited arranger of "This Old Piano", "Why Don't We Go Somewhere and Make Love", and the album's first single, "Written Down in My Heart". Ray is credited as the arranger on the other seven recordings. The neon-like cover art in the lettering seen on the vinyl copy ties into the '50s era rock and roll feel of the album's lead-off track, "Such a Night", along side the abundance of electric guitars heard throughout the album. Yet, "Written Down in My Heart" is a soothing love ballad with just a few touches of electric guitar. The single hit the country music Top-40 in early 1982...the B-side is the mid-tempo "Country Boy, Country Club Girl". The last single RCA released on Ray appeared in the spring of 1982, "Where the Sun Don't Shine". This sing-a-long carries a southern gospel overtone in the music arrangement but the lyrics offer a humorous story about a man leaving a woman and offering parting advice in the form of the song's title. It made the country music charts but didn't crack the Top-40. Ray remained an RCA recording artist, contractually, into 1983.

The company released a Greatest Hits compilation on him that year which was comprised almost entirely of recordings of Ray from Monument Records and Barnaby Records (covering the years 1968 to 1975) but it tacked on two recordings from his 1980 debut album for RCA. "Shriner's Convention" and the album track, "The Dooright Family", appeared on the 1983 compilation. In hindsight RCA should have included the six single releases from Ray during his brief stay on RCA and then filled the remainder of the album with older songs but instead there are only two RCA recordings on 1983's Greatest Hits. "Hey There", interestingly, is never included on any compilation album even though we all can clearly see it was released as a commercial single but yet the equally hilarious recording, "The Dooright Family", which was never released as a commercial single, has long become prominent on several compilation albums. Ray even produced a music video of the song in 1995...so it's gained a reputation among fans as being a 'hit' song in spite of it never being commercially released as a single.

After Ray's RCA contract ended he went over to the Mercury label for one album (1983's Me) and then he signed with MCA about midway into 1984. During his stay at the label he enjoyed much sales success for the rest of the decade as he embraced the comical image he had tried so valiantly to distance himself from for pretty much his entire career up to that point.

RCA, in the meantime, released a compilation in 1985 called Collector's Series. A brief overview of Ray's time with the label...it features eight recordings chosen seemingly at random...from his three studio albums for the label. This title would be re-issued in 1987 with a slight change in song selection. In the 1985 copy it includes his 1981 hit, "One More Last Chance". In the re-issue in 1987 that song is omitted and replaced by the non-hit, but comical "Put It In Your Ear" from the 1980 Shriner's Convention album. I have the 1985 vinyl and cassette copy of Collector's Series.

I used to have the 1987 re-issue on cassette but the tape was eaten by a malfunctioning player. The image in the fourth panel in the collage is the CD copy of the 1987 release of Collector's Series. Even though this eight song RCA compilation provides only material from his RCA period in each release (1985 and 1987) each one omits a couple hit songs: "Night Games" and "Written Down in My Heart"...but because it spotlights the RCA recordings and since no other compilation that's come along features as many I consider Collector's Series an essential purchase for fans looking for early '80s recordings by Ray Stevens. The next best thing is seeking out his vinyl albums from that time period. Those vinyl albums are: Shriner's Convention (1980); One More Last Chance (1981); and Don't Laugh Now (1982).

Here are the commercial singles, year of release, and catalog number for Ray Stevens on RCA:

"Shriner's Convention"; 1980 PB-11911
"Hey There"; 1980 PB-9525
"Night Games"; 1980 PB-12069
"One More Last Chance"; 1981 PB-12170
"Written Down In My Heart"; 1982 PB-13038
"Where the Sun Don't Shine"; 1982 PB-13207