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".
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.
Hello once more!! I just finished watching Part Two of Episode 11 of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville guest starring John Rich. The episode's dialogue didn't make any reference to it being a 'part two'...in fact it played like a typical episode. Ray opened the episode singing "Game Show Love". Now, for those not aware, this happens to be one of my favorite songs of his. I had never, ever seen him perform the song and so you could guess my excitement at seeing him on camera and singing the clever break up song using game show catchphrases and titles in the lyrics. The song itself goes back to his 1983 album, Me, but he re-recorded it fairly recently for a CD titled Bozo's Back Again.
Ray re-introduces John Rich. The first thing Ray asks about is John's work as a record producer. John tells of how he's produced some of Kenny Rogers' later recordings as well as those from John Anderson. John Rich describes John Anderson was "the George Jones of my generation...nobody can sing like John Anderson and you immediately know it's him when you hear his voice". John tells of how great it is to make music in America because you're free to do whatever you want. He speaks of visiting a local bar in Nashville and frequently encountering a bartender there trying to get into the music business. He told her to make a demo, etc. etc. and the next thing he knew his discovery became a big hit...that discovery being Gretchen Wilson. Ray demonstrates visible enthusiasm over John's house containing a showroom complete with a bar.
John also speaks of discovering an act going by the name of Cowboy Troy, a rapping country entertainer. Ray then asks how John and Big Kenny met and formed their duo, Big and Rich. John remarks that his first impression was one of concern because here he was dressed a bit more conservative by comparison to Kenny's wild hair and rock 'n' roll attire. John tells of seeing Kenny tossing small, wrapped pieces of bubble gum into the audience...and one happened to land in the middle of John's forehead. He speaks of their success as a duo before speaking about his grandfather and World War Two. He mentions that his grandfather received 6 Purple Hearts during his military service and this sets up the performance of "The Good Lord and the Man".
After this performance John starts to talk about the 2009 market crash and the bailouts of the banks. John commented that the news angered him so much that he literally threw one of his boots at the television. This inspired him to come up with "Shuttin' Detroit Down", a collaboration with one of his music idols, John Anderson. John Rich performs the market crash/bailout song to wild applause.
Ray then closes the show singing "Your Bozo's Back Again", arranged in the manner that you hear on the Bozo's Back Again CD from 2011 instead of it's original arrangement on 1989's Beside Myself. I should point out the difference in arrangement is very subtle but if you're as familiar with 1989's recording as I am then you'll notice the subtle differences in the 2011 re-recording. Unlike "Game Show Love", "Your Bozo's Back Again" happened to be a song that I've seen him perform on television before...but only once. One of the band members was playing an instrument that I have to admit I'd never seen before. It was a handheld instrument that had the appearance of a piano but it was being blown into as if it were a member of the horn family of instruments. If I come across the name of that instrument I'll make note of it in my next blog entry. Speaking of which...my next blog entry should be this coming weekend sometime...it'll be a re-cap of episode 12 guest starring Tony Orlando! I can't wait to hear the things the two of them discuss!!
Hello to all the fans of Ray Stevens! This is going to be a somewhat busy several days given the grand opening of the CabaRay four days away on January 18th. Those of you fortunate enough to attend the grand opening on the 18th or any of the concerts during opening weekend and beyond no doubt will have memories that'll last forever. Are you all excited?? I imagine the fans in attendance will share their experiences on social media so I'll be looking for commentary to spotlight on this blog. In this particular blog entry I decided to put some spotlight on an album that turns 35 this year...the wonderful album, Me.
The album is packed with an assortment of recordings...ten altogether...and of those ten Ray wrote or co-wrote seven of them. As mentioned the album hit in 1983 on the Mercury Records label and technically the album arrived very late in the year but I wanted to celebrate the 35th anniversary of it's release a bit early...after all it's 2018 so mathematically it's 35 this year...and anyway it's one of my favorite albums from Ray Stevens. The album was produced by Ray and Jerry Kennedy. This marked the second album in a row in which Ray was aided in the production of an album. His previous release, Don't Laugh Now, featured Bob Montgomery as a co-producer. The Me album, however, was kind of a homecoming in that Mercury Records is the label upon which Ray became a nationally recognized recording artist in the early '60s under the guidance of both Shelby Singleton and Jerry Kennedy. If you look at the credits on a lot of Ray's early and mid '60s single releases on Mercury you're going to find Shelby Singleton listed as producer and Jerry Kennedy listed as the orchestra leader of the sessions (specifically The Merry Melodies Singers). By the mid '60s several single releases credited both Shelby Singleton and Jerry Kennedy as producers of Ray's recordings. For example...a mid '60s novelty recording titled "Mr. Baker the Undertaker"...
If you click the image of that single you'll see a close-up or you may be able to see the producer credits, Shelby and Jerry, without having to click the image. That image is the promotional copy of the single. The commercially released image had the standard black color label but during this era the promotional copies of the single releases had a red color label. Even though this blog entry is mainly to spotlight the 35th anniversary of the Me album I decided to step back in time even more just to show that Jerry Kennedy played a role in those early Mercury recordings from Ray Stevens...going from being credited as an orchestra leader to being credited as a co-producer along side Shelby Singleton. You will also note over on the left hand side of the single the publisher credits belong to Lowery Music. Yes, as you may have guessed, it was the publishing company headed up by Bill Lowery...the man responsible for getting Ray onto records in the late '50s on Prep and it's parent company, Capitol...and eventually NRC (a label that Bill co-owned). Even though it's true that the single releases from Ray involving co-production by Jerry Kennedy weren't what you'd consider wildly successful nevertheless the recordings are first rate for their era and there's no denying the infectious fun of both the novelty and ballads being issued by Ray Stevens during those early to mid '60s Mercury Records years.
Fast forward 20 some years to 1983 and Ray finds himself reuniting with Mercury Records for a one album deal featuring Jerry Kennedy as co-producer. At this point in time the biggest recording act for the label and Jerry Kennedy was arguably the country music group, The Statler Brothers, even though he produced almost all of the roster on Mercury's country music division throughout the late '60s and into the early '80s (acts like Jerry Lee Lewis, Tom T. Hall, early recordings by Reba McEntire, Roger Miller...anyone recording country music for Mercury or it's subsidiary labels often featured Jerry Kennedy as producer and sometimes even session musician). Once the CabaRay opens on January 18th you'll be able to see the glorious red leather section of the venue honoring numerous record producers based in Nashville and among those spotlighted is Jerry Kennedy (the other five are Shelby Singleton, Chet Atkins, Fred Foster, Owen Bradley, and Billy Sherrill).
As I pointed out earlier in the blog entry the album officially turns 35 later in the year but I wanted to celebrate it's debut earlier. If you have never heard of Ray's Me album seek it out on eBay. It's been in my Ray Stevens vinyl collection for more than 10 years. I purchased my copy off of eBay and sometimes a cassette copy comes up for sale on eBay, too. Some of the songs from this 1983 album have been re-recorded by Ray for recent projects...so chances are you've heard some of the songs but weren't aware that they originated earlier. Just what are the songs on this album?? Here is a track list...I highlighted in bold the songs that Ray had a hand in writing:
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
In case you have the album, too, you can glance over all of the technical aspects of the project such as length of each song and the writers credited on tracks 4, 6, and 7 plus the photographer credits, etc. etc. The entire album is serious, in tone, but some have declared "Game Show Love" as a comedy song and there are those that have never heard "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out" but nevertheless erroneously declare it a comedy song, too, based entirely on the title.
In case you've heard rumors for years let me assure you they're true...Ray did in fact appear as a special guest on an episode of The Fall Guy in 1983 titled The Pirates of Nashville. Ray portrayed a character that just happened to be a country music singer and near the end of the episode he performs "Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee" all decked out in the shirt he's wearing on the 1983 Greatest Hits album that RCA issued. The episode originally aired on November 23, 1983 right around the time Me was considered his most recent album. Mercury issued several single releases from the 1983 album...the one that reached the country music charts happened to be "My Dad", one of the songs Ray didn't write. The single peaked on the country charts in early 1984 but well below the radio heavy Top-40 section. It is not the same song that Paul Petersen had a pop hit with even though several internet sites erroneously make that claim. Ray's recording of "My Dad" is a completely different song.
