Ray Stevens: 9 Days and counting until New Album...

We're approaching release day for the upcoming Ray Stevens album!! It's set to release on April 10th so we're 9 days and counting. The album is available to pre-save on several digital music sites and physical copies will be available, too. I remarked a couple of days ago that I was under the impression that the album was going to be a collection of new songs and re-recordings of some of his older songs. I was surprised when I visited Spotify and saw the track list!! There are 13 tracks on the album and only one song had previously been recorded by Ray at least that's what I think regarding the song, "Something". There are no songwriter credits so it's hard to tell if it's the classic song penned by members of The Beatles or if it's an entirely different song with the same title. Curb Records will be handling the distribution and with the album 9 days away I'm guessing that there will be some publicity on social media ratcheting up. As of this writing the only song from this album that's been officially released came in the form of "Savannah". As mentioned there are 13 tracks on this release. In addition to "Savannah" and "Something" you'll hear songs titled "It Had to Be You", "Parakeet Motel", "Time Machine", "The Look of Love", and "Roger" plus several more. When I saw the track list and saw a song titled "Roger" it had me wondering if it'll be a salute to Roger Miller. We shall all find out 9 days from now!!

Ray Stevens: My review of "Savannah"

Hello all of you Ray Stevens fans!!! I am almost certain that you've all heard the brand new single from Ray titled "Savannah" by now. It was released this past Thursday (February 12th) and I've listened to it multiple times so far. I have it in my online music library as well as an audio on YouTube. It's a wonderful performance vocally and musically...a salute to the city of Savannah, Georgia. The overall feel of the song is upbeat and it clocks in at just under 3 minutes so by the time you catch yourself singing or humming along the song is nearly over. 

When you listen to the song's lyrics don't be surprised if you're thinking that there's a double meaning and that he's singing about a woman...the thought crossed my mind the very first time I heard the song and I thought to myself that there might be some sort of a twist ending. However, there's no evidence that the lyrics have a double meaning and so it remains a salute to the Georgia town. There's a line in the song where Ray mentions every town has a church and every town has a jail...and each serve a purpose. It's a clever line within the context of the recording. As I started off saying this is a wonderful music and vocal performance but that's to be expected when it comes to Ray Stevens. The twinkling piano and horn section makes me think of smooth jazz but there's also Dixieland to consider or perhaps Big Band but whatever the music arrangement and feel actually happen to be it's great to hear. 

There isn't a physical copy of the single available but there's a publicity photo of the song that appears on the various social media sites. The photo as seen above captures imagery of the town...a visual tie-in to the audio recording...and until a full album comes along in April the above visual promo of "Savannah" will continue to show up online. The album that this song will be placed on will be titled Favorites Old and New. The new album will hit on April 10th. You can listen to "Savannah" on YouTube by clicking HERE.

Ray Stevens: This album is a gem...a Pearl to be specific...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! The products that were released in 1993 have reached their Pearl anniversary. It's what the 30th anniversary is called and so that's why I title this particular blog entry the way I have. This blog post will focus on the 1993 comedy album, Classic Ray Stevens. It's not necessarily an album review but more of a short synopsis prior to my link to the YouTube playlist.

As mentioned this comedy album from Ray Stevens was released in 1993. This was an incredibly busy year for Ray, but to be more specific, it turned out to be his final season in Branson, Missouri for awhile. He had his theater built down in Branson and open for business by the 1991 tourist season. I don't know off the top of my head if he began construction in the latter half of 1990 or if construction began early in 1991...but I do know his first season of concerts at his theater occurred in 1991. The Branson experience was something phenomenal for Ray. In later interviews when he looked back on that early 1990's run in Branson he said that the very thing that lured a lot of his peers in the music industry to flock to Branson was the very thing that caused him to ultimately decide to leave and return to Nashville on a full-time basis in 1994. Ray remarked that his routine zapped a lot of energy out of him (two concerts a day, six days a week, 6 to 7 months a year). He gave a lot of praise to those that built theaters down there and were still performing or headlining there decades later...but it's something he couldn't keep doing. Branson had a lot of theaters but there weren't a lot, or any, recording studios...there wasn't the ability to jump in the car and be at the recording studio in a moments notice and given Ray's close ties with the backstage element of the music industry one could understand his need to want to get back home to Nashville on a permanent basis...and following the 1993 concert season he put his Branson theater up for sale. There wasn't an immediate buyer but he did lease it to the company that put on the Country Tonite production...and they 'rented' the Ray Stevens Theater for the next 10 years. 

In 1993, while all of that was going on in Branson, Ray released a series of projects. There were two VHS tapes and this Classic Ray Stevens comedy album. The two VHS tapes were Ray Stevens Live! and More Ray Stevens Live!. The latter VHS was sold only at his Branson gift shop and through his fan club. Ray Stevens Live! was sold over television and in print advertisements. Curb Records released Classic Ray Stevens and they would distribute the 1993 VHS tape to retail stores in 1994. The comedy album was brand new despite the album's title. If you weren't much of a fan you'd probably think this was a compilation album given it's title...and believe it or not some 'critics' thought it was a compilation album when they reviewed it. I recall a critic remarking that "there's no Ray Stevens classics on here.. there's no Gitarzan, there's no Streak...a misleading title". However, the album's title is a reference to the cover art...not the track list. On the cover we have a bust of Ray Stevens in a classical music setting. The sheet music, if you have the album and a magnifying glass handy, reads 'Concerto for Cornball'.

The album contains 10 comedy songs...well, 9 comedy songs and a sort of whimsical love ballad titled "Meanwhile". The track list is below:

1. If Ten Percent Is Good Enough for Jesus

2. The Higher Education of Ole Blue

3. The Bricklayer's Song

4. Little League

5. Meanwhile

6. Super Cop

7. If You and Yo' Folks Like Me and My Folks

8. The All-American Two Week Summer Family Vacation

9. The Ballad of Jake McClusky

10. The Motel Song

You can listen to the album on YouTube when you click the playlist link HERE.

Ray Stevens audio track: "The P.S.A. Song"...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! It's with absolute certainty that I can clarify that Ray Stevens has indeed returned to concert performances at his CabaRay showroom. The word was released last month that Ray's hiatus from performing due to a vocal strain would last until early July per doctor's orders...but then there was no indication on Ray's social media accounts that concert performances had in fact resumed and so I became cautious when it come to promoting his concert performances until I could be certain that he'd resumed his schedule. So, yes, Ray has returned to the CabaRay showroom and he held his third concert of the month last night. He performs at the CabaRay every Saturday night with a few Thursday night concerts sprinkled in. 

This blog entry, however, is about a 2008 Ray Stevens comedy album titled Laughter is the Best Medicine. Ray originally issued it on his own Clyde Records label. Curb Records has since picked up it's distribution and they've uploaded the audio tracks onto YouTube.

I have the CD...and even though I already had almost all of the songs I purchased the CD in 2008 because of "The P.S.A. Song". As something of a completist I try and have just about everything Ray Stevens has recorded...in numerous formats (vinyl, cassette, CD, and digital download). Notice that I don't have the 8-track format listed. I've never been nostalgic for 8-tracks because I've always had less than fond memories about them. "The P.S.A. Song" was written by Buddy Kalb and it's origins were inspired by Ray's diagnosis of Prostate Cancer in the spring of 1999. 

When Ray's previous fan club was in operation (1987-2002) I was a member (1994-2002) and we'd get monthly newsletters. In one newsletter from 1999 they shown a photo of Ray with a comically large walking cane and in overly exaggerated hospital patient attire...with a caption that read it was from a music video recording session of "The P.S.A. Song" but there's never been a video of that song released to the general public. I don't know if the video was something Ray did, privately, for educational purposes at the request of a Nashville-area hospital or whatever come of that 'music video' described in the fan club newsletter. Anyway, the cancer diagnosis caused Ray to postpone the summer concerts at The Acuff Theater in Opryland. In the fall of 1999 he was declared cancer free and he launched a Christmas concert series at Opryland.

If you're a dedicated fan of Ray Stevens then you should be familiar with the photo used as the album cover. It's from his music video of "The Blue Cyclone". That recording, Part 1 and Part 2, is on this CD...which I call an audio get well card. The songs were meant for those recovering from surgeries or illnesses while in the hospital...and when this CD was originally released in 2008 it was only available inside the gift shops of local Nashville-area hospitals. It was given a much wider release later in the year once the exclusive portion of the release ended.

There's nothing too shocking when you open up the CD's fold-out. I just like making faces. When you open the CD's fold-out you'll see a get well message and Ray's autograph/signature. Below this is a blank line where you'd sign your name and then give it to whoever happens to be recovering or having to stay in a hospital. Now, obviously, I purchased this CD for my own collection but I'm sure others purchased the CD with the purpose of giving it to somebody as an audio get well card. Ray, at the time of the CD's release, was in his 9th year as a cancer survivor. All of the songs have to do with illness, pain, the hospital establishment... "Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy on Me", "We're Havin' a Baby", "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills", "Power Tools", and a wild song titled "The Cure". You can search YouTube for Ray Stevens and the album's title and the audio tracks will show up in the search results.  

Ray Stevens: "Mountain of Love" climbs to 1,000 plays...

Hello once again...several blog entries ago I wrote about the Ray Stevens audio track of "Mountain of Love" nearing 1,000 unique YouTube plays. As of this writing the unique plays for the audio track sit at 1,004. The song is on the Ray Stevens digital album, Nouveau Retro, on Curb Records. This was the fourth digital album Ray released this year...the song that was being pushed in the days and weeks following the digital album's release happened to be Ray's rendition of "April in Paris". That particular audio track, since it was shared on Ray's official social media, has gotten more than 4,500 unique plays. A majority of Ray's fans tend to not be too pro-active...which means they're not likely to search, on their own, for new Ray Stevens music or search the internet for news about Ray Stevens or look up images of him. They wait until Ray's announcements are posted on his social media about the release of new songs, new albums, new music videos, etc. Given that "April in Paris" was posted on Ray's social media it makes sense that it's the audio track with the most unique plays. "Mountain of Love" is in third place...a little over 1,000 plays so far. "Blue Moon" has quietly become the second most-played audio track on YouTube from the Nouveau Retro digital album. A breakdown of the unique YouTube play count for the Nouveau Retro album is located below...from the most plays to the least plays. Most of you should know that 4.5K means any number between 4,500 and 4,599. The letter, K, references YouTube plays in the thousands.

1. April in Paris  (4.5K unique plays)

2. Blue Moon  (2.2K unique plays)

3. Mountain of Love  (1,003 unique plays)

4. Young Love  (932 unique plays)

5. Earth Angel  (877 unique plays)

6. Lay Me Down, Roll Me Out to Sea  (658 unique plays)

7. Cry Me a River  (625 unique plays)

8. Indian Love Call  (574 unique plays)

9. You Don't Know Me  (460 unique plays)

10. Talk to Me  (398 unique plays)

11. I'm Always Chasing Rainbows / Over the Rainbow  (377 unique plays)

12. No, Not Much  (352 unique plays)

Ray Stevens: Album Time-Line Rewind...2

Hello fans of Ray Stevens...and to those that stop by here out of curiosity. In the second installment of my Album Time-Line Rewind series I'm spotlighting a project that Ray Stevens issued on May 16, 2005 titled Box Set. The project, initially, was released on Ray's own label, Clyde Records. Box Set contains 3-CD's with 17 songs per disc for a total of 51 recordings. The recordings are all post 1990. The renditions of "The Streak", "Gitarzan", "It's Me Again, Margaret", "Everything is Beautiful", "Misty", and numerous other signature songs are re-recordings by Ray...more specifically they're the audio tracks from his live-action and limited animation music videos. The name of the album is visually emphasized on the album cover as we see Ray Stevens sitting at a table with several boxes in front of him. The original recordings he did for Curb Records in 1990, 1991, and 1993 and the recordings he did for his own Clyde Records label in the early to mid 2000s are part of the Box Set. 

Curb Records took over distribution of the Box Set beginning on February 28, 2006. Clyde Records handled the direct marketing/mail-order side of Ray's career and had no in-store distribution. The 3-CD collection, upon wider release, did gather some criticism for the absence of original recordings of songs he'd recorded prior to 1990...but other online reviewers weren't as upset. Sprinkled throughout the collection were 5 exclusives, 1 recording that was previously only available as a single-release, and 1 recording that was previously only available on a music video. The 5 all new songs were: "The Cat Song", "Driver's Education", "Family Funeral Fight", "Kitty Cat's Revenge", and "When The Kids Are Gone". The song that was previously released as a single-only: 2003's "We're Havin' a Baby The Natural Way"; and previously available as a music video-only, 2002's "Hello Mama", the audio track appeared on Box Set. Here's a bit of trivia: "The Cat Song" would later be recorded by radio talk show host, Mark Steyn. 

I'm going to embed several of the songs from the Box Set that were exclusive at the time. The first one is "Family Funeral Fight". There's a nice piece of banjo accompaniment with a lot of sound effects as Ray tells a comical tale of a divided family and their brawl at a funeral in Ducktown, Tennessee when it was revealed the recently deceased was having affairs. The fight, as Ray sings: "...started in the afternoon and lasted half the night...".

Wasn't that hilarious? It's anyone's guess why Ray didn't or hasn't, to date, turned any of these songs into comedy music videos. In "Kitty Cat's Revenge", another song with banjo accompaniment, Ray tells about attempting to rescue an Ocelot from a drainage pipe and getting attacked not only by the wildcat but a swarm of bees. Ray and the wildcat end up floating through the pipe and out into a pond of waste. Box Set, as mentioned, was released initially in May 2005...then Curb Records released it in February 2006...and the audio tracks were uploaded onto YouTube by Curb Records in March 2018.  

The third audio track I'm embedding is "We're Havin' a Baby The Natural Way". The song begins softly and Ray tells us about the optimism and desires of having a baby the natural way...with no hospital help, drugs, or anything else. In the song Ray plays the role of the husband and future father who's very supportive of the idea of having their baby born at home...going through training classes on delivering, etc. However, the soon-to-be parents are talked into enlisting the help of the hospital...and while there the wife goes into labor. The rest of the song is filled with descriptions of the wife giving birth and all the pain...at one point in the song the wife demands more drugs in a exorcist-like voice.

Ray Stevens: Where Have you purchased your "Gas"...

Hello all fans of Ray Stevens!! I hadn't placed "Gas" in the pictorial timeline...I more than likely will wait until the fall and post an image of the comedy album he said it would be on, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. There are numerous online stores and streaming sites where you can hear or purchase the "Gas" novelty song. Statistically speaking the latest novelty song from Ray was released yesterday and the audio clip on YouTube is nearing 1,000 unique views and this is without much publicity from Ray or his record label. There were a couple of audio snippets featured on Ray's social media but the full length audio is on YouTube. I shared the audio clip in my last blog entry. Curb Records also has the song available for streaming and purchase on their webpage and the "Gas" product page can be accessed HERE. Where have you streamed or purchased your copy of "Gas"? Was it on Amazon? The Curb Records store? Pandora? Spotify? Itunes? YouTube? Any of those online music platforms are carrying Ray's new novelty song just in case you hadn't heard the song yet and were wondering how you can listen to it. 

In case you're wondering...no, at the moment, there's not been any announcement of a CD copy being manufactured so it's only going to be available as a digital release. Also, there hasn't been any kind of indication that there will be a music video of the song...maybe there will be a future music video but at the moment there's not been any kind of hint that a music video is in the works. The production of the television show and the construction of the CabaRay showroom (2015-2017) put almost everything on the backburner in Ray's career during the last 5 years. We know that Ray's working on new green screen music videos...he's previously shared images from music video's he's working on...could those music videos be in support of songs from this upcoming comedy album in the fall? We know "Gas" is going be on that upcoming comedy album.   

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Gas"...

Well, it's me once again...several minutes after having written my review of the brand new Ray Stevens novelty song, "Gas". I posted it over on Amazon as well...once it gets posted over there I'll probably make a note of it in a future blog entry. I've listened to the song at least 6 times and after the first couple of listens I'd catch things I didn't hear the first time around. I think that's typical with a lot of people who hear a song for the first time. They listen...and in their excitement they're taking in just the fact that you're hearing something brand new and then on repeated listens you pick up things because you're now listening more intently, more closely. I thought about embedding the audio clip of "Gas" in my previous blog entry but I decided I'd keep it focused only on my review. The single is on Curb Records and it'll be on an upcoming comedy album from Ray titled Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. I take it the title of the album was selected due to it's irony...if anybody can find humor and comedy in nearly any situation it's Ray Stevens. I'm guessing that a couple of song's from Ray that I've only heard about will be on this upcoming comedy album. Last year on his social media he posted images from a music video he was said to be in the process of making but nothing's been released so far. I don't think the screen caps shared online last year was for a music video of "Gas"...if a music video were available of this song it would've been put online hours ago...at least one would think!? The audio clip from Curb Records is featured below, however...  

Ray Stevens: My Review of "Gas"...

Oh this is such a funny, quirky novelty song..."Gas" is a 100 percent novelty in the classic sense of the word as only the incredible Ray Stevens can do. The digital single was released by Curb Records and it's the first single from an upcoming comedy album due out sometime this fall. Ray opens up the song with an announcement and it sets the mood of the entire performance right away. Samples of "Hail to the Chief" are then heard and we're told about a President making his way to the rose garden to give a rare press conference and he's asked about gas. A reporter asks the President what's his biggest problem. The promo photo of the digital single shows a fictional station with cars lined up waiting to get filled up. The song isn't entirely about the fuel prices or the recent fuel shortage several weeks ago. The song lyrically weaves itself around a President that literally has a gas problem and he speaks of various ways of trying to stop it. 'We need to clear the air', the President says... 'it is a stinky situation/it'll leave a stain on my whole Administration'. Those are just a couple of the lyrics from the song...cleverly mixing the real world problem of high fuel prices and recent fuel shortages with the absurdly funny concept of a President with a flatulence problem. Some people, who may be way too analytical, might wonder why the subject matter of "Gas" is the President and not a certain member of Congress who infamously let out some anatomical breeze while live on television. I think it's way more funnier with the song's setting in the rose garden and the President not knowing that he's being asked about fuel and he goes into a long winded remark about another kind of "Gas". I purchased the digital single a little past Midnight for $1.29 and would you believe that's the cheapest "Gas" in the entire country right now? 

Ray Stevens: Nouveau Retro in Five Days...

Oh yes, now it's down to just 5 days until Ray Stevens and Curb Records releases Nouveau Retro!! In my previous blog entry I mentioned that I'd be posting more about this collection of songs the closer we get to May 21st...and since it's May 16th I decided that today is as good a day as any to focus on the upcoming digital album. The album's official title is Nouveau Retro (What's Old Is New Again). Now, of course, I'm not going to write out the entire album title each time I write a blog about it. I'll only refer to it as Nouveau Retro. As I pointed out in my previous blog entry the baby on the album cover is a photo of Ray. I first seen that baby photo of Ray in the late 1990s in a documentary called The Life and Times of Ray Stevens. This documentary aired on The Nashville Network and it was, at the time, the most revealing thing ever produced on Ray Stevens. The documentary shown a lot of photographs and rarely seen video clips from Ray's own collection...most of which had never been widely seen by the general public. They also shown a baby photo of Ray with an adult baseball glove on one of his hands...baseball was like a second religion for a lot of people growing up in and around Clarkdale, Georgia. Also on the album cover as you can clearly see is Ray dressed as Father Time. Ray doesn't pose for that many comical album covers anymore...most of the time whenever he issues an Mp3 digital download the promo picture appearing online is usually a screen cap from the corresponding music video or a publicity photo of Ray. 2015's Here We Go Again! did have Ray on the cover at an airport with a gorilla as a chauffeur...but I hope Ray gets back to issuing elaborate album photos like the one you see here on Nouveau Retro. Here is the track list for the upcoming digital album..

1. April in Paris

2. Blue Moon

3. Earth Angel

4. Lay Me Down and Roll Me Out to Sea

5. Cry Me a River

6. Mountain of Love

7. Talk To Me**

8. Young Love**

9. Indian Love Call**

10. No, Not Much

11. You Don't Know Me

12. Always Chasing Rainbows / Over the Rainbow

Tracks 7, 8, and 9 have previously been recorded by Ray. I'm eager to hear if he kept his own arrangements from the time he originally recorded them or if he's re-arranged them completely to where they melodically sound different. We know they'll sound different as far as the music accompaniments go...which is part of the music arranging process, too, but at the same time an arrangement can also apply to vocal phrasing (referred to as vocal arrangement). Track 12 includes "Over the Rainbow" as part of a medley...and Ray previously recorded that particular song in it's entirety in the '70s...so this is another song I'll be interested to find out how musically different it is compared to his original recording. 

Ray Stevens: 3-Month Recap...

Hello once again all you fans of Ray Stevens!! I felt like doing a recap of the last 3 months since we're a couple of weeks away from Ray releasing his 4th digital album of 2021. Ray began releasing one digital album per month beginning this past February. The first release, Great Country Ballads, has seen a lot of activity on YouTube. The audio clips that Curb Records placed on YouTube have definitely attracted some attention. In the traditional sense a unique view is captured when a computer accesses a video clip for the first time. Multiple views from the same computer/device isn't counted. When it comes to audio I wonder if they call it a unique play or a unique listen since we're not viewing...we're listening to the music. I assume it's still referred to as a unique view even for audio clips. 

Whether it's a unique view or a unique listen the 12 audio clips from Great Country Ballads emerged in late February. Ray promoted one of the audio clips on his social media pages...the audio clip of "Your Cheatin' Heart". Since this audio clip was promoted on his social media pages it has the most unique listen's to date, 9.4K. The second most listened-to audio is "Please Help Me I'm Falling" with more than 5,000 unique views. Ray's rendition of "Crazy" has received 2.1K. "City Lights" and "I Can't Help It If I'm Still in Love With You" both have a little over 1,000 unique views. The remaining audio clips from the album have unique view totals that range between 500 and 900. The audio clip with the lowest unique views is "Till I Get It Right" at 520. I'm by no means a tech person...that is I don't know the intricate details of how unique views rack up or how to decipher between what's called a paid view and what's called an organic view. I'm guessing that an organic view, from what I've been able to find through online searching, is referred to as any webpage or video clip that gets clicked by an online user, on their own, without having any kind of paid advertising steering them into the direction of the webpage or the video link. I guess organic views are what make up the traffic on this blog considering I don't pay to have it promoted all over the internet but the stats, which are visible only to me, show that visitors from all over the country and the world visit this blog.  

Ray followed Great Country Ballads in late March with his much anticipated Bluegrass project, Melancholy Fescue. He subtitled the album High Class Bluegrass due to the music being a blend of Bluegrass and symphonic accompaniment. The audio clip promoted by Ray happened to be "Goin' Out of My Head" and that particular audio received, to date, 3.9K. A second audio clip matched this, the medley "Ruby / Ruby Baby"...to date racking up 3.9 thousand unique views. The third most played audio from the digital album is "Oh, Pretty Woman" at 2.3K. Ray had been planning this album for a number of years...actually, he'd been planning several of these albums for almost a decade...and he made a music video of "Unchained Melody" and uploaded it in October 2013. Since the music video's been online for nearly 8 years it's obtained more than 900,000 unique views. The audio clip from Curb Records has gotten a little over 1,000 unique views. Ray's medley of two songs with the same title "In The Still of the Night / In the Still of the Night" has 829 unique views. The online activity of these audio clips are ever changing so these reports I'm doing right now are a snapshot in time. The view-counts will increase with the passage of time. 

Following Great Country Ballads and Melancholy Fescue, Ray delivered his third digital album in late April titled Slow Dance. It's only been available for a week and a half...tomorrow will mark it's second week of availability (it was released on April 23rd). A couple of audio clips were promoted on Ray's social media pages. The first being "Only You and You Alone" and it's gotten 8.3K. Organic views have caused "Unforgettable" to garner more than 3,000 unique views on YouTube. Ray recently posted an audio clip of "Slow Dancing" on his social media pages and it's nearing 2,000 unique views at the moment. I'm reporting on the unique views of YouTube. Ray also shares some of his audio clips on his Facebook page but I'm only focusing on the YouTube stats. Some of the other audio clips from Slow Dance that have gotten at least 1,000 unique views are: "The Great Pretender" at 1.3K; "Make Believe / It's Only Make Believe" at 1.4K; and "Dream" which also has 1.3K. An audio clip nearing 1,000 unique views is "I'll See You In My Dreams" which has 955 as of now. In case you didn't notice most of the songs on this album are part of what's promoted as The Great American Songbook. Ray does a rendition of "Stardust" (645 unique views) and "What a Wonderful World" (805 unique views). 

All three digital albums saw some activity on the Top-100 New Releases Digital music chart on Amazon. Slow Dance continues to appear on that Top-100 list.

The fourth digital album will be released near the end of this month...May 21st is release day! Nouveau Retro will feature several more songs from the Great American Songbook did in ways that are completely different. The album hitting later this month appears to be a ballad heavy offering much like Great Country Ballads and Slow Dance. Melancholy Fescue was the only one featuring more up-tempo songs...which was to be expected given it's a Bluegrass album. Glancing over the songs that are on Nouveau Retro I see "Cry Me a River", "Earth Angel", "April in Paris", and "You Don't Know Me" just to name four. I'll start writing more about that digital album the closer we get to May 21st. In the meantime here's Ray's awesome rendition of "Unforgettable" from Slow Dance...

Ray Stevens audio clip: "As Usual"...

As we experience the second day of May 2021 I'm going to embed an audio clip of one of the songs from the current digital album from Ray Stevens, Slow Dance. The audio clip this time around is his rendition of "As Usual" which had been previously released in 1964 by one of Ray's long-time friends, Brenda Lee. 

Ray's professional friendship with Brenda Lee goes back decades. She appeared on the Life and Times of Ray Stevens television special that aired on The Nashville Network in 1998 and spoke of how long the two known each other. She mentioned that she first heard of Ray as a music arranger, musician, and songwriter but then discovered his comedic abilities. Brenda, as mentioned, recorded her rendition of "As Usual" in 1964...and just as ironic is the fact that on her Christmas album that year it included a song that Ray published called "Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day". It became a Top-20 hit in the United Kingdom. Some single releases credit the song publisher and on those single releases it'll show Ahab Music Company. Ray recorded his version of the song on his 2016 Christmas album. 

In the collage we have a photo from 1976 next to a photo from 2018. In the 1976 photo we see Chet Atkins, Ray Stevens, Brenda Lee, and Roy Acuff. In the 2018 photo we see Ray Stevens, Brenda Lee, Jeannie Seely, and Ben Folds. In the 1976 photo the group was backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, I think. In 2018 the group seen in the photo were the recipients of Star plaques on the Music City Walk of Fame that year. 

Ray Stevens: "Here We Go Again!" CD from 2015 on Amazon's Top-100...

Hello all once again! I just come over from Amazon and I was looking over the various best seller lists and seen that the 2015 Ray Stevens comedy CD, Here We Go Again!, sitting in the Top-40 of Amazon's best selling New Releases. I wondered why the CD would be placed on that list...it was released in 2015...and then I seen on the product page that it now shows Curb Records instead of MRI/Player Records. Ray's Player Records is a subsidiary of his own label, Clyde Records, and the subsidiary record label was what the CD was originally released on in February 2015. However, when you visit the Here We Go Again! product page on Amazon, it states that Curb Records began distributing the CD and Mp3 beginning in February of this year. The CD copy of Here We Go Again! on Curb Records was released first followed by the Mp3 in March 2021.

When I was looking through the list of Best Selling New Releases in the Digital Country music format and I came across this CD I wondered what was going on...and as I explained in the paragraph above Curb Records has added this particular Ray Stevens album to their catalog and given it's the first of May Here We Go Again! is technically seen as a 'new release' for Curb Records even though it's been around since 2015. The main song from the comedy album is "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me". Since then he's uploaded performances of the song from his CabaRay Nashville television show...and he also uploaded a performance of "There Must Be a Pill For This". This is the album which also features "You Didn't Build That", a topical song that was turned into a music video in May 2015 as the follow-up to "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me". The "You Didn't Build That" video, to date, has amassed almost half a million unique views. The view count so far is 450,637. Ray added a previously released song on this collection, "Come to the U.S.A.", from 2010. The title lends itself to the overall theme of the airport/travel cover art. On the back of the CD the songs are listed as if they're on an incoming flight board at an airport. Some of the other songs on this CD, for those that do no have it in their collection yet, are: "Little By Little", "Pickin' On the Chicken", and the salute/tribute to Jerry Clower, "Knock Him Out, John". Curb Records added a playlist over on YouTube of the songs on this CD. I may write some blog entries and include audio tracks of some of the songs from that CD whenever the mood strikes.

Ray Stevens audio clip: "I'll See You in My Dreams"...

Well, hello all of you Ray Stevens fans!! It's been a few days since I wrote a blog entry spotlighting something on the current Ray Stevens digital album, Slow Dance. I decided to spotlight a song that goes way back...from the pens of Isham Jones and Gus Kahn. The composer, Isham Jones, put the song out first as an instrumental in 1925 and it hit number one on the pop chart for more than 10 weeks. Ray majestically sings "I'll See You in My Dreams"...the song opens up with Ray singing about growing older and he'll continue to see the love of his life in his dreams no matter what. It's a no doubt love song...originating in 1924 and first hitting in 1925...and a series of big bands and instrumental groups recorded the song throughout the decade and into the 1930s. Bing Crosby was among the vocalists who recorded the song in the 1940s and it was brought back in the 1950s as the title of a movie starring Doris Day and Danny Thomas. Pat Boone had a hit version in 1962. Since then it's been recorded by several recording artists who specialize in the pop music sounds of the '30s, '40s, and early '50s before the arrival of rock and roll...and it's also been interpreted by instrumentalists in various music formats. Ray Stevens is the most recent recording artist to bring back 1924's "I'll See You In My Dreams" and here it is...

Ray Stevens: "Slow Dance" is fast approaching...

Hello all of you Ray Stevens fans!! As you can see from my blog entry title we're fast approaching the release of Slow Dance...the upcoming digital album from Ray Stevens where he offers his renditions of numerous pop music standards and love songs. Among the songs Ray selected to cover are: "Unforgettable", "Stardust", "I'll See You In My Dreams", "The Great Pretender", and "What a Wonderful World". The album title is in reference to the song, "Slow Dancing", which had been a hit for Johnny Rivers and later on a country hit for Johnny Duncan. I'm anxious to hear the way Ray Stevens arranges these songs. I'm sure he'll re-arrange them...someway.

When looking over the song titles they range from early pop to mid '70s pop...with the album's opening number his rendition of "Only You and You Alone", originally a massive hit in 1955 for The Platters. "As Usual", originally a hit in 1964 for Brenda Lee, is also covered by Ray on this digital album. There is a medley consisting of "Make Believe / It's Only Make Believe". I know very well the second half of the medley..."It's Only Make Believe" was a huge pop hit for Conway Twitty in 1958. The first half of the medley, "Make Believe", is a mystery for now. There's a 1927 pop song from the Show Boat musical with that title and there's a 1982 pop hit by the group, Toto, plus there's numerous other songs called "Make Believe". 

The renditions that will be the most eye-catching for the curious will likely be: "Only You and You Alone", "What a Wonderful World", "Slow Dancing", and "The Great Pretender" but for us Ray Stevens fans we'll be anxious and excited to hear all of the songs. The digital album will be released next Friday (April 23). I'm assuming that there will be a sneak peek audio of one of the songs from the album prior to it's April 23rd release. If this happens I'll, of course, embed the audio clip in a future blog entry.

Ray Stevens: "Lend Me Your Ears", Easter Rabbit...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens!! It's Easter Sunday and usually when it's Easter Sunday I post a blog entry referencing Ray's 1990 comedy album, Lend Me Your Ears. I may have posted an Easter-themed blog entry every year but I'd have to look in the archives...but I can't resist spotlighting this particular comedy album on Easter. Why? It's because the album photo has Ray holding a rabbit...and as a tie-in with the Easter Bunny I like spotlighting Lend Me Your Ears. 

The comedy album came along in the summer of 1990 on Curb Records. The label, at this point in time, was partnered with Capitol Records and so Lend Me Your Ears has a Curb/Capitol imprint. Ray had signed with Curb in the latter half of 1989 and their first release on him happened to be a compilation, His All-Time Greatest Comic Hits, which was released early in 1990 on the Curb Records imprint. That compilation was eventually certified Gold for selling more than 500,000 copies. Lend Me Your Ears, meanwhile, shows Ray on the cover as Shakespearian character Marc Antony who spoke the phrase '...Friends, Romans, countrymen Lend Me Your Ears...' in the play, Julius Caesar. The album title has several different meanings, though. The first being a reference to the Shakespeare play. The second being the inclusion of a rabbit in the photo and the concept of Antony asking the rabbit to lend him his ears. Third, the album's title is a reference to the public in general. Ray's literally asking consumers to take a listen to the album. It's a great album title and the cover art is wonderful...the Parthenon in the background adds to the Greek mythology design. The Parthenon in the background is the replica that sits on the grounds of Nashville's Centennial Park. There used to be a website that featured Ray's day at the park during photo sessions for the album...you might be able to find those images if you search in-depth but they're not easily found if you do a simple image search. Some of the songs on this comedy album are: "Sittin' Up With the Dead", "Barbeque", "This Ain't Exactly What I Had in Mind", "Bwana and the Jungle Girl", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night". 

This was Ray's first studio album for Curb Records. He's currently on Curb Records but there have been record label stops along the way from 1990 to 2021. I thought, for an Easter Sunday treat, it would be fun to list the various record labels Ray's recorded for throughout his entire career to date and provide an essay, of sorts, as well. I'm not including record labels, international or domestic, that have issued compilation albums on him. I'm only listing the record labels that he recorded singles or studio albums for.

Prep: 1957

Capitol: 1958-1959

NRC: 1959-1960

Mercury: 1961-1965

Monument: 1966-1970

Barnaby: 1970-1976

Warner Brothers: 1976-1979

RCA: 1979-1983

Mercury: 1983-1984

MCA: 1984-1989

Curb: 1990-1994

MCA: 1996-1998

Curb: 2001-2003

Clyde: 2004-2020

Curb: 2020-

As you look at the record label timeline it should be pointed out that in 1988 Ray started up his own record label, Clyde Records. The first release was a collection of songs by his daughter, Suzi. Clyde's biggest impact came with direct-mail in the early to mid 1990s. Ray issued his VHS tapes through his own record label and sold them through the mail and over television. Curb Records distributed two of his VHS tapes to retail stores (1992's Comedy Video Classics and 1993's Ray Stevens Live!) and MCA distributed one of the VHS tapes (1995's Get Serious!) in 1996. Ray released two albums while at MCA before later re-joining Curb in 2001. While at Curb they issued his Gold selling 9/11 novelty single, "Osama Yo' Mama", and the follow-up album in 2002, also called Osama Yo' Mama. 

Curb Records, in the meantime, continued to distribute some of Ray's music video content. For example they released DVD's of some of Ray's limited animation music videos in 2006. A year earlier, 2005, Curb had re-issued Ray's 1990 and 1991 studio albums...plus they issued a single-only from Ray called "The New Battle of New Orleans". In 2006 they distributed a 3-CD collection called Box Set which Ray had previously released through his Clyde Records a year earlier. In 2009 Curb distributed Ray's salute to Frank Sinatra, Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What?!?. The CD had previously been released in 2008 on Ray's Clyde Records label. Curb Records continued to have a business relationship with Ray when it came to retail distribution of most of his mail-order Clyde Records projects. 

Ray recorded two gospel albums in collaboration with Bill Gaither's record companies. 2014's Gospel Collection, Volume One was on the Spring House Records label and 2016's Just a Closer Walk With Thee was on the Green Hill Productions label. In 2015 Ray came up with a subsidiary record label, Player Records, under the Clyde Records umbrella. On this imprint Ray issued the Here We Go Again! comedy CD in 2015. The following year another subsidiary debuted called CabaRay Entertainment. On this imprint Ray issued the patriotic single, "Dear America", in the fall of 2016. This was followed by the Christmas collection, Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me. Ray, concentrating more on taping and producing his television show and the on-going construction of his CabaRay showroom, he didn't put out any albums during 2017 through mid 2020. The CabaRay showroom opened up in 2018. In 2019 Ray was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. 

In the summer of 2020 Jeannie Seely released a duets album on Curb Records...among the duets was "Dance Tonight" which she recorded with Ray Stevens. This recording took place at some point in 2018/2019 during production of Jeannie's album and it became available in June of 2020. In the fall of 2020 Ray returned to Curb Records as a recording artist. Their first release on him happened to be a 50th anniversary newly recorded version of "Everything is Beautiful" as well as a production of an "Everything Is Beautiful" / "United We Stand" medley. These recordings became available in October. A music video of each recording hit YouTube. In December 2020 Curb Records issued a newly recorded version of Ray's video hit, "The Quarantine Song". The original recording, from the Larry's Country Diner television series, accompanied the YouTube video, which hit in May 2020. The Curb Records recording has more production. 

In an interview at the Musicians Hall of Fame, a video can be viewed on YouTube, Ray broke the news that he'd be releasing a large project in 2021 on Curb Records. The details, at the time, made mention of a project titled Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. A press release in January 2021 had more information. Curb Records would be issuing one digital download album per month beginning late February and running through May. Each month a new digital album would become available and then, in June, a box set would emerge with CD copies of those four digital albums. Great Country Ballads and Melancholy Fescue have already been digitally released. In an interview posted several days ago Ray gave even more information and said that once those four albums are issued in a box set in June he'll wait awhile and then start releasing even more new music!!  

Ray Stevens sings "Used Cars"...

Hello once again!! If you follow the Ray Stevens social media pages then you'll know that there's usually a theme that they highlight each day. For example, Monday's are usually called 'Music Monday' and today it's 'Way Back Wednesday', etc. On today's edition Ray posted a video of him singing "Used Cars" on a 1990 episode of Nashville Now. The song comes from Ray's album, Lend Me Your Ears, on Curb/Capitol Records. Ray had signed a recording contract with Curb Records in 1990 and they issued a compilation album on him right away titled His All-Time Greatest Comic Hits. That compilation eventually was certified Gold by the RIAA. Capitol Records merged with Curb Records around the same time so when Lend Me Your Ears was released in the summer of 1990 it was officially a Curb/Capitol release. 

If you're already familiar with "Used Cars" you'll enjoy watching Ray perform the sound effects as he tries to start the car. Also, if you're already familiar with the song, you'll be quick to catch the added lyrics in the song when Ray makes mention of the used car salesman. When Ray finishes the song he walks over to the interview set and Ralph Emery asks about cars and wonders if Ray's ever driven used cars before. Ray mentions some of the used cars he once owned as a teenager in Georgia before he moved up to Nashville, Tennessee. 

I've always driven a used car. I've never owned a car that wasn't at least 5 to 10 years old before I purchased it...usually from a family member. As the song makes mention a used car can be at it's worst during the winter months unless you've got a brand new car battery in it by the time it starts to get cold outside or you at least have the jumper cables nearby! In some of his early interviews and in his 2014 memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, Ray talks about his drive up to Nashville, Tennessee from Georgia and that he was driving what he called a "beat up Plymouth".  

Ray Stevens: Great Country Ballads on Amazon's Top-100...

Hello all...I never thought to keep track of the Top-100 best seller lists over on Amazon even though Ray's current album, Great Country Ballads, was released almost a month ago (February 26th). Those best-seller lists change hourly but I decided to visit Amazon's website and I looked up the New Releases, Digital Music, and I selected the Country music format. In the Amazon Top-100 for Digital Download new releases Great Country Ballads is near the Top-40 as of this hour (10-11pm Eastern). It has me wondering how long the album's been in that Top-100 and if it had ranked higher than where it currently is or if the current position is a sign that it's moving upward. The Digital album is only listed on that specific Best Selling New Releases Top-100 for country music...over on Amazon the overall list is called Amazon Hot New Releases and there's categories for all the various music formats. Since those lists are updated hourly I'll check them in an hour from now and see if the digital album has moved up or down or remained in the same sales position. 

Have you purchased or listened to any of the audio tracks from Ray's current album yet? He'll be releasing the second of four all new digital albums this coming Friday (March 26th). Once it becomes available I'll purchase it, write a review over on Amazon, and then paste it here on the blog...or I might switch it around and write a review here and then paste it over on Amazon. You can purchase the digital download over on Amazon by clicking HERE. If you prefer to listen to the songs online you can visit YouTube and search for each song individually. Curb Records uploaded all of the audio tracks from the current album onto YouTube and so I'm assuming they'll be doing the same this coming Friday when the next Ray Stevens album is released!!

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

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

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

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

Ray Stevens: New Contract with Curb Records...

Well, hello all of you Ray Stevens fans!! As the title of this blog entry makes mention of Ray Stevens is once again signed with Curb Records. This label goes back into the history of Ray's career to 1990. It was in 1990 when Ray was first signed to Curb Records and this year, 2020, obviously marking 30 years since he first recorded for them, and, it's been the label upon which he's returned multiple times throughout the years. A lot of the return engagements with Curb Records after 1996 were mostly taken up with DVD releases of his animated music videos. He recorded three studio albums for Curb Records, initially, in the years of 1990, 1991, and 1993. When Ray was releasing VHS tapes in the same period of time on his own Clyde Records label through direct marketing the retail in-store distribution was handled by Curb Records. In addition to the studio albums and VHS releases Curb also issued three compilation projects on Ray during the years of 1990, 1991, and 1996. An audio track of his 1993 VHS release was issued on cassette and CD in 1995. An overview of most of his recordings for Curb Records was issued in 1995. I'd written several blog entries in the past, available in the archives, of Ray's years on Curb Records. When he joined the label in 1990 it was in partnership with Capitol Records, too. The first two studio albums from Ray after he joined Curb were officially under the Curb/Capitol label. Ray's early to mid 1990s era was filled with a whole lot of activity...not necessarily with audio recordings, though. In 1991 he opened up a theater in Branson, Missouri and it became one of the biggest hits of the town. He began making music videos and releasing VHS tapes of video content in this time period. You'll see the specific VHS and later, DVD, titles that Ray released through Curb Records. The VHS tapes were distributed by Curb Records following a year and a half direct marketing campaign under Ray's own label. Comedy Video Classics, issued on Clyde Records in 1992, was distributed by Curb Records in 1993, for example. Here's a look at the studio albums, compilation albums, and VHS tapes that Curb Records has issued on Ray Stevens since 1990. I'm not going to include studio albums that Curb later re-issued. He's had a lot of products released through Curb Records! Here we go: 

His All Time Greatest Comic Hits; 1990 (Gold album)

Lend Me Your Ears; 1990

Number One With a Bullet; 1991

Greatest Hits; 1991

Comedy Video Classics; 1993 VHS (Triple-Platinum; retail distribution)

Classic Ray Stevens; 1993 (studio album of new recordings; title refers to the cover art)

Ray Stevens Live!; 1994 VHS (Double-Platinum; retail distribution)

20 Comedy Hits; 1995

Ray Stevens Live!; 1995 (audio track of the 1993 home video)

Great Gospel Songs; 1996

Osama Yo' Mama; 2002

The Complete Comedy Video Collection; 2004 DVD

The New Battle of New Orleans; 2005 (CD single)

Box Set; 2006

Gourmet Restaurant; 2006 DVD

Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens; 2006 DVD

Greatest Hits; 2008

Everything is Beautiful; 2020 (On-line single)

This brings us to the last product on that list...the upcoming 50th anniversary single release of "Everything is Beautiful". The original recording hit in 1970 on Barnaby Records. There will also be a further release featuring a medley of "Everything is Beautiful" and "United We Stand" but I didn't list it because there's not been a time frame issued on it's release date. In an article published by Music Row magazine it suggests that there will be further projects by Ray on Curb Records. This 50th anniversary single is just the first project Curb is releasing. The single will be released on October 30th...next Friday. I'm eagerly anticipating what further projects will be coming down the line from Ray Stevens while on Curb Records. You can click the link and read the Music Row article by clicking HERE.