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 CabaRay Nashville performance: "My Dad"...

It's Father's Day 2021 and this means that it's time to re-visit the Ray Stevens ballad, "My Dad", from the pen of Dale Gonyea. I could easily post a link to any number of previous blog's I've written in the past on Father's Day...they all feature "My Dad" in some way. Sometimes I embed an audio track and sometimes I embed a performance of the song. The only performance of "My Dad" from Ray Stevens that's online is from his locally syndicated PBS series, CabaRay Nashville. I know he performed the song on a country music television special early in 1984. I have an issue of Music City News magazine that features a reader's letter to the editor column and one of the letters states that they loved Ray's "My Dad" and said how wonderful it is to hear a song that gives fathers credit and shows them in a positive light. As of this writing that 1984 performance hasn't made it's way to the internet. There's the performance on CabaRay Nashville and that's the performance I'm going to embed. Ray recorded the song for his 1983 album, Me. The album, released in the latter months of 1983, wasn't promoted much by Mercury Records...any publicity for the album arrived in the first couple of months in 1984...but by the time that focus began to settle on the Me album Ray had moved to the MCA record label and issued his first album for them in the late fall/early winter of 1984. Ray performed at Fan Fair in 1984 and was part of the Mercury/Polygram Records roster of recording artists...and so based on this he was still on Mercury Records in the summer of 1984...Fan Fair takes place each year (except this year and last year) in June. Ray, as most of you know, is the father of two daughters. He has several grandkids...a grandson of his often works on his social media sites and is part of the behind the scenes staff of his CabaRay Nashville television program. Here's "My Dad" as performed by Ray Stevens...    

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 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 performs "My Dad"...

Hello one and all on this Father's Day 2018! I was going to post about a particular Ray Stevens recording, "My Dad", and I already have a photo collage put together spotlighting the commercial and promotional single as well as the album it originally appeared on in 1983...a vinyl album titled Me. On Father's Days past I've mentioned "My Dad" on this blog page and this time around, as you can tell, it's no different. However, there is something new to add...a performance of the song by Ray Stevens! It's rare indeed to see Ray perform the song...and as far as I know the last time he performed it on television was the mid 1980s on a telecast that I've only read about in vintage country music publications but never seen with my own eyes. That performance (from 1984) was part of a television special featuring other recording acts.

"My Dad" emerged from an album Ray Stevens recorded for Mercury Records in 1983. The album is chock full of romantic ballads and uptempo sing-a-long performances...including a song that critics may consider a novelty song, "Game Show Love", but if critics should label it as such it's only because of the song's title and it's construction of lyrics (name dropping titles of game shows and their catch-phrases) but as far as the vocals are concerned Ray performs it straightforward without a slightest hint of comedy. It's the album's closing track and one of the uptempo songs I was referring to at the start of the paragraph. The album was produced by Ray and Jerry Kennedy. This was sort of a reunion as the two of them worked together in the early to mid 1960s on numerous recording sessions. Jerry was often a session musician on Ray Stevens recordings back then and sometimes he was credited as Orchestra leader. On the single release of "Ahab the Arab" in 1962 it credits Jerry Kennedy as such. Ray's main record producer was Shelby Singleton but both he and Jerry Kennedy are credited as producers on a series of recordings Ray did in the mid '60s while under a unique contract. The language of this contract gave Mercury the right to issue commercial recordings on Ray while he held another job with a competing label, Monument, as strictly a session musician/A&R man. In other words he wasn't allowed to record anything for Monument until his recording contract with Mercury ended in the latter half of 1965. After the contract ended with Mercury then Monument began to issue commercial singles on Ray for the first time.

Ray recorded "My Dad" twice in his career. There is the 1983 original from the Me album and then there's a fairly recent re-recording found on a CD titled Bozo's Back Again released in 2011. It's on that particular 2011 CD where Ray also revives a couple of other songs from the Me album: "Game Show Love", "Kings and Queens", and "Me".

Earlier today a performance of "My Dad" by Ray Stevens was uploaded onto YouTube. The performance is from an episode of his CabaRay Nashville television series. The performance originated from the television studio on Music Row where Ray used to tape the show prior to it's move to the actual CabaRay Showroom in West Nashville. Episodes taking place at the CabaRay began airing this season (starting with Episode Five guest starring Moe Bandy).

But anyway...here's Ray Stevens singing "My Dad"...

Ray Stevens album, "Me", turns 35...

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.

Ray Stevens: All-Time Hits...

As I often do I highlight compilation albums issued on Ray Stevens...some I've got in my collection and some I find posted on-line most typically listed on auction sites that I feel the need to comment about or promote through this fan-created blog page.

All-Time Hits is one of those misleading titles that many record companies place on compilation albums. The basic reason is to grab a consumer's eyes...and then once their attention's been obtained the next thing some, not all, but some consumers do is look at the album's photo/picture of the artist. Then the consumer, in the vinyl era, more than likely would flip the album over and read the song selections. Usually a different photo of the artist appeared on the back of the album...a kind of exclusive photo for those that purchased the album. Promos and ads rarely gave the back of album's much, if any, exposure and so a lot of fans that didn't purchase vinyl albums (preferring singles) weren't aware of the practice of having the main publicity photo of the artist on the front of the album and then a secondary photo on the reverse side.

One of the recurring concepts of compilation albums labeled either Greatest Hits, The Very Best of, or All-Time Hits is the use of photos of the artist that, usually, do not match the era in which the bulk of the recordings took place. This is, of course, more common for artists that have had incredible longevity in the music business. Even though there a lot of artists from Ray's generation and those that came before him that have had a massive catalog of compilation albums issued on them I've noticed that the compilations issued on Ray have had some of the most misleading photo's accompanying a release.

This release, All-Time Hits, originated in 1996 in cassette format and featuring a minimum of just eight recordings it was marketed as a budget-priced release. Issued on Polygram Records, a subsidiary of Mercury Records, the eight recordings on the project happened to have been recorded by Ray during his stay at Mercury (1961-1965, 1983) and one song, oddly enough, from his RCA period (1980-1982). Of course not every recording during his Mercury or RCA stint are represented but 8 recordings are. The track list: "Ahab the Arab", "Harry the Hairy Ape", "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills", "My Dad", "Shriner's Convention", "Speed Ball", "Furthermore", and "Funny Man". Six of those recordings come from the early 1960s but the photo of Ray that's used from a much later era (perhaps from a photo session in 1983 during the making of his studio album that year). If one is not too familiar or conversant with all things Ray Stevens as some of us are you'd probably think that Ray looked like that during the recordings found on this collection but in reality he did not. On six of the eight recordings found here he looked like this...

A note to collectors is this 1996 compilation includes the original recordings of his early 1960s hits on Mercury. A lot of compilations use the Monument re-recordings but on this collection, since it's affiliated with Mercury, the original recordings are featured.

All-Time Hits is also available in CD format. Although a cassette is perfectly capable of holding a large amount of recordings only 8 appeared on the cassette copy. However, for the CD release, three songs were added. In a move to entice CD sales using the allure of "bonus tracks" the 11 track version of All-Time Hits incorporated 2 additional recordings from the early 1960s and one recording from 1981. The three bonus recordings are "Butch Babarian", "Santa Claus is Watching You", and "One More Last Chance". The reason, well, one of the reasons that I have both the cassette and CD releases is because of my desire, at the time, to have any Ray Stevens release that appeared in retail stores.

Secondly it's because I only had a cassette player at the time...I didn't have a CD player and I definitely didn't have a record player, yet. So, once I got a CD player I found All-Time Hits in CD format and purchased it...the allure being I didn't have any of those songs on CD format at the time. You could say I was slow at getting the latest listening devices. I'm still like that...I don't have an Ipod or Ipad or tablet or whatever the most recent listening device happens to be but I do purchase/download songs on Amazon if I choose to but ordinarily I prefer a CD copy.

The CD copy of All-Time Hits displaying all 11 tracks. The titles that have an asterisk to their left indicate the bonus songs found only on the CD. Considering how obscure Ray's 1983 studio album for Mercury happens to be it always puzzled me as to why only "My Dad" appeared on this compilation and nothing else from that album...instead choosing a couple of his RCA recordings to represent the early '80s period. Don't get me wrong, though...the inclusion of "One More Last Chance" is most certainly a welcome addition. Given that "My Dad" appears it's still a mystery as to why his 1983 studio album, Me, has never made it's debut on CD or even Mp3 yet. Polygram, the label that issued this in 1996, certainly had the capability of including songs from the 1983 album or else "My Dad" wouldn't have made an appearance...so it's odd that they, nor Mercury itself, have ever thought to reissue Me. One thing about this collection that can't be said for other compilations issued on Ray Stevens is this one features single releases only. Every track on here found it's way onto the pop or country music charts. Usually the compilation releases included album tracks, chosen seemingly at random, along side the actual single releases. This practice raised awareness for a lot of recordings by Ray Stevens that were originally meant as album cuts.

Yes, this is the cassette copy...the one I purchased at the local Wal-Mart store back in 1996. It's still in excellent shape. I never handle cassettes, CD's, or vinyl singles and LP's in a rough manner or toss them around, etc. I guess the only strike against this collection is the lack of liner notes. I've become spoiled by the liner note concept that accompanies a lot of music collections even though, strangely enough, I never cared one way or another if something featured liner notes or not; but since I've gotten older and have seen a lot of liner notes and articles about Ray that are more fiction than fact it's becoming something of an interest of mine if a compilation features liner notes or not. The thing about liner notes is the subjective nature of the authors, which I don't mind, I'd be more offended to see negative criticisms...but the thing I'd noticed about liner notes is the passing of misinformation and the omission of information. Bios found on Ray omit the fact that Ray recorded an album for Mercury Records in 1983 and the label released several singles on him throughout the bulk of 1984 prior to his departure to MCA and his relaunch as a country comic. Liner notes often omit that Ray had more than a couple of hit recordings for RCA and Warner Brothers...in some liner notes only a couple of songs are highlighted during an entire 7 year time span (1976-1983) and this sort of lack of information does a disservice to any new fan of Ray's and it's maddening to long time fans that don't appreciate seeing his catalog of music go overlooked. So it's great if a CD has liner notes but it's also wise on the reader or the fan's part to do research for themselves, too. I was once a new fan of his...and my only exposure to his music happened to be what appeared on the CD's available in retail stores and the several cassette tapes originally owned by my grandparent's. If I remained content on just enjoying the songs on those projects I'd be missing out on a LOT of other great recordings from his career. Some prefer just to listen to a handful of recordings by him (recordings from the mid '80s primarily) and dismiss anything else he's recorded. 1987's Greatest Hits on MCA and Greatest Hits, Volume Two contain the recordings that are associated heavily with Ray...and therefore those compilations have gotten the most sales.

The liner notes for the Platinum 1987 album, however, doesn't mention that the recording of "Ahab the Arab" is from 1969. The author mentions the song was a hit in 1962...but this naturally suggests to a new fan that the recording they're hearing is from 1962. I didn't learn that the recording was from 1969 until some point in the 1990s...I had gotten the Mercury cassette titled Funny Man and heard his early '60s recordings for the very first time and that's how I heard "Ahab the Arab", the original recording, for the very first time. The cassette features a bearded Ray Stevens on the cover...looking nothing like he did in the early '60s...which fits in with the overall theme of this blog entry spotlighting compilation albums featuring misleading images of Ray on the cover.

Ray Stevens: Golden LP Series, Part Twenty...

Studio album twenty in the career of Ray Stevens was a rather obscure release. The LP was issued in the latter half of 1983 as his debut album for one of his former homes, Mercury Records. Ray had been on the Mercury label during 1961-1963 and it was the label credited with turning Ray into a successful recording artist and session musician. Ray's comeback LP for the label was titled Me...and it's cover art shown Ray as a painter, looking at himself in a mirror, while at the same time painting a very different image of himself. I took the cover shot to mean that underneath the clown-like reputation beats the heart of a very serious artist. As you can see from the cover shot, the entire front of the album is designed as a picture frame.

The album contains the standard 10 songs and almost all of them were written by Ray Stevens. This was one of his first LP's in awhile to feature a majority of songs that he wrote. The only single release to reach the country music charts came in early 1984, a few months after the LP's release. "My Dad", from the pen of Dale Gonyea, was a tribute to father's and father figures. It reached the Top-70 on the Country singles chart in early 1984. There were a few other single releases from this album that didn't reach the charts and those were "Mary Lou Nights" and "A Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee". In "Mary Lou Nights" we hear the story of a man's loneliness over a mysterious woman named Mary Lou whose role in the man's life is never really explained...only that her absence in his life is overbearing. Tennessee pride is in full force on "A Piece of Paradise Called Tennessee" where Ray sings the praises of the state and it's culture. Ray references the music that originates from the state, the famed moonshine stills that are hidden in the mountains, and a little known fact about the hound dogs throughout the state. As a bit of trivia, Ray performed this song on an episode of The Fall Guy. Ray portrayed a character named Webb Covington. In the episode Ray wore the shirt from 1983's Greatest Hits on RCA. "Me", the title track, has an introspective feel as Ray sings about the joys of being himself and how he found a woman that loves him for who he is as a person and how easy it is to be himself whenever he's around her. "Yolanda" is a fun song...and it features his daughter, Suzi Ragsdale, as a guest vocalist. It's about a man who falls in love with a woman of Spanish origin and he's not too sure how she feels about him. Me opens up with "Love Will Beat Your Brains Out", a melancholy love ballad in spite of it's comical title. Ray sings about how he'll never give love another chance because he always ends up being hurt.

If you want nostalgia or a nostalgic feeling, "Piedmont Park" may provide you with what you wish for. In this song Ray sings about meeting an old flame from his teens many years later. We're told that as teenagers the girl dumped him for someone else but she regretted doing so as she ended up going through three different relationships prior to running into her old flame. She's the one who says that she never really loved the other men she dumped Ray for...but it's too late because Ray's moved on and got married. The song comes from the pen of Buddy Kalb, a frequent contributor to Ray's music catalog. Now, all of the songs are exceptionally good, but the best of the best was saved for last in the clever "Game Show Love". In this cleverly written song about a broken relationship Ray uses a lot of game show catch-phrases and game show titles as he paints the story of a man who gets taken by a shallow woman only interested in having a good time and when she's through she moves on to the next victim. It's been lumped into his library of novelty recordings but, again, I don't consider this a novelty song. It's light hearted musically but it's a serious message dealing with a broken relationship. Unfortunately, the Me album was not a commercial success and it went by little fanfare and not much attention from critics or the country music media in general. After the less than stellar reception for this wonderful album, Ray and Mercury parted ways in 1984 and then Ray decided to something that you'd never expect judging by his consistent desire of having his serious, non-comical recordings become just as popular as the comical ones had been. Ray had, for years, spoken about how his comical hits overshadowed the more thoughtful songs he'd recorded. He intentionally recorded serious songs, love ballads, and other forms of music to show that there's more to him than novelty and comedy songs.

However, upon the official parting of ways with Mercury at some point in mid 1984, Ray returned to the studio and began working on a brand new album...one that would hit late in 1984, on yet another record label...but this particular LP would change the commercial direction in his career tremendously and set in motion a string of remarkable successes. In our next installment we take a look at studio album twenty-one and the career decisions that kick started an entirely different direction in his career!  

Father's Day and Ray Stevens...

Given that Ray Stevens has long since had a reputation as a comedian/novelty song artist it makes sense to open up this Father's Day edition of the blog with commentary about a song Ray recorded in 1990 called "This Is Your Daddy's Oldsmobile". The song originates from his comedy album that year, Lend Me Your Ears, on the Curb/Capitol label. In the song Ray plays the part of a father who has a son that's just learning how to drive. The father comically taunts the son with constant reminders that the car's off limits...but toward the end of the song the father gives an ultimatum that if the son changes his ways he may reconsider and let his son drive the car. The song was written by Buddy Kalb and Russell Piburn. A few years earlier, in 1986, Ray played the part of a father that took his family on a "Camping Trip". As you can imagine the excursion was one misadventure after the other. The song originally appeared on Ray's 1986 comedy album, Surely You Joust. A limited animation music video was made of this song 20 years later in 2006 and it can be found on the 2009 DVD collection Cartoon Carnival, Volume Two. Ray co-wrote the song with Buddy Kalb.

A further song on Surely You Joust is the haunting and some may say creepy "Camp Werthehakahwee", written by Bobby Russell. In this song Ray plays a father who enrolls his son in summer camp. Ray spends much of the song explaining to his son what all to expect out in the wilderness in addition to going over the brochure that the camp mailed out. On the last day of camp the father heads off to the camp grounds to pick up his son...and you won't believe what happens next! In 1993 on the Classic Ray Stevens comedy album Ray plays a father who takes his family on an "All-American Two Week Summer Family Vacation". Surprisingly this comical tale hasn't been made into an animated music video although it clearly comes across as a song tailor made for one.

There are quite a few other comedy songs from Ray where he plays the part of the everyday man and father...including 1988's story of a father who gives in to family demand and gets satellite television installed. The song's title is based upon common descriptions found on many cable movies: "Language, Nudity, Violence, and Sex". I remember reading cable guides in the late '80s which would give brief movie descriptions and they'd all conclude with a variation of "this movie contains strong language, violence...". We're all familiar with that kind of thing. The song can be found on his 1988 comedy album, I Never Made a Record I Didn't Like.

On that same 1988 album Ray tackled the subject of single fathers in the darkly humorous "Mama's in the Sky With Elvis". In the song Ray plays the part of a father who loses his wife in a very peculiar accident. Suddenly single he has to raise his children amidst the many souvenirs and merchandise from his wife's Elvis collection. Along the way there are several names of Elvis songs and movies sprinkled throughout the story. If you've not heard this wickedly funny song then you owe it to yourself to get a record player and look for the 1988 vinyl album on eBay! I've searched Amazon's Mp3 store and it's not available as a digital download. Interestingly, the song was originally released on 1987's Greatest Hits, Volume Two but was also added to the 1988 album.

As you can see there are plenty of comical songs recorded by Ray Stevens about fathers but as far as non-comical, serious recordings go there is only one song recorded by Ray Stevens about fathers which is very under-rated but highly entertaining...

Without question one of the more emotionally charged recordings about fathers from Ray Stevens is "My Dad". Ray recorded "My Dad" in 1983 and included it on his Mercury album, Me. As you can see from the promo sticker it was one of the songs highlighted by the record company. The song was written by Dale Gonyea...the same man who provided Ray with "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow" in 1979. "My Dad" is certainly appropriate for Father's Day and it has a surreal climax...one that will certainly take a listener by surprise. When I first heard the song in 1996 it gave me chills. A melody, coupled with the lyrical content, will do that kind of thing to a person every once in awhile. I've never seen Ray perform this song in concert or on TV...it was released as a single by Mercury in 1984 and I have reason to believe that there's televised footage of him singing the song because of his various appearances on Nashville Now in the early years of The Nashville Network. As I said I've never seen Ray perform the song but I assume he performed it on TV during that 1983/1984 time period and if he did I wish we could see it again.

"My Dad" wasn't a Top-40 country hit for Ray but it did make the country charts for several weeks. It hit in early February 1984 and remained charted through early April. The song never appeared on any of the various compilation releases that came along in the 1980's but it did show up in a 1996 compilation titled All-Time Hits. This compilation was issued by a subsidiary of Mercury Records called Polygram. The unique thing about the 1996 compilation was that it incorporated a couple of Ray's hit singles for RCA Records: 1980's "Shriner's Convention" and 1981's "One More Last Chance". The latter was one of the three bonus tracks not found on the cassette version. The cassette version features 8 recordings while the CD version features 3 additional recordings. Also, because this compilation was released by a subsidiary of Mercury Records all of the early '60s recordings are the originals. Ray would re-record a lot of his Mercury recordings after he joined Monument Records and a lot of times his 1969 re-recordings of early '60s hits on Mercury would often show up on compilation releases. This is one of the few compilation releases to feature the original recordings of his Mercury material.

1. Ahab the Arab; 1962
2. Butch Babarian; 1963 (CD bonus)
3. Funny Man; 1963
4. Harry the Hairy Ape; 1963
5. Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills; 1961
6. My Dad; 1983
7. Santa Claus Is Watching You; 1962 (CD bonus)
8. Speed Ball; 1963
9. One More Last Chance; 1981 (CD bonus)
10. Furthermore; 1962
11. Shriner's Convention; 1980