January 10, 2010

Ray Stevens: The Ballad Side

In this blog entry I want to focus on the ballad side of Ray Stevens. I've skimmed through several message boards and blog sites on and off today pertaining to ObamaCare and some blogs and some message boards are pro-ObamaCare. The "We The People" song/music video from Ray Stevens isn't exactly on that crowd's Top-5 to put it mildly.

I suppose it comes with the territory that a singer, namely Ray Stevens, all of the sudden emerges from out of nowhere in the eyes and minds of mainstream audiences and without fail the slings and arrows from critics come out...and all because a song that's clever and one that mocks ObamaCare, "We The People", has received a lot of positive reviews and nearly two million plays on You Tube. Is it just this zany idea that a policy, or in this case, a bill, generated by the Democrats is not to be questioned or mocked? If that's the case, when did that side of the aisle become so sensitive? I mean, for eight years the opposition pushed, played-up, and passed along every nasty remark and joke about George W. Bush you could imagine but now that criticism over the health care bill, and specifically Obama himself, has struck a nerve with some people outside the beltway via "We The People", the pro-health care overhaul supporters resort to the old tricks of name calling and marginalization.

In keeping this blog entry on topic and Ray Stevens oriented I've learned that some people actually have no idea that Ray Stevens has a serious side outside of "Everything Is Beautiful". When I learn of this sort of thing I think to myself how short-sighted some might be. I'm thinking: doesn't it ever occur to some people that songs are needed to fill out an album...and if they know Ray sang a serious song then shouldn't that cause a person to come to the conclusion that, hey, maybe Ray's recorded an album's worth of serious songs? Readers of this blog know how serious Ray can be...and people who see him being silly in music videos would perhaps not know what to make of this same artist crooning love ballads. So, the point is, Ray's immense talents are largely under-rated and over-looked because of public perception. As I touched upon in a blog or two ago, Ray is much more of a singles than albums artist. He's sold much more singles than albums but the downside to this is the buying public are usually only going to be familiar with what's on a single...and with radio, at one time, preferring comical songs from Ray that's what the radio listeners were hearing the most.

I'd suggest that those out there seek out a lot of Ray's CD's and digital albums that are available for purchase. I'd love it if more people become informed and educated about Ray Stevens and his career...his 50+ year career I should say...and discover how diverse and versatile he is. It's easy for people across the internet who don't really know who Ray Stevens is to write him off as a novelty singer and suggest he isn't talented. One of Ray's strengths, among several, is the fact that he can sing. Typically you can't say that about a lot of artists who put out comical or off-beat songs. Traditionally, a novelty song or a comical song was released by a singer or a group of singers that couldn't sing in any serious way but audiences would listen to intentionally silly or goofy lyrics by acts who couldn't compete with the legitimate singers. Ray Stevens, on the other hand, demonstrated that he could croon and sing love ballads with the best of them...but it's the comical songs that became the most commercially successful. By no means did comical songs run his career in the '50s, '60s, '70s, or part of the '80s. You'd be surprised by how very little comedy songs Ray recorded prior to 1984. He recorded something like 45 comical recordings during that time frame...which is a relatively small number made even smaller because most of those recordings remained as album songs and were not issued as singles but since 1984 he's devoted himself primarily to comedy songs.

I'll list the comedy/novelty songs Ray recorded prior to 1984. I'll mark an asterisk next to a commercial single.

1. Rang Tang Ding Dong; 1957*
2. Sgt. Preston of the Yukon; 1960*
3. Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills; 1961*
4. Ahab the Arab; 1962*
5. Saturday Night at the Movies; 1962
6. Popeye and Olive Oil; 1962
7. The Rockin' Boppin' Waltz; 1962
8. PFC Rhythm and Blues Jones; 1962
9. Scratch My Back; 1962
10. The Rock and Roll Show; 1962
11. Julius Played The Trumpet; 1962
12. A Hermit Named Dave; 1962
13. Harry the Hairy Ape; 1963*
14. The Weekend; 1963
15. The Deodorant Song; 1963
16. The Great Sebastian; 1963
17. Speed Ball; 1963*
18. Soap Opera; 1963
19. Santa Claus Is Watching You; 1963*
20. Butch Babarian; 1963*
21. Bubble Gum The Bubble Dancer; 1964*
22. Laughing Over My Grave; 1964
23. Rockin' Teenage Mummies; 1965*
24. Mr Baker the Undertaker; 1965*
25. Old English Surfer; 1965
26. Freddie Feelgood; 1966*
27. Bagpipes, That's My Bag; 1966
28. Gitarzan; 1969*
29. Yakety Yak; 1969
30. Along Came Jones; 1969*
31. Mr. Custer; 1969
32. Sir Thanks-a-Lot; 1969
33. Little Egypt; 1969
34. Alley Oop; 1969
35. Bridget the Midget the Queen of the Blues; 1970*
36. The Streak; 1974*
37. Smith and Jones; 1974
38. The Moonlight Special; 1974*
39. Heart Transplant; 1974
40. In The Mood; 1976*
41. Classical Cluck; 1976
42. I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow; 1979*
43. Shriner's Convention; 1980*
44. The Last Laugh; 1980
45. Rita's Letter; 1980
46. Coin Machine; 1980
47. The Dooright Family; 1980
48. You're Never Goin' To Tampa With Me; 1980
49. The Watch Song; 1980
50. Hey There; 1980*
51. Put It In Your Ear; 1980

Yes, I realize that makes 51 songs...but as I was pointing out, 51 is a relatively small number when you have a time-frame that's over 20 years: 1957-1980. Six studio albums of non-comical work could add up to nearly 70 songs altogether when you consider that albums had 11 or 12 songs per release. So, the fact is, Ray put out a lot more serious material than people realize during his early years. After 1984 and his decision to become a comical artist full-time he's recorded hundreds of comedy songs since then...but his serious work shouldn't be over-looked since it makes up a good percentage of his 1960's and 1970's output.

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