January 4, 2010

Ray Stevens: MCA Retrospective...sort of...

Released in 1993 by MCA Records, this collection, appropriately titled Collection is a collection of songs by Ray Stevens. It's kind of like a retrospective, of sorts, from MCA seeing that it features a good number of recordings that Ray recorded at the label in the mid to late 1980's. There are 14 songs in total and 8 of them come from the MCA period. The material he recorded in 1986 isn't represented on this collection for whatever reason. They skipped that year and selected a couple songs from 1984 and 1985 plus a song each from 1987, 1988, and 1989. I'm surprised that "Surfin' USSR" was featured given how his 1988 album is woefully under-rated and the material never gets much attention on compilation releases such as this but this is a first.

1. The Streak; 1974
2. Shriner's Convention; 1980 {longer version}
3. Mississippi Squirrel Revival; 1984
4. Gitarzan; 1969
5. Ahab the Arab; 1969 recording
6. It's Me Again, Margaret; 1984
7. Santa Claus Is Watching You; 1985
8. The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone; 1985
9. Would Jesus Wear a Rolex; 1987
10. Freddie Feelgood And His Funky Little Five Piece Band; 1969
11. Surfin' U.S.S.R.; 1988
12. I Saw Elvis in a U.F.O.; 1989
13. The Haircut Song; 1985
14. Everything Is Beautiful; 1970

Those who have followed Ray's career for awhile and are familiar with the songs you'll know that nearly all of them are well over 3 minutes in length. A couple of them are over 5 minutes in length and so we're talking over half an hour and maybe even close to 45 minutes of listening pleasure with this Collection.

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