Ray Stevens sings about Mr. President!!

Good Wednesday morning...the much anticipated new music video from Ray Stevens hit the internet today and it's gotten over a thousand views so far. "Mr. President - Mr. President" is one of the songs from his current Spirit of '76 CD and it's a song that he previewed during his C-PAC performance earlier in the year. When I heard the song for the first time during his C-PAC appearance I felt that it should become a single/video. The reason I felt that way is because the song's very funny and I think it's timely. The President, on his own, has painted himself into a corner. Given how rigid his far left ideology is and how it's played a big factor in his decision making it's useless for him to "try" and portray himself as a centrist President. If he tries to he'll only look like a phony and a fraud but somehow I think he'll forgo that inevitable conclusion and attempt to deceive the electorate once again in 2012. This Ray Stevens song goes a long way at poking fun at Obama's image...an image that the President himself created with his attitude and demeanor toward his role as the President. In other words the President has his priorities mixed up as he continues to show little respect for America's values and traditions. This is a very funny song in my opinion and it should become another big hit on the internet and reach more than half a million people during the latter half of 2011.

Ray Stevens In Concert...

Hello all...as a reminder...Ray Stevens will be out on the concert trail for several dates starting in October 2011. He'll get things started with an upcoming concert at the Alabama Theatre in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The show will be on Saturday October 8th at 7pm and all of the information can be found by clicking the theatre's link in the previous sentence. He'll close out October by appearing at the Country Tonite Theatre in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It'll be this concert, which takes place on Friday October 21st, that Ray will do two shows. There will be a 3pm show and an 8pm show. Ray will then do three shows in November. The first one will take place in Biloxi, Mississippi on November 19th at the Imperial Palace Resort Spa. This show will start at 8pm and it'll be in what the venue calls Studio A on the second floor (for those familiar with the venue!). Ray will then be appearing in Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada on November 28th and 29th at the Scotiabank Convention Center. He's appearing during what the venue is billing as a Winter Festival of Lights and you can read all about it here. As you'll see, the venue's web-site has him paired up with Lorrie Morgan but there's no indication of which artist will perform first or if Lorrie appears just on the 28th or if Ray only appears on the 29th. It indicates that the November 28th appearance will be at 2pm while the November 29th appearance will be at 7pm. Ray's web-page states that he'll appear at this venue on both days so it's safe to say that Lorrie will also be appearing on those two days as well. Once you visit the Scotiabank Convention Centre's web-page with the link I provided you'll be able to examine the venue's site and call for information. Lastly, in February 2012, Ray will be appearing at the Peabody Auditorium in Daytona Beach, Florida. The exact date is February 21, 2012 and the show starts at 7pm. This venue is the only one to feature a press release that promotes his current success with political on-line music videos. You can buy tickets well in advance at their web-site. Meanwhile, according to a tweet posted on his Twitter page, Ray will soon be releasing a brand new on-line music video for "Mr. President - Mr. President", a song from his current Spirit of '76 CD. A lot of us have been hoping for a music video of this particular song and I can't wait to see it once it gets uploaded in the not too distant future.

Ray Stevens and those Green Jobs...

As global warming and the goal of "green jobs" continues to prove to be just a glorified dream of the far left and the rabid environmentalists. Last year Ray Stevens issued a music video addressing the global warming silliness. The video contains a lot of sight gags and so if you can't read the news crawl at the bottom of the screen due to the size of the embedded video you should watch it on You Tube at it's full size. The video, as mentioned, was released in June 2010 and it's a very funny story. The song also points out that there's nothing wrong with the people who are skeptical about global warming and all this green energy stuff. The trend lately is to accuse those who question global warming as being anti-environment and anti-planet.



Notice how similar that is with the current American Jobs Bill? Obama wants to blame Congress and those who oppose the huge sum of Government spending as being anti-worker. Even today he's demanding that Congress pass his jobs bill without delay...words we all heard during the Obama Care debate. Oops, that's right, there wasn't much of a debate...the Democrats rammed it through Congress. Now that the Republicans control the House it's clear that Obama's increasing annoyance with the process will be his main talking point going forward. I assume he's realizing everything isn't so rosy when his party doesn't control everything as they once did? It's the American way having debates in Congress instead of the quasi-dictatorial method that the President apparently prefers. Considering he likes to try and bully Congress and issue executive orders on everything that he knows wouldn't pass Congress the traditional way it's not very difficult for his critics to accuse him of attempting to turn America into any one of the socialist nations in Europe.

This brings us to the green jobs factory known as Solyndra. The breaking news is still fluid over what the White House or what Obama's underlings knew when the company received half a billion of our money. The company was refused a Federal loan in 2005 but it received the loan under the Obama Administration. Video of Obama visiting the plant in 2010 and gushing over the plant's goals is all over the internet. The bottom line is more than $500 million of tax payer money was wasted on this company. The big questions include whether the President was acting on political whim and attaching personal feelings toward a company that he authorized a tax payer loan to in spite of any warning signs that the company was headed for bankruptcy. Some say the President will blame the company for providing false information to them prior to the loan approval...time will tell what happens, though.

"The Solar Powered Song" was not issued as a single/music video by Ray Stevens but it's a very funny song from his 2010 album, We The People. Here's a link to the Mp3 at Amazon's store...

Solar Powered Song

Revisiting Ray Stevens, Part 12...

Continuing on with the patriotic/military slant for today's blog entries I thought it would be nice to put three Ray Stevens CD's on display. As mentioned in an earlier blog entry Osama Yo' Mama: The Album was released early in 2002. The exact date was February 12, 2002. The song, "Osama Yo' Mama", reached the Country singles charts in December 2001, peaking in the Country Top-50 based pretty much on the airplay it got on morning radio programs where playlists are a little bit looser. It also hit the Country Single Sales list in December as well as the Hot 100 Single Sales list. It made it's debut on the country singles chart during the last week of 2001. Based upon sales of the "Osama Yo' Mama" / "United We Stand" CD single it remained charted on the Hot 100 Single Sales list for more than 15 weeks (peaking in the Top-10) while on the Country Single Sales list it remained charted for more than 30 weeks (peaking at #1). The music video of the song came along in early 2002 and lastly, the full-length CD in February 2002. The sales of the CD single, as mentioned in a previous blog entry, enabled it to be named the fifth most popular selling country song of 2002. As noted previously, all of this success was accomplished with little to no significant airplay on country or pop radio. The album which Curb Records issued in February 2002 consisted of 10 recordings. The unique aspect of the CD is that 7 of the 10 tracks had previously appeared on an exclusive CD that Ray released in 2000. I say exclusive because it was only available for purchase through his web-site and as a result the general audience was unaware of it's existence. That CD, Ear Candy, is listed in his discography at his web-site but it's no longer available for purchase at his web-site store. The tracks from Ear Candy that didn't make an appearance on Osama Yo' Mama: The Album were "King of Christmas", "The Dog Song", and "No Lawyers in Heaven". "The King of Christmas" and "The Dog Song" would later make an appearance on the more widely distributed Box Set in 2005 but "No Lawyers In Heaven" has never made an appearance beyond it's debut on the 2000 Ear Candy release. The song was written by two legendary writers: Paul Craft and Billy Edd Wheeler. In Bluegrass circles the song became a big #1 hit for the artist, Charlie Sizemore, during this past summer. It's his version that gets airplay on the local classic country radio station in my area. It was funny, though, because I knew of this song from Ray's recording of it 11 years ago but some people out there believed it to be a brand new song.

Osama Yo' Mama: The Album track list:

1. Osama Yo' Mama (2001; music video available)
2. Hang Up and Drive (2000)
3. Safe At Home (2000)
4. Freudian Slip**
5. Deerslayer (2000)
6. Bon Temps Roulette (2000)
7. The Hustler (2000)
8. The Lady on the Radio (2000)
9. Gone For Good (2000)
10. United We Stand (2001)

"Freudian Slip" made it's debut on this 2002 CD. However, I'm not sure when it was actually recorded. It could've been recorded in 2000 for the Ear Candy CD but cut out at the last minute but it also could've been recorded in 2001 prior to 9/11. It has a 2001 copyright date but that can be misleading due to the fact that "The Lady on the Radio", which appeared on the 2000 CD, shows a 2002 copyright date within the credits of the 2002 CD. A sequel to "Osama Yo' Mama" appeared in 2003, "Hello Mama". This song was available as a single only and a music video came along the same year.

In spite of the success Ray was having in 2001, 2002, and into 2003 it would take the release of a 2009 music video and this 2010 CD before a national audience took notice once again. In the wake of this CD's release much of the comments from music listeners and music critics alike was that this was Ray's first release in many years and in some articles the writers made it sound as if Ray hadn't put out anything since his home video projects in the early '90s. Since those projects were sold using TV commercials that aired nationally chances are that was the last time they heard of anything new from Ray Stevens!? That's just a theory, though. In previous blog entries I've deliberately highlighted the projects that Ray released between 1996 and 2008. Why? Well, it's because of the overwhelming belief by some that Ray was in retirement before "We The People" came along in 2009. The "We The People" music video became an enormous viral hit on You Tube. It was released in early December 2009 and by February 2010 it had surpassed 2,000,000 on-line views. The song, all about opposing Obama Care and the damaging effects it'll have on the country's medical programs, enabled Ray to become known as a political entertainer. The viral success of the music video led to the ultimate release of this CD in the spring of 2010. The We The People CD features 22 songs and it includes a bonus DVD of 4 music videos. Since 2010 was a mid-term election year the music and the videos from this collection resonated with a segment of the country and suddenly Ray Stevens found himself participating in Tea Party functions both large and small performing the political songs that people discovered on You Tube. "We The People", "Caribou Barbie", "Throw the Bums Out!", "Come to the USA", and "The Global Warming Song" are just four of the music video releases on You Tube connected to this 22 song CD. "Thank You", Ray's patriotic song and video from 2004, was placed on this 2010 collection because it fit the mood of the CD and it had the potential to reach an entirely new audience the second time around thanks to You Tube. "Thank You", for instance, is one of the songs Ray released in 2004 which was during that point in time, 1996-2009, in which music critics and many bloggers said he was in retirement! In fact, some critics used headlines suggesting that Ray came out of retirement to tackle the political issues of the day. That's how out of touch they were! The CD would reach the Top-60 on the Country album chart but would go on to reach the Top-10 on the Comedy Album chart. All of the commercial success and popularity of this collection is tied to his music video successes on You Tube which advertised the music to millions of people. The collection was in the Top-10 on Amazon's various top sellers rankings for several months.

We The People track list:

1. We The People (music video available)
2. Caribou Barbie (music video available)
3. Stand Up
4. Three Fractured Factions
5. Dear Andy Griffith
6. The Global Warming Song (music video available)
7. Let's Roll
8. Solar Powered Song
9. Fly Over Country
10. We Are the Government
11. The Fallen Ones
12. Come to the U.S.A. (music video available)
13. If 10% Is Good Enough For Jesus
14. Kings and Queens
15. Obama Nation
16. Throw the Bums Out! (music video available)
17. Sucking Sound
18. Safe at Home
19. Thank You (music video available)
20. Pledge of Allegiance/Star Spangled Banner
21. Mr. Businessman (live version)
22. Midnight in Baghdad

DVD videos:

1. We The People
2. Thank You
3. Caribou Barbie
4. Throw the Bums Out!

This particular collection is the current release from Ray Stevens. It was initially issued in the spring of 2011 with limited availability. The collection wasn't released to wider distribution until the summer of 2011. It was in February 2011 that Ray issued the music video, "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore", and he embarked on a mostly talk radio tour. He visited several morning shows on FM radio, too. The song/music video spoofed the TSA and the invasive security procedures taking place at airports. The song dealt with a topical issue that was all over the news for a period of several weeks. To date the music video's gotten over 200,000 on-line views. In my opinion this is due to the fact that the topic of the TSA and the idea of spoofing the airport security procedures requires some sort of personal experience from the video watcher in order to fully enjoy the song. There's a large segment of the population that doesn't fly and therefore they have no experience with airports and so a song about airport security isn't going to connect with that part of the population no matter how funny the song and music video are. Still, it's a top notch performance from Ray and his music video co-stars. Upon the release of the Spirit of '76 CD it was discovered that the previously released "God Save Arizona" is among the track list. This bit of information technically makes the song the lead-off single while "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore" becomes the second release from the collection. "God Save Arizona" had only been available as a single and an on-line music video prior to it's inclusion on this CD. That particular song/music video deals with the Federal lawsuit between the United States and Arizona over illegal immigration. The video's gotten over 800,000 on-line views. After "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore", Ray released the "Obama Budget Plan". This music video, to date, has 671,155 on-line views. The video, obviously, saw a dramatic increase of views during the peak of the debt ceiling debate several weeks ago. It was just above 500,000 views in mid August and now it's approaching 700,000 in less than a month's time. This CD didn't reach the national charts largely due to the limited advertising that it received. Who knows what 2012 holds in store, though. It being an election year we may see further publicity arise from this collection. There are a couple of songs on here that will fit the election season next year.

Spirit of '76 track list:

1. The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore (music video available)
2. Mr. President - Mr. President
3. God Save Arizona (music video available)
4. Cap'n Trade the Pirate
5. My Uncle Sam
6. November Storm
7. Mi Casa Su Casa
8. Grandpa Voted Democrat
9. Obama Budget Plan (music video available)
10. News Machine
11. New Normal

Revisiting Ray Stevens, Part 11...

It's an early Sunday morning...September 11, 2011...it's around 2:30am. I've always been somewhat of a night-owl. Having a third shift job through the week causes me to be wide awake during the overnight hours on the weekends. Today marks the 10th anniversary of 9/11 as everyone with any ounce of a brain should know. Yesterday I wrote a blog about Ray's song, music video, and CD lampooning Osama bin Laden. Earlier in the year bin Laden was captured and killed...but that obviously didn't mean that the country should go back to a September 10, 2001 mindset and for the most part it hasn't. Some on the far left of the political spectrum, judging by blog blurbs that I read and things I heard from liberals on talk shows, some of them actually felt like since bin Laden was captured and killed that the military should pack up and leave that region and put "all of this" behind us and focus on other things. Today, on the anniversary of 9/11, I wonder if those people will feel that same way or will they be overcome by the emotional displays that'll be upcoming throughout today and realize that 9/11 isn't just something that people can "get over" due to bin Laden's death. As some of the far left should know even those who didn't have family members or friends on those planes or in those buildings on 9/11 it still left an impact on people all across the country. As was stated by many journalists, reporters, bloggers, and commentators: September 11, 2001 will be a date that'll be remembered forever along side December 7, 1941 and July 4, 1776.

Ray Stevens and 9/11...

It was nice seeing some web sites out there make mention of the Ray Stevens comedy song from 2002 skewering bin Laden titled "Osama Yo' Mama". A couple web sites you could tell begrudgingly made mention of it...almost apologetically...but yet it was nice seeing some web sites rightfully cite the importance of Ray's single during that time period. I've read commentary over the last 10 years regarding Ray's song. Some people understand the song and they also understand that performing comical songs is what the general public is most familiar with when it comes to Ray Stevens. Given this reputation it shouldn't have been no surprise that he'd come up with a song that captured the mood of many people while at the same time dressing it up in a comical delivery. Other artists put out patriotic songs and much in the same way Ray Stevens kept with his reputation the same held true for other artists, too. Charlie Daniels, for example, put out a song called "This Ain't No Rag It's a Flag". The song was right on and it was the kind of in your face commentary that Charlie is known for in a number of other songs.

Hank Williams, Jr., Toby Keith, Darryl Worley, Aaron Tippin, Clint Black, and Alan Jackson all contributed material centering on the military and a post 9/11 world in the months and years following September 11, 2001.

Some of the songs that were hot in late 2001 and into 2003 were "Have You Forgotten?", "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue", "Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Flies", "American Soldier", "America Will Survive", "Iraq and Roll", and of course "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?". Clint Black's "Iraq and Roll" is pronounced "I Rock and Roll" when you hear it but it was spelled as such for obvious reasons. That song, Charlie's "This Ain't No Rag It's a Flag", and Ray's "Osama Yo' Mama" must have hit too close for comfort due to the fact that all three songs, while popular with record buyers, weren't well received on radio.

Ray's single, as a matter of fact, ranked #5 for all of 2002 based on it's sales. It was on the Country Singles sales chart for nearly a year...while the song made it to the country Top-50 (based on airplay). The Country Sales chart ranked commercial singles that were selling in walk-in stores and in on-line stores. CD single sales and digital download sales data were combined. Later on this chart was discontinued as the CD single gave way to the digital download and different weekly charts were created to cater to the digital age.

It's a perfect example of a single that's popular with the public and it's sales prove this fact but radio failed to embrace it. Charlie's single, not labeled as a "novelty song", did manage to reach the lower portion of the country airplay Top-40. This was due to the spotty acceptance it got from some of the D.J's and partially due to the publicity it got when Charlie refused to appear at a CMT gala where this song was banned from being performed (in spite of being one of the top selling singles in country music at the time!). The fact that the gala where this song was banned from being performed was the Country Freedom Concert is even more ironic. Research shows the song was recorded in October 2001 and released in early November. Clint Black's "I Raq and Roll" was issued in 2003 and reached the country Top-50 based upon airplay. It was a single-only release, too.

"Osama Yo' Mama", on the other hand, came along late in 2001 as well and was first available as a CD single with Curb releasing it under the name Osama Yo' Mama: The Single. It's b-side was "United We Stand". The b-side was originally a huge hit single in 1970 by the group Brotherhood of Man. Ray's version is outstanding...if one didn't know the details behind Ray's recording you might think it was recorded in the '70s based on it's arrangement/sound...that's how well Ray re-captured the song's mood. Each song would eventually be released again by Curb Records on the full-length CD titled Osama Yo' Mama: The Album. The CD single and the full-length CD featured the same art work and that's why the label used "The Single" and "The Album" when they issued them to record stores. The "Osama Yo' Mama" music video came along early in 2002. The full-length CD reached the Top-30 on the Country Album chart...an incredible accomplishment considering it's title track was not heard much on country radio.

The 2002 music video's been seen by more than a million people on You Tube since it's 2009 upload. The number of on-line views for the video are 1,171,304!

Enjoy the Ray Stevens video...and remember 9/11 and it's impact on the nation...

Revisiting Ray Stevens, Part 10...

Labor Day Monday! Ray hasn't recorded too many songs that could be classified in the working man sub-genre of country music but he's recorded a few songs that tie in with it. I use the phrase "working man" because that's the most often used description even though everyone knows women work, too. Although Ray hasn't did too many working men songs I'd qualify some of the songs he's done about the country's economy part of that genre because the overall economy has to do with money, income, taxation, debt, and deficits...and there's not too many people who work for nothing and so songs about working and songs about the economy sometimes go hand in hand.

The song I always make reference to right away is "Working for the Japanese", a song Ray recorded in 1991. I reference this song because it's the first one he did specifically about the nation's economy and it's trading practices. The song, quite amusing and satiric, actually created some controversy among advertisers afraid that the song would offend Japanese businesses from sponsoring American radio programs. The song is harmless, actually, but if you're highly emotional and prone to hyper-sensitivity over practically anything then you may have issues with the song. That same year Ray recorded "Juanita and the Kids" which skewered the I.R.S. and had fun with the decades long stormy relationship between the I.R.S. and the working class. In the song the I.R.S. is auditing Ray and it's revealed who makes up his family...much to the embarrassment and disgust of the Government workers (as seen in the music video).

Two years later, in 1993, Ray recorded "If 10% Is Good Enough For Jesus". This particular recording takes aim at the I.R.S. again by wondering why Uncle Sam can't just settle for 10% and leave everyone alone. It originally appeared on the CD titled Classic Ray Stevens which I feel a lot of people over-looked given it's unusual title. A lot of people, even today, when they see it listed on Amazon or Itunes assume that the CD is filled with previously recorded songs. The fact is all 10 songs were brand new at the time. The CD's title was a reference to the classical music design on the CD's cover.

Meanwhile, "If 10% Is Good Enough For Jesus" was re-recorded by Ray in 2008 and released as an Mp3 single. The re-recorded song would appear on Ray's 2010 CD, We The People. Around this same time Ray recorded "Sucking Sound" which spoofed the political climate and Ross Perot specifically. Originally available on the CD, Hurricane, the song would end up being among the 22 songs on 2010's We The People. You almost get the feeling that slowly but surely Ray was gravitating toward political humor by the middle of last decade but he wouldn't completely submerge himself in it until 2009's music video release of "We The People".

The latest on-line numbers for the "Obama Budget Plan" music video are 642,806. The so-called big speech from the President is suppose to occur on September 8th...this coming Thursday...where he unveils what some call a jobs plan. Obviously such a speech taking place in September 2011 means that all of his plans and policies of the last 2 and a half years never worked. We all knew this but there are a lot of people who would have you believe otherwise. Now he's going to put on a show on September 8th and all of us feel that he's going to blame Congress and but the blame on a lot of other people...curiously leaving himself out of the equation except when it comes to casting himself as the mediator-in-chief and creating a storyline where Congress is to blame for everything while he's sat helpless watching it from the sidelines. Without the speech having aired that's my theory of how everything will be spun.

There are a lot of other theories as to what he'll say on the 8th and how he'll attempt to emotionally manipulate practically any scenario and recite sob stories from a sob family from sobville, U.S.A. He's not above using people's misfortunes to bolster his own potential political fortunes...he's did such things before by using children and using the disabled to emotionally manipulate an outcome or to serve as human props on stage while he's spewing venom against who he sees as "filthy rich and greedy". So, frankly, this September speech from Obama isn't going to change people's opinions or change people's feelings or their mood. He'd have to be delusional to think otherwise...and maybe he is?!? I believe he feels that people are going to just overlook all of the laws and policies that he's set in place (how anyone can overlook Obama Care is beyond me!) but nevertheless he's going to hope that people set aside all of that which is why he's always ridiculing those who challenge the things he's said or done.

He wants people to think everybody who disagrees with his views are from another planet or aren't living in reality. The truth is Obama's not living in reality and I feel he wants people to shrug off the realities of unemployment and high anxieties and simply vote for him again on the promise that "we just need more time to get things done". Yeah...he needs more time alright...more time to damage the country with his radical, economically destructive policies.

Ray Stevens in September...

In this first blog entry of September it's with wonderful elation that I share three Ray Stevens music videos with you all. These music videos were put together by Ray back in 2000 but they hadn't been officially uploaded onto You Tube until a few days ago. The upload dates show May 25, 2011 but these were not available for viewing back then or I would've made mention of them at the time. "Virgil and the Moonshot" and "Gitarzan" were uploaded by Ray in May. Perhaps the three music videos located below were intended for the same release date but at the last minute were put on hold. Whatever the story is behind why these three videos have an upload date of a few months ago when they weren't available for viewing until a few days ago will probably remain a mystery...but enjoy them nonetheless...

First up is 2002's "Hello Mama", the sequel to "Osama Yo' Mama". The sequel was released as a promo single only and was often available on eBay. The music video came along in 2003. Musically it carries the exact same melody as "Osama Yo' Mama" but it differs greatly with the lyrics. In the sequel we get to hear Ray as bin Laden and George W. Bush but, of course, we get to hear Ray as Mama...and the music video is hilarious.

The second music video is "Freddie Feelgood and His Funky Little Five Piece Band". The song originally was released as a single in 1966! Ray did this music video decades later in 2000 on a home video titled Funniest Video Characters. This is the song where Ray gets to show off his scat-singing prowess by vocally mimicking a range of instruments.

The third music video is "Juanita and the Kids", also from his 2000 home video. The song was originally recorded by Ray in 1991 so it wasn't decades old by the time a music video came along. The video is wickedly funny. The song is all about the IRS.







In the obscure trivia department: 2011 marks the 40th anniversary of Ray's first Grammy win. In early 1971 he won for "Everything Is Beautiful". He won in the Best Male Pop Vocal category. The song was nominated in four other categories for Ray and in one category for Jake Hess. So, in total, the song received 6 nominations and won in 2 of the categories. As mentioned, Ray won for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance while Jake Hess won for Best Sacred Performance. A year earlier Ray's "Gitarzan" was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. "Love Lifted Me" was nominated in 1973 in the Best Inspirational category while in 1976 he received 2 nominations for "Misty" (winning the Best Arrangement category). Ray would receive 2 more nominations in the years that followed. A 1980 nomination for Best Comedy Recording for "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow" and a 1988 nomination in the same category for "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?". In total Ray had 11 nominations and 2 wins.

A video clip that goes back to 1970, right around that "Everything Is Beautiful" era, appeared on You Tube a few days ago. It's a video of Ray Stevens and Tom Jones singing a medley of Ray Charles songs. It's a classic...showing Ray and Tom bantering and trading verses.