Ray Stevens: Nostalgia Valley, Part 44...

In this installments of the Nostalgia Valley we take a look at the connection between Ray Stevens and the late Andy Williams. As many people familiar with this blog are aware, Andy played a pivotal role in the ultimate success of Ray Stevens. A lot of media stories report on the fact that Ray hosted a summer 1970 series for Andy on NBC-TV...I've written about this as well. Prior to the deal being made, Ray joined Barnaby Records. If it weren't for this event in Ray's professional life who knows how the rest of the decade would've played out.

Barnaby was owned by Andy Williams and it was a label that was home to Ray for six years, 1970-1976. His last single releases for the label occurred early in 1976...later on that year Ray moved to the Warner Brothers label. Barnaby went through a series of distribution entities, for domestic and international releases, during the time Ray was on the label: CBS, MGM, Janus, GRT. Another Ray Stevens connection to Andy Williams the general public is most certainly not aware of is the fact that Ray's manager for the longest of time was Andy's brother, Don.

The facts are simple: You simply can't write about Ray Stevens or talk about Ray's career at any great detail and not include Andy's involvement somewhere.  



In the video embed above, a clip from 1969, you'll see Ray, Andy, Danny Thomas, Jimmy and Olive Osmond perform "Along Came Jones". The single was Ray's current hit at the time.