Ray Stevens Milestone Birthday...

Hello to all the Ray Stevens fans out there...and to those that stop by just to find out some information about the legend. Today is a pretty big day...a milestone birthday in the life of Ray Stevens as he reaches 80 (born January 24, 1939 in Clarkdale, Georgia). It may have been the late Chet Atkins that described Ray as the energizer bunny...I know that Chet is often quoted with calling Ray a genius...and I think it may have been Chet that also nicknamed Ray the energizer bunny. It's long been a pretty accurate nickname...whether or not it was Chet or somebody else that decided to bestow that title upon Ray Stevens.

Given the descriptive nickname of 'energizer bunny' it's accuracy can be backed up by the simple fact that Ray continues to perform and record to this day...and on this day he reaches 80. Last year his showroom in West Nashville, CabaRay, had it's grand opening. The showroom opened it's doors to the public in January of 2018 and so it's been in operation for a year. Ray began hosting a television series called Ray Stevens' Nashville in November of 2015 which was later rebranded as CabaRay Nashville in June of 2017. The series mixes performances and conversation...with Ray's red piano serving as a substitute for a desk. It's a fast moving half hour series that's had a quirky broadcast schedule. It originally aired on RFD-TV for a season (26 episodes) and then it moved into local PBS syndication in January 2017. The series continues to air in local PBS syndication but last month it marked a return to the RFD-TV airwaves. The cable channel is catching up on episodes that have been airing in local PBS syndication and I'm sure production on additional episodes will get underway as we move deeper into 2019. In March the CabaRay will begin the 2019 season of concerts. Now then...every career begins somewhere and if you're a long time fan of Ray Stevens (as I happen to be) then you should already be well aware of "Silver Bracelet" from 1957. The single was issued on the Prep label, a subsidiary of Capitol Records, and it's the first single released on Ray Stevens...and at the time he happened to be 18 years old...and as his age at that time clearly shows he literally grew up in the music industry. He had single releases on Capitol and NRC over the next several years (1959-1960) and then he joined the Mercury label in 1961. It is at Mercury that the legend of Ray Stevens truly starts to form...establishing himself midway through the decade as one of the top session musicians, music arrangers, and writers on Music Row.

The 1962 hit, "Ahab the Arab", made Ray Stevens a star overnight...and it was followed by a series of novelty and love ballad releases on Mercury throughout 1962-1963 and into 1964. A unique contract arrangement allowed him to record and release music on the Mercury label while working as a session musician/producer/arranger for Monument Records. This is why his single releases for Mercury lasted into 1965, even though his name appears on countless single releases as writer or producer or arranger on Monument releases by other artists during the same time period. Ray's first Monument recording didn't hit the market until late in 1965. Although statistics show that his biggest hit for Monument was the million selling hit, "Gitarzan", in 1969...chart statistics belie Ray's true popularity. It's always seemed as if Ray pays more attention to the song, it's arrangement, the production in general...and he pays less attention to current trends or sure-fire radio material. You can argue that's the mark of a true artist when you do not allow popular trends, consumer whims, or radio consultants to influence everything you release.

Throughout the career of Ray Stevens there have been many single releases and album releases...and later on VHS and DVD releases...and even more later on the explosion of on-line music video content and the immediate reaction on social media sites. His music's been witness to practically every media imaginable. He won two Grammy awards: Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 1970 for "Everything is Beautiful" and Best Musical Arrangement in 1975 for "Misty". The readers of Music City News magazine named Ray their Comedian of the Year for 9 consecutive years (1986-1994) in the annual fan voted awards ceremony.

Ray lent his time and talents to the various awards shows presented by Music City News magazine throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. There was a time when Ray often hosted or co-hosted those very awards telecasts...usually he could be seen hosting or co-hosting the secondary awards program, Music City News Songwriters Awards. In that series of programs the focus was, of course, on the songwriters of the top country hits of a given year. In some cases where the artist happened to be the writer they'd attend the gala but most of the time the lead writer of a song (if it happened to be a collaborative effort) would perform the song on the telecast or the hosts would perform the songs up for nomination. In rare moments the recording artist that had a hit with a nominated song would appear and perform it...and my guess is this was done because either the writer or writers didn't want to perform their song on national television (stage fright) or the writer felt their voice wasn't good enough as the professional singer. One of Ray's recordings received a Top Comedy award at the Music City News Songwriters Awards in 1986...the 1984 recording of "Mississippi Squirrel Revival". The song's writers (Buddy Kalb and his wife, Carlene) received the plaque but Ray performed it on the telecast. The reason it picked up an honor in 1986 is because the single's release happened late in 1984 but it didn't become an immediate hit. It finally began to hit early in 1985 and by the time it reached it's Top-20 peak position on the Billboard Country chart it wasn't eligible, as far as I know, for nomination in the 1985 Songwriters Awards and so to the best of my knowledge that's why a song appearing on a 1984 album, which became a hit single in 1985, received an award in 1986.

I remember one such awards telecast in 1991 where Ray performed the George Strait number one hit, "You Know Me Better Than That". On that particular broadcast Ray was co-host with Jimmy Dean and Kathy Baillie. The trio made the cover of Music City News in 1991.

What is the only Ray Stevens studio album on Barnaby Records that has not been issued on CD or Mp3 format? Consider that a pop quiz question. The answer? 1973's studio album, Losin' Streak. That album, ironically enough, was released several months before a certain single in the spring of 1974 which captured a national fad at the peak of it's popularity. "The Streak" (a novelty song dealing with running around in the nude) streaked up the Hot 100 pop chart and much like a streaker in a mad dash "The Streak" hit the top of the Hot 100 in less than a month's time. The single reportedly sold in excess of five million copies worldwide. It was a massively popular song in the spring and early summer of 1974 all over the world pretty much. It hit the top spot on the pop chart for four weeks and in other charts internationally it hit the Top-10...on the country music chart it reached the Top-5. A novelty single in the truest sense of the word but in spite of all of it's success it was shut out come awards time regardless of it easily being the top selling single of the year. It was such a strong selling single in the United Kingdom that by the time the 1970's were coming to an end the music press over there named it the best selling novelty song of the decade.  

A couple of days ago an interview of Ray Stevens conducted by Music Row magazine appeared on-line. I've not been having my computer on too much this week because of the unpredictable weather system that's passing through this area and usually I keep my computer shut down until storms pass or the weather generally gets better. Anyway...when I got onto the internet this morning and I discovered an interview posted January 22nd. You can read that article and interview by clicking HERE. Along the way you'll find out some breaking news concerning new music...but there isn't a time-line on when anything is to emerge. Ray specifically points out that he isn't going to space the projects out and that they'll all be released at the same time. I won't go into any further details here...you all will need to click the link and read more. I'm excited knowing that there is to be new music on the way...and if you're like me then you can't wait to hear everything once it becomes available!! If we venture back to the 'energizer bunny' description once more did you all see the photo of Ray seated at a table, with drink in hand, in front of the green screen? He's working on a music video for an upcoming comedy song...the song's title is referenced to in the link I provided above.

I've been a fan of Ray Stevens ever since the mid 1980s. As some of you that have stopped by this fan created blog over the last 10 years should probably know by now the very first recording from Ray that I heard was "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" on a jukebox in a pizza place in a nearby town. I have long since obtained practically everything that's been released commercially on Ray Stevens in a variety of formats (vinyl, cassette, CD, and Mp3). When I discovered Ray's music I was not quite yet a teenager...but being a fan of comedy it just seemed like a natural progression of mine to gravitate toward Ray's music. I grew up listening to country music and so I'm very familiar with country comedy and Hee Haw and so when I heard somebody singing and being comical all at the same time that's what drove me to become a fan of Ray's. Later on I became much more detailed and had something of an uncontrollable appetite for seeking out everything I could find from Ray Stevens. I was fortunate enough to have a grandfather that didn't mind parting with some of his money anytime I spotted something by Ray Stevens sitting in the music section of K-Mart just begging for my ears to hear. After I grew up and got a job I made up for lost time and searched out his entire back catalog of vinyl albums.

I posted the collage seen above recently. When my brother and I went to Nashville last year, in addition to going to Ray's CabaRay showroom, we also visited the Country Music Hall of Fame. I had my brother take a photo of me in front of an exhibit of Ray Stevens items on display. Ray isn't a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame but he's a member of other Halls of Fame (Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame; Georgia Music Hall of Fame; Atlanta Music Hall of Fame; and the Christian Music Hall of Fame). Anyway...I had my brother take that photo...and then I remembered the photo of Ray standing in front of the exhibit and so I decided to create a collage featuring the exhibit. Late last year Ray Stevens received a Star on Nashville's Walk of Fame. I wrote several blog entries leading up to the event as well as on the day of the event. I feel it appropriate to close out this Ray Stevens 80th birthday blog entry with a photo from that special day in his career...

Ray Stevens 2018 Walk of Fame

Ray Stevens and the Yodel Champion...

In my random timeline retrospective of Ray Stevens I've chosen to re-visit the year 1964 solely on the fact that it represents an even-year anniversary...55 to be specific. The single release that usually gets spotlighted from 1964 is "Bubble Gum the Bubble Dancer"...and I recently wrote a blog entry all about that song and tied it in with the bubble gum sub-culture in pop music that was happening at the time. That single's B-side is "Laughing Over My Grave" and each song never appeared, originally, on any album. "Bubble Gum the Bubble Dancer" eventually appeared on a 1970 compilation album from Mercury Records titled The Best of Ray Stevens while it's B-side made obscure appearances on various artist compilations focusing on Halloween-type songs.

In the career of Ray Stevens there have been a wild assortment of novelty songs released as all of you are fully aware...with almost all of them appearing on various studio and compilation albums but there have always been quite a few single releases that were never featured on any studio album and have remained exclusive to the 45-RPM single. "Butch Babarian", also released in 1964, has a somewhat unique history. Well, it's not that unique given the time period we're talking about...but anyway it represents an example in which one of Ray's creations needed to be edited/shortened for airplay consideration. The first time that happened to Ray, as far as I know, is when "Ahab the Arab" was edited...removing the final verse...so that it's running time would be more acceptable on Top-40 radio stations in 1962. "Butch Babarian", like "Bubble Gum the Bubble Dancer", made it's debut on an album on 1970's The Best of Ray Stevens on Mercury Records. The B-side of "Butch Babarian" also features a recording that's never appeared elsewhere: "Don't Say Anything". 

"Butch Babarian" originally had a running time of 4 minutes, 3 seconds which by 1964's airplay standards was unheard of. The editing process eventually shaved the song down to just under 3 minutes which even then was rather lengthy for your typical pop song of the day. The song is about a fictional yodeler in the Alps and the incident that occurs while yodeling on top of a mountain. I was not familiar with the song title's inspiration and although the liner notes in The Best of Ray Stevens mentions the song's title being inspired by an advertisement for beer I never made the connection with what it's inspiration was. That 1970 album (in cassette format) came into my possession in the early 1990s but it wasn't until years later that it finally dawned on me that the name, Butch Babarian, was inspired by Busch Bavarian beer. Eventually I came across a YouTube video clip of a vintage commercial for the beer and it's opening jingle is nearly similar to the opening phrase heard on "Butch Babarian". The B-side, "Don't Say Anything", is a love ballad. 

One of the recurring habits of the early single releases on Ray Stevens is that the A-side was almost always a comedy/novelty performance and the B-side was a ballad. A video clip recently appeared on YouTube of "Don't Say Anything" and I hesitate to upload it because first of all it's not an official video clip from Ray but given that it's uploaded by somebody among the general public there's no guarantee that the clip will remain on-line. As I've mentioned in previous blog entries it's a pet peeve of  mine to go through some of my archived blog entries and see video embeds without the video available anymore and so I'll provide a LINK to the YouTube clip. 

There's something of an old saying that goes what's in a name? Well, during the promotional stage and the official release of "Butch Babarian" the song's title went through several spelling changes. A very rare acetate recording (also available on YouTube) has the song's title as Butch Barbarian. The acetate is described as being Part 1 but Part 2 isn't on YouTube because the one that uploaded the recording doesn't own it. Given that Part 1 is 3 minutes, 35 seconds it's hard to tell the length of Part 2. The song itself could've had a total running time of more than 6 minutes...but anyway...the acetate version of the song has mostly different lyrics than the commercial release and you can hear the acetate recording HERE. Those only familiar with the commercially released version of the song will no doubt get a thrill at hearing an alternate version of the song. One of the commercial singles has the song spelled Butch Bubarrian while it's spelling as "Butch Babarian" has become the most widely used on compilation albums.

Ray Stevens returns to RFD-TV...

Well, hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! I have a feeling you all have heard the news that Ray's two television programs have returned to the RFD-TV airwaves. I found out last weekend when the station aired episode three of Season Three (guest starring gospel artist Michael W. Smith). The cable channel had aired the first two episodes of Season Three in the middle part of December before abruptly removing both programs from their line-up. I speculated several reasons for it's sudden departure in one of my final blog entries of 2018 (the one I wrote on Christmas Day) but in that blog entry I kept an open mind and wondered if the cable channel would return either series, or both, to the line-up in 2019 and sure enough both Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville and Rayality TV made their return to the weekend prime-time line-up on RFD-TV last weekend (January 5th/January 6th) but I never made mention of this in my January 6th or January 8th blog posts because I wasn't too sure if either show had returned on a permanent basis or if it was another false alarm but it looks as if both programs will be part of the RFD-TV line-up for the foreseeable future given that I looked ahead to next weekend's schedule on their webpage and RFD has the fifth episode of Season Three (guest starring Rhonda Vincent) scheduled to air next Saturday night (January 19th)...and this will make three consecutive weekends that the cable channel will have aired the two programs...and so I'm cautiously optimistic that, as I mentioned, each show will be on the weekend line-up on RFD-TV for the foreseeable future with no abrupt removal. Last night's episode guest starred B.J. Thomas.

On January 10th several video clips were uploaded onto YouTube promoting Ray's return to the RFD-TV airwaves. One clip features Ray at the piano inside the CabaRay discussing each series and then there are several video clips that promote a specific episode of Rayality TV. The clip-filled Rayality series features not only a mixture of music videos and live performances but clips from various programs from his extensive library of video footage are also inserted...each episode has a recurring theme...if an episode is titled 'chickens', just as an example, then pretty much all of the clips shown will center around the subject matter of chickens. The first video clip is the one featuring Ray discussing both television programs...



There have been four video clips uploaded to promote the first four episodes of Raylity TV. Seen below is clip one and clip four...





In my previous blog entry I focused on the single release of "Gitarzan" and how last week marked the 50th anniversary of it's chart debut (hitting the weekly music charts on January 6, 1969). I remarked that at some point this year I'll be posting blog entries focusing on the Gitarzan album as well as his second studio album from 1969, Have a Little Talk with Myself. At the moment I'm going to focus on the single release of "Have a Little Talk with Myself". Ray wrote it and it became the title track of his second studio album of 1969...and Monument released it as a single in the latter half of the year and it entered the charts early in 1970. There isn't any video clip of Ray performing the song on camera from the era in which it was recorded but you can find audio clips on YouTube of the 1969 recording. He re-recorded the song more than 40 years later with a different arrangement, and in abbreviated form, for a medley titled "Have a Little Talk with Myself/Just a Little Talk with Jesus" on his Gospel Collection CD. An audio clip of that particular 2014 recording can also be found on YouTube. The song originally appeared on the country charts early in 1970 (his second entry on the country music charts following "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" late in 1969).

On the pop chart "Have a Little Talk with Myself", strangely enough, didn't crack the Hot 100 at all...it Bubbled Under the Hot 100...meaning that the single never managed to even make it past the promotional stage. The unique chart is an extension of the Hot 100: for example...if a single hits number one on the Bubbling Under chart but doesn't make it onto the Hot 100 then it's official chart position is number 101. The chart consists of songs that are speculated to become hits on the Hot 100, specifically, but there have been a lot of instances where singles appear on the Bubbling Under chart but then go on to have chart runs in other music formats (such as country, rhythm and blues, soul). "Have a Little Talk with Myself" peaked in the lower half of the Bubbling Under chart (it consisted of 35 positions at the time) and so it's pop music peak position would have a triple digit number because of it peaking on the Bubbling Under chart. In the country music market the single managed to make it into the Top 100 but it peaked outside of the radio heavy Top-40 rankings. If you search the internet you'll find that several recording artists have recorded the song...including the likes of Sammy Davis, Jr. (just to name the most notable) but there have been other recordings of the song. It's an inspirational song and therefore it's often found on the gospel albums released on Ray Stevens...there have only been three gospel albums recorded by Ray anyhow...the gospel songs from his Turn Your Radio On album (from 1972) are the ones that had been reissued several times by a variety of different record labels and on many compilation albums you're usually going to find "Have a Little Talk with Myself" and "Turn Your Radio On" featured in the track lists. The Have a Little Talk with Myself studio album has never been issued in CD or Mp3 format. You can listen to the songs from that album on YouTube...but as a fan I'd love to see the studio album get the CD reissue treatment complete with liner notes and perhaps personal recollections/quotes from Ray Stevens himself...one can always wish. Later on this year I'll highlight the studio album since it, like the Gitarzan album, both turn 50 this year.

Ray Stevens: Jungle Gold...

Hello once more...as one could perhaps guess from the blog entry title this particular installment puts "Gitarzan" front and center. It was this week in 1969 that the Ray Stevens single seen it's release. The official release date was January 6, 1969 and so this is the song's Golden Anniversary week (50 years). The song itself is a comical parody of the Tarzan character featuring vocal impressions from Ray of the leading character as well as Jane and their pet chimp. The merging of Tarzan and pop music came together in this novelty record from the pen of Ray Stevens while the song's title, which merged guitar with Tarzan, came from the mind of session musician and recording artist, Bill Justis. He's credited as a co-writer under his birth name of William Everette.

Over the years the song's become, of course, a staple of his concerts...it reached the Top-10 on the pop charts and sold more than a million copies which earned it a Gold Record from the music industry. The success of the single wasn't limited to American audiences...it hit the pop music charts internationally. The single's peak arrived in the spring of 1969 (the April/May time frame). I was doing a little bit of further research and discovered that in the latter half of May 1969 the weekly chart publication, Billboard, debut it's Canadian music charts. In the first ever Canadian pop music singles chart "Gitarzan" was ranked among the week's Top-10 singles.

I'll be posting a couple of performances of the song in chronological order from several television appearances. The first one being from his 1970 summer television show. In each presentation the song grows more and more into a comedy sketch.



In a performance from nearly a year later, in 1971...



The early 1990s performance from his Branson, Missouri theater represents the often performed presentation of the song in which Ray enlists a female actress or one of his back-up singers to portray the part of Jane while the chimp is either performed vocally by Ray, or, some unidentified person is on stage dressed as an ape prancing around to Ray's monkey vocalizations.



I'm not insisting you all should view every video clip...you can pick and choose...or if you want to you can certainly watch each of them. The reason I'm inserting various performances of the song is I find it interesting how the song is performed in each time period...some performances are more elaborate, vocally, while others incorporate a lot of additional dialogue not heard in the original recording. In that sense I think you should view each of the video clips so you can see the various performances of the song. I'm focusing on the live performances which is why the official music video (from 1995) isn't part of this video clip time-line.

The fourth video clip is from last year and it comes from an episode of his CabaRay Nashville television series. It was uploaded onto YouTube in September of 2018.

Ray Stevens vinyl Singles I came Across...

Over the weekend I made a visit to an area flea market. Some may not take the time to frequent them as often as they used to with so many on-line sites, most of time, offering the same kind of items: used books, crafts, machinery, music, memorabilia, etc. Anyway, I like to visit flea markets every so often because sometimes I come across things that I'd probably never come across on eBay or if I do come across things on eBay more than likely they'll be a whole lot cheaper at a traditional flea market or antique mall. I often come across vinyl copies of the Ray Stevens single, "Funny Man", on eBay and a lot of the time it's either an international release, a promo copy, or another similar kind of offering. The copy I came across is indeed a promo copy but there's a couple of markings on the label which, in the eyes of professional collectors, probably immediately decreases the single's value. However, because I'm not a professional collector/dealer and since I don't purchase Ray Stevens items or any other item for the purpose of selling it I decided to go ahead and purchase the single for my own collection. The song was released as a single by Mercury Records in 1963 and it hit the Top-20 on the pop chart in Canada. The B-side, "Just One of Life's Little Tragedies", is one of the many under-rated, under-appreciated ballads...by saying that I mean there's long been a popular misconception that Ray only sings comedy songs...but if one actually listens to his albums in their entirety rather than searching for, or focusing solely on, the 'hit' recording (which is often comical) you'd be surprised to learn just how many non-comedic songs he's actually recorded in his 60 plus year career.

In addition to the 1963 vinyl single I also came across a copy of Ray's 1980 single on RCA, "Shriner's Convention". This copy is also a promo featuring the edited take on one side and the unedited take on the other side. The short version has a length of 4 minutes, 10 seconds while the long version has a length of 5 minutes, 33 seconds. As is the case with a lot of single releases there were promo copies, international copies, domestic copies, alternate domestic copies, alternate promo copies often referred to as DJ copies, etc. There's a red vinyl copy of the single that was manufactured as well. It, too, features the short version of "Shriner's Convention" on Side A and the long version of the song on Side B. The single hit the Top-10 on the country chart early in 1980. In addition to the promo single of "Shriner's Convention" that I purchased at the flea market over the weekend I already had the commercial single that was issued to the general public in my personal collection. It's B-side is "You're Never Goin' To Tampa With Me". I'm not actively seeking the red vinyl copy of "Shriner's Convention" but if it ever comes into my possession I'd then have a copy of all the various single releases of that particular recording. There were a number of vinyl albums of Ray at the flea market that I already have. Here's an observation I made concerning the various vinyl album booths that I visited: in one of the booths at the flea market they had his vinyl albums in the country music section. In another music vendor's booth they had some of his vinyl albums mixed in with random vinyl albums of stand-up comedians.

Ray Stevens: Compilations at 30 and 35...

Hello all once again...in this particular blog entry I've decided to give some focus to a vinyl album that I personally do not own a copy of but I have all of the songs in my collection. I'm giving it a spotlight because I like the profile photo of Ray Stevens on the album's cover. The album I'm referring to is a release from 35 years ago in 1984 on Spot Records titled Greatest Hits. Now, as all of you fans of Ray Stevens should be fully aware of, there have been numerous compilation albums released on Ray over the decades both here in America and Internationally and some of the overseas releases have been imported to America from time to time. There are some releases that are manufactured overseas for the specific intent on importing the project to America.

I have spotlighted this 1984 compilation album before but given it's reaching a milestone in it's year of release I decided to spotlight it once more. Also...I'm sure a lot of you love reading about vinyl albums that have been released on Ray Stevens over the decades and I hope you get a kick out of seeing some of the photography and overall visual design of the releases, too. As I mentioned in the opening paragraph I don't personally own the 1984 album but I've known of it for years. Who knows? If I'm ever at a flea market or some music store that houses vintage vinyl I may come across this particular release...and if I do?? Oh yes, I'll give the vinyl a going over if the album itself is unsealed...but I'd ultimately buy it just for the sake of having it in my personal collection at long last. Now, upon reading that, I assume some of you may be asking yourselves: "can't you just look it up on-line and purchase it from some on-line seller??". I could very easily do that...and I may end up doing just that...but procrastination is something that often dominates my personality of lot of time...and I put things off without any particular reason...it's as if put things off just to put things off. Anyway...this vinyl album features an earlier photo of Ray on the flip side of the album cover...taken from perhaps the very early 1970s. I've never discovered the actual era in which the photo you see above and the similar photo you see below were taken. Well, I'd say 1978/1979...but then again it could be from any time during the early 1980s in order for the photo to make an appearance on a 1984-released compilation album.

The 1984 compilation features mostly serious songs but it has it's share of necessary additions of his more widely known comical recordings. One of those serious recordings is "Have a Little Talk with Myself" from 1969. The song is wonderful and it has a sing-a-long melody. It was the title track of one of his 1969 albums for Monument. It's appeared on a couple of gospel oriented compilation albums on Ray even though it's not exactly a gospel song in the traditional sense. It's a song that has to do with values and the priorities placed in life and how easy it can be to get side-tracked and egotistical once one experiences success and wealth fairly quickly. The Greatest Hits album also features his take on "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", also from 1969. It's become notable in Ray's career considering he was the first artist to record it and it was the first single of his to appear on the country music charts. It became a chart hit for Ray but became a massive hit for Johnny Cash in 1970. "Everything is Beautiful", from 1970, became a massive pop hit and sold millions of singles...spending several weeks at number one on both the pop and Adult-Contemporary charts. The song went on to win a Grammy early in 1971...two in fact...one for Ray as Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and another for Jake Hess who won a Grammy in the Best Sacred Performance category.

The following three paragraphs deal with the topic of music snobbery in general. I know it sticks out like a sore thumb because it breaks the flow of the text but it's something I felt I needed to add as a response to an on-line diatribe I recently came across concerning "Everything is Beautiful". The author of the commentary and those that provided visitor comments certainly made their opinions known about the song and Ray, in general, and so it's my turn to provide my response as a Ray Stevens fan.

**- I love the song...but being a fan of Ray that's probably already a given...but I've known for years that there are plenty that do not like the song and they have their reasons and they'll voice their hatred for all to see...and I'll voice my love of the song for all to see. Anyway, a majority of those detractors I feel simply hate the style of music "Everything is Beautiful" is built around and or the emotions and mood they feel it represents (sentimentalism, happy, easy-listening, non-threatening). You know? The kind of music that they (detractors) see as anti-rock and roll, not cool, bland, and therefore, in their self-absorbed astute judgement, they feel the songs or artists they dislike should be banned from ever being heard by anybody.

Music snobs are a silly but holier-than-thou bunch who proclaim to be the authority on what's great and what's not but never are they willing to acknowledge the fundamental fact that music is one hundred percent subjective. The ironic thing about music snobs is the fact that in their self-obsessed proclamations they fail to see just how subjective, not objective, they themselves happen to be. There's a fine line between music snobbery and fanaticism. In fanaticism it's all about a person enjoying the music of an artist or group and they share their love of the music in blogs like this...hoping that other like-minded fans will become regular viewers/readers of the blog and maybe learn something about the singer or that singer's recordings.

In the realm of music snobbery a person will say how much the music they listen to is better than what someone else listens to which goes hand in hand with the presence of trash talking the music or the performing style of whatever artist it happens to be because it's different than the music they personally choose to listen to. Trash talking, brow beating, and music snobbery is rampant in social media and in everyday life, actually...but in this blog hopefully I represent my fanaticism of Ray Stevens in an enthusiastic, enjoyable manner...maybe for some I come off obnoxious but yet if I come off that way then maybe you're not as big a fan of Ray as I am. -**

But getting back to the profile photo of Ray...

A similar photo has often appeared on other compilation albums...specifically on a couple of releases from Mercury Records in 1989 titled Ahab the Arab and a re-release of that compilation titled Funny Man. Those two releases hit 30 this year and each of them had the same track lists, used the same photo of Ray along with the same font style and color of the lettering...my guess is Mercury had two separate distribution concepts and decided to issue the eight song compilation under one title in certain markets and under another title in other markets. Whatever the reason for Mercury issuing what's essentially the same album but under two different titles is something we'll perhaps never know but here are those two compilation releases side by side...

To add some confusion to the matter and possible intrigue (?) there's another release of Ahab the Arab which contains a larger image of Ray but the font/overall letting design is much different but the track list remains the same. What about the eight song track list? The songs included on this project are: "Ahab the Arab", "Furthermore", "Funny Man", "The Deodorant Song", "Harry the Hairy Ape", "Just One of Life's Little Tragedies", "Speed Ball", and "Bubble Gum the Bubble Dancer". When the Funny Man cassette came into my possession in the early 1990s I had already become familiar with Ray's early '60s recordings on Mercury by way of a 1987 re-issue of The Best of Ray Stevens which had originally been released on Mercury in 1970 on vinyl. That project features a live recording of "Ahab the Arab" from a television series featuring Ralph Emery...you'll hear Ralph speak about Ray and introduce him as well. Anyway, the Funny Man compilation featured a pair of songs I'd never heard before: "The Deodorant Song" and "Just One of Life's Little Tragedies". Yes, the inclusion of those two songs prompted my desire to have the cassette in my collection. Remember...this was years before the internet became what we know it as today...and you didn't have the luxury to purchase specific songs for 99 cents a piece and for some people fanatic enough (myself included) to see a cassette featuring some songs by your favorite singer that you'd never heard before in spite of the majority of the track list being in your collection already you'd go ahead and make the purchase just for those couple of unheard of before recordings...at least that's the way I happened to be in the years before I was on-line.

The image off to the right is from a third release of the eight song Mercury compilation album. I happen to like this album cover more than the other one mainly because the image is larger but yet the lettering covers the microphone. Also notice that depending on the photo you're looking at the color of the jacket he's wearing is either a darker yellow or a bright yellow. Ray's first two studio albums for Mercury Records (released in 1962 and 1963) have both seen CD reissues but there's never been a release that features all of his material for Mercury Records in one collection. Ray continued recording and releasing songs for Mercury into the mid 1960s but the practice/policy of practically every record company in all formats of music back then was that a single release had to sell a certain amount of copies and or become a radio hit before a label would consider releasing a long-playing album (LP) on that artist. This is why a lot of albums from the 1950s through the mid 1970s were named after the hit single while the remainder of the songs on the album went unreleased. The single releases from Mercury on Ray during the years of 1964 and 1965 didn't register as hits either in sales or radio airplay and so there weren't any albums issued featuring those recordings. This holds true for the first series of single releases Ray recorded for Monument Records between 1966 and the middle part of 1968. It wasn't until after Ray had a commercial hit with 1968's "Mr. Businessman" did Monument issue a full album (titled Even Stevens). Ray recorded for Mercury Records from 1961 to 1965. He did production work for Monument Records from 1963 to 1966. He recorded for Monument Records from 1966 to 1969.

Listening to Ray Stevens songs, well, That's My Desire...

Well here it is 2019 and for my first blog post of the year I'm including a video clip from 2007...it's an interview of Ray Stevens by Ralph Emery and it took place on Ralph's television series at the time, Ralph Emery Live!. The series aired on RFD-TV for a number of years but there weren't a whole lot of episodes produced if I recall correctly. The series ran on RFD before it became part of our regular line-up of channels and so I'd never actually seen a complete episode. There's a call-in feature which is something that I've never really been a fan of. I prefer listening to the host and guest talk without the insertion of callers because 90 percent of the time they ask routine questions that no recording artist would have the answer to. One of the most asked by callers is "when are you going to be in ______ ??". You can fill in the blank with whatever town, city, or state you can think of. Artists do not make up their itinerary...this is left up to people known as road managers, or, they're simply referred to as the artist manager, in general. There is usually someone hired to book concert dates/personal appearances for the artist in addition to having someone or more likely an organization hired to publicize the artist, etc. etc.

Even though Ray likes to keep things "in-house", based on commentary I've read or heard from him in interviews, sometimes there's a need to go outside the inner circle and hire people that specialize in publicity and marketing and he'll do that if he feels it necessary. What all of that boils down to is most artists do not know where they're going to be appearing next until an itinerary becomes available (tour dates) and that held true for Ray whenever he went on the road...meaning that he didn't know, beforehand, where he was going to appear until it was part of a tour stop. Nevertheless callers who get the chance to speak to a recording artist will ultimately want to know if or when that artist will be appearing nearby but occasionally a caller will ask something detailed and reflective of their love of Ray's songs. The call-in's aren't featured in the video clip, though.

Those reading this and wondering if Ray is going to go on tour or anything in 2019 need only to remember that he now has his CabaRay showroom to perform in and so the fans will have to travel to Nashville to see him in person just as they traveled to Branson in the early 1990s when he was there.

The 2007 interview clip, though, doesn't feature any callers and it features several performances by Ray...one being "Ruby Falls"...a single-only release that year which it never made it's way onto any CD until fairly recently...the Bozo's Back Again project in 2011. It's the album's closing song. The video clip is 38 minutes in length. Given there's hardly any commercials in the video clip nor is there any call-in's from viewers the presentation is shorter than originally seen in 2007.



One of those that called the show back in 2007 uploaded their interaction with Ray and Ralph onto YouTube several years ago. This caller is more of an exception to the rule as he asked a question only the most dedicated of fans would wonder about...the caller asked...well, watch the video for yourselves...Ray appeared thrilled that someone knew something so obscure about his recording career...



Anyone confused with the title of this blog entry? Well...a couple days ago I did my usual on-line search for everything Ray Stevens and I came across something that sparked my curiosity and so I did some on-line, in-depth searching to learn more about what I was seeing. What I was seeing happened to be a link to Amazon's Mp3 store in my search results for Ray Stevens. Once I opened the link I was stunned to see that Ray is a guest vocalist on a project by a jazz pianist named Beegie Adair. This project is called Grover's Hat Project and it was on pre-order when I came across it a couple of days ago. The product page at Amazon shown that it's release date is today. So, earlier this morning, I visited Amazon and sure enough the material is available for purchase instead of pre-order. The project features Beegie playing piano accompanied by guest vocalists. I'm nowhere near knowledgeable about jazz or it's artists and so I had never heard of her until Ray Stevens was linked to her name. Grover's Hat Project can be purchased HERE. She enlists an eclectic mix of country oriented performers as guest vocalists and the project features 14 recordings and then there's one peculiar bonus track...

Ray is a featured vocalist on a song titled "That's My Desire" and the download of the song is 99 cents. I'll be purchasing the song later this morning but that's not all...the bonus track is an alternate version of "That's My Desire" but it's performed comically by Ray Stevens rather than seriously as heard on track six. Once you click the Amazon link you'll be able to purchase each version of the song or you can purchase the entire digital album. What a way to open up a New Year...with never before available recordings by Ray Stevens!