Ray Stevens is One of a Kind...

One of the things that I've enjoyed over the last 10+ years of writing this fan-created blog is the variety of music styles and time periods that can be written about from one blog entry to the next given the fact that the career of Ray Stevens is lengthy and encompasses a lot of territory within the music landscape. In the last blog entry I spotlighted a video clip of Ray giving the spotlight to Loretta Lynn at his CabaRay showroom in a concert from July 5th of this year...and in this blog entry I'm stepping back 44 years to 1975.

I'm sure the most devoted of fans out there have heard his rendition of the pop music standard, "Lady of Spain". The recording made it's debut on Ray's 1975 album, Misty. This album featured mostly cover songs from Ray of pop music standards featuring different arrangements...a concept that resurfaced on a couple of future albums from Ray. It isn't a new concept or something unique to the career of Ray Stevens, though. Prior to Misty in 1975 he issued the album, Have a Little Talk with Myself, in 1969. In that album he performed his versions of contemporary pop songs...some with new arrangements and some retaining the original arrangements...but each were clearly transformed into the Ray Stevens style. In the case of both albums each featured a couple of original recordings. The 1969 album, among the cover songs, were originals such as "The Little Woman", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and the title track "Have a Little Talk with Myself". Oh, yes, if you caught my previous blog entry or have been a longtime fan of Ray Stevens you'll know that he recorded "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" before anyone else...so when it appeared on the 1969 album it was considered an original song.

This is the photo that accompanied the single's release in Germany in early 1976. The irony being that Ray had already left the Barnaby Records roster for Warner Brothers when this single was released. It's rare now but at that time in was commonplace for a record label to release further singles on an artist even after the artist left the label...the most common reason is for contractual reasons. An artist may have signed a contract giving the label the option to release a set amount of recordings, either in the form of albums or singles, after the completion of the contract. In this case the presence of a newly released recording from a previous label finds itself in competition with the artist's newly recorded material for his/her current label but almost always the recordings released from an artist's former record label rarely achieve heavy media publicity. I've read reports down through the years that some record labels issue singles on a previously signed artist, strategically, in an effort to coincide with the artist's current release on a competing label...and although, contractually, it is legal, it nevertheless may be a sign of bitterness on the part of the artist's former record label to possibly diminish whatever media attention/hype the artist may receive from the next record label. In Ray's memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, he explains that during the course of his career he's recorded for a lot of record labels and he mentions that some have asked why he's recorded for numerous labels and what causes an artist to go from one label to another. He explained that in most cases an artist leaves one label for another because a contract has expired and either the label doesn't want to re-sign the artist or the artist wants to shop around for another 'home', as they call it. He made mention of never burning bridges...which is a valuable piece of advice...because a record label that you were once signed to may, down the road, show an interest in having you on their roster again or the label may have gone through a major executive shake-up and have a whole new team in charge and they may want to do business with you or you may want to work for them.

The recording of "Lady of Spain" features a completely different arrangement and tempo than the pop music standard from the 1930s. The song is most commonly played as an instrumental...most often on the accordion...but the vocal versions of the song were performed in a slow, ballad presentation. Ray transformed the song into a rollicking, up-tempo festive presentation and his vocal styling on this recording is comparable to Fats Waller, Jim Croce, and Dr. John rolled into one. Ray Stevens is definitely one of a kind...with the B-side being "Mockingbird Hill"...a pop standard from 1951. A couple of years after Ray recorded "Mockingbird Hill" it became a hit single for country singer, Donna Fargo, in 1977. The photo used on the single release in Germany is from Ray's 1973 studio album, Nashville. There are other releases of "Lady of Spain" / "Mockingbird Hill" which features the photo from the Misty album.

The Misty album features the following Ray Stevens recordings:

1. Misty
2. Indian Love Call
3. Over the Rainbow
4. Oh, Lonesome Me
5. Sunshine**
6. Cow-Cow Boogie
7. Young Love
8. Deep Purple
9. Mockingbird Hill
10. Take Care of Business**
11. Lady of Spain

The titles with the two asterisks ** indicate original songs...the rest of the recordings were songs previously recorded by other artists. "Sunshine" was written by Ray Stevens whereas Layng Martine, Jr. wrote "Take Care of Business". "Sunshine" is a bouncy, happy, up-tempo sing-a-long utilizing pretty much the same instrumentation heard on "Misty". Ray once remarked in an interview that not only does he want lyrics to tell a story but also the music to tell a story...and you'll certainly feel happy and be all smiles when listening to the music accompanying "Sunshine". The latter song's title was inspired by a line in Ray's 1968 recording, "Mr. Businessman", but that's where the similarities end. "Take Care of Business" is a slow ballad of mounting lust and desire that a man has for his wife and how his job keeps the two apart...but he's determined not to allow his job to interfere with his relationship any longer...and he emphatically states that he and his wife are going to "Take Care of Business" later that night when he goes home. As you see "Lady of Spain" is the album's closing performance and a perfect way to close out the album.

The musicians featured on the album should be familiar to those that have examined his studio albums over the years. "Misty" and "Sunshine" were recorded during the same session and because of this the credits specify which musicians are heard on those two recordings as well as "Indian Love Call" and "Deep Purple". In today's music industry you may have a different group of musicians for every recording found on an album...and with music being purchased digitally there's a lack of traditional elements found in the physical copy of a CD. On a digital album's product page you're likely going to see a photo of the artist or the cover of the album if it's also available on CD and you'll see the song titles...but rarely will you see musician credits, songwriter credits, publisher credits, or where the songs were recorded. I like seeing those things...so I continue to purchase a CD if one is available...rather than purchasing a digital/Mp3 copy.