Ray Stevens: The Road to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Part Seven...

Off to the left is a photo of Ray Stevens from his Hee Haw appearance in September of 1972. On this episode he sang "Turn Your Radio On" and "Along Came Jones". There aren't too many photo's of Ray from this time period showing him with a beard but this happens to be one. Now, obviously, his visual appearance has nothing to do with his music talents but I've often made an effort to highlight this beard/clean shaven dynamic simply as a fun kind of thing to interject into the blog entries from time to time. I'm pretty sure he grew a beard many times prior to 1972 but I've not come across any visual evidence indicating the bearded look from a professional standpoint...meaning that I'm sure personal photos that us fans never see probably had him bearded but as far as photos released to the public I've not seen any bearded Ray Stevens photos prior to 1972. It may come off a bit odd/strange that I'm kicking off Part Seven of this mini-blog series in such a way but in Part Six I ended that particular entry with commentary about Ray's brand new studio that he titled The Ray Stevens Sound Laboratory (his first recording studio) and the fact that he had grown a beard. Something I forgot to mention in Part Six was the production work Ray did on the single, "Rub It In", by it's writer Layng Martine, Jr. Barnaby Records issued Layng's single in August of 1971 and it reached the lower half of the Hot 100 pop chart in the fall of 1971. Ray not only produced the recording but he published the song. In an interview Ray gave in the late '90s he recalled producing Layng's recording and against his wishes the label issued the song in the fall rather than waiting until the following spring/early summer...given the song's subject matter dealt with suntan lotion and the lyrics conjured up imagery of beaches...certainly not the imagery one tries to advertise in the fall months of a year.

In the meantime it had been a year since Barnaby had issued "Love Lifted Me" as a single (February 1972) but, as pointed out in Part Six, that single didn't actually start to have any kind of a commercial impact until months later when it began appearing on the weekly music charts in Bangkok in late 1972...rising into the Top-5. I've never come across any kind of media reports explaining why the single had become such a hit over there but yet it did. In November of 1972 a second episode of Hee Haw guest starring Ray hit the airwaves. In this second 1972 appearance he sang "Isn't It Lonely Together" and "Gitarzan". Barnaby issued a new single on Ray in February 1973 titled "Losin' Streak"...this single and the resulting album, Losin' Streak, were recorded at Ray's new studio. This studio not only serviced Ray's recordings but he also rented the studio to other recording artists and producers which, as he explained in his memoir, turned out to be kind of a disaster due to the natural habits of human beings...in other words those he rented to didn't necessarily concern themselves with making sure they cleaned up after themselves or handled the recording equipment with care, etc.

"Losin' Streak" turned out to be the only single release from this great album. "Losin' Streak" wasn't written by Ray...it comes from the pen of writer named Nick Maarth...and right from the start of this album there's a noticeable change in music and overall sound. I happen to believe it had something to do with it being recorded at a different facility than his previous several albums and perhaps the fact that it was a studio that Ray owned he allowed himself to be even more experimental than he already had been. The title track tells the story of a guy that's lost his relationship due to his gambling habits in Nevada (specifically Reno) and now he's on a financial and personal "Losin' Streak". The arrangement is also something radically different compared to previous recordings found on a Ray Stevens album...this particular recording is filled with electric guitars as well as a complimentary steel guitar during the slow passages of the chorus. The remainder of the album runs the gamut from slow ballads to mid-tempo recordings. He covers "Bye Bye Love" but arranged it as a slow, bluesy ballad in contrast to the bouncy, up-tempo version most are familiar with from The Everly Brothers. On the other extreme he covers the Freddie Hart ballad, "Easy Lovin'", and arranges it mid-tempo. He re-arranges the production of a song he originally recorded a decade earlier...1963's "Just One of Life's Little Tragedies" is updated by Ray and not only does it feature a different music arrangement it also features partially re-written lyrics and an entirely new verse replacing one that had been written for the original. If you're as familiar with the 1963 recording as I am you'll definitely notice the changes in the 1973 recording. As you can see from looking at the album's cover Ray has a beard and he's belting out a song...it makes me think he's singing "This Is Your Life".

When I spoke of studio experimentation that is the song that features the most...it has multiple vocal over-dubbing and a lot of funky instrumentation piled on top of one another...including a sound effect that makes one think of a whip being cracked. Two songs from the pen of Layng Martine, Jr. kick off the second side of the 1973 album: "Being Friends" and the lyrically clever "Idaho Wine". There is an instrumental on here titled "Laid Back" and I make mention of this for those that don't have this album but know of the song titles.

After the non-existence of this LP and the "Losin' Streak" single on the sales charts Ray offered a new release in June of 1973...a salute to Music City, U.S.A. titled "Nashville". Ray has stated in various interviews that he wrote the song while he was on tour in Australia and it's a song from the point of view of a man that's seen the sights all over the world but the one place he's wishing he could be is where he calls home...in this case Nashville, Tennessee. Ray performed "Nashville" while guest starring on a television special hosted by Dean Martin. The special was called Dean Martin Presents Music: Country and just in case you're wondering, yes, Ray was once again clean-shaven by the time of the release of Nashville in the summer of 1973. The single reached the Top-40 of the country music chart and it was backed with "Golden Age". The overall album was much more heavy on ballads but it featured a more sparse array of instrumentation. It was a return to a sound that had appeared on his two studio albums in 1970 but without the abundance of lyrical topicality. Among the songs on Nashville were the title track and it's B-side as mentioned earlier plus there's his amazing cover of "Never Ending Song of Love", the original recording of "You've Got the Music Inside" (later re-recorded by Ray in 1978), the funky break-up ballad from the pen of Merle Kilgore titled "Destroyed" and a song with the unique title of "Fish Eat Sleep". Ray closed out 1973 with the release of "Love Me Longer" backed with the instrumental, "Float". The A-side is from the pen of Nick Maarth while Ray wrote the B-side of the single. "Love Me Longer" is such a good love song and Ray's delivery of it is exquisite. Unfortunately neither side of the single reached the charts but as we close out 1973 we look ahead to 1974...and when I return with Part Eight most of that entry will be taken up by a particular single release in the spring of that year...a single that you all probably already know of ahead of time but for dramatic effect I'll not mention it by name so I'll simply say be on the lookout for Part Eight of this mini-blog series!

Ray Stevens CabaRay: September Concerts...

Hello all...I've taken a break from the mini blog series I'd been working on...so far I've written 6 parts for 'The Road to the Country Music Hall of Fame' and I'll be writing part seven in a couple of days or perhaps this coming weekend. I'm usually too busy through the week dividing my time between work and sleep to concentrate on writing detailed blog entries and so I've been saving the mini blog series entries until the weekends. Six happens to be a nice even number and so more than likely I'll pick up with part seven this weekend...but in the meantime...we're in the last week of August and so I'm looking ahead to September and the concert dates at the Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom. There are two more concerts to take place at the CabaRay to wrap up the month of August and those concerts will happen on the 30th and the 31st (this coming Friday and Saturday).

The photo's didn't surface on-line until a couple of days ago but the CabaRay received a visit from Lamar Alexander at some point the previous week and the Tennessee Senator was invited on stage for a piano duet with Ray...with a blue piano being wheeled out on stage for the occasion. There were several photos posted on Ray's social media sites and I saved a couple of them. I decided to post this one simply because it has the two of them seated at a piano with Ray's name in lights in the background. There's another similar photo but Ray's name isn't as visible. I think you should be able to click the photo for a larger image...but don't quote me on that! The photos were part of a collage and I used the snipping tool feature on my computer to highlight whichever photo I wanted to save. The collage also features photos of Ray, Lamar, and Lamar's wife plus a photo of Buddy Kalb, Lamar and his wife, and Raymond Hicks. A photo of Ray and Lamar shaking hands is also part of the collage. Lamar attended a concert at the CabaRay last year, too. The two have been friends for awhile. I have a 1981 photo of the two them that I came across on-line several years ago that I may include in a future collage of my own creation...but time will tell if I do this.

Ray Stevens and Lamar Alexander; August 2019

The month of September will once again be split between concerts by Ray Stevens and taping sessions for Larry's Country Diner. In total there will be 11 concerts from Ray taking place at the CabaRay during the month of September: 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, and 28. As you can tell there is a numerical pattern of three consecutive dates each week. This means that Ray will be performing concerts on Thursday nights for three straight weeks in addition to his usual Friday and Saturday night concerts. The month kicks off on a Friday (September 6th) and for the next three weeks there will be a Thursday concert, too. The taping sessions for Larry's television series will take place, as usual, on a Wednesday (September 11th and September 18th).

There is a contest taking place in case you hadn't heard. If you enter this contest and are selected a winner you'll receive two tickets to the CabaRay as well as an autographed copy of Ray's incredible 9-CD box set from 2012, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. As of this writing there is 5 days left for people to enter. When you visit the CabaRay WEBSITE or visit Ray's CabaRay Facebook PAGE you'll see a link to click if you're interested in joining the contest. If you click the link for the Facebook page look for a post from August 22nd. If you click the link for the CabaRay site you'll be notified of the contest through a pop-up alert with a link to the contest page.

Are you catching the episodes of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville? They air in local syndication on PBS as well as each Saturday night on RFD-TV. This past Saturday night (August 24th) the special guest happened to be Tony Orlando. Ray's sketch series, Rayality TV, continues to air each Friday afternoon on RFD-TV as well. This is one of the recent promo clips to surface on YouTube...the one for Episode 24...



In the meantime those of you planning on attending a concert at the CabaRay can purchase tickets at this LOCATION. Once there you can use the calendar to pick and choose which dates. The calendar is filled for the rest of the year and so you can flip forward to the remaining months of the year, click on a particular concert date, and get all the information you'll need. The Christmas concert season usually begins the week of or the week after Thanksgiving and for the remainder of the year the stage takes on a Christmas look but the set-list isn't just Christmas songs. I make mention of this in case any of you are planning on visiting Nashville, TN during the Christmas season and want to attend one of Ray's concerts during the month of December.

The showroom opens itself to the public on concert days at 5pm Central. This is when the piano bar is opened followed shortly after by the gift shop. The piano player inside the bar is John Jonethis and he'll be playing the piano and sometimes singing pop music standards from a little after 5pm until a little before Ray comes out on stage at 7:30pm. This means that you'll be hearing the piano bar music throughout the showroom whether you physically go inside the bar area or not. There's an elevator inside that takes you upstairs to the balcony area but that's also an area where his trophy case exists. His trophies and gold records are on display, actually, in various places throughout the venue as are framed copies of every album cover from his contractually released albums over the years. After the concert Ray typically shows up in the piano bar to sign autographs and take pictures. As you can see from the marquee on the left this is what you'll see as you arrive at the CabaRay on River Road. The days of the week are usually Friday and Saturday but, of course, next month they'll have Thursday listed along side Friday and Saturday given that he'll be performing Thursday concerts next month. That's a close-up photo of the marquee...the actual full size image, posted below, is obviously larger and it sits outside the venue near the parking lot entrance. In short the showroom is a Ray Stevens paradise. I visited the showroom once (March 1, 2018) but I never was able to visit his Branson, Missouri theater which he performed concerts there on two separate occasions: a three season run during 1991, 1992, and 1993 and a two season run during 2005 and 2006. This is the full size image of the marquee of the CabaRay showroom with information on tickets and the number to call. This is a photo from 2018. The close-up posted earlier is from a more recent photo of the marquee spotlighting when the piano bar, dinner, and concert gets underway.

Ray Stevens: The Road to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Part Six...

Hello once again!! In Part Six of this mini blog series I'll be looking at 1970, 1971, and 1972 in the Country Music Hall of Fame career of Ray Stevens. In the latter half of Part Five I focused on the release and international success of "Everything is Beautiful" during the summer of 1970 and the subsequent summer series that Ray hosted for Andy Williams on NBC-TV.

I kind of briskly went over the summer 1970 television show in my previous blog entry...stating it ran for eight weeks and I named three of it's cast-members. The official cast-member roster is as follows: Ray Stevens (host), Lulu, Mama Cass, Dick Curtis, Steve Martin, Carol Robinson, Billy Van, Solari and Carr. If you search YouTube for Ray's official channel over there...called raystevensmusic...you'll come across several clips from the summer 1970 series. You can also type in the name Ray Stevens and the year, 1970, and the search results will return a lot of those video clips Ray uploaded over the years from that series. The series, as mentioned, ran for eight episodes from June 20, 1970 to August 8, 1970. If you notice off to the left the title card has three question marks following his name. This sight gag was applied due to idea of Ray hosting the television series and being selected over seasoned television personalities. Viewers of Andy's television series and those that followed music knew of Ray Stevens but to have him headline a television series was presented as a novel idea. In most of the episodes there was a recurring sketch where an off-screen narrator would ask people if they knew who Ray Stevens was. One of the YouTube video clips have the likes of Don Knotts, Tom Smothers, Jonathan Winters, and even Andy Williams himself being asked if they know who Ray Stevens is. When I posted Part Five of this mini blog series I realized that I didn't give his summer 1970 series a proper spotlight...but rather than going in and editing Part Five I decided to kick off Part Six with a somewhat better overview of his television series considering the show's theme song and the show itself enabled Ray and his music to become mainstream rather than something that existed, albeit successfully, under the radar. His 1970 studio album for Barnaby Records, Everything is Beautiful, marked the first time he was solely credited as record producer. The phrase "produced and arranged by Ray Stevens" seen on all of his studio albums going forward would become as familiar to Ray's fans as the catchphrases found in a number of his novelty songs.

Now, then, following all of the popularity of "Everything is Beautiful" during the summer of 1970...a single that hit number one on the Pop charts in America, Australia, Canada, number one on the Easy-Listening chart, as well as the Top-40 in country music (his first single to place among the Top-40 in that format)...now, following this was something that had to be done. A massive hit is a blessing and sometimes a curse...for a follow-up is almost always compared to it's predecessor as far as chart statistics, sales statistics, etc. but a follow-up arrived in July of 1970...right in the midst of his summer television series. "America, Communicate With Me" hit the market during the era in pop music dominated by Protest songs. These songs were filled with a lot of emotional lyrics designed to either speak for or against America's involvement in the Vietnam War or speak for or against America's policies, in general, in both domestic and foreign matters.

Barnaby Records, an Independent label owned by Andy Williams, was distributed during this point in time by CBS Records. The single was heavy on social commentary as you could imagine. It is part of the Protest song era in pop music, albeit not a major pop hit, but it has a unique distinction of actually being a song that examines the protesting from both sides resulting with Ray asking for common ground and asking the country, as a whole, to communicate with him in his effort to make sense of everything that's going on in America because nothing he sees makes any sense whatsoever. The fact that the song didn't attach itself too strongly to either a Conservative or Liberal point of view and the fact that the opening lines tell of one who's tired of all the protesting taking place...well, as you could guess, it didn't exactly endear itself to those that were out there protesting and rabble rousing. Common sense usually wasn't part of the vocabulary of the zealous faction of protesters dominating the news headlines in 1969/1970. Ray's song struck a chord with people, though...ironically it peaked a few slots below the Top-40 on America's Hot 100 pop chart...kept out of the Top-40, in my opinion only, by those in the music industry that didn't appreciate the sentiments expressed in the song. Just as ironic is it's appearance in the Top-40 in Canada...you'd think that a song expressly written to criticize and question everything happening in America would have more of an impact in the home country but yet in Canada it hit their Top-40 pop chart. The single had it's greatest impact in the radio format catering to the adult audience...the Easy-Listening format...called Adult-Contemporary as well. This format, at the time, aimed their radio programming toward adults that identified themselves as contemporary pop music fans but disliked the music geared toward teenagers and younger adults...and so this radio format, dating back a number of years, played the artists on the Hot 100 that had a mature, older following...with reliance on recording artists that specialized in ballad-style crooning rather than the over-the-top flamboyant overtone of rock and roll. This format was home to pop singers that were removed from Top-40 radio in the aftermath of rock and roll in the mid 1950s. In spite of Ray Stevens being in the same age bracket of contemporary pop/rock artists of 1970 his music was having it's greater impact with a larger audience outside of the narrow confines of Top-40 demographic restrictions. There are many reasons for this that I won't go into now but as a result of his impact with general audiences "America, Communicate With Me" reached the Top-20 on the Adult-Contemporary chart in the early fall of 1970. In fact it peaked just a few notches below the Top-10...a truly remarkable feat for a single that fell mostly on deaf ears by those in Top-40 pop radio. Given that today is August 25, 2019 if you were magically return to this week in 1970 "America, Communicate With Me" would be all over Easy-Listening radio stations. The B-side of the single is the social commentary lament, "Monkey See, Monkey Do". That song deals with people being consumed with imitating others as far as fashion and material items go...and competing with one's neighbor for the better car, property, etc.

As a follow-up to "America, Communicate With Me" Barnaby Records issued "Sunset Strip" in October of 1970. This particular song was described by some music critics within the pages of Billboard magazine as something of a tribute to the music of Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys. Once you listen to the song you'd be inclined to agree...Ray does a great impression of the sound heard in a lot of surfer music complete with high harmony background reminiscent of Beach Boys records. Lyrically the song takes a look at the famed stretch of road on Sunset Boulevard and the West Coast culture that make up that area. The image of this area projected to the outsiders can be interpreted as excessive self-hype...the term 'plastic' can be applied to something that's not genuine and is meant to be a negative adjective to describe those that dwell in this environment...as a way of saying the people or the area itself just doesn't seem real or authentic given the glamour and escapist allure seen throughout. However, Ray's song doesn't paint people in this kind of negative light but he makes mention in the lyrics that 'some people say you're plastic...' but clearly Ray isn't one of those and he more or less celebrates the carefree nature of those in the area. It's a tribute/celebration of the West Coast culture without getting too heavy into politics and social commentary. In the song's chorus Ray overdubbed his own vocals multiple times to create the choir effect (vocal overdubbing wasn't something knew in his career) and within the chorus Ray sings about how there's something otherworldly/unreal about the strip. This reference line in the song's chorus led to his second studio album for Barnaby Records to be titled Unreal. "Sunset Strip", like it's predecessor, found it's biggest impact with Easy-Listening radio...reaching the Top-20 in that format while peaking within the lower half of the Hot 100. Ray uploaded a 1971 video clip of his performance of this song...search YouTube and you'll be able to see it. The television appearance is from a series called BBC In Concert from May 10, 1971. He performed several songs from this studio album on that television special. The B-side of "Sunset Strip" is a love song called "Islands".

The Unreal studio album was released in November of 1970. It features 11 songs...nine of those were written by Ray. It was his first studio album in a couple of years to feature a majority of self-written songs. The back of the album shows Ray at his piano on the set of his summer 1970 television series. "Sunset Strip" opens up the album while "America, Communicate With Me" is track five, closing out Side One of the album. The other side kicks off with "Come Around"...one of the two songs Ray didn't write. The other song Ray didn't write, "Talking", was written by Ray's brother, John, and it takes direct aim at the daily news headlines and how it seems like those in charge are doing nothing but talking as thousands of American soldiers are dying in Vietnam. The album covers a lot of material ranging from social commentary on everything from the Vietnam War, pop culture trends, societal norms and the war protests, to songs written from the point of view of a soldier writing love letters to send home in "Loving You on Paper". One of the greatest songs in his career happens to be "Dream Girl"...a soft ballad relating the emotionally tragic and often dramatic experiences in the life of an average girl/young woman of that time period escaping life as she buries herself in magazines promoting the heartthrobs of the day and the hottest music acts. This song and an earlier one from 1968, "Isn't It Lonely Together", are packed with raw emotion for that time period. Unfortunately this album was released following the only two single releases to emerge from it...for whatever reason Ray nor Barnaby Records released anything else from the album beyond July's "America, Communicate With Me" and October's "Sunset Strip". In hindsight they should have pushed a couple more songs from the album into early 1971 but this wasn't to be...and the reason why can be explained in one name: Bridget!

During the month of December in 1970 there came a release by Ray Stevens on Barnaby Records titled "Bridget the Midget the Queen of the Blues". This novelty song became an international hit by year's end and into 1971. It reached the halfway point on America's Hot 100 but, some may consider it shocking, it spent several weeks in the runner-up position on the pop chart in the United Kingdom. It's overwhelming success in the United Kingdom was not without it's set of detractors and as is the routine in America the same thing happened in the UK whereby those with influence in the media downplay the impact of something that they deem embarrassing or off-color. You're not going to find glowing reviews of the novelty song in any essays written by music critics from either America or Europe but yet it's sales and popularity spoke for itself. In several interviews conducted with Ray in that time period he mentioned that he'd always wanted to do a song with sped-up vocals such as those heard in "The Chipmunk Song" from the 1960s and so he devised a song built around a soul singing singer/Go-go tap dancer on the sunset strip named Bridget who happened to be 2 feet tall. It's my guess that he wrote the song at some point in 1969 because it's structured with a lot of end rhymes much in the same manner of "Gitarzan" although it's musical execution is completely different. Ray plays the role of the singer/emcee as well as Bridget (in a sped-up voice) and at various moments throughout Ray portrays one of the infatuated and possibly intoxicated audience members who really digs the performance and gets closer to the performance stage throughout the song. This novelty hit branded Ray as a novelty artist once more...and given the reputation of novelty songs Ray probably felt it comical to follow up such a zany comedy song with a performance so completely serious in an effort to downplay the predecessor's success.

Whatever the backstory happened to be the follow-up to Bridget arrived in the spring of 1971...a gospel number titled "A Mama and a Papa" backed with a B-side exclusive titled "Melt"...certainly not a gospel song...dare I call the B-side sultry?? In March of 1971 the Grammy Awards were held. This year's program was hosted by Andy Williams. Ray happened to be on a tour in Australia and so he wasn't in America in the spring of 1971...so he wasn't able to accept his Grammy for "Everything is Beautiful". Ray won in the category of Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. Glen Campbell accepted the award on Ray's behalf. The song won a second Grammy for Jake Hess in the category of Best Sacred Performance. This may have been the first and only time two performances of the same song received a Grammy in two different music categories during the same year. In the meantime Ray had some Top-10 Easy-Listening success with "A Mama and a Papa" both here in America and in Canada. The gospel flavor of Ray's recordings continued on with "All My Trials" backed with his 1969 recording, "Have a Little Talk With Myself", in the late summer of 1971. Ray demonstrated, once again, his prowess in the recording studio during the production of "All My Trials". He created, through vocal overdubbing, a massive choir performing in various harmonies as background vocals for this single. It, too, reached the Top-10 on the Easy-Listening chart. There are two pressings of "All My Trials". The version that appears on the single has a running time of around three minutes whereas a much longer version...well over four minutes...also exists. The single release edits out a lot of the instrumentation as well as a repeat of the song's chorus.

In the fall of 1971 Barnaby issued a third gospel recording from Ray...this one titled "Turn Your Radio On". This recording made it's way into the Top-20 on the country music charts and it appeared on the pop music charts internationally as it reached the Top-10 in Canada, the Top-20 in New Zealand, and the Top-40 in the UK. On America's Easy-Listening chart, ironically enough, it wasn't a Top-10 hit as his previous two gospel singles had been. It's my guess that "Turn Your Radio On" had such a presence on various pop music charts that it's commercial success impacted it's acceptance on Easy-Listening radio but that's only my theory. The distinctive country arrangement of the song perhaps scared off that format...but yet Canadian's version of the Easy-Listening chart peaked it inside their Top-10...as did Canada's Country music chart. Barnaby finally issued a new studio album on Ray...arriving early in 1972 as "Turn Your Radio On" was peaking. The album was gospel...and titled Turn Your Radio On. The album reached the Top-20 on the Country Albums chart...his highest showing on a national album chart at that point in time. Ray, keep in mind, comes from an era where emphasis was placed more heavily on single releases rather than album releases. Those that purchased the album were treated to a full length version of "All My Trials"...the one that clocks in well over four minutes...rather than the edited copy found on single releases and the one played on Easy-Listening radio.

Following the album release of Turn Your Radio On in 1972 the label issued a fourth single...a rock inflected version of "Love Lifted Me". This single never made the charts in America, Canada, the UK, or Australia but it did manage to make an appearance in Bangkok of all places near the end of the year. Although never officially promoted there I found information years ago which shown the Top-30 singles of the week in Bangkok and, you guessed it, among the Top-30 was Ray's recording of "Love Lifted Me". There's a section inside Billboard Magazine titled Hits of the World. In the October 7, 1972 issue it shows "Love Lifted Me" by Ray Stevens ranked that week in the Top-20. The single would eventually place among the Top-10 but you seldom see this cited in any overview of Ray's career. It is in this era of Ray's career where he was slowly becoming more visible on country music television programs although he remained musically eclectic as ever. In the season opening episode of Hee Haw, for example, Ray was one of the guests. This episode originally aired in September of 1972 and he performed "Turn Your Radio On" and "Along Came Jones". He opened up his own recording studio which he dubbed The Ray Stevens Sound Laboratory. He had long been a resident of Nashville, Tennessee in spite of his pop music directions and he participated in a lot of recording sessions up and down Music Row throughout the '60s and into the '70s. Ray had by this time also grown a beard...but it was temporary...more about this and other things in Part Seven!! 

Ray Stevens: The Road to the Country Music Hall of Fame...Part Five

As we continue down the road in the Country Music Hall of Fame career of Ray Stevens we pick up in the fall of 1969. In pop culture the headlines were dominated by social unrest and protests centered around the Vietnam War. These sentiments had been boiling since the mid '60s but didn't reach their violent peak until the 1968-1970 time frame. Ray wasn't highly active in the counter-culture but given his age bracket he certainly could have been. Musically, at this point in time, he had dabbled in social commentary in his 1968 studio album...search the archives on the right hand side of this page for Part Four of this mini blog series to see the information surrounding that chapter in his career. In the fall of 1969, for Ray Stevens, he released a song by a new songwriter...a song that would become a major hit for another artist a year later...but Ray holds the distinction of being the first artist to record the song. "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" hit the charts in the fall of 1969 on Monument Records and it was from the pen of Kris Kristofferson. Ray's version charted on the pop and the country charts...marking his debut on the country music charts. The single also reached the charts in Canada for Ray but the peak positions both in the United States and Canada were below the Top-40...meaning that radio stations weren't playing the song in spite of it registering sales. Ray was given the opportunity to record "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" for an upcoming movie but he turned the song down because of his strong feelings for "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" and he didn't want to delay the release of a surefire hit song for a risky soundtrack endeavor.

It's been said that Ray's version of "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" didn't become as big a hit due to his image...record buyers had a difficult time picturing clean-cut Ray Stevens going through the experiences sang about in the song...but the same record buyers had no problem identifying the song's lyrics with Johnny Cash...the artist that recorded the song in 1970 and had a huge hit with it. The song Ray turned down, "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head", became a huge hit for B.J. Thomas when it appeared in the massively popular movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The B-side of "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" happens to be "The Minority", from Ray's 1968 Even Stevens album. The B-side credits Fred Foster, Ray, and Jim Malloy as record producers while the A-side credits Ray and Jim as record producers. The reason, for those that hadn't read Part Four yet, is Fred and Ray made a friendly bet. The details of the bet were if "Gitarzan" became a hit, which Fred believed wouldn't become a hit, that Ray would have creative control over the direction of the next album. Fred lost the bet and so "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" was the first release following that losing bet. A brand new album also shown up in the form of Have a Little Talk With Myself. The title track, written by Ray, reached the country charts early in 1970. The album is an outstanding collection of songs made famous by other artists and have mostly been re-arranged by Ray. There are only three original songs on the album: "Have a Little Talk With Myself", "The Little Woman", and "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down". The rest of the album consists of his versions of contemporary pop songs running the gamut from The Beatles to Blood, Sweat, and Tears as well as his versions of musical pieces such as "Hair" and "Aquarius". Some of the other songs on this album include his versions of "Help", "Spinning Wheel", "Games People Play", and the equally iconic "Hey Jude". Kicking off the 1969 album is a song that became his next single release...from the pen of Bob Dylan comes "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" and Monument issued it as a single early in 1970. The B-side is from the pen of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, "The Fool on the Hill".

Music elitists and, or, music snobs generally feel that singers should never, ever remake or cover material that was originated by anyone looked upon as God-like in the music industry. Ray has never shied away from covering any type of song regardless of it's place in pop culture or if it's heavily identified with one artist or one group. The 1969 album goes a long way at showcasing this. It's difficult to tell how Ray's career would've gone if he remained on the Monument label...I say this because "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" became his final single release for the label. Ray had a very lengthy stay at Monument...first as a music arranger/session musician beginning in 1963 and then as a recording artist beginning in 1965 following the expiration of his Mercury Records recording contract. In my previous blog entry I mentioned that Andy Williams was becoming a major player in Ray's career...and things really got going in the spring of 1970 when Ray was announced as Barnaby Records' new recording star. The record label was owned by Andy Williams. Ray's debut for the label arrived not too long afterward in the form of "Everything is Beautiful"...and oh what a classic in the career of Ray Stevens!! The song had been receiving high profile exposure through his guest appearances on Andy's television series on NBC-TV and it quickly became a hit. The single reached number one on the Hot 100 for two weeks...the last week of May and the first week of June...not only that but it hit the number one position in Canada, Australia, and on America's Easy-Listening chart. It was at the top of the latter for three weeks in the summer of 1970. The RIAA certified it a Gold single for than a million copies sold.

Coincidentally Ray Stevens found himself on the cover of The Toronto Daily Star for the week of May 30, 1970 - June 6, 1970. I say coincidentally due to the fact that "Everything is Beautiful" hit number one in the United States for the week ending May 30th. Ray had been told that he picked as the host of a variety show for NBC that was set to air during the summer months while Andy Williams was on vacation. In this era, apparently, it was frowned on by advertisers to air repeats of variety programs (perhaps due to their topicality) and so whenever the host of a show was away on summer vacation a replacement host filled in. Ray was told of his upcoming hosting duties early in the year and so he eventually came up with "Everything is Beautiful" as a possible theme song for this yet to be aired summer series. Ray and his cast taped their episodes in a studio in Canada...which is why you see him off to the right on their version of TV Guide. The television series made it's NBC debut on the night of June 20, 1970 and there were eight episodes altogether. The last episode of the summer series aired the night of August 8, 1970. The show carried a surreal flavor and there were a lot of music performances (obviously) and comedy (obviously) from an eclectic cast. I'm only going to name a few of his cast-members: Mama Cass, Lulu, and Steve Martin. There were other cast-members but those three are the more notable. You can find video clips from Ray's 1970 summer show on YouTube if you're curious/interested in seeing the fun and frolic the show presented to viewers. The program would typically open with Ray seated at the piano singing the chorus of "Everything is Beautiful". The international success of the single as well as it's national exposure on NBC-TV for those eight weeks obviously played a major factor in the single selling more than three million copies. The song became a much recorded Gospel and Inspirational standard. Barnaby Records issued their first album on Ray...titled, as you could imagine, Everything is Beautiful. The album contained two original songs and more cover versions of other artist's recordings. The only other original being "A Brighter Day" which had been the B-side of "Everything Is Beautiful". Ironically Ray recorded "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" for this 1970 album...even though he originally turned the song down in 1969...and interestingly the album notes credit it's appearance in the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid movie even though it's the B.J. Thomas recording which is heard in the film and it's soundtrack. It's my belief that Barnaby Records was simply promoting the song itself...not necessarily the recording. Some of the other songs on the album include "Something", "Get Together", "Walk a Mile in My Shoes", "Early in the Morning", and "She Belongs To Me". Ray's next single wouldn't arrive until the fall of 1970...included on an album that was much more socially aware than anything he had issued to that point in his career. Welcome to the commercial peak of the Protest song in pop music...and Ray tested the waters with his own style of Protest anthems...and some record buyers may have considered it Unreal to hear Ray singing about such topics with such conviction...and we'll pick up with the rest of this in Part Six...but it goes without saying that I'm not writing these blog entries under any kind of protest. I'm enjoying this career look-back of Ray Stevens.

Ray Stevens: The Road to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Part Four...

Welcome to Part Four of this blog mini-series as I spotlight Ray Stevens' Road to the Country Music Hall of Fame. The year is 1968 and Monument releases their fifth single on Ray in January...a unique offering titled "Unwind". This single credits both Fred Foster as well as Ray Stevens as producers...Ray also wrote both sides of the single. By unique offering I'm referring to the blending of tempo heard throughout the performance. The recording starts off with Ray in frenetic mode detailing all of the things he's got to do throughout the course of the working day and then as his descriptions near the hour of 5pm his vocalization has decreased in tempo to where he sings about winding down once he arrives home and the vocalization has long since shifted from frenetic to mellow but then, following a brief vocal break as the instrumentation plays, the tempo begins to pick back up and the frenetic vocalization resurfaces as the new workday is underway...and the routine plays itself out...but, once more, Ray winds down his vocalization as it draws closer to the end of the workday at 5pm. In the career time-line of Ray Stevens "Unwind" is typically the single that bridges the gap between the various phases of his career. By this I mean it's a single that frequently shown up on various greatest hits and best-of albums released on Ray Stevens even though it wasn't as widely known as his follow-up single...but if you base a 'hit' as a single that makes an appearance on a popularity chart then "Unwind" certainly qualifies. In part three I mentioned how "Freddie Feelgood" (from 1966) returned Ray to the national Hot 100 pop chart for the first time in three years...that single also appeared on the pop singles chart in Australia. "Unwind" reached midway up the Hot 100 here in America in early 1968 and in Canada it reached their pop music chart, too, peaking the Top-30. The B-side of "Unwind" is a devastating ballad titled "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow". Monument followed up this hit single with a song from Ray dripping in social commentary...a pointed look at the corporate elitists...a song partially inspired by a business deal gone bad involving Ray.

It's often been reported about by historians, journalists, and mentioned by Ray in interviews that early in his career he was taken advantage of, briefly, by opportunists that mishandled his money through unwise investments and when he decided to take a look at his earnings he seen how lousy those in charge of his finances happened to be. As a result of the mishandling of his finances and a general negative feeling overall he came up with "Mr. Businessman"...a single that burst onto the music landscape in the summer of 1968. Production by Ray and Fred Foster this self-penned vocal outrage dealing with corporate America's amoral attitudes, misplaced priorities, and the bottom line was a startling contrast to the bluesy love ballads, easy-listening renderings, and novelty songs he'd long been noted for. The single features single note piano key strikes at the beginning of the song...as the tempo rises the key strikes get more stinging and more keys are added into the performance...as more and more instrumentation is added into the performance the piano blends into the background. It's a great hook and in concert whenever Ray starts to play those familiar piano strikes there's an obvious enjoyment that flows from the audience. Commercially "Mr. Businessman" was a very big hit...it reached the Top-30 on the Hot 100 and, ironically enough, the single had even more impact in Canada where it hit the Top-10. Perhaps it's not an irony...I'd say that the subject matter Ray sings about in the song is almost universal...there's good and bad businessmen and businesswomen all over the world.

The success of "Mr. Businessman" ultimately spawned the release of a vinyl album. In those days record companies often preferred to release singles...and if an artist had accumulated a series of hit singles then the record company would issue an album featuring those single releases, their B-sides, and several other recordings to fill out the collection of songs. This means that a lot of vinyl albums of this era were usually filled with one or two recordings that had been released as singles...and most of the time the album was named for one of those hit singles...while the rest of the album contained songs that were not commercially driven and sometimes an album would contain whatever the artist or producer felt like placing there...knowing full well that albums were purchased by the most loyal of consumers while a single was designed to cater to a general audience. In country music the record companies would release a vinyl album named for the hit single but then the remainder of the album wouldn't be explored by the record label for future single releases. There are a lot of country albums of this era with 10 or 11 songs but only one of those would be the single release...to say the album was looked upon with contempt is putting it mildly. Anyway...Monument Records issued their first studio album on Ray titled Even Stevens in the fall of 1968 on the heels of "Mr. Businessman". The album was produced by Fred Foster and Ray Stevens. It features 10 recordings in which Ray was the songwriter on 8 songs, a co-writer of one, while a tenth song was written by another writer. Ray also arranged every song on the album except two of them.

I created that collage a couple of years ago...or it could have been last year...anyway it's me attempting a similar pose from Ray Stevens as he appears on the Even Stevens album of 1968. The back of the album shows Ray seated in front of a music stand. The album comes with liner notes authored by Tupper Saussy. By the way Tupper is the one responsible for the only song on the album that Ray never had a hand in writing or arranging: "The Earl of Stilton Square". Tupper wrote and arranged the song. One of the television shows from this era, Get Smart, had a popular catchphrase...well, the show had several, but to borrow just one of those phrases... 'would you believe??' that Even Stevens never made an appearance on the Billboard 200 album chart!! If that wasn't ironic enough...Ray himself became a businessman but this was out of necessity given how little faith he had in someone else looking after his finances. He was once quoted as saying that nobody's going to look after you but you and so he reluctantly had to become more involved in the business side of the music industry. He eventually hired a manager, though, by the name of Don Williams...not to be confused with the country singer of the same name.

In the meantime the B-side of "Mr. Businessman", for those curious, is the album's seventh song, "Face the Music". Ray wrote the B-side but the music arranging is credited to Louis Nunley. Monument released "The Great Escape" as a single in the fall of 1968 backed with a phenomenal ballad called "Isn't It Lonely Together?". The A-side followed the social commentary vein and it charted on Canada's version of America's Hot 100...but in America the single Bubbled Under the Hot 100. A third figure emerged prominently in Ray's career during the making of Even Stevens and that figure happened to be Jim Malloy. He's credited as the production assistant to Fred and Ray on the 1968 album in addition to being the engineer's assistant. The engineer of the album was Charlie Tallent. The album itself was recorded at Bradley's Barn (a studio owned by legendary music producer Owen Bradley). In early 1969 Monument released a single on Ray that, according to Ray's interviews and his recollections in a memoir, that Fred Foster was completely against.

The single in question had the unusual name of "Gitarzan"...a word that Ray credits to Bill Justis, which as you can see, combines guitar with Tarzan. A title like that led Ray into creating a story about Tarzan, Jane, and their chimp forming a rock and roll jungle band. Ray also credited the rhyming dictionary in guiding him, line by line, in the song's construction. The song is filled with internal rhymes and end rhymes as well as pseudo-rhymes where sound-a-like words follow each other even though they're not identical rhymes. According to Ray's recollections Fred told him that if this song became a hit then Ray would have complete creative control on his next project. "Gitarzan" became a gigantic hit...in America and internationally...and throughout the first half of 1969 the massive popularity of the novelty song eventually brought certifications of a Gold record by the RIAA. In those days a gold record was indicative of sales of over a million copies. The single hit the Top-10 on the Hot 100, the Top-10 in Canada, the Top-10 in Australia, and the Top-10 in New Zealand. It made the charts in other international markets, too, but I decided to limit it to three additional countries for this blog entry. As you can see in the credits the producers are Ray, Fred Foster, and Jim Malloy. In addition to being a co-producer Jim returned as engineer assistant as he had been during the previous album from Ray in 1968. Songwriting credits go to Ray and Bill Justis...credited under his birth name of Bill Everette. The song's B-side, "Bagpipes-That's My Bag", was written by Ray and produced by both Ray and Fred Foster. For whatever reason Jim Malloy isn't credited...but obviously this is more or less due to his not being a part of the B-side's production. Monument issued their second album on Ray, Gitarzan, in the late spring/early summer of 1969. The album features liner notes from talk show host, Merv Griffin. Upon the release of the album from Monument Records they issued a new single...Ray's version of "Along Came Jones"...and while it didn't hit the Top-10 or sell millions of copies it nevertheless reached the Top-30 on the Hot 100 in America and the Top-30 in Canada in addition to it charting in Australia's Top-20. The original recording of the song had been a hit 10 years earlier by one of Ray's influences, The Coasters. The B-side of "Along Came Jones" happened to be another cover of a Coasters hit, "Yakety Yak". There are those that have often remarked that Ray's version of "Along Came Jones" is the funniest...and a lot of it has to do with the additional material that Ray brought to the song. The original from The Coasters lacks the falsetto cries of Sweet Sue as she's being tortured by Salty Sam...and the original also lacks the sinister laugh from the villain. Those are things that Ray brought to the song. The back to back novelty hits and the album itself labeled Ray a novelty singer...even though some may never have recognized him as being anything but a novelty singer in spite of the recorded evidence proving otherwise...some think "Mr. Businessman" is a funny song. Go figure!

In addition to all of this well deserved and long overdue success Ray had been enjoying lately he became acquainted with pop entertainer Andy Williams by the latter half of 1969. Earlier I mentioned that Ray hired a manager named Don Williams...well, he happens to be one of Andy's brothers...but I don't know what came first off the top of my head. I don't know if Ray and Andy got acquainted first and it led to Don becoming Ray's manager or if Ray hired Don as a manger before becoming a business associate of Andy's. Whatever came first Andy Williams began to have some influence in Ray's career around this point in time...and perhaps not a coincidence Ray began making infrequent appearances on Andy's television series. When "Gitarzan" became a massive hit earlier in the year Fred Foster, as mentioned earlier, made Ray a friendly bet that if it became a hit then on the next project Ray would be given complete creative control over. Fred lost the unofficial bet and so Ray and co-producer Jim Malloy set out to work on his next project for Monument Records...and it was a beauty of an album...which I'll go into more detail about in Part Five of this mini-blog series!!

Ray Stevens: The Road to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Part Three...

Welcome to Part Three of my mini-blog series spotlighting moments in the career of Ray Stevens as we get somewhat closer to Ray's official Country Music Hall of Fame induction in October...the election took place back in March of this year. We have a couple of months still to go...the rest of this month and all of September and into mid October. I left off in Part Two covering the single that Mercury Records issued on Ray in the fall of 1963, "Speed Ball" / "It's Party Time". Thanks to the internet a lot of Ray Stevens fans were treated to a super rare recording titled "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" that Mercury issued on acetate backed with "Don't Say Anything" in the final weeks of 1963. An acetate release is meant for limited plays due to the brittleness of the material and they're most often used for testing a song prior to it being put on vinyl. Apparently Mercury decided to go with another song for commercial release given that the first single release on Ray in 1964 came along in March and it was a novelty titled "Butch Babarian" backed with the love ballad that previously accompanied the unreleased "Pin the Tail on the Donkey": "Don't Say Anything". There's some interesting history surrounding Butch...it, too, initially appeared in test format in December 1963 (an acetate) and was broken in two parts. On the acetate recording Ray sings "flip the record over to hear part two". The acetate has the song spelled 'Butch Barbarian'. There are pressings of the single in which the title is spelled "Butch Bubarrian" and then there's pressings where it's spelled "Butch Babarian".

The song's title is a pun on the alcoholic beverage, Busch Bavarian. When I heard the song for the first time in the early 1990s I had no idea of it's inspiration but then years later I heard an audio clip of one of the Busch commercials and it led off with almost the exact kind of intro that we hear on this recording.

I don't know the reason for the altered spellings on the various pressings that Mercury Records issued but I do know that the label issued another pressing with a picture sleeve of Ray seated at the piano. The B-side of that pressing is noted as being a Longer Version. The copy meant for airplay clocks in at two minutes, fifty six seconds while the longer version runs four minutes, three seconds. The full length version is on YouTube as is the acetate which includes a lot of lyrics that didn't make it to the commercial recording. The acetate exists in Part One form but Part Two has never been uploaded (the one that uploaded Part One doesn't have Part Two). The edited copy for airplay isn't on YouTube. Well, now, after sorting through all of that wouldn't you know it...this particular novelty single didn't reach the charts when the commercial version hit the market in March of 1964. Mercury followed this with "Bubble Gum the Bubble Dancer" in July...not exactly a novelty song...but the unusual title gave it a novelty flavor. I'm not saying the flavor of the bubble gum is a novelty...but you know what I mean. If you're not sure what a bubble dancer is/was then the inspiration for the overall song's title might be lost on some. This single existed several years prior to the arrival of what music historians refer to as bubblegum music...so I don't think it's a case of tying the song's title in with the music craze. The song's B-side is the vengeful ballad "Laughing Over My Grave". If you recall from the previous blog entry I mentioned that Ray entered an unusual contract in that Mercury Records would release recordings on him while Monument Records utilized Ray's proficient prowess as a session musician, producer, and arranger. In September of 1964 Ray made his way to New York City to work as a music arranger on several songs recorded by Dusty Springfield. The recordings that Ray arranged would appear in single releases by Dusty in 1964 and 1965. Ray arranged several other recordings that remained as album tracks and weren't issued as singles. Those familiar with her recordings these are the titles that Ray worked on as music arranger: "Live It Up", "Guess Who?", "Now That You're My Baby", "If Wishes Could Be Kisses", "Here She Comes", "I Wanna Make You Happy", and "I Want Your Love Tonight". Mercury Records, in the meantime, didn't immediately follow-up "Bubble Gum the Bubble Dancer"...but they eventually released a follow-up and it arrived in January 1965 in the form of "The Rockin' Teenage Mummies". Now, admit it, who doesn't get a great big smile on their face when you see a song title like that?? It, too, was a novelty song as you could tell...backed with the ballad "It Only Hurts When I Laugh". The release of this single marked a slight change in the production credits. The single releases on Mercury Records on Ray dating back to 1961 had all been produced solo by Shelby Singleton but starting with "The Rockin' Teenage Mummies" Jerry Kennedy was credited as co-producer along with Shelby Singleton. These novelty records that Mercury was releasing on Ray throughout late 1963 and into early 1965 weren't reaching the national charts but they made appearances on what the industry refers to as regional charts which can be described as surveys of single releases that are popular in select cities across the country but hadn't met with the same success on a national level.

Regardless of the lack of national chart placings Ray was continuing to build a name for himself behind-the-scenes...and all the while Mercury was issuing novelty songs on Ray he was hard at work as a music arranger on serious recordings by other artists. In February 1965, for example, one of the songs he arranged for Ronnie Dove was released, "One Kiss For Old Times Sake", which became a Top-20 pop hit. This was backed with a song arranged by Bill Justis titled "No Greater Love".

Ray was heavily involved in the early recording career of Ronnie Dove and if you search various single releases you'll find Ray's name listed as music arranger. The singles were released on a label called Diamond Records and most of the songs were recorded at Fred Foster Sound Studio. Some of the other single releases that Ray arranged for Ronnie Dove include: "A Little Bit of Heaven", "Kiss Away", "I'm Learning How To Smile Again", "Dancin' Out of My Heart", and several more. Now, based on my research over the years, I found evidence of Ray being credited as the music arranger for 16 songs recorded by Ronnie Dove between the years 1964 through 1968. 10 of those were released on commercial singles as either the A or B side while the other 6 recordings were album tracks. Something of note is "Kiss Away" being written by Billy Sherrill and Glenn Sutton. Ronnie's recording became a Top-40 pop hit as well as a Top-10 Easy-Listening hit in the fall of 1965. In between the releases of Ronnie Dove's "One Kiss For Old Times Sake" in February 1965 and "A Little Bit of Heaven" in May 1965, Mercury Records released what, at the time, was thought to be their final commercial single on Ray...the novelty "Mr. Baker the Undertaker" backed with another novelty, "The Old English Surfer". The popularity of surfer music in 1965 is my guess as to the creation of this wacky novelty B-side. It's a bizarre story of an Englishman that plays the violin while riding the ocean's choppy waters on a surfboard. As mentioned this 1965 single ended his professional association with Shelby Singleton and Jerry Kennedy as well as, for now, Mercury Records, and from there Ray became more associated with Monument Records founder, Fred Foster, and Ray soon found himself being credited on Monument releases.

In July of 1965 Monument issued a single on a relatively unknown recording artist by the name of Dolly Parton. She had been recording since 1959 but hadn't had any breakthrough success. This single, "Happy, Happy Birthday Baby", backed with "Old Enough to Know Better", were both produced by Ray and released on Monument. It was her second single release on Monument...her first single release didn't feature any involvement from Ray. The story goes that Ray felt that Dolly was suited more toward pop/rhythm and blues and if you listen to Dolly's single releases on Monument that Ray produced, well, you'll hear the direction he felt she should be guided in. In the meantime Ray was gearing up for something of a musical re-invention...deliberately focusing on serious works of music rather than novelty songs (although that side of him had never completely vanished). In November of 1965 Ray issued his debut single for the Monument label...the marvelous "Party People" from the pen of Joe South. The B-side was another invigorating recording titled "A-B-C". These records, if played along side his previous single releases at Mercury, should cause any listener to immediately notice the major shift in his sound. His voice was a bit deeper...in places it was throaty and aggressive...and the music itself seemed just a notch above what he was doing at Mercury even though by no means am I suggesting his Mercury efforts were lousy or anything.

As we move into 1966 the year got underway with the second single release that Ray produced on Dolly Parton: "Busy Signal". Ray not only produced the song but he wrote it as well. Ironically the B-side, "I Took Him for Granted", was produced by Fred Foster and there's no credit given for the music arrangement. That single was, more or less, immediately followed by "Don't Drop Out" backed with "Control Yourself" in February 1966. Ray produced and arranged those two songs but for the remainder of Dolly's stay at Monument Records the production duties would be taken over by Fred Foster. Dolly eventually moved to RCA Records and became part of Porter Wagoner's stage shows, his massively popular television series, and this major exposure led to her eventual super-stardom. Ray, on the other hand, issued his second single on Monument in March 1966...the rocker "Devil May Care". This was backed with the lovely "Make a Few Memories"...both songs from the pen of Joe South...and both produced by Fred Foster. Earlier I mentioned that Ray didn't entirely abandon novelty songs...and in the summer of 1966 Ray issued "Freddie Feelgood and His Funky Little Five Piece Band" backed with the ballad "There's One in Every Crowd". Freddie returned Ray to the national Hot 100...briefly...but the single release marked the first credit given to Ray's publishing company, Ahab Music. All of Ray's single releases on Mercury and the first several for Monument were credited to Lowery Music. Ray would publish, with few exceptions, all of his own recordings from this point forward. Ray remained busy as a session musician throughout the rest of 1966...two notable recordings he was involved in...Ray was the organist on the B.J. Thomas hit, "Billy and Sue", and he did the string arrangements for Bobby Bare's legendary hit, "Streets of Baltimore". In the spring of 1967 Monument released Ray's fourth single for the label titled "Answer Me, My Love" backed with the uptempo "Mary, My Secretary". Monument didn't issue another commercial single on Ray for the remainder of the year...but in January of 1968 things started to get very interesting...so keep a look out for Part Four of this mini-series!!

Ray Stevens: The Road to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Part Two...

Ray Stevens, while at Mercury Records, became what is known in the music industry as an Artist and Repertoire man...someone that goes over recordings with artists, finds songs for artists to record, and perhaps rehearses the artist prior to the recording session. Those are just some of the more vague things a person in that occupation does. As you can see by looking at the image off to the left Ray was still an active recording artist as well. Let's back up a few months, though...following a late 1960 Christmas release on NRC titled "White Christmas" backed with "Happy Blue Year" Ray eventually found himself signing with the Mercury label in 1961. He still lived in Georgia at the time of his signing and would drive to Nashville for recording assignments throughout 1961. The first single that Mercury released on Ray was also his very first chart appearance on Billboard's national Hot 100 chart. He had previously appeared on the national lists a year earlier, in 1960, if you recall from Part One of this series...he bubbled under the Hot 100 with "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon". The debut single for Mercury, however, reached the Hot 100...not only did it reach the Hot 100 it eased up into the Top-40 area of the Hot 100. It's at this time I should point out, for those that don't know, that the pop music singles chart consists of 100 songs. Technically any song on this list is a 'hit'...however, as time went by and the music industry developed and became gigantic, focus began to zero in on the first 40 songs on the Hot 100 and once the phrase 'Top-40' was coined it became something of an unwritten rule that a song isn't a 'hit' unless it charts within the first 40 slots of the Hot 100.

I, for one, have long felt that having an unwritten rule such as that does a disservice to music and recording artists, in general. The work that goes into the making of just one recording, let alone an entire album, requires a lot of hard work, detail and attention...but yet if a recording or an album goes onto the market but doesn't sell hundreds of thousands of copies or if single releases from an album doesn't receive much airplay, if any, society in general has more or less been trained to regard that recording or album as a failure, as inferior, and something to ignore because it didn't rank on a popularity chart. I think that kind of thinking is crazy. The more 'popular', indicative of whatever single or album is getting the most airplay or the most sales, would determine it's ranking on the charts and over the course of time the art of recording music became a popularity contest rather than it being something that offers artistic expression whether the end result proves to be popular or not.

As you can see from the image above Ray's debut single for Mercury Records is a novelty song. The full title being "Jeremiah Peabody's Polyunsaturated Quick Dissolving Fast Acting Pleasant Tasting Green and Purple Pills". Do you find yourself singing the song's title when typing it out? I do...that's how I remember not to forget any of the words in the title! As I've mentioned in blog entries past I shorten the song's title to "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills". The novelty song approach tended to be the calling card for Ray...the last single from Ray that gained some national attention happened to be comedic...and so he continued that trend with this recording in 1961. It reached the Top-40 of the Hot 100 in the late summer/early fall of 1961. It's B-side, "Teen Years", is a ballad reflecting each teen year of a child's life as they reach adulthood. As hindsight almost always comes into play whenever one writes about past events it's been said by other writers/bloggers and those that write about music history that the song's unusually long title is a novelty all to itself. The entire song's title, also, had to be written on the paper sleeve on the actual vinyl single. You've all seen the paper sleeves...they're small and round to begin with...and to have the task of typing the song's complete title on the single release must've been a challenge. Mercury managed to do it which is all the more impressive given the lack of the kinds of computer graphics in existence nowadays.

In October of 1961 Mercury issued "Scratch My Back (I Love It)"...this is a funny song, more amusing, even though it wasn't probably designed to be comical. I can't help but grin as I listen to Ray relate how soothing and invigorating it feels when he's getting his back scratched...with the subtitle 'I love it' is repeatedly delivered in various harmonies from Ray. It's B-side is his nice cover of "When You Wish Upon a Star"...the same song associated with the Walt Disney company. Ray's recording of the song remains a B-side exclusive...it's never appeared on any albums. The first three single releases from Mercury, by the way, also featured the same art work and photo of Ray...with the obvious differences being song titles and credits. "Scratch My Back", nor it's B-side, reached the Hot 100. In January of 1962 Ray Stevens moved from Georgia to Nashville, Tennessee. As a resident of Music City, USA he could participate on many recording sessions, which he did, and he also established himself as a jack-of-all-trades in the recording studio. He worked under the guidance of Shelby Singleton. It's been reported for decades, and I'm passing it along here, that during a single day in the recording studio Mercury Records utilized Ray's talents on three recordings that became mega-hits. One of those recordings being "Wooden Heart" by Joe Dowell...the other being Leroy Van Dyke's recording of "Walk on By"...and the third being his own recording, "Ahab the Arab". The latter was released in June of 1962 and this is the song that I hinted at in the last blog entry...the single that caused Ray to become a 'super-star' overnight. The single was, of course, a novelty song and it ultimately became his highest charting single up to that time...reaching the Top-10 on the Hot 100 as well as the Top-10 on the Rhythm and Blues chart. The enormous success of the single provided Ray opportunities to appear on television and radio programs that he otherwise wouldn't have been scheduled but funny things happen when a recording artist has a 'hit'...those in the media tend to suddenly acknowledge your existence.

The success of the single provided Mercury the avenue in which to release a full length LP; as was commonplace back then practically every record label would issue singles on a recording artist and if the single or a series of singles proved successful in the label's eyes then they'd release a full length LP containing the songs that had been released as singles plus several album tracks...sometimes the album tracks would surface as future singles but often they'd remain on albums heard only by the most dedicated of fans. The feeling being that only the dedicated of fans would purchase an entire album of songs from one artist...while a general audience is more likely to purchase the single. "Ahab the Arab" tells the story of an Arab and his love for harem woman named Fatima...one of the women in the Sultan's harem...and throughout the song Ray tells of how Ahab and Fatima are in love with one another behind the Sultan's back. Ahab rides the dunes of the desert on a camel named Clyde. Ray has often spoke of the song's origins and how it's based upon the imagery seen in the film, The Sheik, as well as the books on Arabian culture...often cited is One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. The character names, as explained by Ray, come from various inspirations. Ahab is selected due to it rhyming with Arab (when pronounced Ay-rab rather than Air-ub). Fatima was a brand of cigarettes while the camel's name, Clyde, was inspired by Ray seeing Clyde McPhatter walking around in the recording studio one day. Clyde McPhatter, according to interviews I've read and heard from Ray and from passages in his memoir, was one of Ray's musical influences. Mercury edited the original recording of the song...cutting out a third verse...for time reasons. Ray, in later interviews, remarked that he was crushed when told that in order to potentially get airplay for the song it needed trimmed down. Whenever you see the 1995 music video of the song it includes the missing lyrics not included in the single release from 1962. The song's B-side, "It's Been So Long", is a delightful ballad...one of his more soulful of that time period. The success of Ray's first single releases led to Mercury releasing the LP titled 1,837 Seconds of Humor. The album contained almost all of the recordings found on the first three single releases on Ray by Mercury (missing was "When You Wish Upon a Star" and "It's Been So Long"). Some of the other songs on the album were: "Popeye and Olive Oyl", "PFC Rhythm and Blues Jones", "Saturday Night at the Movies", and "Julius Played the Trumpet". There were a lot of songs on that album specializing in pop culture satire which you can tell by some of the song titles. Those that didn't really care for rock and roll music had deep hatred for Elvis Presley...and when he was drafted into the military it tickled a lot of people's funny bones. Those that appreciated the things Elvis did for the music industry and those within the industry that liked this new kind of music also lent their contributions, in song, to the idea of a rock star being drafted into the military. Ray's song, "PFC Rhythm and Blues Jones", tackles the concept of a musician being in the military...in this case it's a rhythm and blues singer who goes by the name of Jones. It's explained that Jones would much rather be back home fronting his rhythm and blues band instead of dodging bullets from the enemy in some foxhole.

Mercury Records issued a further single on Ray in the fall of 1962...this time the love ballad was on the A-side and the comedy song on the B-side. However, the A-side come across as a novelty because it was unusual in it's delivery. As long time fans should already know but I'll explain for newcomers: a lot of Ray's songs in this time period that were intended to be taken seriously were often casually labeled 'novelty' by music critics due to the construction or vocal phrasing being different from what was being heard on radio. Novelty or off-beat were the common descriptions of Ray's serious recordings of this time period even though they were intended to be taken seriously. So, "Furthermore", his fourth single for Mercury, starts out with high falsetto from Ray delivering a scat singing introduction as music plays in the background. The delivery itself crams a lot of lyrics together in strings of what appears, to the ear, as run-on sentences but they're complete sentences but sung fast. It's a love song for sure...but given the performance it's described as off-beat. He re-recorded the song decades later as a slow, bluesy ballad. The B-side of the 1962 original is "Saturday Night at the Movies".

In the winter months of 1962 Mercury released the original recording of "Santa Claus is Watching You". Ray would re-record this song in 1985, with almost an entire set of different lyrics, which was accompanied by a famous music video; and he re-recorded it a second time in 1997. The 1962 original is a cute Christmas novelty...and it reached the Top-50 of the Hot 100. I like the original recording but I love the 1985 re-recording/partial re-write. The Christmas release remained a single exclusive until it began appearing on compilation albums. It should be noted that there's a lengthy recording of 1962's "Santa Claus is Watching You" and there's also an edited version for radio stations that clocks in a little over 2 minutes. The unedited recording is a little more than 3 minutes. You can find an audio clip on YouTube of the unedited 1962 recording by using the search phrase: Santa Claus is Watching You (1962). It was uploaded by a user named verycoolsound. Once you hear it and once you hear the edited version (the edits are noticeable) you'll wonder to yourself the reason why the editing took place...but again one only has to think back on the time period (early '60s) and how pop songs were typically quick and rarely ran longer than 2 and a half minutes whether it be a ballad or an uptempo recording.

As the calendar flipped to 1963 and as Ray was becoming more and more involved in the recording process with his session work and overall duties in the Artist and Repertoire department of Mercury he began to expand his workload...if only in terms of music arranging and other technical aspects of the recording industry. The first single release on Ray from Mercury in 1963 was "Funny Man" backed with "Just One of Life's Little Tragedies". Ray experienced some success in Canada with "Funny Man" as it reached the Top-20 of their pop music chart while on America's Hot 100 it peaked outside the Top-40. Mercury issued their second LP on Ray with the title being This is Ray Stevens. The overall flavor of the album was an almost even mix of comedy and serious recordings and it wasn't as pop culture heavy as the previous LP in 1962. "Harry the Hairy Ape" became a hit for Ray in the summer of 1963...it's all about an ape that wants to be a rock and roll singer...and how his entertaining ways leads to his becoming a recording artist following an encounter with a disc jockey. This novelty single became a Top-20 pop hit in America as well as a Top-20 Rhythm and Blues hit. On Canada's pop music chart it reached the Top-30. Ray's talents as a songwriter had long been on display. He wrote all the songs found on his first two albums. He and Margie Singleton wrote a song titled "My True Confession" which became a big hit for Brook Benton in the summer of 1963...so Ray not only found himself on the charts as a singer-songwriter of his own material but he was on the charts as a co-writer of the Brook Benton hit. Brook's hit was produced by Shelby Singleton (as was all of the songs found on Ray's first two albums) and it was arranged by Bill Justis. Brook was a major recording artist on the Rhythm and Blues as well as the Easy-Listening chart...the latter being a format devised in the aftermath of rock and roll...radio stations played songs from pop music artists who appealed mainly to adult audiences instead of teenagers. On the Hot 100 Brook's recording reached the Top-30 but in the Easy-Listening format it skyrocketed into the Top-10...it repeated this same Top-10 success on the Rhythm and Blues chart in 1963 as well.

Ray entered into a unique situation around this time period. I've never known the specific details but I've been able to come up with somewhat vague information stating that Ray signed a deal with Monument Records in 1963 as a producer/arranger/session musician while still under contract with Mercury Records as a recording artist. This meant that Ray would still issue recordings for Mercury Records but for Monument he was signed as a behind-the-scenes artist. The final single release from Mercury in 1963 on Ray happened to be "Speed Ball" backed with the ballad "It's Party Time". The A-side was another novelty hit...reaching the Hot 100 for several weeks...while reaching the Top-30 on the Rhythm and Blues chart. The B-side wasn't released on any album. I'm hoping that the first two chapters in this mini-blog series is helping go a long way at showcasing just how varied Ray's music career happens to be. In Part Three I won't be as story-telling as I probably come across in this blog entry...for in Part Three I'll be bringing into focus Ray's career as a music arranger and producer for other artists in addition to the recordings being issued on Ray by Mercury Records...so be on the look out for Part Three soon!

Ray Stevens: The Road to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Part One...

Hello all once again!! The beginning of another month is underway...which also means a slate of upcoming concerts by Ray Stevens at his CabaRay showroom. He performs there mostly on Friday and Saturday evenings and occasionally on a Thursday, too. The August series of concerts got underway this past Friday (August 2nd) and the remaining August concerts are being held on the following days: 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 23, 24, 30, and 31. The bold numbers indicate a Thursday night concert. I can't say it enough and for some it may sound like a broken record but if you have not visited this venue and taken in it's spectacular design, interior decoration, and the concert itself then I suggest you plan a trip to Nashville and add the CabaRay to your list of destinations. The CabaRay webpage is easy to navigate...everything you need to know can be found HERE.

Did you all catch any episodes of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville over the weekend...either on local PBS stations or the national RFD-TV network? Here in my area I'm fortunate to have an hour of Ray (yay!!). The local PBS station aired an episode guest starring Linda Davis at 8pm Saturday night...followed at 8:30pm on RFD-TV with an episode guest starring Gary Puckett.

I have this image posted first in the pictorial time-line over on the right hand side of the blog due to it being the first commercially issued single on Ray Stevens. The single, as I made note of off to the right, came along on Prep records in 1957. This label was owned by Capitol Records...in the music industry Prep was known as a subsidiary due to it being owned by a larger company. "Silver Bracelet", written by Ray, started it all. It's a good song and if you know anything about pop music in the mid '50s to the mid '60s then you're already aware that a lot of the recordings of that time period have been referred to as teenage ballads if they weren't explicitly a rock and roll vocal performance. This is part one of a series of blog entries where I'm attempting to examine Ray's road to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Yes, as you can imagine, the road leading to this much deserved honor wasn't a road that was under construction for decades with election to the prestigious hall being an absolute certain. Ray's career has long been identified by the various styles of music that influenced him growing up in Georgia...with country music being among those music styles...but a lot of his phrasing leaned more toward rhythm and blues artists and pop music vocalists. His fondness for comedy/novelty songs had been there from the beginning as well...the B-side of "Silver Bracelet" is a novelty titled "Rang Tang Ding Dong I'm the Japanese Sandman". Interestingly, though, a lot of on-line music sites credit "Silver Bracelet" as the B-side even though neither side of the single has an A or B designation. I think a lot of historians, given Ray's reputation for comedy, retro-actively consider "Rang Tang Ding Dong" as the A-side...but that's my opinion. The bottom line is this is the single that's considered his debut on records. It was not a national hit but Ray has often said that it was a local hit in Atlanta, Georgia. Ray was still in high school and had earlier fronted a local band, The Barons, in addition to becoming a radio disc jockey on a local station, WGPC, and so he was receiving a lot of experience as a performer/presenter long before his name ever appeared on vinyl...but had it appeared on vinyl it would've been Harold Ragsdale! His name had been changed for professional reasons by Capitol Records producer, Ken Nelson.

Born Harold Ray Ragsdale on January 24, 1939 he became Ray Stevens on records in 1957. Prior to this, as mentioned, he was known as Ray Ragsdale and during his sophomore year in high school (1954-1955) he and a co-host, Mary Dale Vansant, were personalities/disc jockeys on Albany, Georgia radio station, WGPC, hosting a program called The Record Hop. Sock hops were all the rage at the time...and Ray's band, The Barons, performed at a lot of sock hops. Relocation based upon his father's work forced the family to move from Albany to Atlanta, Georgia and as a result Ray graduated high school in Atlanta rather than Albany following the 1956-1957 school year. The origin of the stage-name, Ray Stevens, is derived from his middle name, of course, and the maiden name of his mother, Stephens, but spelled on records as 'Stevens'. In research from years past I discovered that in high school he went by the name of 'Ray Ragsdale' instead of 'Harold' or 'Harry'. Bill Lowery published the "Silver Bracelet" recording and as explained in earlier blog entries he was something of a mentor of Ray in those very early years...persuading Ray to pursue a career in music education rather than education in architecture. According to Ray's memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, Bill Lowery's influence guided him to make the decision to enroll in Georgia State rather than Georgia Tech. When Ray entered college he continued his recording career. It's worth pointing out that this secondary passion in architecture led to Ray, decades later, becoming something of a mogul in real estate and having a hands-on approach in the design of his former music theater in Branson, Missouri as well as his current venue, the CabaRay, in Nashville, TN. Ray's recordings for Prep were followed by a series of recordings for the Capitol label itself but eventually Ray found himself on a label owned by Bill Lowery, NRC, which stood for National Recording Company. The recordings Ray made for Capitol and NRC were post-high school and were recorded while Ray was attending Georgia State. In this era Jerry Reed, Joe South, Billy Joe Royal, and Ray were all featured performers on a local music series, The Georgia Jubilee.

One of the recordings that Ray did for NRC almost became his first breakthrough national hit...a novelty song issued in 1960 titled "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon" based upon the fictional character of the same name. The single was on it's way at breaking into the national Hot 100 pop chart but all of that hype and advertisement for the song caught the attention of the lawyers of King Features Syndicate, the owners of the character. They threatened a lawsuit and so NRC pulled all of the records off the market. Ray remained in college and continued recording whenever he could...ultimately, though, he found himself, as he often remarked, and I'm paraphrasing: "receiving real time experience in the music industry..." and a pursuit of a degree became less important and he dropped out of college at some point in 1961.

It was during this calendar year that he was signed to Mercury Records and it was also during this time period in which his career started to fall under the guidance and direction of Shelby Singleton and he began making himself known as a session musician and music arranger. Ray also found himself in the hustle and bustle of the booming Nashville Sound era that had been sweeping country music into crossover territory since the late 1950s. Although Ray, on records, was marketed as a pop artist and his background consisted largely of pop, novelty, and rhythm and blues influences he always included country music as a favorite listening choice as well and he seemingly felt at ease with pop music, rhythm and blues music, and country music and he worked almost equally as a singer/songwriter/musician/arranger/producer in those music formats and he would eventually form a music publishing company. It is in this era, 1961-1962, in which Ray formed his life long friendships and associations with producers and session musicians up and down Music Row. To name only several: Shelby Singleton, Chet Atkins, Harold Bradley, Boots Randolph, Floyd Cramer, as well as members of The Jordanaires and the list goes on and on. Felton Jarvis, a legendary music figure in his own right, was also associated with Ray...but more in a personal kind of way...for he was Ray's brother-in-law. The two men happened to marry a couple of sisters and so they were brothers-in-law for many years.

I'd like to say that once Ray joined Mercury Records in 1961 that he suddenly became a big time recording artist but, in truth, he was becoming an in-demand session musician and his prowess in the art of music arranging became the main source of his creative output...he hadn't made an appearance on the national music charts yet...this would change in 1961 but he wasn't the 'super-star' overnight...this ascension didn't come along until the next year. He was still living in Atlanta, Georgia in 1961 as well...and this, too, changed when the calendar flipped to January 1962. However, I'm wrapping up part one of this mini-blog series in the year of 1961 and in a future blog entry I'll pick up the narrative as we walk down Ray's road to the Country Music Hall of Fame. I may stretch out this blog series to run through mid October...for it's during the month of October (usually the last week) in which newly elected members of the Country Music Hall of Fame are officially inducted in the private gala known as the Medallion Ceremony. I'm wanting the final part of this mini-blog series to conclude right around the time Ray is officially inducted.