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

As we enter 1992 Ray had recently wrapped up Season One in Branson, Missouri at The Ray Stevens Theatre. The theater had it's grand opening in May of 1991 and closed for the season just before Christmas 1991. He had inserted video snippets into his stage show...a large screen hung high above the stage and whenever he would perform a song there would sometimes be visual accompaniment playing above the stage to enhance the performance. The video content was a hit with audiences and so Ray issued a VHS sold exclusively at his theater of several comedy music videos. This primitive collection would be the stepping stone for a future release that took the VHS market by storm in 1992. It is probably an understatement to say that Ray Stevens dominated the television and print advertisements throughout the bulk of 1992 and into 1993. The direct marketing campaign for the VHS collection of music videos, Comedy Video Classics, began in the spring of 1992 through television commercials and it later morphed into print advertisements in newspapers, magazines, and even within the pages of TV Guide. The collection consists of eight music videos. Four of the music videos had previously been released: 1985's "Santa Claus is Watching You", 1988's "Surfin' U.S.S.R.", and his two 1990 music videos "Help Me Make It Through the Night" and "Sittin' Up with the Dead". The four new music videos were: "It's Me Again, Margaret", "The Mississippi Squirrel Revival", "The Streak", and "Everything Is Beautiful". The commercial for the VHS tape ran on network and cable television outlets...a majority of those commercials airing on cable television stations and as the sales campaign continued full steam ahead the more ever-present Ray's likeness and name had become. The VHS was released through his own label, Clyde Records, which had opened for business in 1988. It's first project was the 1990 direct market Boots instrumental album, from saxophonist Boots Randolph, that I made mention of in the last installment of this mini-blog series. Comedy Video Classics was phenomenal...it set records for VHS sales and ultimately was recognized by the RIAA for having sold more than 2.5 million copies through direct mail.

Ray's theater was the number one destination in Branson for tourists and locals alike and the Comedy Video Classics commercials continued to air, as mentioned, throughout the rest of the year. A secondary VHS was released through his gift shop and fan club titled Amazing Rolling Revue. This 1992 release was actually an unsold pilot for a television series that was never picked up. The footage, as far as I know, was taped at some point in the latter half of 1991 or early 1992 at the latest. The reason I say that is because there's a brief sketch centering around the alien, Zoltar, from the song Ray recorded in 1991 called "Tabloid News". On the VHS this sketch is referred to as 'The National Supermarket Checkout Examiner', a phrase heard in the song as well. As the television commercials and print advertisements for Comedy Video Classics continued to be a presence Ray won his seventh consecutive Music City News Comedian of the Year trophy. His first win having come in 1986. The second season of concerts from Ray at his Branson theater were well underway by the summer of 1992. Ray's record label, Curb/Capitol, officially split...and further audio recordings from Ray would be issued on Curb Records. His publishing company, Ray Stevens Music, would begin enjoying the massive popularity of "Cadillac Style"...a single from country artist Sammy Kershaw. The song was Sammy's debut single and when released in October of 1991 it immediately drew comparison to George Jones. The single remained a country radio staple for several years long after it's peak in early 1992. It was written by a writer that worked for Ray's publishing company.

Interestingly Curb/Capitol didn't finance or actively promote Comedy Video Classics...all of the publicity and promotional work in the direct marketing campaign was done independent of Curb/Capitol. In the spring of 1993, almost a year to the day that Comedy Video Classics hit television airwaves, the VHS was issued to retail stores for the first time and guess who distributed the VHS to retail stores? It was Curb Records. I'd always been under the impression that Curb didn't want to risk anything on a unique concept of selling music videos on VHS tape and passed on the opportunity of participating in the direct mail campaign but then jumped at the chance to distribute the VHS for retail availability. In retail stores it sold Platinum...a sales threshold indicative of over 1,000,000 copies sold...giving it an estimated sales total at that time of 3.5 million. The VHS entered the Billboard Home Video chart during the first week of May 1993...in the runner-up position. It took over number one the following week and it would remain on the Home Video chart for over a year...seldom ranking below number five during the first half a year of retail availability.

The following month Ray took home his eighth consecutive Comedian of the Year trophy at the annual Music City News awards. The same month Curb Records issued their third studio album on Ray...an album that caused a lot of confusion at the time and still causes confusion for many. Classic Ray Stevens arrived in June 1993 filled with brand new comedy songs...but the album's title had led a number of fans and those that run on-line music stores to label it as a compilation or a sampler album of previously released songs. The album received it's title to go hand-in-hand with the art work on the photo. The cover features a bust of Ray...mocking the bust of Beethoven...and the art depicts a classical music scene. Nevertheless a lot of people couldn't grasp the album's title...but the song being pushed as a single made it's debut during the 1993 edition of the Music City News awards. Ray performed "If Ten Percent is Good Enough for Jesus" to the delight of the audience...a satirical song criticizing Congress for the escalation in higher taxes and the mentality of punishing the successful with even higher taxes. Upon the conclusion of this song the very next category presented at the Music City News awards was for Comedian of the Year...and as Ray stood in the wings he heard his name called out for the eighth consecutive year!! The recording of "If Ten Percent is Good Enough for Jesus" found on the Curb Records album is from his Branson, Missouri theater. The remainder of the album is chock full of novelty songs touching on a wide variety of topics as well as a love ballad. The ordeal of a father being coach of his son's "Little League" team is detailed as is the overly zealous nature of some security officers in "Super Cop". The novelty, "The Bricklayer's Song", is found on here. Ray's cover is faithful to the traditional manner in which the song is performed and it was recorded at the Branson theater which Ray was performing in for his third consecutive season. This particular song has several alias titles...one of it's titles is "The Sick Note" while another is "Why Paddy's Not at Work Today" and then there's "Murphy and the Bricks".

I've always liked the comical stories of Jerry Clower and there's a song on here that takes one his stories and translates it into music form: "The Higher Education of Ol' Blue". The song's story counterpart from Jerry Clower is "Crack, W.L., and Rover" from an album he released in 1984 titled Starke Raving!. Ray wrote track seven, "If You and Yo' Folks Like Me and My Folks", while adultery is visited in two distinctly different recordings: the comical "The Ballad of Jake McClusky" and the love ballad, "Meanwhile". A brand new VHS became available through direct marketing from Clyde Records...a performance from his Branson theater and released under the title of Ray Stevens Live!. A second VHS, not sold on television and only available to fan club members and those that visited his gift shop at the theater, was titled More Ray Stevens Live!. The two VHS tapes were of a concert broken in two parts.

In the fall of 1993 after three consecutive seasons of sold-out and near sell-out shows at his Branson, Missouri theater Ray Stevens shocked the tourism industry and the locals of Branson by announcing the closure of his theater. Ray cited health reasons and over exhaustion as a result of two shows a day, six days a week for a span of 6 months per year. It was estimated that during the 18 months that the theater was in business during the 1991, 1992, and 1993 seasons Ray performed for nearly 1.5 million visitors. In interviews Ray spoke of the physical exhaustion and pointed out the irony in that most artists that opened up a theater in Branson did so because they were tired of life on the road and often sleepless or near sleepless nights going from one town to the next during extensive tours. He said the irony for him is that the daily grind wore him out and the idea of having a venue where the fans come see you rather than you go see them backfired for him...and he couldn't wait to take a lengthy vacation and rejuvenate himself physically before resuming his career. In hindsight the pace of the schedule is what caused the exhaustion...two shows a day, six days a week...artists 10 to 20 years younger than Ray, I bet, wouldn't have been able to pull off that kind of schedule but Ray managed to do it for an 18 month period. One of his lesser known nicknames happens to be the Energizer Bunny...and he proved it.

As 1993 came to a close Ray certainly earned a lengthy vacation. He scaled back his television appearances...except for the commercials that continued to air promoting Ray Stevens Live!...and he remained out of the spotlight, deliberately, for most of 1994...except for occasional appearances on interview shows airing on The Nashville Network. On one such appearance he received multiple plaques from the RIAA for the sales achievements of Comedy Video Classics in the realm of direct mail and retail. Billboard Magazine recognized it with a Video of the Year plaque.

The year of 1994 started off on a high note in spite of Ray's break from the concert stage and desire for some kind of vacation. Ray's publishing company shared in the success of "I Can't Reach Her Anymore" from Sammy Kershaw which became a big hit during the first half of the year. The writers, at the time, worked for Ray's publishing company. The single hit in January of 1994 and eventually reached the Top-10. The two single releases that Ray published on Sammy Kershaw were recurrents on country radio...a recurrent is an industry term given to a single that is still heard well after it's left the weekly countdown. "Cadillac Style" and "I Can't Reach Her Anymore" dominated the airwaves on country radio during a good portion of the mid to late '90s even though neither single claimed the number one position on the Country singles chart. Ray's direct mail company, Clyde Records, added some additional VHS titles to their impressive catalog of releases in the spring of 1994 in the form of stand-up comedy from Russian-born, United States comedian, Yakov Smirnoff. The comedian had been a hit on the national level for quite some time and he introduced a catchphrase, "what a country!", into the collective English-speaking vernacular. He signed an exclusive direct mail contract with Ray's Clyde Records company in 1994 and almost immediately a couple of VHS projects were released: What a Country! and Just Off the Boat.

While all of this was going on with Clyde Records, simultaneously, Curb Records began it's retail distribution of Ray Stevens Live! in the spring of 1994 as well. That particular VHS made it's debut on Billboard's Music Video chart the first week of May. In June Ray won his ninth consecutive Comedian of the Year honor at the Music City News awards. In the fall of 1994 after nearly a year of being on a self-imposed vacation, with his name and likeness continuing to appear in the weekly Billboard Music Video chart and in television commercials ensuring consistent publicity during his hiatus, Ray embarked on an ambitious project which ultimately surfaced almost a year later. In the final month of the year a quick look at Billboard's chart for Top Videos for the week ending December 3, 1994 finds Ray Stevens Live! with 31 weeks on the chart and Comedy Video Classics, by this time certified Triple-Platinum, in it's 83rd chart week. The two VHS tapes continued their strong sales on into the next year and all the while Ray was busy on a most secret project...but rumors were swirling that he was going to throw his hat into the ring and become a movie star!?! We'll get to bottom of all this in Part Eighteen!!