February 2, 2020

Ray Stevens: A Brighter Day shines like Gold...

I usually don't compose a blog entry focusing on the golden anniversary of a B-side but given that Ray Stevens, yesterday, uploaded an audio clip on YouTube of his 1970 recording, "A Brighter Day", I decided to put together a short essay/blog. The song is very inspirational and served as the B-side of "Everything Is Beautiful". As with practically all of his recordings back then "A Brighter Day" was written, produced, and arranged by Ray. Ironically, though, the album that contains "Everything is Beautiful" and "A Brighter Day", titled Everything is Beautiful, is filled with Ray's versions of other pop songs of the day. The album was rush released to capitalize on the phenomenal success of the A-side.

The single was an international hit with picture sleeve's of Ray placed on nearly every release across the globe. The photo off to the left appeared on the single release in Portugal. Ray recorded for Barnaby Records beginning in 1970 and the label's distribution was being handled by CBS Records. I mention that in case anyone wonders why there's a CBS logo on the top left side of the picture sleeve. "Everything is Beautiful" / "A Brighter Day" was not a two sided hit single but for those that purchased the single, and bothered to flip it over, you would've discovered "A Brighter Day" on the B-side. It's funny, though...back in the days of the vinyl single customers rarely had any interest in playing the B-side. If they purchase a single for the A-side then, by God, that's the side they're going to listen to. I know this mentality because in the declining years of the vinyl single my grandfather rarely turned a single over to hear the B-side. In his mind he figured that he purchased the single for one song and he had little to no interest in the B-side. This mentality is the main reason why singles greatly outsold albums for several decades...a casual listener only wanted to purchase the 'hit' song whereas a fan wanted to hear an entire album. When singles began vanishing from retail stores the public had no choice but to purchase an entire album's worth of songs...now, there were cassette single's being manufactured but those weren't distributed widely...and so a general audience had to purchase an entire CD.

In 1992 a compilation album titled A Brighter Day was released on Clyde Records, a label Ray owns. The photo off to the right is what appeared on the 2-CD collection. There was also a 2-cassette version released as well. To this day I do not own that particular project. When I was a member of Ray's fan club (it closed in 2002) I used to receive mail-order catalogs in the mail advertising Ray's cassette tapes and CDs. A Brighter Day, being a collection of 21 songs on 2 CDs or 2 cassettes, was the most expensive product in the entire mail-order catalog. I joined Ray's fan club in 1994...two years before I got my first job out of high school in 1996. My parent's paid for my first two years as Christmas and birthday gifts in 1994 and 1995. After I got a job in 1996 I paid my own membership dues every year until the fan club closed in 2002. Anyway, the main reason I didn't purchase A Brighter Day back then was due to economics/personal finances at the time. Oh how I wish later on I purchased it...although I had all of those songs on other albums I simply wish I had the collection for completest purposes. It's an obscure release. I don't think it's been available for purchase in more than 15 years...maybe longer. My attitude at that time was "I already have those songs..." but since then my attitude's changed to purchasing compilation albums based on how obscure something may become no matter if I already have the songs. Obviously I developed that attitude well after A Brighter Day was removed from the mail-order catalog and to my knowledge it's never been offered on Ray's on-line web-store. I often see it come up for sale on eBay but I'm leery about purchasing on auction sites nowadays. Some may see that as procrastination or a flimsy excuse...but that's how I feel at the moment. In the meantime let's take a listen to what this blog entry is all about...the legendary Ray Stevens sings "A Brighter Day"...


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