Ray Stevens: The Encyclopedia...Eight Years Later...

It was right around this time eight years ago that Ray Stevens released his mammoth 9-CD collection, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The official release date happened to be February 28, 2012. As you can see in the photo on the left I purchased my copy of the collection. In various interviews leading up to the release and in follow-up interviews after it became available Ray remarked that he worked on the project for two years. The box set contains Ray's versions of the most memorable novelty and comedy songs of all-time...each song appears in alphabetical order on 8 compact discs. A 9th CD is referred to as a bonus collection featuring songs pulled from Ray's contemporary projects. Now, given that Ray Stevens is himself a legendary performer of novelty songs, it makes sense that throughout the first 8 discs there are selections that Ray previously recorded for himself along side his versions of other artist's novelty songs. There are 12 songs on each disc. On Disc Two, for example, the song titles cover letters C through G. As you can see I noted which recording artist originally did the song...however, I should be more specific...it's a notation on the recording artist that made the song popular...and not necessarily a reflection on who originally recorded it. I should have used the phrase 'made popular by' instead of 'originally recorded by'...but anyway, here's the track list on disc two:

1. Chug a Lug (originally recorded by Roger Miller)
2. Cigareetes, Whusky, and Wild, Wild Women (originally recorded by Sons of the Pioneers)
3. Cocktails for Two (originally recorded by Spike Jones)
4. Convoy (originally recorded by C.W. McCall)
5. Dang Me (originally recorded by Roger Miller)
6. Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavor (originally recorded by Lonnie Donegan)
7. The Dooright Family (originally recorded by Ray Stevens, 1980)
8. Downtown Poker Club (originally recorded by Phil Harris)
9. Dropkick Me, Jesus (originally recorded by Bobby Bare)
10. Dry Bones (origins date back to 1928)
11. Freddie Feelgood (originally recorded by Ray Stevens, 1966)
12. Get a Job (originally recorded by The Silhouettes)

When the project was released there was a lot of confusion surrounding the content...on-line commentary on social media sites of the time period wondered if this was a collection of recordings that Ray gathered up of other performers and was spotlighting the original hit songs. A remark made on a CD review site 'warned' consumers that this is a collection of Ray Stevens recordings and not the originals made popular by the likes of Spike Jones, Roger Miller, The Big Bopper, etc. That reviewer was unhappy that Ray didn't feature the actual recordings of those songs but instead sang his own versions. Yes, as you can tell, that reviewer completely missed the point of this project altogether. That sort of confusion was short-lived thanks to the advertising of the project on social media outlets. One of the several video clips advertising the box set goes into detail about the making of the project and there's heavy emphasis placed on the fact that the songs on the box set are recordings by Ray Stevens and were done as a tribute to the greatest novelty songs of all time.

The video hosting site, YouTube, was the avenue upon which Ray uploaded the advertising for the 9-CD Encyclopedia. The video hosting site had been very beneficial to Ray and so when it came time to begin promoting the collection there were a series of commercials uploaded onto YouTube and then shared throughout the internet. The longest commercial ran 4 minutes and the shortest at 45 seconds. The shortest commercial was designed, specifically, to air on television stations even though there's a video clip that runs 1 minute, 33 seconds meant for television airing, too. Here's that particular video clip, with voice over by Charlie Chase, advertising the collection:



One thing you have to keep in mind is that the above advertisement is from 2012 and it features the original sales price which I found incredibly reasonable with everything you'll be getting: 9 CDs and a thick booklet filled with all kinds of information and personal commentary from Ray on the songs he decided to record for the project. The longer commercial, at 4 minutes, is also from 2012 and it features Ray's longtime songwriting associate, Buddy Kalb, acting as host/emcee:



In this video clip from February 27, 2012 it shows footage of Ray inside the studio, at the piano, as he gives a brief synopsis of why he decided to take on the task of recording his versions of classic novelty songs:



Now, then...fast forward eight years later and we're here on February 23, 2020. The price of this 9-CD novelty fest has dropped...but something like that is to have been expected...the older something becomes the lesser the sales price (unless the item offered has become a rarity then it gets more expensive as time passes). Although I think the original sales price was reasonable it's being sold for a lot less nowadays. On December 7, 2019 the video clip featuring Charlie Chase's voice-over from 2012 was re-uploaded onto YouTube but with a reflection on the new sales price. In addition to the lower sales price it also includes free shipping and handling, a rarity for practically anything in mail order. If you don't have this collection then you should definitely think about purchasing it. In my opinion I feel all fans of Ray Stevens should own this but that's just my opinion.