Ray Stevens: Snap Shot of a Georgia Teen...

Ray Stevens, 1956

Hello all...this photo of teenage Ray Stevens was posted on his social media sites last Thursday. The information surrounding the photo states that it's from the mid 1950s when Ray was still a resident of Albany, Georgia before his family moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1956. I label the photo as having been taken in 1956 but it could have been 1955...the social media posts state he was 16 and so that would have been some point between January 24, 1955 and January 23, 1956. So, yes, it's more than likely the photo originated in 1955. Whatever the specific month and year the point is that it's a snap shot of a Georgia teenager that became a legendary figure in the music industry and ultimately found himself elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019. In the formative years he was known by his birth name, Harold Ragsdale. His middle name being Ray he would use the name 'Ray Ragsdale'. As a teenager in Albany, Georgia he formed a Rhythm and Blues band called The Barons and they would perform at various events throughout the region. In addition to this he would find himself on local radio station, WGPC, hosting a Saturday afternoon show called The Record Hop with co-host Mary Dale Vansant. This radio program, according to an interview Mary Dale Vansant gave, aired from 1pm to 4pm beginning in the summer of 1954 and that she and Ray often worked on the show for three to four hours ahead of air-time. In the radio industry it's called show preparation. The interview is great and it offers insight and recollection of Ray's early years prior to his national breakthrough in the early 1960s. The webpage features several pages about Ray's career including snippets from newspaper articles. Ray, as many of you should know, was born in Clarkdale, Georgia on January 24, 1939. He and his family (father Willis, mother Frances, and brother John) moved from Clarkdale to Albany in 1949.

Ray Stevens, 1954

The seeds of Ray's career were planted in Albany and by the time he had found local popularity/fame through The Barons and on local radio he had to give it up in 1956 after the company his father worked for caused a mandatory relocation from Albany to Atlanta. Ray began his senior year in 1956 at Druid Hills High School...and graduated from there in 1957. Ray continued his music pursuits after the move to Atlanta and it's here that he began his lengthy association with music publisher Bill Lowery...eventually leading to Ray's first professional recording, "Silver Bracelet", on the Prep label in 1957. Prep was a subsidiary of Capitol Records. The pictorial time-line along the right hand side of my blog page shows an image of that single. The image off to the immediate right is a publicity photo of Ray during his disc jockey years in the mid 1950s. According to Mary's interview she decided to leave the show after a year and a half but remarked that Ray continued on with a new co-host named Diane Flowers. I have searched all over the internet down through the years and haven't been able to find anything regarding her connection to Ray's career. When I perform internet searches for her I most often type 'Ray Stevens + Diane Flowers + Georgia' or 'Ray Ragsdale + WGPC + Diane Flowers' but nothing ever comes up in the search results pertaining to Ray's months on the air with the new co-host. I refer to it as months on the air because when Mary stepped away from The Record Hop it would've been late 1955, she mentions in her interview about being Ray's co-host for a year and a half, and with Ray's move to Atlanta taking place at some point prior to the 1956-1957 school year that means Ray and new co-host, Diane, would've been on the air for less than half a year or maybe shorter than even that. Perhaps that's why there's no information on-line? Oh well...if just to settle my curiosity I'd love to have precise information surrounding Ray's years on WGPC radio.

When Ray was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019 it sent shock waves throughout the country music community but it was mixture of shock waves. Some people shared the sentiment that "It's about time!! He's such a legendary entertainer!! It's long overdue!" and others shared the sentiment of "What??? How could they elect him?? It's such a joke!!". Those who carry the latter sentiment are a victim of their own perceptions of Ray Stevens. They don't see Ray as a legitimate performer, musician, record producer, music arranger, music publisher, or songwriter and they never will, I guess. To those people they see Ray as a grinning, Joker-like novelty singer unworthy of high praise, critical acclaim, or let alone being a recipient of the highest honor in country music.

I don't gamble or place bets but if I were a betting man I'd have to say that Ray's election to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019 was the longest gap between the start of a professional career (1957) and induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame (2019). That's a time span of 62 years. I can't think of any act, without having to do some lengthy research, that had a longer time span between professional debut to induction. If you count his years as a regional act 2019 marked his 65th year as a performer/musician. The snap shot of a Georgia teen named Ray Ragsdale ultimately took his place in the Country Music Hall of Fame...and his career remains in high gear.