Ray Stevens: I Used to Be Crazy...

One of zaniest novelty songs to come from Ray Stevens happens to be a recording from 1989 titled "I Used To Be Crazy". The album from Ray that year was titled Beside Myself and it marked a departure for Ray to a certain degree. In 1984 Ray signed a recording contract with MCA Records to record comedy albums. A series of successful comedy albums from Ray completely cemented his reputation as a novelty artist. His first five studio albums for MCA were all comedy and most of them ranked high on the Country Album chart. In addition to the studio albums there were several compilation albums that were top sellers of the time period. Below I've listed the releases by MCA on Ray Stevens during the 1984-1988 time period. The albums in bold print are studio albums and those in bold italics are compilation albums:

1984: He Thinks He's Ray Stevens
1985: I Have Returned
1986: Surely You Joust
1987: Greatest Hits
1987: Crackin' Up
1987: Greatest Hits, Volume Two
1987: Get The Best of Ray Stevens
1988: I Never Made a Record I Didn't Like

In that time period Ray seen five of those albums make the Top-50 on the Country Album chart while another, Get The Best of Ray Stevens, became a direct-mail hit. He taped several commercials for the album and advertisements for it appeared in newspapers and magazines. It's considered his first direct-mail project. He Thinks He's Ray Stevens as well as the Greatest Hits album would eventually be certified Gold and then Platinum. I Have Returned and Greatest Hits, Volume Two was certified Gold. After the release of his 1988 studio album he issued Beside Myself in 1989 and unlike the previous five studio albums this one featured a mix of comedy and serious recordings. One of those comedy recordings is the album closer, "I Used To Be Crazy". In this recording Ray displays his skilled mimicry of several celebrities in addition to his mastery of good old fashioned silliness with heavy emphasis on vocal lunacy.

Ray performed this song on an episode of Hee Haw in 1989 and that performance is on YouTube. In the performance he's wearing sunglasses. The official music video came along a few years later in 1995 as part of his direct-to-VHS movie, Get Serious!. Ray's co-star, Connie Freeman, can be seen at the start of the music video. Ray's vocal performance for the 1995 recording is different than his 1989 studio recording. In the 1995 recording, for his movie, he sings the song as his character, Sickmind Fraud, in an exaggerated Austrian accent. The music video has clips from Get Serious! sprinkled throughout when Ray begins to sing about how people cast aspersions on creative souls like himself.

The 1989 performance is wild...



As I said the 1989 performance is certainly wild but the official 1995 music video is wild in it's own kind of way...they're both highly entertaining...



Ray performed this song on an episode of Music City Tonight in early 1996. The entire episode was devoted to the movie and billed as 'Get Serious Night'. In addition to Ray the rest of the country music performers who appeared in cameo roles appeared on this 1996 episode: Chet Atkins, Jerry Clower (more of a supporting player than a cameo role), Johnny Russell, James Gregory, George Lindsey, Williams and Ree. Lorianne Crook and Charlie Chase hosted Music City Tonight. Charlie had a cameo in the movie and it was revealed that Lorianne would have also had a cameo role in the movie had she been available (she was either suffering a flu-like ailment or had undergone surgery of some kind). Ray filmed the movie in and around Burns, Tennessee in the late summer/fall of 1994. I should also point out that when Ray sang "Ahab the Arab" on that 1996 episode Charlie Chase rode out on the stuffed Clyde the Camel prop as Ahab while Lorianne played Fatima. In the show's opening number, "Gitarzan", Ray wore his Tarzan costume from the movie and Jane was played by Buddy Kalb. Neither Connie Freeman, who co-starred in the movie as Charlene MacKenzie, nor Michael Airington, who co-starred as cynical music mogul Damien Darth, appeared on 'Get Serious Night' in 1996.

Ray Stevens and an early '60s novelty...

In one of my earliest blog entries I wrote a blog centered around a particular Ray Stevens recording from 1962 titled "Julius Played the Trumpet". Some of those earliest blog entries, well, they can come across too amateurish and maybe this one will come across that way several years from now. Ray recently uploaded an audio clip on YouTube of his 1962 recording, "Julius Played the Trumpet". I was never in a high school marching band but one of my older sisters happened to be. She played a french horn. In this novelty you'll hear a brief tale of a trumpet player in a Georgia high school marching band who's having trouble with stuck keys and the anger from the band director whose name is exaggerated German-Austrian. I'm sure the last name is fictional but here's my attempt at spelling it: Mr. Schelbergraubanheimen. When you hear the song see if you yourself can spell the band director's name! The song comes from Ray's debut studio album from 1962 titled 1,837 Seconds of Humor.

Ray Stevens: We The People at 10...

First Pressing; April 2010

Welcome to my fan created Ray Stevens blog where I take a look at all aspects of Ray's lengthy career...from it's beginnings to present day. In this blog entry I'm traveling back to 2010 and if you were paying attention to Ray Stevens at that point in time then you're very familiar with his political comedy. It's a phase of his career that you can't overlook given how much of an impact it had on his career going forward. In the years leading up to 2010 Ray was more or less semi-retired and if you read his memoir you'll know that he, briefly, was even contemplated retiring from the road and concert performances altogether. He had returned to Branson and re-opened his former theater for a two season run (2005 and 2006) and he occasionally released CDs on his own record label through his website throughout the middle period of the 2000s. In the latter half of 2009, out of the blue, Ray Stevens issued a music video titled "We The People" on YouTube. He had been issuing his older music videos onto the video hosting site for several months and reaching new audiences in the process. A health care reform bill, officially titled Affordable Care Act, but nicknamed ObamaCare, dominated the news cycle in the latter half of 2019 and Ray's "We The People" music video addressed the bill. The video took off like wildfire in December 2019 and for the next several weeks it kept racking up hundreds of thousands of unique views...eventually the music video surpassed 1,000,000 unique views by late January 2010 and it was all over conservative blog sites and being shared on social media for several months.

The video's rapid rise as an on-line viral video led to Ray being asked to appear on several high profile television shows on the Fox News Channel as well as receiving invitations to be a guest on local talk radio programs to talk about his video and his decision to jump into the political fray. A lot of critics throughout social media found amusement in the fact that usually it's liberal ideology that gets put into songs and yet there was Ray Stevens singing about the importance of conservative and Tea Party ideology. Some critics mistook Ray's music video as a 'joke' but once he began making appearances on Fox News and making the rounds on talk radio it was clear to the critics that this was no joke and that he was serious.

Second Pressing; June 2010

The above image of the We The People album was originally released in what they call an AMRAY case, which as you can see, is identical to your typical DVD. I have the April 2010 release as I wanted to own the collection as soon as it was released through Ray's web store. After the release and massive success of the "We The People" music video the follow-up, "Caribou Barbie", cemented Ray's YouTube success. The song is about Sarah Palin and if you know your Presidential politics she ran as John McCain's running mate in the 2008 election. She was the Governor of Alaska and became a lightning rod within the Tea Party/conservative ranks after making a series of campaign speeches. As a result of her meteoric rise on the national political scene it left her open for all kinds of harsh, brutal, and deeply personal attacks from her critics. She was widely parodied and she overshadowed McCain in nearly all of their public appearances. The actress portraying Sarah Palin in the music video is Lori Stegner and she has several speaking roles in the song. Lori would later appear with Ray in an official duet, "Tim-Tay-Shun", in 2014. After the release of "Caribou Barbie" in March 2010, which to date has received over 647,000 unique views, he turned his focus on Congress once more with "Throw the Bums Out" which became something of an unofficial theme song during the 2010 election cycle. The video was released in March...several weeks after "Caribou Barbie". Ray was invited to the 2011 edition of C-PAC and "Throw the Bums Out" was among the songs he performed. The epidemic of illegal immigration along the southern border of the United States had long been a controversial issue but it became the subject matter in one of Ray's most pointed recordings, "Come to the U.S.A.". The video continues to be one of Ray's biggest YouTube smash hits...issued in May 2010 it's gotten well over 10,000,000 unique views. The actions taken by the Obama Administration and his justice department (you all remember Eric Holder, yes?) well, that song fit right in with the public mood at the time and it was an immediate smash hit. Ray's music videos were consistently among the most viewed/most shared during the first half of 2010.

Third Pressing; 2010

The image off to the left is a re-issue of the AMRAY release featuring the bonus DVD of four music videos. As you can see it's in a traditional jewel case. One of the hoaxes that gets all sorts of charitable donations and is placed as a high priority among some political circles is the concept of global warming. I don't believe in global warming and it was fun to hear "The Global Warming Song" poke fun at the whole idea. The music video is filled with all sorts of sight gags. It hit YouTube in June 2010 and it's gotten over a million unique views as of this writing. The song is about a couple of simpletons who invent a 'left handed hammer' and decide to buy property in a frozen wasteland with the idea that once global warming thaws it out they can re-sell it as a tropical island resort. The video's gotten more than a million unique views and it's one of those satirical songs that you really have to listen to in order to appreciate the humor, I think. A lot of the songs on this 2010 CD are in that vein...nearly all of them feature heavy political comedy and quite a few of them require your full attention. Several songs on this CD that were never made into music videos but I thought they should have been: "Fly Over Country" doesn't get anymore direct than that. In that song Ray tells of small town America and how most, if not all, politicians that leave small town America and head for Washington, D.C. forget where they came from...until it's time for re-election. "Fly Over Country" is the area of the United States that make up Middle America...the area between the East and West Coasts...that politicians 'fly over' as they make their way from one coastal town to the other. I also felt that "We Are the Government" should have been a single/video. In the fall of 2010 Ray returned to Branson, Missouri for a series of concerts at The Welk Theater. In early October footage from his concerts emerged on DVD as Such a Night: 50 Years of Hits and Hilarity On Stage...Live and a secondary release, Patriots and Politics, was also released through his web store.

In August of 2010 Ray released a music video addressing the illegal immigration problem along Arizona's border with Mexico. This song wasn't found on We The People and it received high profile mention on Fox News as well. It also broke the formula of comedy...this particular video was serious. "God Save Arizona" defends the actions of the State's Governor at the time, Jan Brewer, as well as Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The Obama Administration is vilified over their decision to take the State of Arizona to court over their illegal immigration policies. Brewer served as Arizona Governor from 2009 until 2015. The Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, remained in office until his 2017 re-election defeat.

Ray followed up We The People the very next year with Spirit of '76...and that is the CD in which "God Save Arizona" would be found. Ray released several more songs from the 2011 CD in video format throughout 2011 and 2012 but then he returned to We The People in July 2012 with the music video release of "Obama Nation". That video's gotten more than a million unique views as of this writing. Ray ultimately released, in 2012, an essay book titled Let's Get Political. The book features the songwriter/publisher credits and the lyrics to all the songs found on We The People and Spirit of '76. In addition it includes Ray's personal commentary about every song. The back of the book's cover features CD images of his 2010 and 2011 releases as well as a photo of Ray and a photo of Buddy Kalb. This overview was just a tip of the iceberg...if you happened to have been following Ray's career from December 2009 through mid 2013 it was quite a whirlwind. You can search the archives here and read every moment of it in case you are new to his career. If you witnessed it first hand as I did go and re-visit that era of his career in the archives. Ray was at something of a crossroads in his career and "We The People" took him into a bold and different direction that's worth revisiting from time to time.

Ray Stevens: A Digital Album from the United Kingdom...

I don't typically create blog entries based on whatever digital download that comes along featuring Ray Stevens recordings...the reason I don't is because of the overlapping it creates. However, I was performing images searches of Ray Stevens and I came across a very familiar publicity photo of Ray from the mid 1980s. The thumbnail image also had The Best of Ray Stevens written below it and so I opened the site and discovered that a United Kingdom company has issued a 20 song digital album (Mp3). The collection contains randomly chosen recordings of Ray from the late '50s through the early '60s. A previous United Kingdom release from 2014 titled Ahab, Jeremiah, Sgt. Preston and More: The Early Ray Stevens on the Jasmine label covers a lot of the recordings that you'll find on The Best of Ray Stevens. So, then, why am I creating a blog entry for this latest compilation release? I'm doing so because the very last song in the collection, to my knowledge, has never appeared on any previous compilation on Ray Stevens.

"When You Wish Upon a Star" can be heard on YouTube...an official audio clip of the song was uploaded on Ray's social media sites a couple of months ago and the audio had been available prior to that, as well, through an upload by a YouTube user in 2014. In spite of that exposure this 2020 United Kingdom compilation, The Best of Ray Stevens, holds the distinction (as far as I know) as the first compilation on Ray Stevens to include 1961's "When You Wish Upon a Star". The recording originally appeared as the B-side of a novelty titled "Scratch My Back". Whereas "Scratch My Back" and it's predecessor, "Jeremiah Peabody", would go on to appear on Ray's debut album in 1962 (titled 1,837 Seconds of Humor) there wasn't a trace of "When You Wish Upon a Star" to be found. Since 1961 the recording remained out of circulation and to my knowledge wasn't featured on any of the countless compilation albums to surface on Ray Stevens throughout the '70s, '80s, '90s, or the last two decades until now.

I know nothing about this site but I'm sharing a link to it because of it containing Ray Stevens recordings for sale. Here is the LINK. I don't know if you have to become a member of their website in order to purchase music but I'm leaving it up to you all to decide to purchase the songs or not if you don't already have them in your collection as I do. The statistical data shows that the digital download was released on April 22, 2020 by a label called Vintage Jukebox. The site has other Ray Stevens products for sale, too, but I hadn't did a music search yet. It's a United Kingdom web store and so it deals in European pricing and so, obviously, you'll need to use a conversion table and see what 7 pounds, 99 pence is in American dollars. After I post this blog entry I'll explore that web store more thoroughly and in some future blog entry I'll remark on what I found.

Ray Stevens: Duane Eddy CabaRay Nashville performance...

Hello again! In this blog entry I'm embedding a performance of "Forty Miles of Bad Road" from an episode of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. On this particular episode the guest star was Duane Eddy. I wrote a review of that episode and if you want to read it search the archives here. I believe it's in the 2018 archives. It's a Season Three episode and it's part of the locally syndicated PBS package. Ray released the first two seasons of the series onto DVD but the remainder of the series (consisting of four additional 13-episode seasons) hasn't been issued on DVD. Since it's Duane Eddy's birthday a video clip of his appearance appeared on Ray's social media sites today. If you're not familiar with Duane Eddy he is known for a 'twangy' guitar style...in fact Duane Eddy was parodied by Ray in 1962's novelty recording, "The Rock and Roll Show". In the 1962 recording the Duane Eddy-type guitarist is referred to as Wayne Twang.

As you'll see in the video clip not only does Duane play his guitar but saxophonist Denis Solee is on hand performing the song and Ray is there and has a piano solo himself...so here's "Forty Miles of Bad Road" from Season Three of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...

Ray Stevens: 1987 Nashville Now performance and Interview...

Hello all!! It's been awhile since I've posted a fan created Ray Stevens blog entry but here I am with a video embed of a 1987 Ray Stevens performance and interview! The performance comes from an October 1987 appearance on Nashville Now, the show that Ralph Emery hosted for 10 years (1983-1993). The set was light colored and lit up and I believe 1987 was the year that this Nashville Now set was introduced. The prior set contained a sort of dark brown as well as light brown paneling and Ralph himself had a beard in those earlier years of the show. In this 1987 appearance, as mentioned, the set is different but not only that the beard is gone and Ralph has just a mustache. This set and Ralph's mustache would remain the look for several years until another set was constructed (a light blue background, grey chairs, and a grey desk) and in those last few years of the series Ralph was clean shaven and began dying his hair. The photo of Ralph on his 1991 Memories memoir is what I'm referring to. However, the series had one final set change before ending it's run in 1993, and that set design returned to a brown/darker color scheme but it wasn't identical to the early '80s design.

Ray Stevens and Ralph Emery, 1987

In this video clip Ray performs "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" and in the interview segment that follows he speaks about the song. Ralph asks how the song came about...and this leads to one of the song's writers, Margaret Archer, coming onto the set to meet/wave at the studio audience and to those at home watching. Margaret co-wrote the song with Chet Atkins and it was a very popular song for Ray throughout the spring/summer of 1987 while televangelist scandals were popping up left and right in the news cycle. Ralph promotes two of Ray's current releases, Crackin' Up and Greatest Hits, Volume Two. Ralph reads off song titles on the hits album but asks about "Mama's in the Sky With Elvis". Ray tells the story of the song and even recites the first verse and chorus in the interview. I had long thought that Ray put the song on there as an exclusive but according to Ray's interview there was suppose to be a single available in stores of "Mama's in the Sky With Elvis" when that LP was released but "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" had something of a more extended life than anticipated and it continued to be in-demand and popular in various pockets of the country that it perhaps wouldn't have made sense to move on too early while a current single is still having impact. Ray remarked that, by now, "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" has reached it's peak as far as single sales go but the album, Crackin' Up, he says continues to sell. That's just a very brief overview of the video clip but, of course, it's a whole lot better to see the video clip for yourselves.

Ray Stevens: Elderly Stoners Compilation Sketch...

Hello all...in this nearly immediate follow-up to my previous blog entry I'm embedding a video clip posted earlier today on Ray Stevens social media sites. In this clip we go back to 2009 and the footage comes from Ray's sitcom, We Ain't Dead Yet. This series originally aired as an on-line exclusive and so if you're not among those that consider yourself hopelessly devoted to Ray's career and music then it's highly likely you're not familiar with this sitcom. In order to view the sitcom it required a subscription to a service called Ray Stevens Backstage. One of the perks of being part of that subscription based content was the access to footage not publicly shared. Eventually episodes of that sitcom were issued through YouTube for a limited time...they're no longer part of Ray's YouTube channel.

I seen all of the episodes and they were also part of a recent subscription based service called Ray Stevens TV. That particular service came to an end without much notice, the web-host wouldn't commit to extending their service and the subscription site vanished, but during the time it was active it was home to just about everything, video-related, concerning Ray Stevens. It was the place to see his television series, CabaRay Nashville, prior to it becoming widely syndicated on local PBS stations. I don't think there were more than half a dozen episodes of We Ain't Dead Yet...maybe a little more than 6 episodes but fewer than 13 episodes. The series took place inside a retirement home for entertainers called The Encore. Ray sang the theme song and I assume he wrote or co-wrote it. I don't know if a longer version of it exists. One of the recurring sketches focused on a couple of spaced out men clinging to their hippie youth. The brief sketches were compiled together and have been released on this video clip...



If you happen to be a dedicated fan of Ray's you should be aware of a recording in Ray's career which served as the inspiration for those hippie sketches. I won't give it away in this blog entry but search for the song yourselves.

In addition Ray also played another similar character, Rooster, a spaced out patient at The Encore home whose broadcasts are heard only at The Encore. Ray uploaded this video back in early February...

Ray Stevens: 1991 performance of I Saw Elvis in a U.F.O.

One of the funniest comedy songs from Ray Stevens came along in 1989 titled "I Saw Elvis in a U.F.O.". The song itself tackles the tabloid driven newspaper stories where people claim to have either spotted Elvis at a fast-food restaurant or seen him in bizarre places long after his 1977 death. The concert performance of the song was one of Ray's most elaborate. It almost always began with the lights being dimmed and a prerecorded video clip of Ray playing the part of a news anchor, a reporter, and the witness himself would be shown to the audience. Upon the conclusion of the video clip the lights would come up and Ray would start singing the song.

The video clip below, from 1991, is one of those elaborate performances. The prop of a gigantic U.F.O. was part of the stage performances. In this particular video you'll see one of the song's writers, Buddy Kalb, playing the part of the reporter. The dialogue performed in the opening sequence isn't the dialogue performed on the 1989 recording. In this 1991 reenactment Buddy's reporter character uses nearly word for word dialogue found in Ray's 1974 recording, "The Streak", instead of using the reporter dialogue heard on Ray's 1989 studio recording of "I Saw Elvis in a U.F.O.". Ray, playing the role of the witness, offers different dialogue in this 1991 sketch than what's heard in the 1989 recording. In the 1989 recording the witness who claims to have seen a U.F.O. was out in the woods camping with his wife in a Winnebago. In this 1991 performance the witness claims to have seen the U.F.O. hovering over a fast-food restaurant while awaiting food to take to his wife, Ethel. It's my guess that Ray had gotten a lot of audience feedback over how the witness in the 1989 recording sounded so much like the witness who seen "The Streak" in 1974 that they (Ray and Buddy) decided to re-write the opening part of the song to make it appear that the U.F.O. witness is the same man who seen "The Streak".



That performance is from the 1992 VHS, Amazing Rolling Revue. That was the title of a 1991 unsold television pilot Ray produced and since it wasn't picked up by any network Ray decided to issue the 1991 unsold pilot on VHS in 1992 through his fan club. It wasn't sold through nationwide television advertisements and so it wasn't as well known as some of his other VHS releases at that time. Ray had earlier performed "I Saw Elvis in a U.F.O." on the 1989 edition of the Music City News Country Awards. It's my belief that it was the first time Ray performed the song on stage and in that performance it included the gigantic U.F.O. and the pink aliens running all over the place. In the stage performances in Branson, Missouri in the early '90s Ray would be in an Elvis suit while performing the song. Ray appeared as fictional anchorman Stan Blather in the pre-recorded video clip that played before the start of the song in the Branson performances. Ray portrayed the reporter, too, as he had in the 1989 recording; and the witness, also played in the video by Ray, returned to being a camper in the woods in a Winnebago with his wife.

I don't know if Ray continued performing this song after he left Branson in 1993. I don't think he performed it during his brief return during the 2005 and 2006 seasons...and he never performed it in the concerts I'd been lucky enough to attend. I seen him in Mount Vernon, Kentucky at Renfro Valley in 2008; Nashville, Indiana at The Little Nashville Opry in 2009; and on the West Side of Nashville at the CabaRay in 2018.

Ray Stevens: 1974 Hit Parader Article...

This must be a relatively new item on eBay as it's only come to my attention within the last several hours. It's a January 1974 issue of a magazine called Hit Parader. The magazine cover's main subject is the southern rock group Black Stone Arkansas. There are advertisements on the magazine's cover for other acts of the time period and there's reference to that issue's collection of lyrics from current songs. It's not entirely accidental that the magazine's cover doesn't promote an article on Ray Stevens. If I were to have seen this magazine advertised on-line and if there wasn't any reference made to an article inside about Ray Stevens I wouldn't have even concerned myself with the contents of that issue. The same could be said if any fan of Ray would have seen this magazine on a retail rack in 1974 and if they didn't bother to browse through it before purchasing they wouldn't have even been aware of the Ray Stevens article because it's not advertised on the magazine cover. I say it was not entirely accidental that his name isn't advertised on the magazine cover due to rock and roll clashing with the 'pop' music preferred by radio programmers and being played on Top-40 radio.

Even though Adult-Contemporary radio stations were around in the early '70s and had begun popping up in the mid '60s when traditional pop music singers had largely been replaced by rock and roll performers there was nevertheless a growing resentment among disc jockeys of 'rock and roll' music having softer pop and rock songs on their playlists. In an interview of Ray that appeared in a July 1970 issue of TV Guide he remarked: "I'm not what you call a country performer. I'm more pop-contemporary"...the very format that rock and roll publications were hesitant to heavily promote.

The advance of time and the creation of the internet has long since resolved this culture clash and everyone is free to listen to whatever style of music they choose at the click of a button in an on-line music store or on YouTube but this luxury obviously didn't exist back in 1974...and so the acts advertised on the magazine's cover, more than likely, reflect the personal taste of the magazine's owner or it's editor. It's highly unlikely Ray Stevens would enter your mind when you look at a magazine cover spotlighting a rowdy looking rock and roll group...but then again the magazine cover makes mention of a device called an Elecphone from Andy and David Williams (the twin nephews of pop crooner Andy Williams) who were as far removed from rock and roll as you could get in 1974 but the twins managed to achieve the teen idol treatment (numerous appearances in magazines catering mostly to teenage girls) but predictably the duo met with resistance from radio programmers. You can see the magazine by clicking this LINK.

1973

The magazine being issued in January 1974 is notable for it being released several months before "The Streak" came along and it's a glimpse into Ray's career time-line months before that particular smash hit would forever become synonymous with career. The current album from Ray at the time of the magazine's release happened to be Nashville. In the magazine you'll see a photo of the Nashville album and you'll see a photo of Ray taken during the photo session for the album. There is a photo of Ray, with a beard, sitting at his piano inside his recording studio. This is very similar to a photo that appears in the liner notes of a 1997 CD on Rhino Records titled The Best of Ray Stevens. In that photo Ray is grinning from ear to ear but in this magazine photo the facial expression is more of a slight smile...but it was definitely taken on the same day in 1973. On the left hand side of the blog entry is a cassette copy of Nashville...something rare...as cassette format was largely overshadowed by vinyl even though existence of cassette tape had been around since the '60s. The music cassette was something of a phenomenon in the 1970s as it enabled people to take their music with them on a portable device as opposed to sitting at home with a vinyl LP of music playing on a turntable. The popularity of the music cassette took off in the late '70s and became the dominant form of music sales in the 1980s even though vinyl continued to be released throughout the decade, too. If you notice there's an MGM logo on the lower right hand side of the cassette. If you know your record label distribution history you're no doubt aware that Barnaby Records went through a series of distributors in America and internationally. The label was distributed by CBS Records in the early part of the '70s and then Janus Records became one of it's distributors. Janus fell under the umbrella of GRT Records. MGM, as you can see, at one time distributed Barnaby Records products. The MGM distribution deal was apparently brief because Ray's earlier LP release in 1973, Losin' Streak, was distributed by CBS Records and his 1974 LP, Boogity Boogity, was distributed by GRT/Janus and in between the release of those two LP's was 1973's Nashville, with MGM distribution.

Ray Stevens: 1990 Golf Sketch...

Hello once more...and I'm here to embed a video clip of Ray Stevens from 1990. The origin of the video is a golf sketch from the television series, Funny Business. If you're familiar with The Nashville Network (1983-1998) and kept up with the career of television/radio personality Charlie Chase then you should be familiar with Funny Business. It was a recurring set of television specials that would air featuring Charlie pulling practical jokes and pranks on country music artists. Sometimes country artists themselves would turn the tables and pull a prank on Charlie. The main execution of the show featured Charlie presenting the clips and afterward the artist upon which the prank/joke focused on would be brought out on stage to give further reaction of how they felt about being the subject of a prank. The very nature of the series was meant to be light, upbeat, and fun...not hard hitting, dramatic, or serious.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of disruption in normalcy and a lot of cable sports networks, for example, air repeats of games from years earlier. Since there isn't hardly anything going on, contemporary-speaking, Ray has filled the void uploading clips from his past which haven't been uploaded on YouTube before.

In this 1990 clip it doesn't feature a prank or a practical joke but it does include an exaggerated and comical demonstration of golf from Ray Stevens...and what I consider to be a brief, visual reference to a popular character created and performed by Tim Conway...

Ray Stevens performs "Gitarzan" from 1972...

Hello out there!! Does it seem as if there's a glimmer of hope on the horizon surrounding this COVID-19 pandemic? If you watched much news coverage Thursday (April 16th) then you're more than likely aware of the Phase-In Plan to re-open the economy. It's only a plan and it's going to be strict in the first couple of phases but it does appear that there's some vision to get the country open and relax some of these borderline oppressive restrictions and rationing that's taken place over the last month. In the meantime...

Ray Stevens, yesterday, issued a vintage performance from 1972...a performance of his 1969 single, "Gitarzan", from an episode of Hee Haw. In this same episode he performed "Isn't It Lonely Together" but the reason "Gitarzan" was posted on Ray's social media sites is because April 16th was the date in 1969 in which the song reached it's peak position in the Top-10. There is video of Ray performing "Gitarzan" on his 1970 summer show and in that clip he's clean shaven. In the 1972 clip we see one of the earliest performances of Ray with the bearded look that's been so familiar for decades. The beard is present but you can tell it's not necessarily a thick, full-grown beard.



It's an early visual of how he'd look, permanently, from 1978 onward even though there are appearances by Ray in 1975 with an even fuller beard than this. Yes, I find myself musing over the clean-shaven and bearded aspect of Ray's appearance. It's a quirky trait of mine...if you're a long time reader of this fan-created blog you're no stranger to reading this type of commentary! 

Ray Stevens and his A-Team Band...

Oh it's me once again!! Those of you who have seen episodes of the Ray Stevens television show, CabaRay Nashville, will no doubt be very familiar with the house band that Ray refers to as The A-Team. This nickname is in reference to the famed Nashville session musicians of the '50s and '60s who were heard on hundreds of recordings that came out of Nashville...mostly country but they were also used on pop music recordings, too. The musicians were credited as the A-Team and the music was known as the Nashville Sound. Ray's musicians on CabaRay Nashville have, mostly, all appeared on his recordings, too. Now, just to name several musicians: Jerry Kimbrough, Steve Gibson, Denis Solee, Tommy White, Scott Weckerly, Mike Noble, Buddy Skipper. There are more musicians that have took their place on the CabaRay stage during taping of Ray's television show but I only named several.

The production of new episodes is on temporary hiatus but there are 78 half hour episodes that air, out of chronological order, on numerous local PBS affiliates. CabaRay Nashville originated on RFD-TV in November 2015 and it remained on their line-up until late December 2016. The series moved to first-run local PBS syndication in January 2017 but later returned to the RFD-TV airwaves in January 2019...remaining on local PBS stations as well. In November of 2019 the series vanished from the Saturday night RFD-TV line-up without explanation but it continues airing in local syndication on PBS stations as of April 14, 2020.

Yesterday Ray uploaded an instrumental performance by his A-Team of "Sugarfoot Rag"...the lead guitarist on the performance is Steve Gibson. He's not one of the regular musicians on the show but he happened to be there for that taping. The same is true for saxophonist Buddy Skipper. He appears on several episodes along side the show's resident saxophonist, Denis Solee. You will find Denis listed on dozens upon dozens of Ray Stevens albums and for a period of time Steve Gibson was the name seen in the musician credits of Ray's albums. He's credited as one of the guitarists, along with Jerry Kimbrough, on Ray's 2015 album, Here We Go Again!. Ray is very loyal to the musicians that work on his albums and the musicians that appeared on the television show and his concerts. It's safe to say they're all the same musicians. Some artists have a road band and then there's the studio band. Ray is one of those that often has his road band on his records and playing behind him on television appearances.

Here is Ray's A-Team performing the country music classic, "Sugarfoot Rag"...

Ray Stevens and Loretta Lynn...

Loretta and Ray; 1983

Hello to all the fans of Ray Stevens!! Earlier today Ray's social media sites featured a video clip from 1983 of a performance by Ray Stevens and Loretta Lynn. Today is Loretta's 88th birthday. Now, if you're not aware, Ray isn't an artist known for singing duets. On special occasions Ray will perform a duet or participate in a group performance but as far as being known for duet recordings it's next to non-existent. However, in 1983, Ray performed a duet with Loretta Lynn on the CMA Awards 25th Anniversary special. The two performed a medley of Patsy Cline hits. It was an interesting pairing and an unusual one, too. Ray had long been established within the pop music and country music circles as had Loretta...but the unusual pairing of Ray and Loretta reminds me of a punchline to a Jerry Clower story when he went into detail over how much of a country boy he happened to be but he ended his story by saying, and I'm paraphrasing: "...but, folks, let me tell ya, compared to Loretta Lynn I'd be called a city slicker".



Last year Loretta made a rare public appearance in which she attended a concert at the Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom. She and her family/friends sat in the Owen Bradley booth. If you hadn't been to the showroom prior to the COVID-19 pandemic or haven't looked at the interior, available for viewing on-line, there are several corner booths named for legendary record producers. Owen was Loretta's long-time record producer.

Loretta and Ray; 2019

Ray Stevens: Easter Sunday 2020...

Happy Easter Sunday to all the Ray Stevens fans!! In Easter's past I once highlighted Ray's 1990 comedy album, Lend Me Your Ears, because the cover photo has Ray dressed up as Marc Antony, from Julius Caesar, holding a rabbit. This Easter, however, I'm going to lead things off with a gospel recording from Ray Stevens.

An audio clip of Ray's 1972 gospel recording, "Let Our Love Be a Light Unto the People", was uploaded onto Ray's social media pages earlier today. The song comes from the pen of John Ragsdale, Ray's brother, who recently passed away. The track originated on Ray's first gospel album, Turn Your Radio On.



In 2014 when Ray released his second gospel album, The Gospel Collection, he filled out the album with his renditions of gospel and inspirational songs. However, there was one original gospel song on the album from the pen of Don Cusic titled "If Jesus is a Stranger". Ray performed it on several television shows and one of those performances is located below...



The studio recording of "Turn Your Radio On" by Ray Stevens is a bit different than how he performs it in concert. Almost immediately after the single hit in the latter half of 1971 he was performing it with a slightly different vocal delivery with heavy emphasis on rhythm and blues. If you've never seen Ray perform the song in concert and are only familiar with the studio recording from the early '70s take a look at Ray performing the song in 2017 on an episode of the television series Mike Huckabee hosts on The Trinity Broadcasting Network.  The Huckabee television series began in 2008 on the Fox News Channel and ended it's run in 2015. Huckabee ended the series due to his campaign for President. After the 2016 election Huckabee returned to television but on a different network, TBN, in the fall of 2017. The show was still in production prior to the COVID-19 partial lock downs.

This 2017 performance of "Turn Your Radio On" is a bit of a departure as Ray is usually playing a piano or a keyboard when he sings the song but here he's standing on stage belting out the song. Ray's trio of female harmony singers are on hand but his usual group of musicians aren't present on this appearance. Mike Huckabee is seen playing the guitar and it's his band that played behind the music guests.



A couple of blogs ago I wrote about John Ragsdale passing away. In the blog I mentioned a couple of songs that he wrote that Ray recorded. In the blog entry I mentioned "Talking" from Ray's 1970 album, Unreal, and I mentioned "Let Our Love Be a Light Unto the People" found on Ray's Turn Your Radio On album. However, I completely forgot that John co-wrote a 1982 Ray Stevens recording, "Country Boy, Country Club Girl". That song is on Ray's 1982 album, Don't Laugh Now. The co-writer of the song is Buddy Kalb...himself no stranger to the songwriter credits on many Ray Stevens albums. When I was looking at a Ray Stevens CD in my collection, Collector's Series, released by RCA Records, it has "Country Boy, Country Club Girl" on it. The songwriters are credited on that compilation and that's where I was reminded of John's co-write of that song.

There is an audio track of that song on YouTube but it isn't affiliated with Ray's channel. It was uploaded onto YouTube on April 8, 2013. I'm going to embed that 1982 audio recording so you can hear it...perhaps it'll be new to you and maybe entice you to seek out Ray's other early '80s recordings for RCA. Ray's recorded output from the late '70s to early '80s is under-rated, obscure, and often under-appreciated because the majority of his recordings during that time period were not zany, bizarre, comical, novelty songs...his recordings were straight, serious ballads.

Ray Stevens: Con Hunley CabaRay Nashville Performance...

Hello all! I'm playing catch-up and so I'm blogging about a video clip posted on Ray Stevens social media sites a couple of days ago. In this video we see recording artist Con Hunley performing the song "She Ain't You". I did some research because I know he had several country music hits but I wasn't familiar with his overall career. I wrote a re-cap of Con's episode of CabaRay Nashville and you can find it in my archives. Con is one of those artists that developed a following but later on he stopped making records entirely...he wasn't even recording for any small, Independent labels during that time...and the hiatus was nearly 20 years (1986-2004).

Con's highest charting hit came along with a song called "Oh Girl" in 1982 but that, strangely enough, isn't the song that received the most recurrent airplay of his career. That distinction goes to his hit, "No Relief in Sight", which hit the Top-20 the same year as "Oh Girl". It was probably due to "No Relief in Sight" sounding a just a tad bit more country that spurred that particular recording to be among his most notable recordings. It's anyone's guess. He recorded three albums after his nearly 20 year hiatus...one in 2004, another in 2005, and a third in 2006. Norro Wilson reunited with Con as record producer in the early 2000's...Norro had been associated with Con earlier in his recording career. Norro, by the way, was seated in the audience during Con's episode of CabaRay Nashville. The video below is Con performing "She Ain't You"...

Ray Stevens: 1992 Bus Tour Video Clip...

Hello one and all!! In this increasingly extensive partial economic shut down America is going through due to the COVID-19 virus some performers are going on virtual tours...well, I should say, they're uploading performance video clips on a wide array of platforms to remain in touch with their audience due to entertainment venues being determined a non-essential business several weeks ago. Those video clips aren't 'music videos'...they're put together with a definite home-made quality and they come across as web-camera performances. I'm sure there will be a small audience for this kind of thing once life gets back to normal but for now that's all the music performers can do since their work is deemed non-essential and there's a ban on large, public gatherings. The State Governors across the country have more or less been in step with one another and usually what's been considered non-essential in one State is adopted by the other States as well.

So, then, with no live concerts or touring or anything else really going on in the world of country music as far as public events are concerned the entertainers have turned more toward the internet than ever before. Although Ray, for  now, hasn't jumped into the fray and began performing songs from his house or from his recording studio at the CabaRay he nevertheless has kept his social media platforms active. One could say he's gone in the opposite direction from other performers and rather than posting video commentary of himself discussing the pandemic he's treating his fan base with memories of performances from his past. I think it might be his way of keeping pre-COVID-19 imagery and our normal way of life at the forefront and to promote hope for the return of normalcy in America sooner rather than later. That is just my opinion, though. As my message states off to the right underneath my photo, it goes something like this: This is a fan-created blog page and it shouldn't be taken as official representation of Ray or his office staff. I'm one to give my opinion freely and that's my opinion.

In this blog entry I'm embedding a video clip from earlier today. It's a video of Ray Stevens from 1992 and it aired as part of a bus tour and it's a video clip that was never released to the general public. It's an advertisement to entice operators of bus tours to include Ray's theater on their itinerary. I love seeing the video clips that come along every few days...

Ray Stevens: Bobby Bare performances...

Hello one and all...yesterday happened to be the 85th birthday of country music legend, Bobby Bare. To mark that event the social media sites of Ray Stevens posted a video clip of Bobby, from 2009, performing "Detroit City" on an episode of a short-lived sitcom Ray starred in called We Ain't Dead Yet. If you'd seen episodes of the clip-filled Rayality TV series, which recently ended it's run on RFD-TV, it contained bits and pieces from that 2009 series. In the video clip you'll see several people that have since passed away...



Bobby recorded the majority of his songs for RCA Records and in the producer's booth was Chet Atkins. The style of country music coming out of Nashville in the late 1950s and well into the early 1970s was nicknamed The Nashville Sound. Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley, and Bob Ferguson are typically given equal credit for creating The Nashville Sound. It could be described as pop music arrangements placed on top of, lyrically country, songs. In the umbrella of The Nashville Sound there was a style referred to as Countrypolitan and that sound, historically, is connected to the records produced by Billy Sherrill. This style expanded on the Nashville Sound and it incorporated even more strings, soaring music arrangements, more background harmonies, and there was an overall glossy/beautiful production of the traditional country song. Those who prefer minimal production with sparse instrumentation consider The Nashville Sound, and especially Countrypolitan, to be "overly-produced, overblown, over-the-top, overbearing, and obnoxious". Those are just some of the more polite descriptions from country music purists! Anyway...

Nearly a decade after Bobby Bare sang "Detroit City" on We Ain't Dead Yet in 2009 he was a guest star on an episode of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville a couple of years ago. In this episode one of the songs performed was "Streets of Baltimore". Bobby made reference to Ray's music arranging skills in this episode. Ray wasn't credited as an arranger on the recording. I'd previously searched for images of the single release and the LP, last year, and the music arrangers aren't credited.

Ray Stevens: Photo Session Photo...

Hello once again! I know the title of this latest fan created Ray Stevens blog entry isn't too creative...simply titled 'Photo Session Photo'...but earlier today a photo of Ray from 1975 appeared on his social media sites. The photo is an out-take during a photo session in the woods. I'm assuming the session took place somewhere in Centennial Park in downtown Nashville (where the giant replica of the Parthenon sits) or it could very well have taken place elsewhere. The photo more or less gives me a chance to reignite the clean-shaven/bearded Ray Stevens topic I return to from time to time.

Ray Stevens, 1975.

This is the photo that graced the social media sites of Ray Stevens earlier this afternoon. If you're familiar with the 1975 compilation album, The Very Best of Ray Stevens, then you'll be familiar with the wooded backdrop. I imagine there were dozens of photos taken during the session. I've seen other photos of Ray from this session. One such photo appears on a 1980 issue of Country Song Roundup. That very same image also appears on an album that was released on Ray in Australia. The sheet music for "Indian Love Call", one of Ray's hit songs in 1975, features a photo of Ray from this photo session, too. There is another photo of Ray posing behind that unique looking tree and that photo can be found in the liner notes of a 1997 CD released on Rhino Records, The Best of Ray Stevens. A close-up photo of Ray from the photo session appears on the cover of a compilation from Madacy Records titled The Collection. If we dig even further there's a very obscure photo of Ray in a wooded setting...clean-shaven and wearing sunglasses...posing next to a car with the Warner Brothers Records logo painted on the hood. I have never posted that image in this blog, as far as I know, due to it being obscure. I don't believe the person that originally posted it on-line kept it on-line but while it was on-line I saved it to my computer simply because I had a feeling it might vanish from view. I'm in the process of looking for that image. Once I find it I'll at long last post it on my blog...that is, if I hadn't done so already years earlier.

Ray Stevens sings "Everybody Needs a Rainbow"...

One of the things that often gets overlooked in the career of Ray Stevens are the songs that he recorded from other songwriters. Well, I should rephrase that. I should say that a lot of people have this tendency to assume that everything Ray sings is something he wrote. Ray is without a doubt a gifted songwriter and music composer but there are just as many songs he's recorded from the pen of other talented writers as there are songs he wrote or co-wrote. It's a talent that I've never been able to explain into words...where you take a song and make it sound like you wrote it. "Everybody Needs a Rainbow" is one of those songs. It comes from the pen of Layng Martine, Jr. who at the time was a writer for Ray's publishing company. I'm sure all of you know the story of how Layng recorded a song he had written called "Rub It In". Ray produced and published Layng's recording of the song and as the story goes Ray wanted to hold off it's release until early the following year but the record label, Barnaby, wanted to issue it as soon as possible. As a result of the rush release the recording didn't become the hit that the label had hoped for. The following year the song was recorded by Billy "Crash" Craddock. Ray, being the song's publisher, was on the receiving end of Billy's success as was Layng, since he was the song's writer. Nevertheless, Layng's own rendition that Ray produced forever remains an obscurity. Anyway, here is Ray's 1974 recording of "Everybody Needs a Rainbow"...



This single from Ray never appeared on any of his albums for almost 20 years. It was a Top-40 on the Country chart and a Top-20 on the Adult-Contemporary chart in the latter half of 1974. As you heard when you listened to the audio it's an inspirational song as is the B-side, "Inside", from his 1973 album, Losin' Streak. The B-side could also classify as self-motivational. "Everybody Needs a Rainbow" finally made it's debut on an album when Ray released the gospel song compilation, A Brighter Day, in 1992. Ray re-recorded "Everybody Needs a Rainbow" for his Love Lifted Me album in 2016. This project was unusual in that it featured mostly re-recorded vocals backed with the original music from the early '70s. The advantage of using multi-tracking is that you can separate the vocals from the music in the recording process. So, the music heard in the early '70s on those recordings was placed underneath Ray's re-recorded vocals. The only exception is "Let Our Love Be a Light Unto the People"...the original recording is placed on the 2016 CD.

Ray Stevens and Friend sing "Tim-Tay-Shun"...

Me and the 9-CD Box Set; 2012

Hello all...a couple of months ago I wrote a blog entry centering on the Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music and how February 2020 marked the 8th anniversary since it's release. Ray usually, but not always, but usually releases new music exclusively through his webpage before it gets a wider release on other on-line stores. The promotional effort that took place for this 9-CD box set back in 2012 was impressive. In addition to releasing several on-line commercials for the box set he appeared in a documentary style video showing him inside the recording studio working on this project. Ray also appeared on local morning television news programs which were uploaded on-line for a national audience to see. In addition to the video content the project also received a lot of publicity through blog sites and interviews from Ray discussing his reason for wanting to do his versions of the greatest comedy and novelty songs of all time. There's a wealth of recordings on the 9-CD box set and eventually there was a sampler CD released containing 12 of the recordings from the box set. Among the 12 songs on the sampler were Ray's versions of two classic novelty hits from the 1940s: "Cigareetes, Whuskey, and Wild, Wild, Women" and "Tim-Tay-Shun". In the case of the former it was originally recorded by Red Ingle in the aftermath of the massive success of 1947's "Tim-Tay-Shun". Red's single became a word of mouth hit but was banned from radio stations. Red, a comical performer with a professional association with Spike Jones, had previously released a parody of the pop song, "Temptation", and asked Jo Stafford to perform it as a duet. She is credited as Cinderella G. Stump on the recording. The song dates back to the early '30s with Bing Crosby being the first recording artist to release it to the public. Perry Como had a hit with it in 1945. Red's comical parody hit number one in 1947 and more hits followed, including the non-charting "Cigarettes, Whuskey, and Wild, Wild Women". His singles were credited as Red Ingle and the Natural Seven. Ray Stevens and Lori Stegner recorded it as a duet for the Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The pair performed it only once on an episode of CabaRay Nashville. Lori, as you can see, is in character as Cinderella G. Stump. Ray gives a lot of facial expressions throughout his performance...the screen cap for the YouTube video clip provides us one of those expressions. Lori is the lead vocalist in the duet.

Me and the Sampler; 2019

I've had the Encyclopedia Sampler CD for a number of years but I never took a photo of myself promoting it until last year. I've never taken a recent photo of myself with the 9-CD box set because of the difficulty in attempting to get an adequate photo. The images that emerge from the web camera on this lap top is a bit more fuzzy/blurry...not like the web camera I used to have which sat perched atop my computer monitor back when I had a desktop model computer. A lot of the songs on this sampler CD were songs that Ray was performing when he made his guest appearances on local news programs and elsewhere. For example he performed "Get a Job" and "The Preacher and the Bear" on an episode of Larry's Country Diner. Although not on the sampler, Ray was performing "Dry Bones" a lot. That song and "The Preacher and the Bear" would later appear on a couple of Ray's gospel CDs. The box set gave Ray the opportunity to speak of his love for the music of The Coasters. He often singles the group out whenever he speaks of his musical influences and he's recorded songs in the past that were originally recorded by The Coasters...but he got to expand on his love of their music on the 9-CD box set with his recordings of "Poison Ivy", "Searchin'", "Western Movies"...also included on the 9-CD collection is Ray's version of "Love Potion Number Nine" which The Coasters recorded in the early '70s but the biggest hit version arrived a decade earlier when The Searchers hit the Top-10 with it in 1964...and prior to that The Clovers, a Rhythm and Blues group that Ray cites as an influence, had a hit with it in 1959.

Ray Stevens and Lori Stegner, "Tim-Tay-Shun"

Ray Stevens: 45 at 50...

I came across an alert on a social media site earlier today that April 4, 1970 is the date that "Everything is Beautiful" by Ray Stevens made it's debut on Billboard's Hot 100 pop chart. I usually don't have the actual release dates memorized...I'm pretty okay when it comes to the year that a Ray Stevens song was released...but not necessarily the exact month and day. The single marks it's Golden anniversary this year...it was 50 years ago today that it debuted on the charts.

Ray Stevens; 1970

I came across this sheet music on-line a number of years ago and so naturally I saved it. I don't know where I found it...probably an on-line store. The photo looks similar to one that appeared in an issue of TV Guide in 1970. In that issue there was a multi-page story revolving around Ray, his career to that point, and the decision to have him host a nationally televised variety show on NBC. The article mentioned how Ray is a virtual unknown to television viewers (except those watching Andy's show) but the author pointed out that Ray's no stranger to the music business. "Everything is Beautiful" made it's Hot 100 debut on April 4, 1970 and it took off like a rocket, well, almost. It spent a couple of weeks outside the Top-40 during the week ending April 4, 1970 and April 11, 1970. It entered the Top-40 the week ending April 18, 1970. I find it interesting because my brother was born on April 18th but 12 years later in 1982. Once it entered the Top-40 then it took off like a rocket. Ray Stevens had been frequently appearing on the Andy Williams variety show on NBC since 1969. In 1970 Ray signed a recording contract with Andy's record company, Barnaby. In addition to Ray wanting his debut single for the label to be a hit he had been asked to be the summer host for Andy Williams. So, then, Ray not only wanted to write a song that would be a hit for Barnaby Records but also could be a theme song for the upcoming summer television show. The summer 1970 show was taped in television studios in Toronto, Canada during the time "Everything is Beautiful" was climbing the chart. The single, as mentioned, took off like a rocket once it hit the Top-40 portion of the Hot 100. In it's 5th week on the Hot 100 it was already among the Top-20 hit songs...in it's 9th week on the Hot 100 it was sitting at number one on May 30th. It spent a second week, June 6th, at number one before beginning it's slide back down the chart. The single became one of Ray's biggest hits and largest selling singles. It was certified Gold for a million copies sold. It was an international hit song and crossed over to the country music format and made an appearance, briefly, on the Top-40 chart in that format. It was his first Top-40 country single and his second appearance on the Top 100 country chart. His first ever appearance on the country chart happened in 1969 with his version of "Sunday Morning Coming Down".

"Everything is Beautiful" reached it's peak in late May/early June 1970. The summer replacement show for Andy Williams that Ray hosted hit the air June 20, 1970 on NBC. The music heard as the theme song was "Everything is Beautiful". Ray performed the song in it's entirety on one episode but would open each episode singing the chorus of the song. It was an hour long show airing on Saturday nights. The cast included Lulu, Mama Cass, Steve Martin, Billy Van, Carol Robinson, Solari and Carr, and Dick Curtis. The eighth and final episode of the summer show aired on August 8, 1970.

The song was recorded by other artists throughout the decades. The Grammy Awards held early in 1971 presented two Grammy Awards for "Everything is Beautiful". Ray won a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance while gospel artist, Jake Hess, won a Grammy that same year in the category of Best Sacred Performance.

Ray Stevens: Charlie McCoy CabaRay Nashville performance...

Ray Stevens and Charlie McCoy

Hello again...this video clip was uploaded onto YouTube back on March 28th but I hadn't gotten around to highlighting it in a blog entry until now. The clip is a harmonica performance by Charlie McCoy on an episode of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. If you know your Nashville session musicians then the name, Charlie McCoy, should be familiar. If you were/are a viewer of the Hee Haw television series then you should be familiar with Charlie McCoy. If you love country music and are a harmonica player then Charlie McCoy may have been one of your influences. In this clip we going to see Charlie perform his rendition of "Orange Blossom Special". This particular song has previously been recorded by hundreds of recording artists either as a vocal performance or as an instrumental. Some recording artists, if they also happen to be musicians, have recorded the song half vocal and half instrumental. Charlie, not being a vocalist, performs the song on the harmonica all the way through. He alternates harmonicas during the performance...going back and fourth from one harmonica to the next...giving the performance a personal touch.



Ray and Charlie, while not traveling in the same circles as session musicians, share similar experiences due to their history behind the scenes when it comes to making records. An often told anecdote about the two of them was their experience recording on a session for Elvis Presley...with the two of them playing instruments that neither specialized in but how both were able to pull off a successful performance. They were asked to play trumpets for an Elvis recording. I don't know how many songs were recorded during that session, though. I'd seen Ray and Charlie's name listed on several Elvis recordings within the musician credits. Ray is credited as a trumpet player on a dozen Elvis recordings during 1966. My information comes from a 2-CD collection released on Elvis in 1994 titled Amazing Grace which features a breakdown of musician credits for each recording. In the recordings dated May 25, 26, and 27 in the year 1966 it shows Ray credited as the session trumpet player. Charlie was credited on those sessions as either the guitar or harmonica player. Oddly enough the Wikipedia page for the Elvis gospel album How Great Thou Art from 1966, which features a lot of the songs that later appeared on the 1994 compilation CD, the Wikipedia page doesn't list a trumpet or Ray Stevens in the musician credits. The sessions took place at RCA's Studio B.

Charlie McCoy and Ray Stevens

I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of the musician credits but I've never done much research to see if I would come across any contradictory information beyond Wikipedia which is known for it's user-generated edits. Keep in mind those are musician credits for gospel recordings from Elvis...it's no telling if Ray appeared on secular recordings by Elvis that are tucked away on vinyl albums. In the meantime, Charlie McCoy continued appearing on Elvis recordings throughout the rest of the '60s and into the early '70s. Charlie began being more visible on Hee Haw as the '70s came near an end. He was part of the show's Million Dollar Band (which included Roy Clark, Floyd Cramer, Chet Atkins, Boots Randolph, Danny Davis, Johnny Gimble, and Jethro Burns). The Million Dollar Band appeared on 27 episodes of Hee Haw from 1980 until 1988, the bulk of those appearances came during the 1980-1983 television seasons, when the band appeared in 18 episodes. Their remaining 9 episodes featuring the Million Dollar Band were scattered throughout the 1984-1988 television seasons. Charlie was the show's music director for nearly 20 seasons and he began receiving recognition in the opening cast roll call, referred to as 'Charlie McCoy and the Hee Haw Band'. Charlie, and ironically, Hee Haw co-host Roy Clark, were both elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009 (along with Barbara Mandrell). Ray Stevens received his Country Music Hall of Fame honor ten years later in 2019.

Ray Stevens: Billy Dean CabaRay Nashville Performance...

Hello again! This video clip emerged on the Ray Stevens social media sites within the last half hour. It's a performance by country singer Billy Dean of a song titled "Billy the Kid". If you have never heard the song you may automatically think that it must be about the outlaw. It isn't about the outlaw, necessarily, but it uses lyrical imagery of the wild west, the carefree nature of kids, and their overactive imaginations. It's a song about growing older and missing one's youth. Billy had a 6 year run of major hit singles, 1990-1996, but he continued recording on into the next decade. He had a Top-10 single in 2004 eight years after his last one arrived in 1996. He appeared as a guest vocalist along with Allison Krauss on the Kenny Rogers number one hit, "Buy Me a Rose", in 1999. Billy also branched out into acting. Here he is, however, performing "Billy the Kid" on CabaRay Nashville...

Ray Stevens: The Passing of John Ragsdale...

Hello all...a couple of hours ago Ray Stevens released the news that his brother, John Ragsdale, passed away unexpectedly as a result from a fall. The information released on Ray's social media sites say that John suffered a fall at his house on the Island of Popa Loma in the Bocas del Toro region of Panama. I did some more research and discovered a publication called The Bocas Breeze. Although I didn't find out much from the publication's website I did find their Facebook page. It is there where I came across something of an obituary for John and it was posted March 29th. I have no idea if he'll be buried on the island or in Panama or if he'll be flown back to the U.S. and buried in Georgia alongside their parents. You can read The Bocas Breeze Facebook article about John by clicking HERE.

As far as I know Ray recorded two songs that are credited to his brother. One of those is a 1970 recording, "Talking", found on Ray's Unreal album. Another recording is "Let Our Love Be a Light Unto the People" which Ray recorded in 1972 for his Turn Your Radio On album. He re-recorded the album in 2016 and titled it Love Lifted Me...he kept the same 1970s arrangements but the vocals were newly recorded. However, "Let Our Love Be a Light Unto the People" was not re-recorded and so among the newly recorded vocals on Love Lifted Me is the original 1972 recording of that song. Here's the 1972 audio track from the 2016 gospel release...



Ray posted a video clip featuring John on the set of the Get Serious! VHS movie from 1995. It's footage from the documentary, Ray Stevens Made a Movie?? Get Serious!!, and along with clips of John in character in several roles there's also footage of him discussing the importance of learning and how education is important. John played the gorilla in the movie and other roles. He also played the gorilla during Ray's years in Branson, Missouri anytime Ray sang "Gitarzan". John can be seen in the VHS tapes Ray Stevens Live! and More Ray Stevens Live!. His appearances are more frequent in the latter VHS...and since he happened to be the Master of Ceremonies at the Branson theater he appeared on stage along side Ray's French Fried Far Out Legion Band during warm-up and intermission. The band is featured on several performances in More Ray Stevens Live! which is why there's more footage of John in that release. The YouTube clip below features a screen cap of John right after the gorilla mask was removed from his face on the set of Get Serious!. In the photo underneath he's seen wearing a CabaRay hat.

John Ragsdale: June 30, 1944 - March 29, 2020

Ray Stevens: His April Fool's Day Joke...

Hello all...as we come to a close on April Fool's Day 2020 our celebrated entertainer and Country Music Hall of Fame member, Ray Stevens, released an April Fool's Day prank on his social media sites earlier this afternoon. The posting was an obvious joke but nevertheless I left a remark on one of those social media sites and said that I loved the art work even though it was an apparent joke...with this being April 1st.

An April Fools Day prank from Ray Stevens; 2020

The fictional album is titled Ray Stevens- The Metal Years: Unreleased Bangers. Yes, although it's a joke, don't you love the graphics and the art work, though? There were some fans having fun with what could possibly be on this fictional album. In all seriousness, though, it had me longing for something new from Ray...like a new CD or a new music video...but given the COVID-19 pandemic I don't know if it would be possible to sufficiently promote any CD. Some of his audience would eventually want to hear the material performed live in concert but with Government mandated rules prohibiting large gatherings...which shut down entertainment venues across the country...the likelihood of attempting to publicize a CD or even satisfy a concert hungry audience seems unlikely with uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 virus. Like so many fans I'm anxious to hear new songs from Ray Stevens. I would be perfectly happy and content just to have a CD of new music from Ray Stevens in my hands...it doesn't even have to be a physical CD...a digital download/Mp3 would be okay. I know that the best case scenario would be to have things return to normal and then proceed with business as usual but of course it's possible to release new music on CD or on-line and then perform it live in concert once the country does return to normal. Anyway, those are just my thoughts. It's funny that an April Fool's Day joke could cause the longing for new music.