Ray Stevens sings "My Melancholy Baby"...

If you're a longtime fan of Ray Stevens, as I have been, you're very familiar with his catalog of music. He's been recording since 1957 and releasing albums since 1962...and along the way not only has he recorded hundreds of novelty songs he also recorded just as many ballads. His pop standards album from 1975, Misty, featured Ray's renditions of pop songs of the past with new arrangements from Ray but "My Melancholy Baby" wasn't among them. It was his last studio album for Barnaby Records. "Misty", "Indian Love Call", and "Young Love" were issued as single releases.

In early 1976 "Mockingbird Hill" was issued as a single...but it competed with another single from Ray, "You Are So Beautiful", his debut single for Warner Brothers. Now, of course, the single Barnaby Records issued early in 1976 didn't get much promotion/publicity but "You Are So Beautiful" ended up hitting the Country Top-20 for Ray.

Yesterday on Ray's social media pages a performance by him from his summer 1970 television show emerged. "My Melancholy Baby" originated in 1912 and eventually became a pop music standard recorded either as an instrumental or a vocal. Some of the legendary names affiliated with the recording are Harry James, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Connie Francis, and Tommy Edwards. When Ray performed the song in 1970, if you do the math, it was 58 years old at the time...and if you do additional math you'll discover the song is 108 years old this year!  

Ray Stevens: "Quarantined" pushes beyond 800,000 unique views...

Hello one and all!! Earlier this month the "Quarantined" video from Ray Stevens pushed onto the 700,000 unique view plateau. I did a mid-month update in a previous blog entry where the video was in the middle portion of that unique view total and today I'm announcing that the YouTube video has obtained more than 800,000 unique views as of this writing. The specific unique views on YouTube of the video are 804,737. There have been a number of COVID-19 songs that have appeared on social media sites...and other songs that deal with elements of the pandemic. There are novelty songs as well as some serious songs centered around the social distance silliness. I call it silliness, still.

In my state there's a facemask mandate. Local businesses are enforcing it...you can't go in without a facemask. The social distancing creation, I thought, was only meant to be a requirement if people were not wearing facemasks. I fail to see the need for social distancing if everyone in a room is wearing a facemask. The entire pandemic has brought about a series of rules and regulations that consistently contradict one another, in my opinion. I've not heard any evidence that supports this idea that asymptomatic people can spread the virus to other people.

The egotistical chess match between members of the medical community is a turn-off, for me. When you have doctors and scientists continually at odds when it comes to therapeutics and a vaccine I think, like so many others do, that they're more interested in who gets credit for discovering a cure instead of working together to find one. The information about COVID-19 evolves and changes...meaning that society has to make adjustments. The more information that exists the more knowledgeable one becomes...and there's been a lot of factual information come along dealing with COVID-19 but there's also an underlying force at work to intentionally mislead, confuse, and frighten people about the virus.

The amount of "cases" of COVID-19, in my opinion, is being used as a fear tactic to keep the people in panic mode. Society has already been scared about the virus...and statistics show that people have been sufficiently scared enough to refuse to even return to work once their workplace re-opens. So, shame on much of the medical community for not leading with a winning attitude and for encouraging people to live in fear and panic. This mentality of being too scared to return to work or travel more than 40 miles within your own State is what happens when you emphasize weakness, fear, and panic. The optimism of not letting the cure be worse than the virus is long gone, I'm afraid, when it comes to 90 percent of the medical community.

Ray Stevens: July 25, 1970...

Hello all!! In a similar blog entry from last month where I celebrated the 50th golden anniversary of "Everything is Beautiful", well, this time around I'm celebrating the 50th golden anniversary of "America, Communicate With Me". To commemorate the celebration I created a similar 50th anniversary image of the single...

Happy 50th Golden Anniversary!!!

"America, Communicate With Me" made it's debut on the weekly music chart on July 25, 1970. It had across the board appeal right out of the gate...among the top selling pop singles for several weeks in the late summer/early fall of 1970. The single appeared on the Hot 100 pop chart and the Easy-Listening chart...something not uncommon for a lot of pop singles of that era since many of them fit the softer, easy listening sound. Ray's single lacked airplay on Top-40 pop radio stations...the main reason why it peaked just outside the radio-dominated Top-40. On the Easy-Listening format the single reached the higher reaches of the Top-20...peaking just outside the Top-10. It was the first single from a forthcoming album from Ray called Unreal. The subject matter of the song dealt with a moderate trying to make sense of a country torn between two extremes...with lyrics hinting at a silent majority and how in spite of all the negativity in the daily news headlines the country is still the greatest on Earth. This is an audio track of "America, Communicate With Me"...

Ray Stevens: Summer 2005 interview...

Ray Stevens; 2005

Hello once again!! Earlier today on the Ray Stevens social media sites there came a video upload of an interview with Ray from 2005. This is the year that Ray returned to his former theater in Branson, Missouri. He performed at the theatre, originally, in 1991, 1992, and 1993. He leased the theater to a group that presented a program called Country Tonite and they performed concerts there for nearly ten years. He took back the theater in 2004 at the request of the management of Country Tonite and, according to his memoir, spent the remainder of 2004 having the interior redecorated and plants re-planted and turning it back into 'The Ray Stevens Theatre'. He marked his return to concerts at the theater in 2005 and he spent two seasons there (2005 and 2006) before selling the theatre to the RFD-TV network. The interview was conducted in the summer of 2005...exactly 15 years ago. I love the shirt Ray is wearing throughout the interview...it's a dark Hawaiian type of shirt as you can see in the photo above and in the photo below in video. Ray's voice is the one you'll hear doing the introduction at the theater. He discusses "The Streak", "Ahab the Arab", and "Everything is Beautiful" in addition to his history in Branson, Missouri up to that point.

Ray Stevens audio clip: "People's Court"...

Hello all the fans of Ray Stevens!! One of the numerous court room television programs that used to air when I was younger was a show called "People's Court" featuring Judge Wapner. It was just one of several courtroom television shows in the 1980s...a format that expanded dramatically throughout the 1990s. The television series ran for more than 10 years and due to it's popularity it became the focal point of song recorded by Ray Stevens in 1986. The song appears as track number two on the Surely You Joust album. This comedy album also features "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?", "Dudley Dorite of the Highway Patrol", "The Camping Trip", and the trio recording, "Southern Air". In that song he was joined by Jerry Clower and Minnie Pearl. In "People's Court" Ray portrays a man named Arlo who's fed up with his wife, Myrna Louise, and he's talked her into appearing with him on the television court show. The song begins with the man calling up Judge Wapner personally and stating his reasons for wanting to appear. Later, in court, Ray portrays the soft-spoken narrator, the Judge, Arlo, and Myrna Louise.

Ray Stevens: June 2008 Ralph Emery Live appearance...

Arriving on the social media sites of Ray Stevens this morning is the June 2008 interview on Ralph Emery Live!. This show aired for a number of years on RFD-TV prior to that network's massive availability. The channel is carried by a large number of cable providers but that wasn't always the case. I wasn't able to get this channel, initially, but by the time it became part of our standard line-up Ralph Emery Live! had ended production and only a handful of repeat episodes were airing on the network. The two episodes guest starring Ray Stevens never repeated on the network once RFD became more widely available. I have never seen Ray's first appearance on this interview show in it's entirety and until today I hadn't seen the full episode of his second appearance. In this second appearance Ray speaks a lot about what's been going on his career up to that point in time. Ralph takes phone calls and reads e-mails that were sent in. A lot of the callers ask questions about songs that, to borrow a phrase from radio DJ Eddie Stubbs, are "deep catalog". In other words they ask about songs that Ray recorded at different points in his career that only the more loyal of fan is aware of...it's always an interesting exchange because Ray recalls a lot of things about most of the songs he's recorded but then there are times when a song is so obscure that even he himself has some difficultly recalling the situation surrounding it's recording.

Throughout the duration of the interview Ralph asks Ray about his most notable recordings but then there's conversation surrounding one of those obscure songs, "Butch Babarian". Ray talks about that recording...saying it was based on the Busch Bavarian beer commercials and the backdrop of the Alps and mountain climbing played a factor in the creation of the song. Ray recites some of the lyrics and does a brief yodel impression similar to what's found on the original recording. When you watch Ray speak of the song and do the yodel impression you're reminded of Ray's remarkable longevity in the music business. Here he was in 2008 reciting lyrics from a novelty single he put out in 1964. It's breathtaking to realize that Ray is currently in his 63rd year as a recording artist...but at the time of this June 2008 interview he was in his 51st year as a recording artist. Elsewhere in the interview he spoke of how he was going to start touring again. He mentioned that he had been on hiatus from the road for two years (on the heels of his two season run at his former theater in Branson, Missouri) and that he'd start doing show dates once again. I was able to catch him in concert in 2008 and another time in 2009...and I seen him a third time in concert in 2018 at his CabaRay showroom.

Ray Stevens and Ralph Emery; 2008

In most of their exchanges Ralph asks Ray questions that have the potential for comical, one-liner responses. The photo above of Ray giving one of his famed looks of sly grin puzzlement while Ralph is all smiles is a similar pose that could easily have taken place in 1978, 1988, 1998, 2018...but the photo is from 2008. The folksy, down-home demeanor that Ralph projects in his interviews also means that he could ask a question that may get a potentially embarrassing response or he could ask a question that, in hindsight, may seem embarrassing but at the time seem pertinent. Ralph, in some of the rare moments when he himself is being interviewed, has remarked: "I can't believe I asked him/her that kind of question!" when he looks back on interviews he's conducted with country music artists over the decades.

Ralph makes reference to Ray's DVD 'Cartoon Video Collection'. Several limited animation music videos are played - "Gone for Good" being one of them. Ralph asks Ray about "Shriner's Convention". Ray speaks of the motorcycle he used to ride out on stage in his concerts at his former Branson, Missouri theater. The Ray Stevens interview is great as they usually are...click the video below to watch...

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Get Crazy With Me"...

Hello all!! Earlier today Ray Stevens uploaded an audio clip of his fantastic song, "Get Crazy With Me". The song is from his 1977 album, Feel the Music. If you know much about Ray's tenure with Warner Brothers then you'll know that it was a very busy period in his career...but he continues to remain active and busy...but in 1977 the record label he recorded for must have had fallen under new management because in hindsight the label issued his singles in a sort of haphazard fashion that year. The label was promoting two Ray Stevens singles concurrently as 1977 kicked off. A release by Ray in December 1976 under the alias of Henhouse Five Plus Too, "In the Mood", had become popular and therefore was hitting the charts as we entered 1977.

In the meantime Warner Brothers, the same month the chicken clucking "In the Mood" was hitting, they issued a new single from Ray, "Get Crazy With Me". As you'll hear in the video clip below Ray is singing as a human instead of clucking like a chicken. The B-side of the January 1977 single is "Dixie Hummingbird".



Some time later in 1977 Warner Brothers issued "Dixie Hummingbird" as the B-side of "Feel the Music". The label also issued "Dixie Hummingbird" as a promo...which means a single with the same song on both the A and B sides. "Dixie Hummingbird" got more notice than "Feel the Music" and received what's known as unsolicited airplay...significant enough to enable "Dixie Hummingbird" to reach the country chart and get inside the Top-50. In June 1979 Warner Brothers re-issued "Get Crazy With Me" and backed it with "Dixie Hummingbird"...perhaps adding even more confusion for the fans that collect Ray Stevens records.

Ray Stevens: a 1970 summer show sketch...

Earlier this afternoon Ray Stevens uploaded a sketch from his 1970 summer show featuring the recurring joke of Who Is Ray Stevens?. The summer 1970 show that Ray hosted was, if you're not aware, titled: Andy Williams Presents The Ray Stevens Show???. The show's title was a reference to Ray's lack of exposure on television and so, among television viewers, Ray was virtually an unknown and yet there he was the host of the summer show for Andy Williams. In truth, however, Ray had been in the music business since 1957 and by the time the summer of 1970 rolled around he had sold millions of records and had become a jack-of-all-trades in the recording studios (singer/songwriter/musician/producer/arranger/music publisher). In fact, when he was hosting the summer show in 1970 his current single, "Everything is Beautiful", was quickly becoming another million selling hit. Ray was selected to host Andy's summer show because the producer's of the show took notice of Ray's popularity with Andy's audience. Ray had been a recurring cast member on Andy's show since 1969 and, after Andy, next in line with the most fan mail happened to be Ray.

In a series of sketches Ray would be seated at the piano, beginning to sing a song, when the scene would freeze. An announcer would then ask who is Ray Stevens?. After asking this question we'd have a series of well known actors and actresses portraying 'real people' who would offer comical answers as to who Ray Stevens happened to be. After usually the funniest response the scene would return to Ray, seated at the piano, and he'd finish the song "already in progress"...which often meant the song was coming to an end. Simple, amusing, cute, whimsical humor...



After the summer 1970 show concluded Ray continued making frequent guest appearances on Andy's variety show until it ended production in 1971.

Ray Stevens: Rhonda Vincent CabaRay Nashville performance...

Hello all once again!! It's finally Friday...and although this was posted on-line several days ago I hadn't spotlighted it in a blog entry yet. Rhonda Vincent, the bluegrass singer, made an appearance on Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville during season three. I did a review of her episode in this fan created blog...search the archives for it if interested. Rhonda's birthday was several days ago (July 13th) and on Ray's social media sites a performance of the two singing "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" appeared. Ray recorded this song, solo, on his 2016 gospel album. If you're searching for his solo performance it's on the CD of the same name... Just a Closer Walk With Thee: Gospel Favorites. Ray sings the song mostly in harmony with Rhonda but he has a brief solo. The performance is centered around Rhonda's higher vocals (she is a bluegrass singer after all).

Ray Stevens: Buddy Kalb's birthday...

Hello all fans of Ray Stevens!! As I type this it's four minutes until midnight and so I wanted to start this blog while it's still July 15th. Today happened to be the birthday of Buddy Kalb...one of Ray's longtime collaborators. Buddy is one year older than Ray...the two of them have appeared together in numerous music videos and the song's Buddy has written have appeared on dozens of Ray Stevens albums over the decades.

Buddy and Ray; July 2020

This photo of Ray and Buddy appeared on Ray's social media pages earlier today. Buddy, I don't believe, is in the process of blowing out the candles. I think he's reading the message on the cake. I post photo's small so that it doesn't take up text space but if you look closely you'll see a couple of gold singles hanging on what appears to be a doorway. You'll also notice Ray wearing a new hat...well, I call it new because I've never seen him wear this particular hat before. When you visit any of his social media sites you'll be able to see a larger image. One of the social media sites was hacked on Wednesday...I hadn't visited that particular site yet to see if it's back to normal. I'd read that numerous high profile members of the site were targeted by the hackers. I suspect when I visit this site later I'll be asked to come up with a new password to be on the safe side. Anyway, as I'm typing this portion of the blog entry we're into early Thursday morning, July 16th. Several years ago a writer named Jeremy Roberts interviewed Buddy Kalb and Ray Stevens, individually. Jeremy and I had put together a list of songs Buddy wrote/co-wrote and that Ray recorded. Buddy's contribution to Ray's professional career began in 1976...they'd been friends for years before he joined Ray's publishing company as a writer. The first song of Buddy's that Ray recorded happened to be "One and Only You". The song appears on Ray's 1976 album, Just for the Record. The following year Buddy supplied another inspirational song, "Set The Children Free", for Ray's Feel the Music album in 1977. The next Buddy Kalb song that Ray recorded, "You're Never Goin' To Tampa With Me", appears on Ray's 1980 album, Shriner's Convention, early in 1980. "Night Games", another song from the pen of Buddy Kalb, recorded in the summer of 1980, became a single release that coming fall and the first 'hit' song of Buddy's that Ray recorded. The 1976, 1977, and early 1980 recordings were what the industry referred to as album cuts...songs that appear on an album but weren't commercially released on a single record. "Night Games" appeared as a single-only release in the fall of 1980, reaching the Country Top-20, and eventually found it's way onto Ray's 1981 album, One More Last Chance. In the world of country music the Urban Cowboy movie and cowboy imagery had taken over country music marketing. "Night Games" appropriately took place inside a singles bar...and in the photo on Ray's 1981 album we see him decked out in cowboy attire. Buddy had several writer credits on the 1981 album: "Night Games", "Melissa", and "Let's Do It Right This Time".

Ray Stevens; 1981

Buddy's involvement in Ray's career remained steady throughout the 1980s. As the decade wore on Buddy's name became a mainstay on Ray's albums...professionally appearing in the songwriter credits as C.W. Kalb, Jr. In 1984 Buddy provided Ray with "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" and from then on there wasn't a Ray Stevens album that didn't feature at least one Buddy Kalb song...most albums consisted almost entirely of songs from the pen of Buddy Kalb. In 1988 Ray produced his second music video, "Surfin' U.S.S.R.". His first ever music video arrived in 1985, "Santa Claus is Watching You". Buddy's debut in a Ray Stevens music video arrived in the 1988 music video and in the most memorable kind of way. Buddy appears in drag...dressed up as a cigar smoking woman wearing a Moscow U sweatshirt. How's that for a music video debut? Ray and Buddy co-wrote almost the entire 1989 Beside Myself album. There are 10 recordings on that album...8 of the songs were written by Ray and Buddy. One song, "Bad Dancin'", featured additional lyrics credited to Bruce Innis and Cinde Borup while another, a John Wayne tribute called "Marion Michael Morrison", was a song credited solely to Buddy Kalb. One of the fan favorites, "Barbeque", was written by Ray. It's from the 1990 album, Lend Me Your Ears. That album is chock full of songs from the pen of Buddy Kalb...as is 1991's Number One with a Bullet. In the 1990s music videos became Ray's focal point...and Buddy became Ray's sidekick/co-star in most of those videos. Buddy can be seen as the arresting policeman in the "It's Me Again, Margaret" music video, the officer eating the donut. In "The Streak" Buddy is seen as the 'director' of the music video.

In Ray's 1995 Get Serious! movie (direct to VHS) Buddy co-stars as a fictional version of himself as well as the character of Dudley Dorite throughout the movie and in the music video, "Dudley Dorite of the Highway Patrol". If you look closely you'll see Buddy as one of the Indians in the music video of "The Woogie Boogie". Buddy appears in Ray's "Too Drunk To Fish" music video and appears as the head of Mission Control in the "Virgil and the Moonshot" video.   Buddy later on portrayed the title character in the music video for "The Blue Cyclone". Earlier I mentioned writer Jeremy Roberts. Here is his interview with Buddy Kalb...click HERE. After you read it make sure to click the handclap sign on the left hand side of the screen. It's your way of giving the interview an approval rating. It also contains a list of songs Buddy wrote or co-wrote that Ray recorded in his career to that point. Some of Buddy's recent contributions is Ray's current music video hit, "Quarantined", as well as a song Ray's performed on his CabaRay Nashville show entitled "It's My Job". When you watch Ray's television series on local PBS stations you'll hear Buddy Kalb do the voice-over before and after the show.

Buddy Kalb and Ray Stevens in 2019 at the Country Music Hall of Fame. In the background, clearly visible, is Eddy Arnold's plaque. Ray was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019. I have a photo of Ray's plaque on the right hand side of the page. If you scroll through the photo time-line it's the next to last photo in the time-line...but here are Buddy and Ray on that fun day in 2019.

Ray Stevens: "Quarantined" music video update...

Well, it's me once again!! I decided to post an update on the Ray Stevens video, "Quarantined". When I last posted about it, on July 3rd, the video had gotten 716,522 unique views. When I checked the video statistics a few minutes ago the updated unique view total had risen to 757,540. That's a pickup of 41,018.

As a lot of you are probably aware there's been a spike in "new cases" of COVID-19 in certain pockets of the country. I don't know where you stand with the experts concerning COVID-19 but I'm about fed up with the whole thing. Let me correct that...I've been fed up for awhile...but each and every day I hear things that reinforce how fed up I happen to be with all things COVID-19. This isn't to say that I think the virus isn't something to take serious...but you can have common sense and still take things seriously at the same time. Like a lot of other people I reject the idea that you must shut down, lockdown, and live in fear...awaiting for an official vaccine. Let me tell you something...you may just be waiting for more than a year or two...and for those who feel that we should all just live in partial shutdown mode indefinitely, well, if that's you then I think you need to make yourself an appointment with a psychiatrist because that's silly talk.

I'm fed up with local and State officials playing around with our liberty and fundamental rights. I'm tired of seeing Blue Governor's using COVID-19 as a cover to implement their leftist social ideology...which otherwise would never see the light of day pre-COVID-19. I'm tired of local government's and local school boards hyperventilating over COVID-19 being dangerous for children when there's absolutely no evidence that an overwhelming majority of children get the virus...and there's also no evidence that should a child get the virus that it's transmissible from child to child or child to adult. There is no evidence to support the frenzy and panic of children being seriously impacted by COVID-19. The science and evidence doesn't support keeping school's shut down.

Ray Stevens sings "Super Cop"...

It's me once again!! Those of you who have been fans of Ray Stevens for more than 30 years will know that the 1990s were a decade of opportunity for Ray and a decade full of overdue recognition. He kicked off the decade on a new record label, Curb/Capitol Records. The major news, though, came later in 1990 when he announced the construction of a new music theater in Branson, Missouri. Ray released two back to back studio albums on Curb/Capitol in 1990 and 1991: Lend Me Your Ears and Number One with a Bullet. Curb Records also released two compilation albums on Ray in 1990 and 1991: His All-Time Greatest Comic Hits (a Gold record) and Greatest Hits. In the latter half of 1991 Ray opened The Ray Stevens Theatre in Branson, Missouri. It's first season ran through the end of 1991. It was in the interim that he produced some brand new music videos...for it was the 1990s that saw Ray move into the business of video production.

His own label, Clyde Records, financed a couple of VHS video tapes in 1992: Amazing Rolling Revue and Comedy Video Classics. The rolling revue VHS was sold through Ray's fan club and at the gift shop at his theatre. The second VHS, however, was marketed on television...to unexpected and unprecedented success in the field of VHS marketing and sales. Curb Records began distributing the classics VHS to retail stores in 1993 and sales from the VHS caused it to shoot to number one on Billboard's Top Video chart and it remained in or near the Top-10 for more than a year. Ray, in the meantime, was busy with concerts at his Branson theatre. 1993 had marked Ray's third consecutive season of concerts at the theatre...on the direct market front there was a brand new VHS, Ray Stevens Live!, and an additional VHS available through his fan club and theatre gift shop titled More Ray Stevens Live!. 1993 also saw the release of a new audio album, Classic Ray Stevens.

This album, in spite of it's title, features 10 brand new recordings. It's the album that contained the debut of "If Ten Percent is Good Enough for Jesus", a song that re-emerged in Ray's career 16 years later and became a hit all over again. It also features his rendition of "The Bricklayer's Song" as well as songs with such titles as "The Higher Education of Ole Blue", "The All-American Two Week Summer Family Vacation", and "If You and Yo' Folks Like Me and My Folks". The 1993 album also features a quirky song about an over-zealous security guard at a shopping center, a guard that the locals call "Super Cop". He's a combination Barney Fife and Police Academy's Tackleberry rolled into one. At the conclusion of the 1993 concert season Ray closed down his Branson theater and put it on the selling block in 1994. The same year he appeared on an episode of Music City Tonight, hosted by Lorianne Crook and Charlie Chase, and he performed "The Motel Song" and "Super Cop". The 1994 performance of "Super Cop" is below...



It was on this episode in which Ray was presented a stack of awards for the sales of Comedy Video Classics. The VHS sold over 3,000,000 copies (direct mail and retail) and the two hosts kept handing him Gold, Platinum, Double Platinum, and Triple Platinum awards in recognition of it's success. A much larger plaque was presented to Ray showing Billboard magazine named it their Video of the Year. 1994 saw the retail release of the Ray Stevens Live! VHS and it had nearly a similar run of success on Billboard's Top Video chart as Comedy Video Classics. There were numerous weeks in which the two VHS tapes crossed paths with one another on the weekly chart...often flip-flopping chart positions per week. I make note of that just to illustrate the phenomenal success Ray was having with VHS tape in the early and mid 1990s. Ironically there was never a music video made of "Super Cop"...all that exists are two television appearances where he performed the song. The 1994 performance on Music City Tonight seen above and a 1993 performance on Nashville Now...in that 1993 performance Ray was escorted on stage by security guards, if memory serves me correct.

Ray Stevens: Jeannie Seely CabaRay Nashville performance...

Ray Stevens and Jeannie Seely

Yesterday it was Jeannie Seely's birthday and Ray Stevens' social media sites featured video footage of her guest appearance on CabaRay Nashville. The clip below features the interview portion of the show. Jeannie speaks of her trek from Pennsylvania to California and from there she made her way to Nashville. She tells of how she got the nickname 'Miss Country Soul' and being on Monument Records. She and Ray were on Monument Records at the same time. She joined the Grand Ole Opry on September 16, 1967 and at the time of this show's taping she was heading toward her 50th anniversary milestone with the Opry. She and Ray sing a duet of "Make the World Go Away", a screen cap of their duet appears above. The two officially recorded a duet, "Dance Tonight", which will appear on Jeannie's upcoming album due out next month.

Ray Stevens: "Scratch My Back" audio clip...

Hello all...a balmy Tuesday afternoon here! Less than an hour ago Ray Stevens uploaded an audio track of "Scratch My Back", a novelty song from his 1962 album 1,837 Seconds of Humor. This song had actually been released as a single...the follow-up to "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills"...but it didn't reach any chart. The single was released in October 1961 and it's B-side happened to be a song I wrote a blog about recently, his rendition of "When You Wish Upon a Star". The art work on the picture sleeve off to the left is the same used for other Mercury recording artists of that time period. One of Ray's other picture sleeve's from this time period looks nearly identical to this one. I have Ray's 1962 album on CD. It was released on a collection paired with his 1963 album. If you search for Ray's first two albums you'll probably come across the CD I'm referring to. It's a rarity of sorts given that it wasn't released on any major record label or available in a wide array of on-line music stores. The CD contains not only his first two albums for Mercury Records in their entirety but it also includes "Santa Claus is Watching You" which appeared as a single-only in 1962. When you listen to "Scratch My Back" you're gonna love it, love it, love it, love it...

Ray Stevens W-I-L-D alter-ego Returns...

Throughout the run of the Ray Stevens 2009 sitcom, We Ain't Dead Yet, there were periodic sketches involving a resident at the retirement home who acted as the disc jockey for the other residents. Ray portrayed this character, Rooster Reagan, and the name of the radio station was W-I-L-D. The vocal delivery is patterned after Wolfman Jack. In February of this year I posted a blog entry spotlighting one of Rooster's sketches. Buddy Kalb always portrayed the guy on the other end of the phone.

In the February upload Buddy portrays a man who lives in a condo and doesn't appreciate Rooster's generous offer of delivering 500 baby chicks to the residence. Rooster insists but the upset stranger on the phone says that if 500 baby chicks show up he'll be waiting outside with a shotgun. You can find the blog entry containing that sketch if you search my February archives off to the right.

In this newly uploaded sketch Rooster calls up an unsuspecting victim to confirm that 500 baby chicks will be delivered to the fried chicken restaurant. The guy on the other end has no idea what Rooster is talking about...but that doesn't matter...Rooster insists that the 500 baby chicks are on their way...

Ray Stevens: Upcoming duet with Jeannie Seely...

Hello all!! While searching around on the internet I came across more information about Ray Stevens involvement in an upcoming project from Jeannie Seely. In a blog I wrote several blogs ago I mentioned that Ray had recorded a duet with Jeannie but I couldn't find out much...until now. In an article posted in The Tennessean newspaper back on July 2nd it was revealed that Jeannie would be issuing a new project in August and that the duet she recorded with Ray would be the final track. The collection is titled An American Classic.

The producer of Jeannie's project happened to be Don Cusic, a name that should be familiar to all fans of Ray Stevens by now. The first single release from Jeannie's CD will emerge tomorrow...a duet with Willie Nelson. July 6th is also Jeannie's birthday. As many know by now Willie's recorded duets or performed on stage with just about every major recording artist of the last 50 years. Ironically, Ray Stevens is the extreme opposite...he rarely records duets. In his career I think he's recorded less than 10 duets...off the top of my head here they are...

"Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" (1995 duet with Connie Freeman)

"The Streak" (2005 duet with Cledus T. Judd; it's on the Ray Stevens tribute album Cledus recorded)

"This One Burger King Town" (2007 duet with T.G. Sheppard)

"Retired" (2009 duet with Brent Burns; Ray recorded a solo version of this song, too)

"Temptation" (2012 duet with Lori Stegner)

"That's My Desire" (2019 duet with Beegie Adair)**

In the case of "That's My Desire" he recorded it twice with Beegie Adair. One of the recordings is performed straight while a comical version was also recorded. The two duet recordings with Ray are included in her duets CD, Grover's Hat Project.

The upcoming duet with Jeannie Seely will be a version of "Dance Tonight", a song from the pen of Paul McCartney. I am making the assumption that Jeannie's project will be available for digital download in addition to it being available as a physical CD.

Ray and Jeannie were both honored in 2018 with Stars on the Nashville Walk of Fame. Ray was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019. Jeannie's been a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1967. Jeannie appeared on an episode of Ray's PBS series, CabaRay Nashville.

Ray Stevens: Independence Day 2020...

Happy 4th of July!! The nation celebrates it's 244th birthday...declaring it's independence on July 4, 1776. In blog entries past I don't think I'd ever made mention of my being a bicentennial baby. Now, to be specific, I was not born on July 4, 1976 but I was born in the latter half of 1976, several months after the country celebrated it's 200th year of independence. In my way of thinking anyone born on July 4, 1976 through July 3, 1977 should be considered a bicentennial baby. How come? It's because the nation was in it's 200th year of independence from July 4, 1976 through July 3, 1977. The 201st year began July 4, 1977.

In almost all of my blog entries for July 4th I post patriotic and military video clips from Ray Stevens. He's recorded a fair amount of patriotic, military, and politically oriented songs. One of the songs I often cite is "There's s Star Spangled Banner". It's a marvelous recording that Ray originally recorded in 1989 and it appears on his Beside Myself album. In 1991 he re-recorded the song. He utilized the 1989 music arrangement but supplied new lyrics. This obscure recording can be found on a 1991 compilation on Ray Stevens from Curb Records titled Greatest Hits. The compilation surfaced in early 1991 during the Gulf War. In my way of thinking the reason why the song featured new lyrics is because the 1989 recording specifically centered around Beirut and it told a fictional tale of a P.O.W. who longs to be free and continues to have hope that he'll see the American flag waving once again. The 1991 recording contains a brief history lesson of specific battles that were fought and won by the American military with the flag standing tall.

"Thank You" came along in the early 2000s as a response to the anti-war sentiment and how it appeared like the military, of all branches, had lost public support due to the on-going fight against terrorism. The 'war' is a symbolic one...it was never an official declaration by Congress...but each President since 9/11 (Bush 43, Obama, and Trump) have left their imprint on the terrorism war in some way or another. The current Administration reduced the size of the military presence in specific areas no longer deemed a threat and there's been a significant reduction of the military overseas, in general, since 2017. This isn't to be taken as a slap in the face of the military...they're still being utilized...just not in any large scale ground war.

Ray's Thank You album featured several patriotic songs. Aside from the title track which Ray co-wrote with a writer named Larry McCoy there's the rallying "Let's Roll", which Ray wrote, and then there's the nostalgic "Come on Home to Baseball" which fits the patriotic, American pride theme. That song, too, was written by Ray. He and Buddy Kalb wrote "Stand Up". In today's climate that song fits even more perfectly...it's a song about how critical it is to stand up for what you stand for. The 'silent majority' of today could learn a lesson from that song...it's time to stand up against the forces of the 'loud minority'.

In 2010 he added several more patriotic songs to his catalog. One of them happened to be the emotionally charged "Fallen Ones" which Ray co-wrote with Brent Holmes. The song debuted on the We The People album. This collection also included several songs that highlight small-town values. The nostalgic "Dear Andy Griffith" is actually kind of tragic because it tells about a small-town that's gotten too big, figuratively, and has lost it's small-town charm and appeal. "Fly Over Country" deals with a region of the United States that is largely overlooked due to it being mostly rural, agricultural land and how it sits in the middle of both the West and East coasts. It's an ode to small-town America who largely make up the fabric of the country and the disdain it receives by locally elected officials once they 'go to Washington'.

In 2016 Ray recorded a song titled "Dear America" as a response to the mood of the times. In a lot of ways it anticipated the anti-America culture war that's going on today. In the song Ray defends America and proclaims that he'll never turn his back on a country that promotes freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; also, he'll make sure the children are taught the importance of the nation's Founding Fathers. The song also makes reference to 9/11. The past flaws and sins of any one person or in this case, a country, should never be erased. The old saying 'you learn from your mistakes' is why bad things from a country's past should remain visible as something to remember and not repeat.

Ray made a music video of "Thank You" in the early 2000s and he's also included the song several times on his YouTube channel in different situations. There's a couple of concert performances of the song by Ray in addition to the official music video. There is also an audio track of the song uploaded earlier today. I'm going to upload several video performances of "Thank You" because it salutes each branch of America's military. I'm uploading the official music video first...



Here's a performance by Ray on his PBS series, CabaRay Nashville, from a couple of years ago. The official music video is powerful but this performance from the TV show is even more so because he's singing it in front of a studio audience comprised almost entirely of military personnel. Ray uploaded it to his YouTube channel last 4th of July...



The audio link uploaded earlier today on YouTube features the CD cover of Thank You on screen while the audio recording plays. The CD was released in 2004 during those early years in the War on Terror...



From September 2016 here's "Dear America". He taped the video in letterbox format and therefore no amount of resizing will cause the two bars to minimize. I don't mind the letterbox format but some of you out there may find it distracting...

Ray Stevens and the "William Tell Overture"...

It's me once again!! As most of you long time fans of Ray Stevens are aware one of his musical influences was Spike Jones and the City Slickers. This band released numerous novelty songs throughout the 1940s and 1950s. The music was often played straight but comedy was layered over top of the music. Eventually the group began using household objects as well as instruments that were created for comical effect. Spike was actually the figure head of the group...the vocalists heard on his recordings were members of his band. Spike had several network radio programs throughout the '40s and he had a presence on television throughout the '50s, too. Some of Spike's vocalists were George Rock, Red Ingle, Doodles Weaver, Mickey Katz...for one recording Paul Frees did an impression of Peter Lorre on a recording titled "My Old Flame". Spike's comedy recordings featured heavy use of cowbells, gun shots, whistles, sirens, and other sound effects. Some of his recordings featured a vocalist singing a ballad, straight, but comical sound effects would be added at just the wrong time throughout.

In 2012 Ray issued his amazing box set, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. Ray recorded his versions of novelty songs that dated back to the early 1900s and running through the successive decades. Ray did versions of several Spike Jones classics for the 2012 box set. He tackled "My Old Flame", for example, and included a rendition of "All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth", "Cocktails for Two", "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", and "I Went To Your Wedding". In addition to those he also did his rendition of "William Tell Overture", a Spike Jones release which featured vocals by Doodles Weaver. The recording satirized a horse race and broadcaster Clem McCarthy. Ray uploaded his rendition of the "William Tell Overture" on YouTube not too long ago. I'd also like to add that Ray remained faithful to the original arrangements of the novelty songs he covered in the 2012 box set. Here now is Ray's rendition of the Spike Jones classic...



Ray's Spike Jones influence played a big role in his 1990 rendition of "Help Me Make It Through the Night". Ray begins the song as a ballad before being 'interrupted' and told the performance isn't up-tempo enough. Afterward we hear gun shots and the song starts over as an up-tempo sing-a-long with comical sound effects mixed in throughout the recording. Ray made a wildly popular music video of the song as I'm sure all of you are very familiar with...but the execution of the song's performance was a tribute to Spike Jones.

Ray Stevens: Aaron Tippin CabaRay Nashville performance...

Hello all once again!! Earlier today a performance by Aaron Tippin of "You've Got to Stand for Something" from an episode of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville appeared on YouTube. The performance comes from Aaron's guest appearance on Ray's PBS show. The single was released in the fall of 1990. As is commonplace in country music a new artist usually has to have a couple of single releases fail to make an impact before finally getting 'discovered'. In Aaron's case his debut single, which he co-wrote, happened to be "You've Got to Stand for Something". The single struck a chord but what put it over the top was it's connection to the Gulf War in early 1991. Bob Hope was in the process of doing what turned out to be his last major USO tour...this time around it happened to be military stops in the Persian Gulf area. Bob heard Aaron's song and wanted the singer to appear on his next USO stop...and one thing led to another and Aaron's career and his debut single became emotionally tied to the Gulf War during the first several months of 1991. Aaron continues supporting military causes and has performed at numerous military bases all over the world since 1991. Aaron was born July 3, 1958 and so today is his birthday.

Ray Stevens sings "Feel the Music"...

One of my favorite time periods in the career of Ray Stevens is the late '70s when he was recording for Warner Brothers. He recorded four studio albums for the label and then they issued a compilation album on him to promote a newly recorded novelty song, "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow", in 1979. The label really hadn't did too much to keep the songs he recorded for them in print. In 1995 the label issued a 3-volume collection which, to date, remains the definitive series on Ray's years with Warner Brothers (1976-1979). His studio albums for the label haven't been re-issued. In 1977 he released a studio album titled Feel the Music which features 10 songs. Ray wrote 9 of the 10...he wrote the title track, "Feel the Music". The album cover, as you see below, is an illustration of a stereo speaker. The back of the album has a photo of Ray attached to the back of the 'speaker'. The illustration of the speaker is in great detail. This audio clip appeared on YouTube several days ago but I'm only now getting around to showcasing it in a fan created blog entry...

Ray Stevens: "Quarantined" pushes beyond 700,000 unique views...

Hello all!!! We're at the point of Independence Day weekend for the year 2020. I hadn't been on-line for several days...I was dealing with computer issues...and so I wasn't on-line when the Ray Stevens "Quarantined" video surpassed 700,000 unique views. As of this writing the video sits with 716,522. I am on a new laptop and I haven't imported any of my files from the previous laptop, yet, and so I don't have my images of Ray Stevens in my possession at the moment and so the next series of blog entries won't have any photos unless it's photo's I've newly saved to this laptop.



As I'm sure you've heard...there's been something of an explosion of COVID-19 outbreaks and explosions...a lot of new positive cases among the younger people. What this has done is caused a lot of Governor's to slow down their re-openings...but given the passage of time there's been so much information about COVID-19 that's become available to doctors here in the United States that the idea of going into a complete lockdown is out of the question. The increase in cases reflects an increase in testing but it also, in my opinion, reflects the fact that a lot of information about COVID-19 was simply unknown in the earlier part of the year. The transmission of COVID-19 is unlikely among children and the virus is often non-lethal for those under 60...so a lot of hysteria surrounding the virus is still being played out in the national and local media.