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.