Ray Stevens: "Quarantined" is nearing 1,000,000 unique views...

Hello all once again!! I noticed a flurry of activity on social media sites the last couple of days...people sharing the Ray Stevens COVID-19 music video, "Quarantined". I decided to take a look at the YouTube video and discovered that it's nearing 1,000,000 unique views!! As of this writing the video has 995,292 unique views!! On August 25th the video turned 3 months old...having debuted on YouTube on May 25th. My first blog entry of the month focused on the pandemic and at that time the argument for or against face mask wearing was a big topic.

I wear a face mask, although I'm opposed to it, but I wear one only where it's mandated by a shopping store or whatever fast food place is open for carry-out. I don't like drive-thru...my driver side window is off-track so I open the driver side door to talk into the drive-thru microphone and then I open the door to receive the order. I don't wear a face mask when I'm driving (even though I have seen people seated behind their steering wheel wearing a face mask!) or when I'm with family. The oppressive over-reach of some Governor's in the country will have you thinking you're not allowed to engage in basic, God-given rights and activity unless they approve of it. This is why the pandemic has unleashed the true nature of Big Government politicians both locally and nationally...they've used the pandemic as a power grab where they've been allowed, most through fear and scare tactics, to take over parts of our lives that ordinarily would be hands off.

Through the use of fear tactics a lot of Governor's and Mayor's have used the pandemic to erode individual rights and liberty. The face mask issue, for example, has become some sort of a morality argument. If you wear one you're praised for "not helping spread a virus if you're asymptomatic" and if you don't want to wear one you're vilified and said to be "selfish, intolerant, cold-hearted, and cruel" when all you're wanting to do, as someone who doesn't wear a face mask, is to have the freedom to choose whether you want to wear one or not. The most vulnerable at having complications from COVID-19 should be the ones wearing the face masks in public as I've been saying for months.

The reason why there's a little over 180,000 fatalities of COVID-19 in a country with over 6 million "cases" is because it's a virus that's 90 percent deadly to those aged 60 and older and for those who have underlying medical conditions. There isn't any significant medical data to support the argument to keep the country in partial or full lockdown...the country for half a year has been in a state of economic chaos and uncertainty because with every COVID-19 "case" that springs up a Governor over-reacts and doubles down on keeping their economy at a stand-still.

The State I live in has a little over 4,000 COVID-19 related deaths...the "cases" are a little over 122,000. The population of the State is 11.6 million! Now, in a State with a population that size, our Governor's rhetoric would have you believing we're a "hot spot" of COVID-19 activity. The numbers don't show that. People do and have recovered from COVID-19. I'm tired of the over-reaction whenever there's increases in "cases". COVID-19 isn't an automatic death sentence.

Ray Stevens: 1991 theater sketch...

I was never able to see any concerts, in person, of Ray Stevens when he was in Branson, Missouri at his theater. He performed at his former theater in Branson for a total of five non-consecutive seasons: 1991, 1992, 1993, 2005, and 2006. I have his 1993 VHS releases, Ray Stevens Live! and More Ray Stevens Live!. Those two VHS tapes consist of a full-length Ray Stevens concert from 1992 broken in two parts. If you have Ray Stevens Live! you'll know that parts of the concert feature fade outs and fade-ins. The footage not seen on Ray Stevens Live! is shown on the sequel. In the concert performances Ray utilized a jumbo screen. Comical sketches would often play on this screen either during intermission or in the concert itself if a song required a lot of production to pull off in a live setting. When he performed "I Saw Elvis in a U.F.O." the opening portion of the song with the field reporter and eyewitness was shown on the video screen. He taped a black and white parody of James Bond. These are things you can see on Ray Stevens Live!. Yesterday the social media sites of Ray Stevens uploaded a 1991 comedy sketch, shot in black and white, of a couple lost in Branson after being stuck in a traffic jam and they end up breaking into a theater. Little do they know it's the Ray Stevens Theatre...and little do they know who Ray Stevens is...



I can't tell who the woman is but the guy I recognize from Ray's 1995 movie, Get Serious!. The guy played Harv Newland in the movie.

Ray Stevens performs "Honky Tonk Waltz"...

The video quality is so-so in this upload but earlier today "Honky Tonk Waltz" was uploaded onto the social media sites of Ray Stevens. The performance, from a 1977 episode of Pop! Goes the Country, had been uploaded onto YouTube by other people going back at least 10 years but since this is an upload from Ray's official YouTube channel I'm going to embed it. I'm sure I embedded earlier uploads of the performance and if I have then this will be another upload to enjoy!!

Me and Ray Stevens LP

The image off to the right is me and my vinyl copy of the 1976 Ray Stevens album, Just For the Record. I took this photo earlier this morning...the photo is actually larger than what it appears but I made it smaller for this blog entry so that the image wouldn't take up most of the text space. The album's title is in smaller print over top of Ray's name. The back of the album features the same photo of Ray. It's a photo that was apparently taken in the winter months...Ray's bundled up with a heavy scarf and a fisherman's hat. Publicity photo's from around the time of this album's release shown him wearing gloves, too. I don't know the story behind the photo session or how the name of the album came to be. It was his debut album for Warner Brothers...following a lengthy run with Barnaby Records (dating back to early 1970). Ray's debut single for Warner Brothers happened to be a newly arranged version of "You Are So Beautiful"...traditionally performed as a slow ballad but in Ray's rendition it's presented as an up-tempo sing-a-long in the vein of "Misty" but with an even more deliberate Bluegrass feel. It was a Top-20 hit on the country charts and it was followed by "Honky Tonk Waltz".



"Honky Tonk Waltz" deliberately combined two music/dance styles together...the main instrument being the mandolin. In the video Ray plays a guitar and the piano. In this era of his career he often appeared with a guitar on his back while seated at his piano. He has often remarked that he knows a few chords on the guitar but is in no way a guitar wizard...preferring to stick with his main instruments within the piano family. "Honky Tonk Waltz" hit the Country Top-30 midway through 1976. There were only two singles released from his 1976 album. It wouldn't be until 1995 that Warner Brothers began re-issuing Ray's recordings for their label...and they did so with three compilations: Cornball, The Serious Side of Ray Stevens, and Do You Wanna Dance?. This means that it wasn't until those three releases came along that a good dose of his Warner Brothers recordings were on the market. The label never issued any best-of collections on Ray until 1995 and they hadn't issued any since. It would be nice to have his studio albums for Warner Brothers become available in CD or have them become digitally available as Mp3's. It makes little sense to keep them unavailable. I have them on vinyl and I have those 1995 CD's but not everyone does...the late '70s Ray Stevens recordings need to become readily available again.

Ray Stevens: The Buddy Kalb YouTube Channel...

Well, here I am, this is my third blog entry of the day! This time around I'm here to promote a new YouTube channel by Buddy Kalb, one of the songwriters, music video co-stars, and associates of Ray Stevens. As of this writing the channel has 16 subscribers. As most of you know it's rather easy to subscribe to a YouTube channel...simply click subscribe on the channel's home page. Some of the songs Buddy has written that Ray has recorded include: "The Dog Song", "I'll Be In Atlanta", "Red Hot Chili Cook-Off", "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" (Buddy and his wife, Carlene, wrote it), and "Let's Do It Right This Time"...just to name only five.

Ray and Buddy have written a lot of songs together, too. The first song of Buddy's that Ray recorded was "One and Only You" in 1976. Ray's recording can be found on the Warner Brothers album, Just For the Record, as well as the 1995 compilation, The Serious Side of Ray Stevens. Buddy penned "Frog Kissing" which was recorded as a vocal by Chet Atkins (with harmony vocals from Ray Stevens). Mel McDaniel recorded Buddy's song, "The Hustler", several years before Ray recorded it. Cristy Lane's 1980 album was named for Buddy's song, "Ask Me To Dance". Ray published the song but it wasn't released as a single. Jerry Reed had originally recorded Buddy's "Concrete Sailor" in the early 1980s...and Ray did a rendition of the song for his One for the Road CD in 2009. Ray's current YouTube video hit, "Quarantined", about COVID-19, is from the pen of Buddy Kalb.

When you visit Buddy's channel you'll see audio clips of songs that he wrote...many of which were recorded by Ray Stevens over the years. You'll also hear songs that Ray hasn't recorded...but may end up on some future Ray Stevens album perhaps. There's an audio clip of Buddy on a song called "M.D. The Monster Doctor"...I'm curious to hear what a song with that title sounds like. [I'm making my way to YouTube to take a listen...]

[I have returned!!] "M.D. The Monster Doctor" is a novelty in the classic sense of the word. It's issued as Big Buddy K on the Lowery label. When you listen to the song it sounds almost like Ray Stevens himself from that time period. The evil laugh is also memorable. The recording is from 1965. The song is about a wolfman and within the chorus of the song there's 'yeah, yeah, yeah' vocalizations in reference to The Beatles. You can find that audio clip and dozens more at Buddy Kalb's YouTube channel. You can visit it by clicking HERE. Once you're there don't forget to subscribe.

Here is an audio clip of Buddy singing "Melissa" in 2011 from a live songwriter's night...it had previously been recorded by Ray Stevens 30 years earlier in 1981 for his album, One More Last Chance...

Ray Stevens: Rare Cassette Single...

I was looking on eBay earlier today and I came across a rare cassette single released on Ray Stevens. When I first seen the image listed on the product page I thought it was a VHS tape. My guess is the seller enlarged the photo. Anyway, it's a cassette single of "I Saw Elvis in a U.F.O." backed with "I Used To Be Crazy". I have a couple of cassette singles from other recording artists...the cassette tape slips into the cardboard carrying case. The item is still a current offer. There aren't any bids on it...as of this writing the seller is asking twelve dollars if you 'Buy It Now'. I saved the front and back of the image because it's such a rare item...

Ray Stevens cassette single; 1989.

That's the art work on the front of the single. In the background there's an illustration of a flying saucer with music notes emanating from it. The song comes from Ray's 1989 album, Beside Myself, and it's from the pen of Ray and Buddy Kalb. The B-side also comes from the pen of Ray and Buddy Kalb.

The back of the cassette single, as you can see, features the two songs included and promotes the album both songs come from. This is the only time I've ever seen a Ray Stevens cassette single. I posted about this on a couple of social media sites and asked if other Ray Stevens cassette singles exist or if this was simply a one time thing. I'm not going to feature a link to the eBay product page but if you're wanting even more information go to eBay and search for Ray Stevens + cassette tapes and it'll be in the search results. When did cassette singles emerge? I know that record companies were issuing vinyl singles, albeit in limited quantity, into the early 1990s. I have several vinyl singles that were issued during the first several years of the '90s. Some of those early '90s vinyl singles were designated as promo-only, some meant for jukeboxes, and some were shipped to whatever radio stations in the early '90s still incorporated a turntable into their shows. I type that and then it hits me that FM radio disc jockeys hadn't been able to "have a show" for many years. Radio stations have become computer controlled...with a live person there to deliver local promo's for area businesses or do a vague news report at the top of the hour...but the music itself is pre-programmed well in advance but then again so is the voice-overs by the "disc jockey". Voice tracking is what they call it when radio stations have their on-air personalities tape intro's and deliver chatter/small talk in advance and it's added into a broadcast to create the audio illusion someone's sitting in a studio playing music.

Ray Stevens: Rex Allen, Jr. CabaRay Nashville performance...

Hello one and all!! In this blog entry I'll be embedding the video of Rex Allen, Jr. on the CabaRay Nashville television series. The program, hosted by Ray Stevens, airs in local syndication on PBS stations. In the promo for the episode Ray can be heard doing his vocal impression of Gabby Hayes. In the performance video "Happy Trails" is performed by Ray and Rex.

Some may wonder why Rex would perform that song given it's universal identification with Roy Rogers...my guess is the sing-a-long nature lends itself to duets and considering Ray, in most episodes, sings a duet with his guest that's the reason the song was selected. Ray plays piano and sings harmony while Rex performs "Happy Trails"...which, as one could guess, turns into a studio sing-a-long with the band and the audience.

In the full episode Rex sings "Lonely Street" and "Crying in the Chapel" and the two discuss his writing of "Arizona", which became a State song for Arizona. I wrote an episode review of Rex Allen, Jr.'s appearance on Ray's television show a couple of years ago in case you want much more specific details about that episode. It should be in the October 2017 archives. Here's Ray and Rex discussing and then performing "Happy Trails"...

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Dixie Hummingbird"...

Hello all!! Ray's social media sites have seen continued activity in this protracted pandemic. In this blog entry I'm sharing an audio clip of "Dixie Hummingbird". Now, this is a fabulous Ray Stevens recording from 1977 and it's from his album, Feel the Music. The single charted in the Top-50 on the country singles chart...falling several positions short of breaking into the country Top-40. It's always mystified me how the rise and fall of single releases go. A single comes onto the charts like gangbusters only to peak outside the Top-40...what could've halted the momentum!? There have been a number of single releases by Ray Stevens to do just that kind of thing: debut with a bang but for whatever reason peak outside the Top-40. In my mind, at least, it makes me think the sales and demand for a song was there but there was resistance along the way from radio. How else do you explain a single stopping in the mid 40's on the chart?

Me and Feel the Music LP

Regardless of whatever industry politics were at play "Dixie Hummingbird" and the album it's from, Feel the Music, are nevertheless another outstanding display of Ray's talents. The album has 10 songs on it...9 of the songs were written by Ray Stevens. Buddy Kalb contributed "Set The Children Free". I have never seen any video footage of Ray singing "Dixie Hummingbird" but if you search YouTube you'll find video footage of him singing "Feel the Music". In fact, I've written some blog entries and embedded the video of "Feel the Music" in them and so you can also search this blog for "Feel the Music" and you'll be able to find the video clip...but if you don't have the time to do in-depth searching then simply visit Ray's YouTube channel and look for "Feel the Music". In the meantime, "Dixie Hummingbird" tells the story of a man who's obviously in love and he tells about how he feels about her and that she's the silent type who doesn't say too many words but reassures him in her own way that she's loves him. He calls her his "Dixie Hummingbird".

I created the collage you see above several years ago. It's from a blog entry I wrote on July 8, 2018. It's what I call the Ray Stevens Warner Brothers Collage. It visually tells the story of Ray's Warner Brothers years...an era in his career that I love the most although I love his entire career. Here is the audio clip of "Dixie Hummingbird"...

Ray Stevens: Collin Raye CabaRay Nashville performance...

Hello all again! It's 15 minutes until midnight as I begin typing this so let me squeeze in a birthday post centering around Collin Raye and his guest appearance on the Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville television show (which airs in local syndication on PBS stations). Born August 22, 1960 the country music artist, as you can see, turns 60 today. He came to fame in country music in 1991 during the New Country/Young Country wave that was sweeping over country music. It had started in the late 1980s but by the early 1990s it was unstoppable. Collin's first single, "All I Can Be is a Sweet Memory", comes from the pen of the late songwriting legend, Harlan Howard. It hit in 1991...but I first heard that song on a 1985 album from Conway Twitty called Chasin' Rainbows.

Ray Stevens and Collin Raye; CabaRay Nashville

Collin's breakthrough song was the follow-up which hit number one, "Love, Me". He has 21 Top-10 Country hits and 14 of them hit the Top-10 in consecutive order between late 1991 through early 1996. "Love, Me" hit number one here in the U.S. and in Canada early in 1992. He'd have three more number one hits in the U.S. and three additional number one hits in Canada. In 1997 he was part of a trio recording, "The Gift", which became an Adult-Contemporary smash hit (peaking at #3). The main artist on that recording was pianist Jim Brickman but Collin was credited as one of two soloists, the other being Susan Ashton. Collin's 21st and final Top-10 Country hit was "Couldn't Last a Moment" in 2000 (a number one in Canada). The trio of Brickman/Raye/Ashton reunited in 2003 for "Peace", which hit the Adult-Contemporary Top-20.

Okay, I think I've written enough of a backstory on Collin Raye...what about his appearance on Ray's show?? Here it is...



Collin spoke a lot about his early years and his time in Branson, Missouri. The song he performs, "My Kind of Girl", hit number one in early 1995. 

Ray Stevens: "Dudley Dorite of the Highway Patrol" music video...

It's me once again!! Earlier this year I wrote a blog entry about the 25th anniversary of Ray's direct-to-VHS movie, Get Serious!. The movie was sold through television advertisements and print ads in the latter half of 1995. The film's overall plot centered around a 1986 comedy song Ray recorded called "Dudley Dorite of the Highway Patrol". In the song Ray is pulled over for 'speeding' by an officer who takes his job very seriously. Dudley tells Ray that he's married to a woman named Ethel and afterward he reveals that his name is actually Bubba...who spends his off days as the Illustrious Potentate of the local Shrine. Ray continues to learn that the characters that have appeared in his comedy songs really exist and they're upset that he's made them laughing stocks. This concept, as mentioned, was further expanded in 1995 when Get Serious! was released. The VHS was certified Double-Platinum through direct mail (more than 200,000 copies sold). The song's writer, Buddy Kalb, appears as Dudley Dorite. Ray's brother, John, appears in the role of Clyde. In the movie they have a different actor playing Harv Newland from the "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" video. In the 1992 music video the song's writer, Buddy Kalb, is playing the role of Harv. I guess they didn't want to have Buddy play dual roles in the movie and create even more post-production considering there's a lot of group scenes featuring Dudley Dorite and Harv Newland; while Ray plays a lot of characters in the movie in addition to appearing as "himself" throughout. So, to reduce an already heavy post-production schedule, that's my theory why they re-cast Harv Newland for Get Serious!. Here's the music video for "Dudley Dorite of the Highway Patrol" from the 1995 Ray Stevens movie, Get Serious!...

Ray Stevens: Flav-O-Rich Friday...

I couldn't think of any other blog title...this being Friday and the fact that I'm going to embed a television commercial for Flav-O-Rich by Ray Stevens. This commercial emerged on Ray's social media sites a couple of days ago but I'm just now getting it into a blog entry. Every so often Ray's social media sites spotlight his career selling Flav-O-Rich products...typically milk. The company was previously known as Farm Best. Ray's image appeared in print ads for the company and in regional television commercials. I don't think these commercials ever aired north of Kentucky or west of Tennessee but I'm sure they saturated the south/southeast market. In this commercial, from 1980, Ray and several others are promoting the company's new low fat brand of milk.



When you look upon Ray in the screen cap above or down below it's worth pointing out that he's wearing the Clyde the camel pinky ring. The commercial, being from the year 1980, also means that it was airing during the year of his induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and based on the time of year this commercial aired it was either before or after "Shriner's Convention" made it's debut. I think the commercial premiered in the middle or latter half of 1980...and if so it was definitely several months after "Shriner's Convention" which hit very early in 1980.

Ray Stevens for Flav-O-Rich; 1980

Ray remained a spokesman for Flav-O-Rich for much of the 1980s. This was a part of his career that I had no idea about until the early 2000s when I got on-line. When I did a Google newspaper archive search for Ray Stevens one of the results was a newspaper ad showing an image of Ray holding a carton of Flav-O-Rich milk. From that point forward I'd always been on the lookout for images of Ray promoting the company. It wasn't until fairly recently did his television commercials begin resurfacing through his YouTube channel. He's uploaded a number of those commercials but there's still a lot more that have yet to surface.

Ray Stevens: 1974 concert poster...

A couple of years before I came into existence in 1976 was this Ray Stevens concert at the Sahara Tohoe in Nevada in mid March 1974. As you can see from the poster Ray Stevens was the headlining attraction with special guest Anne Murray. If you're familiar with the career time-line of Ray Stevens this concert series was a couple of weeks before the commercial explosion of "The Streak". The series of concerts taking place March 15th, 16th, and 17th.

As mentioned the concerts took place just prior to "The Streak" even though streaking was a growing fad in the spring of 1974. Ray's recording didn't hit the charts until April...and within a month of it's release it was sitting at number one. The illustration of Ray used in the poster had been used in previous publicity photos but the artist added the wide lapels to the facial portrait. The addition of those make the image look similar to how he appears on the album cover of Nashville...at the time of this concert series it was one of his most recent album releases. That album, issued in 1973, was followed by Losin' Streak. In country music and pop music it wasn't uncommon for major recording artists to release multiple albums per year. In some instances a recording artist would issue three or four albums per year. In those days the sales of singles were the norm and if a single became a commercial hit or became well known then a record label would issue an entire 10 or 11 song album named for the hit single. Also, it wasn't uncommon for a popular recording artist to have multiple albums issued per year without any hit single...the popularity of the artist would often result in sales from an established audience. Ray's next album came later in 1974 titled Boogity Boogity...an all comedy album centering around "The Streak". The album contains new songs and 3 songs from a not too distant past. 1966's "Freddie Feelgood" eventually appeared on 1969's Gitarzan album but it also appears on Boogity Boogity. "Bagpipes, That's My Bag" previously appeared on Gitarzan. "Bridget the Midget the Queen of the Blues" originally was released in December 1970 as a single only. It soon appeared on a 1971 Greatest Hits compilation. The song appears on Boogity-Boogity as well. "The Streak", "Smith and Jones", "Heart Transplant", "The Moonlight Special", "Don't Boogie Woogie", and "Just So Proud To Be Here" round out the rest of the album. In case you don't have that 1974 album it's worth pointing out that "Smith and Jones" is a streaking song, too. It's not exactly a song...it's a spoken word comical tale of two Government agents on the trail of a streaker.

I wonder what Ray Stevens sang at these concerts! I'd assume he performed a set-list that included a mixture of album tracks and single releases to that point in time. "Nashville", at the time of this concert, was the last single of his to hit and so I'm sure he opened his shows with that song or sang it midway through the concert. "Everything is Beautiful", then only 4 years old, I'm sure was his closing song each of these concerts. If he performed "Golden Age" from Nashville or "This is Your Life" from Losin' Streak at those concerts consider that a rarity. His bluesy version of "Bye Bye Love" is from that rare Losin' Streak album. If anyone genuinely remembers seeing Ray at the Sahara in March 1974 feel free to comment.

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Makin' the Best of a Bad Situation"...

Well, it's me again!! One of the audio clips that appeared on the Ray Stevens social media pages the other day was "Makin' The Best of a Bad Situation". The song appears on the 1986 comedy album, Surely You Joust, which you can tell from listening to the audio clip. A couple of weeks ago he uploaded an audio clip of "The People's Court" from the 1986 comedy album. The phrase, "Makin' the Best of a Bad Situation", sounds rather timely considering COVID-19.



When you listen to the song and you think in your mind that it sounds like something Ray's late, good friend Jerry Reed would've recorded then chances are you're familiar with the song's writer. The writer of the song composed a number of songs Jerry recorded...specifically during the late '70s/early '80s period...at the time Jerry had become just as well known for his acting roles on television and in movies.

The songs Jerry had recorded for those movies and for some of his albums were written by or co-written with Dick Feller. The writer had his own rendition of "Makin' the Best of a Bad Situation" on the charts in 1974. Perhaps coincidentally but Ray and Jerry recorded their own versions of "Coin Machine", another song from the pen of Dick Feller.

In my biased opinion Ray's rendition of the song is the best even though if we weren't to compare the recordings I'd consider both recordings of the song excellent. Ray's rendition of the song is on his 1980 comedy album, Shriner's Convention. Ray's cover of "Makin' the Best of a Bad Situation" in 1986, like "Coin Machine" in 1980, remained an album track...not widely known outside Ray's fanbase but I love Ray's versions of both of those songs.

Ray Stevens performs "Can We Get To That?"...

Now, now...before anyone says that my fan created Ray Stevens blog lacks coherency because it jumps from one era of his career to another at random I'd like to point out that's why it's fun to write them. It's fun writing a blog entry about Ray Stevens and his contemporary activities and then following it up with a blog entry pertaining to one of his recordings from 20, 30, 40, 50 plus years ago and then following that up with a blog entry centering around Ray Stevens screen caps or photo's of vinyl single releases. All aspects of his lengthy career are spotlighted in this fan created blog. Earlier this morning on the Ray Stevens social media sites an upload of his 1971 performance of "Can We Get To That?" was posted.



The powerful song appears on his 1970 album, Unreal!!!. That particular album was released later in the year following the Everything is Beautiful album. Unreal!!! featured "Sunset Strip" and "America, Communicate With Me" as single releases...both were big hits on the adult radio format, Easy-Listening. That radio format later changed it's name to Adult-Contemporary. The format had also been previously known as Middle-of-the-Road. If you look inside vintage editions of Billboard magazine you'll see that radio format abbreviated as MOR. "Can We Get To That?" is what you'd call a topical song...but with a timeless message.

Ray was very aware of the social commentary contained in the song...first of all he wrote it...and it was a sentiment that he captured in other songs he wrote during the socially turbulent late '60s/early '70s time period. "Mr. Businessman", "The Great Escape", "The Minority", "Everything is Beautiful", "America, Communicate With Me", and "Monkey See, Monkey Do". In addition to writing songs with a social commentary bent he also recorded his versions of contemporary songs: "Get Together", "Hair", "Aquarius", "Help", "Games People Play", "Hey Jude", and "But You Know I Love You". Ray's brother, John, recently passed away but he had written a song, "Talking", that Ray recorded for the 1970 Unreal!!! album. It's a fabulous song and fit the mood of the time.

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Saturday Night at the Movies"...

It's me once more!! A couple of days ago (Saturday) the Ray Stevens social media sites uploaded one of his early novelty songs from 1962, "Saturday Night at the Movies". The song is very funny and it's from his debut album for Mercury titled 1,837 Seconds of Humor. If you're familiar with my fan created Ray Stevens blog entries then you'll know that 1962 vinyl album remains the only studio vinyl album from Ray that I don't personally own. I have it on a CD paired with 1963's This is Ray Stevens from an overseas label, Liberty Bell. I've posted images of the CD before...but in case you hadn't seen it yet this is what the obscure, rare overseas import CD looks like. They added an additional track not found on either album: "Santa Claus is Watching You". Mercury issued the song as a single-only in 1962. Ray re-wrote this song almost entirely in 1985 and re-recorded it while at MCA...and it was made into a music video (his first ever). The cover of the CD has the catchphrase 'As Seen on TV' printed on it...although I'd never seen it advertised on television. I found this CD in a used book store at a shopping mall. The store had a rack full of CDs that I suspect were previously owned. This one still had it's plastic wrapper sealed around it. I would've purchased it used but given it was still sealed in plastic gave me some confidence that it would be in crisp condition and it was!

Me and Ray's first two albums on one CD

Yes, I keep saying, one of these days I'll track down a vinyl copy of his debut Mercury album...one of these days!! Until then here's the audio clip of "Saturday Night at the Movies"...

Ray Stevens: "Grandpa Voted Democrat" hits 2.5 million unique views...

Hello all!! I'm taking a look back at "Grandpa Voted Democrat", one of the classic political comedy songs Ray Stevens released in 2012. The song itself is from his political comedy CD, Spirit of '76, released a year earlier in 2011. The video hit YouTube just prior to the 2012 election and so when you watch the video you're going to see some topical imagery from that time period...screen caps from cable news channels...and other imagery on the minds of people during that election cycle. An unforeseen benefit to Ray's funny political videos is seeing public figures in entertainment and politics that have either gotten out of the spotlight or have since been voted out of office.

I took a look back at this particular music video back in May of this year. When I reported the numbers in May the video had 2,330,401 unique views. A couple weeks later in early June it had risen to 2,396,531. A quick math recap shows that from May 22, 2020 through August 17, 2020 the "Grandpa Voted Democrat" video had been accessed 181,029 times to bring it's overall total of unique views to 2,511,520 as of this writing!!

Ray Stevens: "Quarantined" pushes beyond 900,000 unique views...

Hello all!! I've been watching the NHL play-off's and baseball games on and off throughout the weekend. I still don't know all the in's and out's and rules when it comes to ice hockey but I've been something of a casual viewer of the sport for a number of years. On last night's episode of Ray's locally syndicated PBS series, CabaRay Nashville, the guest star was Rex Allen, Jr.

As mentioned in a previous blog entry that I wrote I remarked that the moment that I find out if Ray's current music video, "Quarantined", has reached the 900,000 unique view plateau I'd write a blog entry about it. Well, today is the day. I looked at the numbers several minutes ago and "Quarantined" sits at 910,038. Has anyone else managed to maintain some of their sanity during the pandemic? Have you given up and succumbed to Government over-reach? Have you gotten to the point where you're numb to all things COVID-19, social distancing, and face masks and has both the elected and un-elected bureaucrats beaten down your once proud independence? The best thing to do, outside of voting this November, is to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all while listening to the Ray Stevens "Quarantined" video...over 900,000 people have seen it so far...



A recurring situation I've come across is the video embeds that I share in my blog entries sometimes are not showing up in the actual blog. When I go to preview my blog entries before I click publish I always see the videos posted in preview and so I assume they're showing up on the published blog entry. When I posted a video clip in a previous blog entry it failed to show up after publishing but was appearing in preview. It's a nuisance.

The most recent audio release from Ray Stevens is technically a Jeannie Seely recording. In my previous blog entry I promoted their "Dance Tonight" duet and wrote a review of the song. The Mp3 is available for purchase on Amazon. Her album is called An American Classic and it features a blend of solo and duet recordings. One of those duet recordings is with Ray Stevens on "Dance Tonight", from the pen of Paul McCartney.

You can read my commentary about Ray and Jeannie's "Dance Tonight" and find a link to their duet by clicking HERE.

Ray Stevens: "Dance Tonight" with Jeannie Seely...

Well, here I am again...blogging about the multi-talented Ray Stevens!! If you're keeping track of all things Ray Stevens then you should be aware that Jeannie Seely's new album, An American Classic, was released today and it contains a duet with Ray. It became available at midnight on many on-line retail stores. I purchased a copy of her duet with Ray Stevens, "Dance Tonight". Her album is on Curb Records and the producer is Don Cusic (a name that should be familiar to Ray Stevens fans).

I've long since heard their duet...I purchased my copy of their recording around 2am this morning! I decided not to write a review until later in the day so as to not get ahead of any publicity that might surface surrounding the CD's release. Yes...for those that are aware...you can purchase a physical copy of the CD through Amazon but I opted to purchase an Mp3 of Jeannie's duet with Ray. I had written about Ray's upcoming duet in early July and then I wrote a follow-up blog entry earlier this month. Once I mentioned the name of their duet, "Dance Tonight", I was contacted by several on-line friends of mine informing me that the song had previously been recorded by Paul McCartney and it had apparently been well known for many years but I don't closely follow the careers of a wide array of recording artists. I have general knowledge of a wide array of recording artists and I like listening to a lot of them but I'd only consider myself a completely devoted fan of Ray Stevens...which should come as no surprise.

Now then...after purchasing "Dance Tonight" I listened to it and at first I thought it was going to be a sing-a-long the all way through because the song begins with Ray, Jeannie, and a choir of background harmony singers singing the chorus of the song. However that wasn't the case. Jeannie sings a solo in her trademark smoky voice and Ray chimes in on a verse but the focal point in the recording is the music itself rather than the lyrics. The party atmosphere of the song is hammered home thanks in large part to the background vocals...usually the atmosphere is created through the melody itself...but in this case the atmosphere sounds alive. The original by Paul McCartney, which I hadn't heard until this morning, obviously carries the same melody but the production is different. In his rendition he does a whistling solo and the production, by comparison, is minimal to the duet. In Ray and Jeannie's duet there isn't a whistle solo and there's a lot of production to it. The prominent instrument in this duet is the fiddle. Once I was informed that Paul McCartney had recorded the song originally I kept myself from listening to his recording...I wanted to be surprised when I purchased Ray and Jeannie's duet version this morning.

You can purchase your copy of "Dance Tonight" by clicking this LINK.

Ray Stevens: "Quarantined" is nearing 900,000 unique views...

Yes, it's me once again...with a rather quick follow-up to my previous blog entry. I just left YouTube and noticed that the Ray Stevens "Quarantined" video is nearing 900,000 unique views!! On August 8th the video had obtained 853,331 unique views and when I looked several minutes ago the numbers were 883,357!! This is a pickup of an additional 30,026 unique views.



When you do the math it means that the video needs 16,643 unique views to break into the 900,000 plateau. Will it push past 900,000 later today or by the end of the week? I'll be keeping track and once it cracks 900,000 I'll obviously write a blog entry about it. Is anyone at their wit's end with the pandemic? Anyone tired of the over-reach from local and State Government and their politicization of COVID-19 as they pick and choose which medical professional to listen to? The scientists who tend to favor guidelines that aren't strict routinely get mocked and vilified whereas scientists who favor Government control guidelines are praised and applauded. Remember when Fauci appeared to be in agreement with President Trump over a recent issue? The media vilified Fauci and claimed he was being bullied and pressured by the President. As long as the scientists are saying things that make the President look bad then the media is cheering them on. I think the video will crack 900,000 later today but that's just my guess.

Since there aren't any unique view awards that I'm aware of I've often felt that video clips that surpass the criteria of specific totals should receive some sort of award or plaque for the achievement. I'm referring to video clips made by professional recording artists either on major or Independent record labels. Their music is rewarded with Gold, Platinum, Double-Platinum sales certifications by the RIAA so why can't unique view thresholds on social media get recognized in some manner? You could even refer to video clips with 500,000 or more unique views as a Gold View...then the next plateau would be Platinum View at more than 1,000,000 unique views, etc. etc. The video hosting site once had a YouTube Awards presentation (in 2007 and 2008) for user generated video clips.

Ray has had dozens of video clips push past the 500,000 range and several others have pushed well past 1,000,000 unique views. "Quarantined", it appears, will be Ray's next Platinum View video but first it needs to reach 900,000.

Ray Stevens: John Conlee CabaRay Nashville performance...

Hello all once again!! Earlier this morning the Ray Stevens social media sites uploaded an interview and performance from John Conlee (who's celebrating a birthday today) from an episode of CabaRay Nashville. John appeared in a first season episode and he shared half of the episode with Jeff Bates. It's one of the few episodes of Ray's show to have multiple guests. I've been a fan of John Conlee for years...a fan of his songs. I'm not as into his career as I am Ray's but I have a lot of John's albums and I know some things about him.

Ray Stevens and John Conlee; CabaRay Nashville

John Conlee is a former mortician and radio newscaster. He worked as a newscaster for WLAC radio in Nashville, TN. His first venture in the music industry was in the mid '70s with "Backside of Thirty"...the first time around the single didn't hit...but a couple years later he emerged with "Rose Colored Glasses" (1978) and it hit the Top-10. He followed this with "Lady Lay Down" and it hit number one. His record label, ABC, then re-released "Backside of Thirty" and it hit number one. All three songs are from his debut album, Rose Colored Glasses. The following year the record company he was recording for, ABC, was bought out by MCA.

Me and John Conlee cassette; 1982

I became aware of John Conlee's songs in the early '80s prior to my discovering the songs of Ray Stevens. As I've written in earlier blog entries a lot of my earliest exposure to country music artists was through my grandparents and often my parents. However, more specifically, it was my grandfather who introduced me to the songs of George Jones, Merle Haggard, Dave Dudley, John Conlee, and ultimately, Ray Stevens. I became aware of Conway Twitty, Charley Pride, Tom T. Hall, Ronnie Milsap, and all kinds of other recording artists as I was being raised in the 1980s with country music in the background. That cassette tape you see of Busted by John Conlee was originally issued in 1982. We had an 8-track of Busted and it's that album that introduced me to John Conlee. In addition to the Top-10 title track, which became one of John's signature hits, it also included the memorable Top-10 "I Don't Remember Loving You" and the number one hit, "Common Man". In John's appearance on CabaRay Nashville he sings "Common Man" and tells the story behind the song. He also discusses his years at WLAC and his entry into the music business. John has a very distinct voice...some say it's raspy...but it's unlike any other recording artist. His voice hasn't really changed during his entire career. He's a long time champion of the Farm Aid fundraisers that Willie Nelson, John Mellancamp, and Neil Young created. His support of the family farmer and the American worker led to his recording songs that fit those causes and in later years he began incorporating songs that championed the military. His recordings of songs such as "Backside of Thirty", "She Loves My Troubles Away", "The In Crowd", "Friday Night Blues", "Miss Emily's Picture", "Common Man", "Working Man", "The Carpenter", "Domestic Life", "They Also Serve", and "Walkin' Behind the Star" cemented his reputation as a singer for the everyday person. John became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1981. Here now is the Ray Stevens interview of John Conlee and the performance of "Common Man"...

Ray Stevens performs "I'm Kissin' You Goodbye"...

Hello all...it's me once again! Long time fans of Ray Stevens should be aware of this particular recording, "I'm Kissin' You Goodbye". It's the opening track of his 1984 album, He Thinks He's Ray Stevens. In fact, it was the first single release (promo-only) sent to radio stations in the fall of 1984. However, disc jockeys at the time began playing a song from the album, "Mississippi Squirrel Revival", instead of the official single.

One thing led to another and the squirrel ultimately was issued as a single...and the rest is history. If you have the 1984 album then you know, as I do, all of the songs are hilarious in their own way. "I'm Kissin' You Goodbye", for example, was one of my grandfather's favorite songs from that album even though he and I heard "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" first, on a jukebox in a local pizza place, which led us to the 1984 album.

Ray's performance of "I'm Kissin' You Goodbye" comes from an episode of his television series, CabaRay Nashville...and it's a very engaging performance...

Ray Stevens: "Quarantined" and COVID-19...

In a previous blog entry I had provided the most recent unique views for the Ray Stevens video, "Quarantined". The numbers for that video were sitting at 816,307 on August 1st. I checked the numbers on August 3rd and they were 828,968 for a pickup of 12,661. I looked at the numbers a couple of minutes ago and "Quarantined" now sits with 853,331 which is a pickup of 24,363 unique views in the last five days. The COVID-19 pandemic, long since politicized, remains a topic of discussion each and every day. The intense focus on COVID-19 "cases" rather than hospitalizations or deaths has single handedly panicked a large swath of the country. A true disservice to the public and causing fear...businesses can't even get their workers to come back for fear of COVID-19. The panic and fear generated by anti-Trump politicians are to blame, in my opinion. Companies/businesses whose CEO's have completely overhauled their job sites to make them safe and COVID ready, based on local and State health mandates, face the burden of getting their workers back. As mentioned they're not returning to work because of the fearmongering of COVID-19 but also, not to forget, they're making more money on unemployment...so good luck getting them back if the checks keep going out with no cut-off in sight.

This intense focus on cases is politically designed to sabotage those in public office who hold differing opinions of the virus and choose to go about dealing with COVID-19 in their own way rather than falling in line with a one size fits all solution. Anyone who dares say that the virus can be dealt with on a local level without State or Federal Government intrusion is shamed and ridiculed. Anyone who dares say facemask wearing should be voluntary is also vilified. The concept of social distancing, I thought, was created to keep people separated 6 feet in case someone wasn't wearing a facemask. This inhumane practice of social distancing, strangely enough, is still being enforced inside retail stores and pretty much everywhere else even though everyone who enters stores and fast food restaurants are required to wear a facemask. I'd love for someone to explain why, even with facemasks on, they still want everyone separated 6 feet.

The video clip below will be three months old on August 25th. If the song/video is new to you Ray takes a humorous look at all of the frustrations and annoyances the pandemic has brought to daily life. The song picks at the disruption of normalcy that the pandemic unleashed on society...as you could guess it's a novelty song. There are those who think the serious nature of a pandemic means that there is nothing to laugh at or there's no humor to be had but that's why the humorless prudes are proven wrong each and every time. You can take a virus seriously but still balk at the Government over-reach. You can usually find the absurdity in the most serious of issues...and Ray has proven this time and time again whenever he decides to sing a topical piece and "Quarantined" is no exception...

Ray Stevens and Jeannie Seely: "Dance Tonight"...

Well it's me once again...the second blog entry of today. I've mentioned Ray Stevens' involvement in the upcoming Jeannie Seely album, An American Classic, in a previous blog entry or two. Ray will be singing a duet with Jeannie on a song called "Dance Tonight". The album is being released on Curb Records on August 14th and it's produced by Don Cusic.

If you follow Ray's career or are a frequent reader of this fan created blog then you'll already know that Don Cusic is involved in Ray's career, too. Don was the editor of Ray's 2014 memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville. He appears on early episodes of Ray's locally syndicated PBS series, Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville, as Professor Cusic. He wrote a lot of liner note information surrounding Ray's Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music box set. Also, he wrote "If Jesus is a Stranger" which Ray recorded for the Gospel Collection CD and co-wrote, with Buddy Kalb, "Just a Touch of Jesus", on the follow-up gospel CD, Just a Closer Walk With Thee.

Jeannie's An American Classic is being released as a digital download. It's available for pre-order on Amazon and you can do so by clicking HERE. There are 13 songs on the album. Now, if you're just wanting the duet she does with Ray Stevens titled "Dance Tonight", you'll have to wait until the project is released on August 14th before individual songs can be purchased separately. For whatever reason they don't let customers pre-order individual songs like they allow customers to pre-order entire digital albums.

When you visit Jeannie's official website and click on the Merchandise area you'll be able to order a physical copy of the CD and even have it personalized. I'm assuming the physical CD will be available in the Opry gift shop and the Ernest Tubb Record Shop and available through her website. I'll be writing more about her duet with Ray Stevens, "Dance Tonight", on August 14th once I make my purchase!

Ray Stevens asks "Where Do My Socks Go?"...

Hello all fans of Ray Stevens!! Well, it's been a week since my previous blog entry...hard to believe but I hadn't posted a new blog entry since August 1st. I've not been off-line. I decided to take one of my self-imposed hiatuses from the blog site...but I've remained active on Ray's social media pages so it's not like I've had any kind of hiatus from all things Ray Stevens. In fact this blog entry is spotlighting the audio clip of a 1990 recording, "Where Do My Socks Go?", from the comedy album Lend Me Your Ears.



1990 not only marked a new decade but it also marked a change in record labels for Ray. He'd spent five years with MCA (1984-1989) and in 1990 he signed a recording contract with Curb/Capitol Records. "Where Do My Socks Go?" features some funky music accompaniment and his debut album for the label is an overall departure from the sound of his MCA recordings. His recordings seemed to have a more electronic/computer driven quality on the 1990 album. I've never been able to describe it in words but to my ears there's a definite change in production technique from the 1989 to the 1990 album and beyond.

Ray Stevens; 1991

In my hiatus from blogging I also came across a YouTube upload of Hee Haw from 1991. Some may ask: "okay?". Well this video clip, as of this writing, is erroneously credited as 1989 and there's no tag indicating the clip features Ray Stevens. In fact, I came across the video by accident. I was watching Hee Haw video clips at random the other day on a YouTube channel called Hee Haw 50th Anniversary. As soon as I started watching the video embedded below I knew it was a 1991 episode because Roy Clark wasn't joined by a guest co-host and the show still had it's haybale and cornfield set. The program removed the haybales and cornfield for the episodes that aired during the 1991-1992 season. Roy was the main host of the show for the 1990-1991 and 1991-1992 seasons. I also knew the episode was from 1991 because Ray's singing songs from his 1990 Lend Me Your Ears album. He sings "Where Do My Socks Go?" and "Barbeque". The video is a full-length episode. The uploader also included commercials. The other guest stars on this January 1991 episode are The Forrester Sisters. This happened to be Ray's final appearance on Hee Haw. As mentioned the show went through a major overhaul at the end of the 1990-1991 season. The producers removed the rustic, rural look and took out the haybales, cornfield, straw hats, and moonshine jugs and when the show returned for the 1991-1992 season (three months late) in January 1992 it had an urban setting and was retitled The Hee Haw Show. The only cast member that retained their traditional look was Grandpa Jones...everyone else wore casual clothes. Anyway, enjoy this January 1991 episode of Hee Haw guest starring Ray Stevens...

Ray Stevens: The 2015 Ralph Emery Interview...

Ray Stevens and Ralph Emery; 2015

It's me once again! If you search the archives of my blog entries and look up the month of May in 2015 you'll come across references to a Ray Stevens appearance at the Nashville Public Library. Ray was doing a prolonged book signing tour of his memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville. Ralph had interviewed Ray in June 2014 at the library for a series called That Nashville Sound. In May of 2015 the library saluted Ralph's former television series, Nashville Now. In the clip you'll see Con Hunley seated to Ray's right. Ralph reveals within the first few minutes that Ray was partly responsible for the library saluting Nashville Now. They re-created the iconic desk Ralph sat behind with the red guitar logo of The Nashville Network which you see in the above screen cap and obviously you will see it in the video clip below...

Ralph Emery; 2015

Nearly three minutes into the interview Ralph asks Ray to tell the people what his upcoming plans for Nashville entertainment happens to be. Ray reveals that he purchased land in West Nashville and that he'll be building a venue, The CabaRay. Further in the interview the two discuss the upcoming television series; with this interview taking place in May of 2015 the television program would hit the airwaves in November that year on RFD-TV, initially titled Ray Stevens' Nashville. The series would run on the network until December 2016. It received a slightly re-titled name, Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville, once the series began airing in local syndication on PBS stations in January 2017. Since the interview is from May 2015 everything I made mention of in the weeks and months following the interview obviously hadn't happened yet. Ray speaks of his current CD, Here We Go Again!, and points out the writer of "There Must Be a Pill For This", Don Cusic, seated in the audience. Ralph and Ray also acknowledge Buddy Kalb who's seated backstage. As seen in the screen cap above, Ralph is holding the hardcover edition of Ray's memoir. I have the softcover edition. I could've ordered the hardcover version but if there's a choice between hardcover and softcover I always choose softcover. The hardcover books have those flaps that I have to tape to the inside of the book's front and back cover to prevent them from flying off anytime I go to open the book to read some pages...so hardcover's are annoying and a nuisance...so I'll always choose softcover if there's an option.

It's an entertaining interview...chock full of information on Ray's activities at the time and a look into the future. The CabaRay would open to the public in 2018. Ray had originally planned for a grand opening in the summer/fall of 2017 but technical delays prevented an opening. The lengthy waiting period to receive the building permit is what thrown construction off schedule.

Ray Stevens: It's August...COVID-19 still lingers...

Ray Stevens; 2020

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! As we enter the month of August let me go check...yes, COVID-19 still lingers...and in some States there have been increases in cases. I've more or less come to the belief that practically everyone has the virus but just doesn't realize it and, facemasks or no facemasks, it isn't going to stop people from coming down with the virus. That's just my opinion. If my math is correct next month will mark half a year since COVID-19 upended the country. It was in mid to late March when the country went into the tail-spin of shutting down the economy and people went into a panic...there's still limits on how many health and hygiene products a person can buy at a store following the hoarding that took place in the early days and weeks of the pandemic. Tennessee remains in their phrase two re-opening. Keep in mind that, for the most part, these re-openings are arbitrary. Any State Governor can use "science" as their reasoning but at the same time it should be perfectly fine to base reasoning on facts instead of scientific hypothesis. Ray's CabaRay showroom will remain closed. An announcement on the showroom's Facebook page reported that the showroom would remain closed through August 16th. I'm sure once that date arrives another message will be posted saying the showroom will remain closed for the remainder of the month. I say that based on the pattern since April. It's frustrating, to me, that Ray isn't able to put on concerts at his CabaRay. As a fan of his and as the author/creator of this blog it impacts me because I'm not being given the opportunity to write about the happenings at the CabaRay nor promote his concerts through this blog as I would have if not for the pandemic. So yes, I feel denied that opportunity...

In "Quarantined" Ray touches on all of the issues that surround COVID-19...from the lockdowns to the 2 weeks quarantines to stores with empty shelves. It's a song that captures society's frustrations and annoyances. In a blog entry from July 31st I reported that the video had obtained 804,737 unique views. I checked the numbers this morning and they've jumped up an additional 11,570 for a total of 816,307 unique views!