Ray Stevens and his Many Talents...

Hello all once more!! As most of you long time fans of Ray Stevens are aware he's a recording artist of many talents. He was raised listening to country, pop, gospel, and the rhythm and blues sounds. In his career he's recorded all of those styles in addition to the comical/novelty style of which he's garnered the bulk of his success. One of his music influences was Ray Charles and while it may seem laughable to a general audience to say Ray Stevens in the same breath as Ray Charles the truth of the matter is Ray idolized Rhythm and Blues artists and groups of the '40s and '50s. 

The Coasters, given their novelty reputation, have long been credited as an influence of Ray Stevens but the list of influences doesn't stop there. Ray has often said that he grew up loving the music of Ray Charles, Clyde McPhatter, The Clovers, The Drifters, and others. Ray recorded a song that was a huge hit for Ray Charles, "What'd I Say", for his 2015 CD, Here We Go Again!. In 1978 Ray Stevens recorded his tribute to the Rhythm and Blues artists and groups he loved listening to on an album titled There Is Something On Your Mind. It's for that 1978 album that Ray recorded his version of "One Mint Julep", which had been a lyrical hit for The Clovers (the rendition Ray Stevens heard first) but it later became an even bigger hit as a piano instrumental for Ray Charles. In this video clip from Ray's CabaRay Nashville television series he performs the Ray Charles classic, "I Got a Woman"...