Ray Stevens: "It's Me Again, Margaret" 1987 performance...

Hello all...in this installment of my fan created Ray Stevens blog I'm going to embed a 1987 performance from Ray Stevens of "It's Me Again, Margaret". This novelty song was written by the late Paul Craft and had actually been recorded and released as a single by him in the mid '70s. The legendary songwriter wasn't well known outside of the songwriting community and therefore his own recordings aren't widely known as a result. Ray had previously recorded a Paul Craft song, "Honky Tonk Waltz", and that single became a Top-30 country hit for Ray in 1976. Ray's recording of "It's Me Again, Margaret" emerged from his 1984 comedy album, He Thinks He's Ray Stevens. It was the third single release from the 1984 album. "I'm Kissin' You Goodbye" was the first single release...but during the promotional stage word got around that "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" was getting a lot of unsolicited airplay (a phrase referring to disc jockeys playing a song on their own based on listener requests) and so that single received a lot of publicity and promotion...eventually becoming a Top-20 country hit early in 1985. The impact of the single's success bolstered sales of the album and it eventually hit the Top-10 on the Country Album chart in 1985 and was eventually certified Gold and then Platinum. "It's Me Again, Margaret" wasn't a big radio hit but it rode the wave of success that "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" and He Thinks He's Ray Stevens had set in motion. 

Take a look at that comical photo of Ray over on the left side of the screen. You know from looking at the photo that he's performing "It's Me Again, Margaret". When it was announced last year that Ray was one of the newest members elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame I seriously wondered if the CMA would use that photo of Ray on the Hall of Fame plaque or use a photo similar. Ray's reputation for comedy and novelty songs propelled his recording of "It's Me Again, Margaret" into cult status...a song that people know about in spite of it not being a nationally known radio hit. It's one of those songs that hit locally...a geographical hit...meaning that it could be a big hit in a radio market in southwest Missouri but people in northwest Missouri may not even know the song exists. "It's Me Again, Margaret" was placed on 1987's Greatest Hits album as was "Mississippi Squirrel Revival". Those two songs are often paired up on compilation albums...you usually don't see one without the other. Curb Records knew how very popular "It's Me Again, Margaret" truly was with Ray Stevens fans that when they issued a 1990 compilation on Ray titled His All-Time Greatest Comic Hits they used a photo of Ray in a phone booth as Willard McBain calling up Margaret on a pay phone. Music videos were made for "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" and "It's Me Again, Margaret" in 1992...and "It's Me Again, Margaret" became an enormous hit for Ray all over again. The music video being so prominent in those television commercials and the fact that it had been a popular song for Ray since it debuted enabled the song to eventually become a beloved performance in Ray's concerts. Leave it to fabulous Ray Stevens to make a novelty song about an obscene phone caller a beloved classic...but that's exactly what he did. Whenever he appeared in concert and on television shows like Nashville Now there was usually a reference to "It's Me Again, Margaret" or Ralph Emery would ask Ray to perform the song if there was any extra time left. 

In this 1987 episode you'll see that Ray was asked/requested to perform the song and when he finishes he walks back to the set...where other guests were seated...which indicates that Ray had already performed several songs and had been interviewed by Ralph already. Ralph's show at that time was still 90 minutes...and each guest would sing their first song, then go over and have their interview/conversation with Ralph, and then during the second part of the episode the guests would sing their second song of the episode. Whatever guest was well established or was considered a legend in the music business usually got to sing three songs. I think "It's Me Again, Margaret" was the third song Ray performed on this episode. I believe this episode is the same one where Ray sang "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" and "Gourmet Restaurant". Those two Nashville Now performances are on YouTube. The video below was uploaded a little more than 4 hours ago and it's already obtained close to 1,500 unique views already. The video is a lot more clearer than the thumbnail image may indicate.