Ray Stevens and the High School Band

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! One thing you may notice about this fan created blog entry is that, other than the pictorial timeline, I rarely mention Ray's high school years and the band he formed. The reason for this is because of how very little information there is...and what information that exists online is shared on multiple websites to the point that I've never felt it necessary to write a blog entry focusing on his high school band. In other words, with such little information, there's not enough to construct a blog entry. However, a couple of weeks ago on January 12th, Ray posted an image on his social media pages. The image was a photo of himself and his band, The Barons. The photo caption described it as a photo from 1954, when Ray was 15, and it identified the other members of the band, too. In that photo the credited musicians are: Ray Stevens (piano/vocalist); Alan Becker (saxophone); Donald Adams (trumpet); and Don Klett (drums). You can see the photo, which is too large to copy here, by clicking this LINK. I could've saved the photo and then re-sized it...and replaced the larger image with a re-sized copy...and I may do that...but as of now I hadn't. The image of Ray I decided to use in this blog entry is from his years as a disc jockey/host of 'The Record Hop' on WGPC radio in the mid 1950's during the same time period that he was leading The Barons. 

Now, here's where the confusing part comes up. If you're a long time fan of Ray's and know a lot of information about him then you know that Ray's birthname is Harold Ray Ragsdale. He went by the name, Ray Ragsdale, during his childhood and especially in his teen years. He was known as Ray Ragsdale throughout his high school years in Albany, Georgia and Atlanta, Georgia. When you see the photo you'll notice that his stage name, Ray Stevens, is visible on a banner behind him and below the drummer. "Silver Bracelet" is advertised above his name...a song that became his first commercial single in 1957 on Prep Records. If the photo is from 1954 then his name should've been Ray Ragsdale and there wouldn't have been any advertisement for "Silver Bracelet" since that song didn't come along, commercially, until 1957. However, it's possible "Silver Bracelet" had been part of The Baron's set-list in 1954 but it still doesn't explain 'Ray Stevens' on the banner instead of 'Ray Ragsdale'. Ken Nelson, once Ray arrived at Prep Records/Capitol Records in 1957, suggested the name change to 'Ray Stevens'. 

When you read Ray's 2014 memoir, titled Ray Stevens' Nashville, he mentions that he recorded the song three times. He recorded it the first time in his high school's cafeteria. He then recorded it in a more professional setting with record promoter/publisher/producer, Bill Lowery. Ray then recorded it a third time with Ken Nelson as record producer. The third recording is what shown up on vinyl on Prep Records in 1957. The photo identified as 1954 is likely a photo from sometime in 1957/1958 with the musicians correctly identified but with the wrong year given. In his memoir Ray credits The Barons consisting of Bob Duggleby (trumpet); Bill Garrison (saxophone); and Terry Coleman (drums). So, I'm assuming the musicians he credits in his memoir were part of the original Barons line-up of the mid '50s whereas the musicians credited in the January 12th photo on Ray's social media pages are from the final years of the band's existence.