Ray Stevens: Eye Catching Song Titles and More...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! I touched on this topic more than a decade ago so it's long since been buried in the archives so I thought I'd bring the topic back.. and that's the topic of funny/strange/eye-catching song titles that have appeared on the albums of Ray Stevens over the decades. It may not have hit you yet but the legendary Ray Stevens has entertained us for nearly 8 decades: '50s, '60s, '70s, 80s, 90s, 00's, 10's, and since 2020 we can now include the '20s. Mathematically, as you can see, he's three years into that 8th decade of entertainment. Ray's 1973 album, Nashville, is first in this blog entry about eye catching song titles. On that particular release, which is a non-comedy album, we have songs titled "Destroyed", "Fish Eat Sleep", and "Float". 

1978's There Is Something On Your Mind isn't a comedy album from Ray Stevens. However, it's an album that if you're not familiar with the songs you'd think some of them were comical due to their titles. The title track has some humorous moments which are much more notable within the final minutes when Ray launches into the frantic monologue describing the mindset of the guy who learns that he's the victim of a woman's cheating. Elsewhere on the 1978 album are songs with titles such as "Money Honey", "Your Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash", and a trio of medley performances referred to as trilogies. The one medley with what some would consider a comical title is "Banned in Boston Trilogy". This performance features a medley of three songs that Ray, in the liner notes of the vinyl album, said were originally banned on numerous radio stations. The songs in the medley are "Sixty Minute Man", "Work With Me Annie", and "Annie Had a Baby". The 1978 album wasn't heavily promoted at all but had it been it would've most likely been described as a covers album of '50s and '60s rhythm and blues... a music format which Ray is a big fan of. In the written introduction found above Ray's photo on the vinyl release he, and I'm paraphrasing, made the album to bring some seriousness back to the music that he feels had gotten lost or downplayed due to a lot of the then current parodies of the 1950's/1960's time period. 

On the 1980 Shriners Convention album, which is a comedy album, eye-catching song titles are plentiful. The one that grabs the eye most often is "Put It In Your Ear". Now, leave it to Ray Stevens to record a song with a title like that but vocally perform it as a serious love ballad. The song's writer is Layng Martine, Jr. The 1980 album also has songs with these titles: "Coin Machine", "You're Never Goin' To Tampa With Me", "The Dooright Family", and "The Watch Song". In 1984 Ray began the phase of his career where he intentionally began marketing himself as a comic performer. Although comedy/novelty had come to define him in the minds of many music listeners well before 1984 it was something he actively worked against... always wanting to show that he could write, sing, and perform serious works as well. Then, in 1984, he figured that if comedy and off-the-wall music is what the general public want from him then that's what he'll give them. Ray had signed to MCA Records in 1984. All but one of the albums Ray recorded during the years 1984 through 1989 were all comedy. His 1989 album was half comedy, half serious ballads. 

Some of the eye catching and possibly strange song titles on those comedy albums were: "Mississippi Squirrel Revival", "Erik the Awful", "Ned Nostril", "Punk Country Love", "Kiss a Pig", "Hugo the Human Cannonball", "Bionie and the Robotics", "Smoky Mountain Rattlesnake Retreat", "Dudley Dorite of the Highway Patrol", "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?", "Three Legged Man", "Cool Down Willard", "Language, Nudity, Violence, and Sex", "Booger Man", "Blood and Suede", "Mama's in the Sky With Elvis", "I Saw Elvis in a U.F.O.", "I Used To Be Crazy", and "The Woogie Boogie".

What I've noticed for years is what I call the Ray Stevens fanbase vernacular. This is when a fan of Ray's will speak in short hand and never say the exact title of a song but will refer to the song by it's subject matter or some lyric they remember. It's mostly a phenomenon on the internet by those who discover Ray's songs through the music videos that have been added to many video hosting sites. A lot those people perhaps have no idea of who Ray actually is and simply know of him by way of some video they've come across on social media sites. This segment of society more than likely will refer to Ray's 2010 music video, "Come to the U.S.A.", as the anti-illegal immigration song rather than by it's actual name. "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" is often simply called "The Squirrel Song".. and I've seen online commentary from those that have seen Ray in concert and they'll inevitably say something like "Yes!! I saw Ray Stevens in concert and I'm glad he sang the song about the squirrel". The 1993 song, "If 10 Percent is Good Enough for Jesus", is referred to by people as "the Ray Stevens song about Jesus and taxes". Another potential example is his 2021 recording, "Dis-Connected". I call it a potential example because earlier today Ray spotlighted the audio recording on his social media sites. In time I'm sure "Dis-Connected" will be referred to as "that Ray Stevens song about online dating".