Ray Stevens: Happy Birthday to the Legend...

The one and only...the legendary Ray Stevens celebrates a birthday today!! The Living Legend, born January 24th 1939 reaches 82 today! I find myself having to correct my words as I type because I'm so anxious...typing errors that I have to backtrack and correct due to my excitement. Some of you reading this are no doubt wondering if I'm in need of observation...you're probably thinking: "What in the world?? How can anyone get so excited over someone's birthday...especially when it's not even a family member??". I'm not excited in a familial way...but I do get excited because we're celebrating the birth of Ray Stevens and his music's meant a lot to me and I'm sure it's meant a lot to so many other people over the decades in some way or another. Ray's music provided me something of an escape from reality...even if he happened to be singing a topical song or social commentary I was always in another world when listening to Ray Stevens songs. I loved comedy movies and sitcoms as a kid and so I naturally gravitated toward comedy songs, too. I like my share of non-comedy, too...but Ray was the first singer I'd ever heard that sang songs that were funny and that plays a part in why I'm such a big fan. I like listening to his songs...all of the songs he's recorded...some only know of him for a couple of songs or some know of him as a 'comedy singer' but they couldn't tell you anything he's recorded...they're missing out on so much more by limiting Ray to just comedy. I've got every studio album Ray Stevens has ever released. 

Some may ask what's a studio album?? A studio album is a collection of songs that haven't appeared anywhere else. A studio album is different than a compilation album. A compilation album will contain songs from the artist that's previously been released on other albums. A studio album is meant to be a collection of songs exclusive to that release...but songs from the studio album later on may appear on a Greatest Hits or Very Best Of collection in the future. I have Ray's first studio album, released in 1962 on Mercury Records, on the CD in the photo above. That 1962 album, titled 1,837 Seconds of Humor, is paired with his second Mercury Records album from 1963, This is Ray Stevens. Ray wouldn't have another studio album available until 1968 on Monument Records. That album is titled Even Stevens. Some of the early Ray Stevens songs on Mercury and Monument include "Ahab the Arab", "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills", "Rockin' Teenage Mummies", "Mr. Baker the Undertaker", "Make a Few Memories", "Mr. Businessman", "Gitarzan", "Have a Little Talk With Myself", and "Sir Thanks a Lot".

Do you have any Ray Stevens songs in your personal collection? Do you have any of his vinyl albums, cassette tapes, CDs, or Mp3 downloads? Did you know he's been in the music industry since 1957? The record labels he recorded for prior to joining Mercury in 1961 were Prep (1957), Capitol (1958), and NRC (1959-1960). Some of his songs from that late '50s time period are "My Heart Cries For You", "That's What She Means to Me", "Rang Tang Ding Dong I'm the Japanese Sandman", "Cat Pants", "Silver Bracelet", "School", and "What Would I Do Without You?". That's a whole lot of music to take in...but to document it is very simple. His single discography is much longer than his album discography. When I look over his album discography I don't factor in compilation albums that weren't contractually released. Import albums from overseas, for example, that get a release in America aren't contractually obligated projects and so I omit those collections...unless it's a collection that features something obscure/rare from the vaults. Ray comes from an era where recording artists released singles...an album would come along only if a single release became a hit...either on the radio or through sales generated by advertisements or word of mouth. Now, this wasn't a written in stone rule. Some artists preferred to release singles rather than long-playing albums. The thinking being that an album's worth of songs by the same singer would only appeal to the most rabid of fans and not a general audience. Record companies tended to prefer album releases because they cost more...singles cost less from a consumer. That's quite a cynical statement wasn't it? I'm sure not all record companies had that intention but I'd say the majority of record companies gladly welcomed in the money generated from album sales rather than single sales. Also, albums featured a bulk of non-commercial recordings by an artist...and there happened to be a rise in radio stations that specialized in playing album songs rather than single releases. So, in theory, a listener would hear a song and may want to buy it...but since it wasn't available on a single a consumer would have to buy the entire album for just one song. In the course of time this practice backfired...which is why music consumers reverted back to purchasing singles again...this time Mp3 singles...rather than entire Mp3 albums.    

I've always seen things from a different perspective. If Ray Stevens issues an Mp3 single I'll purchase it and then, once the Mp3 album featuring that single is released, I'll purchase that too!! That's how much I like the songs of Ray Stevens!! In the photo above it's me, showing off not only the CAT hat, but the 1976 Ray Stevens album, Just for the Record. I was thinking about posting a photo of myself with all of my Ray Stevens vinyl studio albums and put them in this birthday blog entry but then I decided not to do such a thing. I didn't want to drag out all of the vinyl albums...even though they're four or five steps away from me...I decided to just post a couple of randomly chosen photos of myself and some of my vinyl Ray Stevens albums from my collection. I'm sure on Ray's social media sites there will be birthday commentary. In previous birthday posts there's a photo of him and the birthday cake...sometimes it's one piece on a saucer with a lit candle. If there's any such photo or video posted I'll save it for a future blog entry. Since it's Ray Stevens birthday here's a check-list of studio albums from Ray that have been issued since 1962. If you don't have any of these Ray Stevens studio albums in your personal collection do yourselves a favor and purchase whatever's available and give them a listen.

1962: 1,837 Seconds of Humor (Mercury)

1963: This is Ray Stevens (Mercury)

1968: Even Stevens (Monument)

1969: Gitarzan (Monument)

1969: Have a Little Talk With Myself (Monument)

1970: Everything is Beautiful (Barnaby)

1970: Unreal (Barnaby)

1972: Turn Your Radio On (Barnaby)

1973: Nashville (Barnaby)

1973: Losin' Streak (Barnaby)

1974: Boogity-Boogity (Barnaby)

1975: Misty (Barnaby)

1976: Just for the Record (Warner Brothers)

1977: Feel the Music (Warner Brothers)

1978: There is Something On Your Mind (Warner Brothers)

1978: Be Your Own Best Friend (Warner Brothers)

1979: The Feeling's Not Right Again* (Warner Brothers)

1980: Shriner's Convention (RCA)

1981: One More Last Chance (RCA)

1982: Don't Laugh Now (RCA)

1983: Me (Mercury)

1984: He Thinks He's Ray Stevens (MCA; Platinum certification)

1985: I Have Returned (MCA; Gold certification)

1986: Surely You Joust (MCA)

1987: Greatest Hits (MCA; Platinum certification)

1987: Crackin' Up (MCA)

1987: Get The Best of Ray Stevens (MCA; 2-LP television album)

1987: Greatest Hits, Volume Two (MCA; Gold certification)

1988: I Never Made a Record I Didn't Like (MCA)

1989: Beside Myself (MCA)

1990: His All-Time Greatest Comic Hits (Curb; Gold certification)

1990: Lend Me Your Ears (Curb/Capitol)

1991: Number One with a Bullet (Curb/Capitol)

1991: Greatest Hits (Curb; contains "There's a Star Spangled Banner" with new lyrics)

1993: Classic Ray Stevens (Curb; all-new songs in spite of the album title)

1997: Hum It (MCA)

1997: Christmas Through a Different Window (MCA)

2000: Ear Candy (Clyde)

2002: Osama Yo' Mama (Curb; most of the tracks previously released on 'Ear Candy')

2004: Thank You (Clyde)

2005: Box Set** (Clyde)

2007: New Orleans Moon (Clyde)

2008: Hurricane (Clyde)

2008: Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What?!? (Clyde)

2009: One for the Road (Clyde)

2009: Ray Stevens Christmas (Clyde)

2010: We The People (Clyde)

2011: Spirit of '76 (Clyde)

2012: Such a Night...50 Years of Hits and Hilarity (Clyde; CD version of DVD concert)

2012: Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music (Clyde)

2014: Gospel Collection, Volume One (Gaither Productions)

2015: Here We Go Again! (Player Records)

2016: Just a Closer Walk With Thee/Gospel Favorites (Green Hill Productions)

2016: Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me (CabaRay Entertainment)

The 1979 album is a compilation album with, at the time, one new song. I listed it in the discography because the new song, "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow", played a factor in the album's cover design and the album's title. The 1987 greatest hits collections are featured because they were certified for Gold and Platinum sales as was the 1990 release, His All-Time Greatest Comic Hits. I highlighted the compilation release in 1991 because it features a newly recorded and largely re-written version of "There's a Star Spangled Banner" that was exclusive, at the time, to that collection. The song had previously appeared on his 1989 MCA studio album with a different storyline. The 2005 album contained several never before available recordings from Ray among the collection. "Kitty Cat's Revenge", "Driver's Education", "Family Funeral Fight", "The Cat Song", and two single-only recordings making their debut on an album release: "When The Kids Are Gone" and "We're Havin' a Baby The Natural Way". 

Ray hasn't released a studio album since 2016 even though he's been active with video content on-line and he keeps his name out there through his social media sites. In the period between mid 2015 and 2020, a big amount of his time was devoted, at first, to the production of his CabaRay Nashville television series. The show was originally titled Ray Stevens' Nashville until it's title was changed to Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. Ray was also promoting his 2014 memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville. He was incredibly busy to put it mildly. Ray also had his upcoming showroom under construction throughout 2016 and 2017. The CabaRay showroom opened up for concerts in January 2018. In 2019 Ray was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. He signed with Curb Records a couple of months ago (late 2020) and his first release was a 50th anniversary rendition of "Everything is Beautiful" (an Mp3 single release and a music video) and then the record label issued an Mp3 single of "The Quarantine Song" last month (a music video had previously been released in May 2020). On this Ray Stevens birthday we all wish him a Happy Birthday! We also hope to hear some brand new Ray Stevens songs in 2021. An interview Ray gave with the Musicians Hall of Fame last year featured some news about a massive box set-type of project that Ray is finished with but it hasn't been given a release date. Curb Records will handle the release and distribution of the project. I can't wait to listen to it!!  

Ray Stevens: A Decades Long Friendship with Ralph Emery...

Hello once again and I'm here putting together an early Happy Birthday blog entry centering around Ralph Emery and the friendship he's had with Ray Stevens for quite a few decades. Since this is my Ray Stevens fan-created blog I'm going to, as mentioned, spotlight Ralph Emery's career as it relates to Ray Stevens. Tomorrow (March 10th) Ralph turns 87. He was born March 10, 1933 in McEwen, Tennessee as Walter Ralph Emery. The album cover you see on the left hand side of the page is a Mercury Records release from 1970. The Best of Ray Stevens features a very obscure performance of "Ahab the Arab" with an introduction by Ralph Emery. Although I've never found out the origin of this recording I've often assumed that it was recorded at some point in the the latter half of the '60s on Ralph's local television program, The Ralph Emery Show, and Mercury placed the audio onto this vinyl album. I've also come across a vinyl album from the mid '60s in which Ralph appears as an emcee at a concert and among the performers is Ray Stevens...and so the opening performance of "Ahab the Arab" heard on this 1970 compilation album could have come from that vinyl album. Ralph hosted a lot of similar programs relating to country music in the 1960s and it's difficult to find an accurate account of the time-line and titles of the programs he hosted. Opry Almanac is listed as a local television show he hosted, beginning in 1963, and some sources on-line state that this show eventually was re-titled The Ralph Emery Show in 1972 but then there are sites that state each was a separate local television show and that the local Ralph Emery Show debuted in 1966 in the late afternoons. There's also a program he hosted called 16th Avenue South in the mid 1960s and sources say it was a local television show that focused on pop music!? If so, that could be the program where this version of "Ahab the Arab" originated because Ray was definitely marketed as a pop artist in the 1960s. Ralph also hosted a syndicated radio show in addition to his television work.

While all of this was going on Ralph was also at the helm of WSM radio's all-night show, Opry Star Spotlight. This program was, in time, referred to as the "all-night show" informally. Ralph hosted this show from 1957 until 1972 and due to it airing in the overnight hours when WSM radio's signal was at it's strongest he was able to be heard in nearly every State in the Midwest and certainly all the Southern states. Remember, too, this was decades before satellite/internet radio became the norm and so it was something to behold that a disc jockey on a local station was being heard well outside of their market. The legend of Ralph Emery's radio years are tied to the "all-night show" but, as mentioned, he hosted a syndicated radio series in addition to other radio programs that aired in syndication...including one titled Take Five for Country Music and an hour long show where he simply played the current records of the day.

Ralph Emery and Ray Stevens, 1979

Upon the retirement of Ralph from the all-night show on WSM radio in 1972 he continued hosting his television show and syndicated radio programs and he maintained a presence on WSM radio in the daytime hours for a number of years following his departure from the overnight shift. He was also one of the Grand Ole Opry staff announcers during the majority of his time at the radio station. He began hosting a nationally syndicated television series in 1974 titled Pop! Goes the Country. This is the show upon which television viewers across the country were introduced to Ralph Emery. Ray made numerous guest appearances on this television show and by the time this episode aired in 1979 Ray had become well established not only as a 'pop' recording artist but he had also crossed over into country music and remained there permanently by decade's end. In Ray's earliest appearances on Ralph's various television and radio programs he was still officially marketed as a pop act even though he had been living and recording in Nashville and had played on hundreds of recording sessions up and down Music Row since the 1960s. Ralph's programs always had the welcome mat open for Ray Stevens. I wish every radio and television appearance from Ray were available. I find his earlier appearances fascinating and I like to compare/contrast the various decades of his career. I also like reading older interviews of him and compare his thoughts in one era with his contemporary thoughts and gauge how much he's changed or remained the same. Oh yes, I also like to see older clips so I can make note of whether Ray's clean shaven or bearded. As you see in the screen cap Ralph is also shown with a beard...and he wore one for a number of years. His entire run on Pop! Goes the Country (1974-1980) has him bearded. Ralph shaved off the beard but kept a mustache at some point in 1986/1987 but by 1991 he was clean shaven and he's remained that way.

Now, in between Ralph's departure as host of Pop! Goes the Country in 1980 and the debut of Nashville Now on TNN in 1983 he hosted a short-lived series on TBS titled Nashville Alive!. Ray appeared on this show...a photo of Ray and Ralph in one of Ralph's books is credited as coming from that TBS series. Also in the photo is Ralph's wife, Joy, in a gorilla suit. Nashville Now introduced Ralph to an even wider national audience. Pop! Goes the Country, syndicated nationally, aired on the weekends in various time-slots depending on which station carried it. The bulk of it's airings took place in the late afternoons on Saturday or Sunday opposite sports programming. However, Nashville Now aired in the same time-slot every weeknight on cable channel TNN for 10 years. The length of the show was 90 minutes for most of it's run and it aired from 7pm to 8:30pm Central/8pm to 9:30pm Eastern for much of it's history. Later it was pushed to 8pm to 9:30pm Central/9pm to 10:30pm Eastern to make clear a place for Crook and Chase and their expanded hour-long program. They had previously aired after Nashville Now but by the early '90s they were scheduled as Ralph's lead-in show. Ralph's main competition was whatever was airing on network television and whatever happened to be airing on cable television...notably CNN...considering almost every other cable channel at that time specialized in repeats of television shows and movies...rarely was there a cable channel that specialized in original programs. Ralph's TNN show was trimmed to an hour for several years before it's eventually end in 1993.

Ray Stevens, Boots Randolph, and Ralph Emery; 1990

In the screen cap above, unfortunately a bit blurry, we see Ray Stevens and Boots Randolph in conversation on Nashville Now with Ralph Emery. In this appearance Ralph has his mustache and they're discussing the album that Ray produced on Boots Randolph and released through Clyde Records. This happened to be one of the first projects released through Ray's own label and there's a television commercial for that CD on YouTube from 1990. If you were a member of Ray's fan club at any point in the 1990s, as I was, then you should be familiar with this CD. It was one of the items offered for sale in the Ray Stevens mail order catalog for much of the decade. Unfortunately I don't have any super vintage photo's of Ray Stevens and Ralph Emery, from the '60s, specifically. I know they must exist but they haven't surfaced on-line for public sharing/viewing. Some photos of the two of them can be found in several of Ralph's books and there's a photo of the two of them in a radio studio from the early 1970s in Ray's 2014 memoir. Ray hosted several book signing events throughout 2014 and into 2015...one of those book signings featured Ralph interviewing Ray at the Nashville Public Library.

The Nashville Public Library hosted the special book signing event in 2015 where a set of Nashville Now was recreated and Ralph interviewed Ray Stevens, Barbara Mandrell, Lorrie Morgan, and Con Hunley. It was part of their on-going series, That Nashville Sound. Previously that series hosted an interview by Ralph Emery of Ray Stevens discussing his memoir and career, in general, and later on the library hosted the recreated Nashville Now special event.

Ray Stevens and Ralph Emery, 2015

When Ray made the announcement that he would be opening a showroom in West Nashville titled CabaRay one of the people attending the ground breaking ceremony happened to be Ralph Emery. The groundbreaking took place, ironically enough, in March 2016. On groundbreaking day Ray and several friends were photographed at the site of the soon to be constructed showroom posing with shovels and digging into a mound of dirt. The construction company was also on hand, of course. As we all know a myriad of issues came up along the way...most of it tied into the lengthy approval for a building permit. Once this was obtained...nearly half a year later...construction got underway which pushed a fall 2017 grand opening time table to an early 2018 grand opening (the showroom opened for business in January 2018).

Ralph Emery, Gorilla, and Ray Stevens; 2016

As we see in this photo Ralph is toasting the groundbreaking of the CabaRay along side a gorilla and Ray Stevens in March of 2016. I don't know if this is the same gorilla that met Ray Stevens at the airport in the cover photo of Here We Go Again! in 2015. It might be that gorilla's cousin...it's difficult to tell. Anyway, by the time this photo was taken Ralph had long since retired. After the end of Nashville Now in 1993 he didn't go away...he continued to appear with a recurring interview series called On the Record. That series was based on a highly rated interview Ralph conducted in 1992 with his pop music counterpart, Dick Clark. In fact there was a second program in which Ralph was the subject of an interview from Dick Clark. In the hour long series, airing on TNN, Ralph initially interviewed guests that had also authored books. Ralph had become known for a series of books based on his experiences and memories from his career in country music...the first one was appropriately called, Memories (1991), and this was followed by a series of other books throughout the 1990s: More Memories (1993), The View From Nashville (1998), and 50 Years Down a Country Road (2000). Ralph also interviewed country artists regardless of whether or not they had released a book but the conversation was almost always centered around autobiographical information and life experiences rather than the show turning into an hour long commercial for the book or the guest's latest recording.

In 1995 Ray Stevens appeared during the opening week of Ralph's daytime talk show on TNN. This show aired from the Opryland theme park live at 9am Eastern/8am Central beginning in the latter half of the year. Ray's appearance featured a sight gag in which he walked out on stage screaming in a pseudo-Austrian accent about how hot the cup of chocolate happened to be and he 'tripped' and spilled the contents all over Ralph, seated behind his desk. Ralph was caught off guard because instead of scalding hot chocolate spilling out of the cup it was nothing more than marshmallows. Ralph asked Ray how in the world he happened to make the cup appear to have steam coming from the top of it and he explained the hand trick...covering the powdery marshmallows in the cup for several seconds and then removing your hand from the top of the cup will make it appear as if steam is rising from the cup. I've never attempted the trick but that's the way he explained it. Ray promoted his Get Serious! VHS movie and performed "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?".

The morning show Ralph hosted on TNN was later moved to an early evening time-slot later in 1995 but it was eventually canceled soon after. I don't know if the end of that series was due to any backstage problems or any conflicts with the Opryland management or what...it was certainly a format that Ralph had mastered and so it wasn't like he was attempting something new. It could be a case of lack of enthusiasm from TNN or just a change in viewing habits causing the interview format to have run it's course!?

In the late 1990s Ray taped several new music videos for a collection ultimately released on VHS titled Funniest Video Characters. In this collection was "The Pirate Song"...a music video for a song Ray originally recorded in 1985 but later re-recorded in 1991. It had since became one of those fan favorites. Ralph Emery appears in that music video. Once you know he's in it and you spot him I bet your eyes will be drawn to him every time he's on screen. He plays one of the underlings of the Captain.

Getting back to sight gags...in an episode of Pop! Goes the Country in 1977 Ray performed a sight gag involving a large ceramic chicken mask...while wearing the mask he clucked a piece of "In the Mood". In another interview he was asked to imitate a chicken and so he began flapping his arms and clucking. A clip of this was featured on a 1990 surprise tribute special to Ralph Emery. In that special Ray performed a song he wrote specifically for the special, "Ralph, You Have Embarrassed Us All". He sang it with Roy Clark, Faron Young, and Kathy Mattea. In the video clip the introduction is by Johnny Cash and Barbara Mandrell.



Now, fast forward 24 years from 1990 to 2014 and here we see Buddy Kalb, Ralph Emery, and Ray Stevens during a photo opportunity at the Nashville Public Library. This was taken at some point before or after Ralph's interview of Ray took place.

Buddy Kalb, Ralph Emery, and Ray Stevens; 2014

Ironically enough Ray Stevens wasn't a guest on any On the Record episodes and I suspect the reason for this was there wasn't time to fit in an interview, due to Ray's busy schedule, and the concept of the series emphasizing an introspective, personal interview instead of a breezy, let's have some fun type of interview, perhaps led Ray to avoid appearing on it. It's anyone's guess. In the meantime a peek into Ray's life was on the horizon as TNN was putting together an episode of The Life and Times, a recurring biography series, and the producers decided to tape an episode about the life and career of Ray Stevens. The hour long special featured rare photo's from Ray's personal collection and video clips not seen since their original airing...specifically snippets from his NBC television summer show in 1970. This hour long special features commentary from Ralph Emery, Norro Wilson, George 'Goober' Lindsey, Charlie Chase, Brenda Lee, and Buddy Kalb...in addition to Ray himself.

Last year Ralph Emery officially inducted Ray Stevens into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Ralph was elected in 2007 and current members officially induct a new member each year at the Medallion Ceremony. In December of last year the two of them appeared as Guests of Honor at a fundraiser in Dickson, Tennessee at the Clement Railroad Hotel Museum where they had their pictures taken and signed autographs. To date that is the last time the two of them publicly appeared together. I put the two of them together in this collage, though. Happy early Birthday, Ralph Emery!

Ray Stevens: Happy Early Birthday!!!

Hello one and all!!! I've been having some technical issues with my computer and I did a system restore and it seemed to fix whatever problems I was having. I couldn't get onto the internet since yesterday afternoon. My computer would begin setting up but it wouldn't connect me to Windows...this kept up several times. Finally I shut off the computer and this morning I got back on the computer and on a whim decided to do a system restore and, as mentioned, it seemed to fix things. I'm not going to take any chances though...it might be a fluke and I might find myself unable to get onto the internet later and so I decided, since I'm on-line at the moment, to write my annual birthday post. Ray Stevens birthday is this coming Friday (January 24th) and yes, you perhaps could guess it, I was depressed a little that I was unable to get onto the internet. I wondered how long could it last. I wondered if I'd not be able to get onto the internet well past Friday...I didn't want to write a belated birthday blog entry...and so I'm here writing an early birthday blog entry just in case I have some technical issues with my computer between later today and Friday. As you see off to the left it's Ray's Country Music Hall of Fame plaque. Ray was elected in March 2019 but the formal induction took place in October...so he's been enshrined as an official member for only a couple of months. Ray will reach 81 years of age this coming Friday and in a couple of months he'll be kicking off season three at his CabaRay showroom. If you've read some of my recent blog entries I've mentioned how anxious the fans are in anticipation of something new to see release this year. Now, of course, I'm only making assumptions but I feel Ray will issue new music this year. It's anyone's guess as to what that new music will be...he's spoken of several projects...and so when the time comes and he releases a new CD we'll all salivate over it. It's a bit strange writing an early birthday blog entry...you're not in the moment and the immediacy factor is a non-factor...but should I still have internet connection this coming Friday maybe I'll post another birthday blog...stranger things have happened.

1993

Throughout his lengthy career Ray Stevens has won his share of awards and has dozens of Gold and Platinum selling singles, albums, and home videos. He's won two Grammy awards and for nine years in a row (1986 through 1994) the readers of Music City News magazine voted him Comedian of the Year. In addition to those awards he has also been the recipient of dozens of music publisher awards. There isn't any kind of recognition, as far as an award goes, of unique views of on-line music videos (as far as I know). Ray has received millions upon millions of unique views for a string of music videos that were, initially, only available on YouTube and social media in general. The music video releases acted as promotional tools/publicity and it created awareness for Ray's music in such a profound way that the traditional/conventional route of getting music to the masses was side stepped but more or less bypassed entirely. Ray issued a couple of CD's inspired by the phenomenal success of the on-line music videos...as well as a DVD titled Internet Video Hits. The CD's arrived in 2010 and 2011 titled We The People and Spirit of '76 respectively...and in Ray's case the on-line music video had replaced the traditional CD single as a marketing/publicity tool and the audio of those music videos were part of those two CD releases. His meteoric rise with viral videos on social media also led to a number of appearances on cable television, talk radio, and a stage show at The Welk Theatre for a limited run.

2018

The one and only Ray Stevens in performance at his CabaRay showroom just west of Nashville on River Road. As you could probably guess he's performing "Gitarzan". Chet Atkins, Ralph Emery, or Norro Wilson nicknamed Ray the energizer bunny...and approaching 81 and still as active as ever...it's an appropriate nickname. I'll be on the look out for photos of Ray taken on his upcoming birthday and if I'm still able to get internet connection I'll be posting those kind of photos this coming Friday, too. Ray Stevens was born Harold Ray Ragsale in Clarkdale, Georgia on January 24, 1939. He has a brother, John. Their parents are Willis and Frances Ragsdale. John wrote a couple of songs that Ray recorded...most of you know what John looks like. He's appeared in a number of Ray's comedy music videos and if you were able to catch Ray at his previous venue in Branson, Missouri you would've seen John as the emcee. In the "It's Me Again, Margaret" music video John is one of the policemen...the one seen with a sucker in his mouth. John also played the role of Clyde in Ray's 1995 video movie, Get Serious!, a character that's none too happy about his name being used for a fictional camel. That movie was originally only available on VHS. It's since become available on DVD. If you've never even heard of that movie then you need to visit Ray's web-store and purchase a copy of the movie for yourselves. I have it on VHS and I purchased the DVD copy once it became available. I've pondered this in some of my recent blog entries...what lays ahead for the legendary Ray Stevens? Outside of the CabaRay kicking off in March it's anyone's guess...but here's wishing Ray Stevens a very happy early birthday!!

Ray Stevens Milestone Birthday...

Hello to all the Ray Stevens fans out there...and to those that stop by just to find out some information about the legend. Today is a pretty big day...a milestone birthday in the life of Ray Stevens as he reaches 80 (born January 24, 1939 in Clarkdale, Georgia). It may have been the late Chet Atkins that described Ray as the energizer bunny...I know that Chet is often quoted with calling Ray a genius...and I think it may have been Chet that also nicknamed Ray the energizer bunny. It's long been a pretty accurate nickname...whether or not it was Chet or somebody else that decided to bestow that title upon Ray Stevens.

Given the descriptive nickname of 'energizer bunny' it's accuracy can be backed up by the simple fact that Ray continues to perform and record to this day...and on this day he reaches 80. Last year his showroom in West Nashville, CabaRay, had it's grand opening. The showroom opened it's doors to the public in January of 2018 and so it's been in operation for a year. Ray began hosting a television series called Ray Stevens' Nashville in November of 2015 which was later rebranded as CabaRay Nashville in June of 2017. The series mixes performances and conversation...with Ray's red piano serving as a substitute for a desk. It's a fast moving half hour series that's had a quirky broadcast schedule. It originally aired on RFD-TV for a season (26 episodes) and then it moved into local PBS syndication in January 2017. The series continues to air in local PBS syndication but last month it marked a return to the RFD-TV airwaves. The cable channel is catching up on episodes that have been airing in local PBS syndication and I'm sure production on additional episodes will get underway as we move deeper into 2019. In March the CabaRay will begin the 2019 season of concerts. Now then...every career begins somewhere and if you're a long time fan of Ray Stevens (as I happen to be) then you should already be well aware of "Silver Bracelet" from 1957. The single was issued on the Prep label, a subsidiary of Capitol Records, and it's the first single released on Ray Stevens...and at the time he happened to be 18 years old...and as his age at that time clearly shows he literally grew up in the music industry. He had single releases on Capitol and NRC over the next several years (1959-1960) and then he joined the Mercury label in 1961. It is at Mercury that the legend of Ray Stevens truly starts to form...establishing himself midway through the decade as one of the top session musicians, music arrangers, and writers on Music Row.

The 1962 hit, "Ahab the Arab", made Ray Stevens a star overnight...and it was followed by a series of novelty and love ballad releases on Mercury throughout 1962-1963 and into 1964. A unique contract arrangement allowed him to record and release music on the Mercury label while working as a session musician/producer/arranger for Monument Records. This is why his single releases for Mercury lasted into 1965, even though his name appears on countless single releases as writer or producer or arranger on Monument releases by other artists during the same time period. Ray's first Monument recording didn't hit the market until late in 1965. Although statistics show that his biggest hit for Monument was the million selling hit, "Gitarzan", in 1969...chart statistics belie Ray's true popularity. It's always seemed as if Ray pays more attention to the song, it's arrangement, the production in general...and he pays less attention to current trends or sure-fire radio material. You can argue that's the mark of a true artist when you do not allow popular trends, consumer whims, or radio consultants to influence everything you release.

Throughout the career of Ray Stevens there have been many single releases and album releases...and later on VHS and DVD releases...and even more later on the explosion of on-line music video content and the immediate reaction on social media sites. His music's been witness to practically every media imaginable. He won two Grammy awards: Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 1970 for "Everything is Beautiful" and Best Musical Arrangement in 1975 for "Misty". The readers of Music City News magazine named Ray their Comedian of the Year for 9 consecutive years (1986-1994) in the annual fan voted awards ceremony.

Ray lent his time and talents to the various awards shows presented by Music City News magazine throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. There was a time when Ray often hosted or co-hosted those very awards telecasts...usually he could be seen hosting or co-hosting the secondary awards program, Music City News Songwriters Awards. In that series of programs the focus was, of course, on the songwriters of the top country hits of a given year. In some cases where the artist happened to be the writer they'd attend the gala but most of the time the lead writer of a song (if it happened to be a collaborative effort) would perform the song on the telecast or the hosts would perform the songs up for nomination. In rare moments the recording artist that had a hit with a nominated song would appear and perform it...and my guess is this was done because either the writer or writers didn't want to perform their song on national television (stage fright) or the writer felt their voice wasn't good enough as the professional singer. One of Ray's recordings received a Top Comedy award at the Music City News Songwriters Awards in 1986...the 1984 recording of "Mississippi Squirrel Revival". The song's writers (Buddy Kalb and his wife, Carlene) received the plaque but Ray performed it on the telecast. The reason it picked up an honor in 1986 is because the single's release happened late in 1984 but it didn't become an immediate hit. It finally began to hit early in 1985 and by the time it reached it's Top-20 peak position on the Billboard Country chart it wasn't eligible, as far as I know, for nomination in the 1985 Songwriters Awards and so to the best of my knowledge that's why a song appearing on a 1984 album, which became a hit single in 1985, received an award in 1986.

I remember one such awards telecast in 1991 where Ray performed the George Strait number one hit, "You Know Me Better Than That". On that particular broadcast Ray was co-host with Jimmy Dean and Kathy Baillie. The trio made the cover of Music City News in 1991.

What is the only Ray Stevens studio album on Barnaby Records that has not been issued on CD or Mp3 format? Consider that a pop quiz question. The answer? 1973's studio album, Losin' Streak. That album, ironically enough, was released several months before a certain single in the spring of 1974 which captured a national fad at the peak of it's popularity. "The Streak" (a novelty song dealing with running around in the nude) streaked up the Hot 100 pop chart and much like a streaker in a mad dash "The Streak" hit the top of the Hot 100 in less than a month's time. The single reportedly sold in excess of five million copies worldwide. It was a massively popular song in the spring and early summer of 1974 all over the world pretty much. It hit the top spot on the pop chart for four weeks and in other charts internationally it hit the Top-10...on the country music chart it reached the Top-5. A novelty single in the truest sense of the word but in spite of all of it's success it was shut out come awards time regardless of it easily being the top selling single of the year. It was such a strong selling single in the United Kingdom that by the time the 1970's were coming to an end the music press over there named it the best selling novelty song of the decade.  

A couple of days ago an interview of Ray Stevens conducted by Music Row magazine appeared on-line. I've not been having my computer on too much this week because of the unpredictable weather system that's passing through this area and usually I keep my computer shut down until storms pass or the weather generally gets better. Anyway...when I got onto the internet this morning and I discovered an interview posted January 22nd. You can read that article and interview by clicking HERE. Along the way you'll find out some breaking news concerning new music...but there isn't a time-line on when anything is to emerge. Ray specifically points out that he isn't going to space the projects out and that they'll all be released at the same time. I won't go into any further details here...you all will need to click the link and read more. I'm excited knowing that there is to be new music on the way...and if you're like me then you can't wait to hear everything once it becomes available!! If we venture back to the 'energizer bunny' description once more did you all see the photo of Ray seated at a table, with drink in hand, in front of the green screen? He's working on a music video for an upcoming comedy song...the song's title is referenced to in the link I provided above.

I've been a fan of Ray Stevens ever since the mid 1980s. As some of you that have stopped by this fan created blog over the last 10 years should probably know by now the very first recording from Ray that I heard was "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" on a jukebox in a pizza place in a nearby town. I have long since obtained practically everything that's been released commercially on Ray Stevens in a variety of formats (vinyl, cassette, CD, and Mp3). When I discovered Ray's music I was not quite yet a teenager...but being a fan of comedy it just seemed like a natural progression of mine to gravitate toward Ray's music. I grew up listening to country music and so I'm very familiar with country comedy and Hee Haw and so when I heard somebody singing and being comical all at the same time that's what drove me to become a fan of Ray's. Later on I became much more detailed and had something of an uncontrollable appetite for seeking out everything I could find from Ray Stevens. I was fortunate enough to have a grandfather that didn't mind parting with some of his money anytime I spotted something by Ray Stevens sitting in the music section of K-Mart just begging for my ears to hear. After I grew up and got a job I made up for lost time and searched out his entire back catalog of vinyl albums.

I posted the collage seen above recently. When my brother and I went to Nashville last year, in addition to going to Ray's CabaRay showroom, we also visited the Country Music Hall of Fame. I had my brother take a photo of me in front of an exhibit of Ray Stevens items on display. Ray isn't a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame but he's a member of other Halls of Fame (Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame; Georgia Music Hall of Fame; Atlanta Music Hall of Fame; and the Christian Music Hall of Fame). Anyway...I had my brother take that photo...and then I remembered the photo of Ray standing in front of the exhibit and so I decided to create a collage featuring the exhibit. Late last year Ray Stevens received a Star on Nashville's Walk of Fame. I wrote several blog entries leading up to the event as well as on the day of the event. I feel it appropriate to close out this Ray Stevens 80th birthday blog entry with a photo from that special day in his career...

Ray Stevens 2018 Walk of Fame

Ray Stevens...Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to the one and only Ray Stevens!!! Born on this date in 1939 as Harold Ray Ragsdale in Clarkdale, Georgia. He became Ray Stevens in the late 1950s after he signed a recording contract with Prep Records, a subsidiary of Capitol Records. The change in stage name came as a result of his using his mother's maiden name, Stephens, but on records it became Stevens. The first recording from Ray came along in 1957 titled "Silver Bracelet".

Ray's earliest recordings for Prep, and later, Capitol itself were in the style of most teenage pop records in those days. If you hear one of those late '50s recordings from Ray you'll pick up on subtle phrasing...even back then. Ray was next in the studio of NRC after releasing a series of singles for Prep and Capitol (1957-1958). NRC is the label that seen a slight shift in vinyl persona as it was on this label that saw the eventual release of "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon" in 1960. It being a full fledged comedy song and the fact that it was about a fictional character everybody knew meant that it was on it's way to being a commercial hit. The meteoric hit was stopped almost overnight when the owners of the Sgt. Preston character got word that someone was making money off of their copyright without permission. Lawyers contacted NRC and the hit in the making was taken out of circulation. Not too long after that Ray found himself at Mercury Records...and the first single release for the label was another comedy outing...and this one became a hit. "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills" reached the Top-40 of the pop charts in 1961. Ray moved to Nashville, TN in January of 1962 and he'd eventually have the monster hit that had eluded him over the last 5 years. 1962's "Ahab the Arab" not only hit the Top-10 of the pop chart but it crossed over and became a Top-10 Rhythm and Blues hit and a million seller in the process. After it's success more successes followed: "Harry the Hairy Ape" (Top-20 pop; Top-20 Rhythm and Blues), "Speed Ball" (Top-40 Rhythm and Blues), and the original "Santa Claus is Watching You" (Top-50 pop). He also charted with "Furthermore" and "Funny Man". After this run of success Ray became more and more focused on the making of records. He temporarily but his recording career on hold to become a session musician, producer, and arranger for the Monument Records label. In one of the most unique contracts in music history Ray remained a vocalist under contract with Mercury but had a separate contract with Monument for production work on other artists. 

Mercury continued to release recordings on Ray through 1965. As soon as the contract expired Monument was then able to start issuing commercial recordings on Ray. One of the things that listeners should take notice of is the maturity of his vocals once Monument began releasing singles on him. His voice had changed a little bit between the releases from Mercury and his debut single for Monument in 1966. In the photo above I'm attempting to mimic the pose Ray Stevens gave for his 1968 album, Even Stevens. 

Now, rather than this turn into a career look back, I'm going to fast forward to the present day. One of the big events that took place in the career of Ray Stevens happened just this past week...on January 18th...the grand opening of his showroom, CabaRay, in West Nashville. Season Five of his television series, CabaRay Nashville, is underway on PBS. 

Will there be an audio release in the near future? His last CD arrived in 2015, Here We Go Again!. He's issued two DVDs of his television series. Season One and Season Two. Each season of his series contains 13 episodes. Once Season Five airs it'll give him 65 half hour episodes. The next season will feature episodes taped at the CabaRay showroom. Someone many years ago said that Ray is like the Energizer bunny...his career keeps going and going and going...and here's to many, many more successes in audio, video, television, and on stage at the CabaRay!!! Happy Birthday, Ray!!!

It's a Ray Stevens Birthday...

Hello one and all...today is the birthday of our fearless Entertainer, Ray Stevens. Born in Clarkdale, Georgia as Harold Ragsdale on January 24, 1939 the Georgia-born talent eventually became known all over the world as Ray Stevens. Music, one could say, has long been the life of Ray Stevens, too. His first recordings came along in 1957 on a small label called Prep Records. In my previous blog entry I made mention of the fact that 2017 marks Ray's 60th year in the music business...and he turns 78 today. Yes, if you do the math it's a fascinating tidbit of information. It means that 60 of Ray's 78 years on Earth have been spent in the music industry in some form or another. Given such a youthful start in the industry and being talented as a piano player (among several other instruments) it didn't take long for his presence on recording sessions to become something of a habit. He enrolled in Georgia State with the idea of studying music but during his college years he remained active as a recording artist on a series of record labels (Capitol, NRC, and eventually Mercury). A series of recordings from Ray hit the market...everything from love ballads aimed at teenagers to rhythm and blues...one obscure recording during this period happened to be an off the wall effort called "Cholly Wolly Chang", a blend of Hong Kong culture set to rock music. Ray's early recordings (1957-1960) can be found on CD but you'll have to dedicate yourself to finding the various CD's available that contain those early recordings. There is a CD from just a couple of years ago that includes the obscurities from that period and it's called Ahab, Jeremiah, Sgt. Preston and more...The Early Ray Stevens. The CD hit in 2014 and it's available on AMAZON. The site states that there's only 7 copies left and so if you're a devoted fan of Ray Stevens but haven't heard some his recordings from 1957-1960 then get that CD as soon as possible!!

As mentioned in the previous paragraph Ray recorded for a series of labels under the guidance of Bill Lowery. Prior to Ray's debut on vinyl in 1957 he had become something of a local celebrity thanks in part to radio station WGPC. In his memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, he recalls the time that he was promised a slot on the radio station on the condition that he find a female co-host. The radio program was described by Ray as a kind of sock hop and his role was simply to play rock music and rhythm and blues songs currently on jukeboxes nationally and locally. For those curious you can read the memories of the co-host, Mary Dale Vansant, by clicking this LINK. The link takes you to Albany High Times and their page devoted to that sock hop radio program she and Ray hosted. He began recording for the NRC label in the middle part of 1959 following brief stints on Capitol (1958) and Prep (1957). A recording for NRC in 1960 nearly became a national hit...a novelty called "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon". The single began appearing on the national radar and had climbed a special chart called Bubbling Under the Hot 100. This chart listed specific single releases that had began to break all over the country but hadn't obtained the sales requirements necessary to move onto the "big chart" as they called it. Ray had to take his recording off the market (well, NRC did) after the copyright holders of the Sgt. Preston character objected to the use of their property in the recording.

Ray's first Hot 100 hit arrived in 1961. For those that don't follow music popularity charts the Hot 100 is the name of the chart that lists the best-selling songs across the country in all formats. Chart methodologies have come and gone since then but in 1961 the chart was still largely being based on sales. The higher the sales the more likely pop music stations would play the song...and the airplay exposure, in theory, would increase sales even more. Ray often recalls that his near-hit with Sgt. Preston inspired him to try novelty songs and see if that would do the trick and get him national attention. Prior to that next release, however, he switched record labels. He departed NRC for the much more commercially successful and mainstream label, Mercury. Still living in Georgia in 1961 his debut for Mercury happened to be a novelty song...with a title that tested the memory of many disk jockeys and listeners and, also, tested their breathing control, too. The song's title?? None other than "Jeremiah Peabody's Polyunsatured Quick Dissolving Fast Acting Pleasant Tasting Green and Purple Pills". The song is appropriately abbreviated by many of us fans and we refer to it simply as "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills". The single hit the Hot 100...and climbed into the radio-driven Top-40! It opened the door...but the follow-up, "Scratch My Back", failed to scratch the charts, sad to say. The song is highly entertaining as is it's B-side...his version of "When You Wish Upon a Star". Ray moved to Nashville, Tennessee in January 1962...and he began a lengthy association with Shelby Singleton. Ray eventually became an A and R man for the label. In this role he found songs for artist's to record, assisted in production of the recordings, and as a session musician he played on other artist's records. One of his first sessions at Mercury included his recording of "Ahab the Arab". The song turns 55 this year. On the same day he also played on the recordings of "Wooden Heart", a song recorded by Joe Dowell and the massive Leroy Van Dyke hit, "Walk on By".

"Ahab the Arab" became a million selling Top-5 pop hit and it crossed over to the Rhythm and Blues chart and in the summer of 1962 it made him a star overnight as the saying goes. The song inspired an assortment of properties. His music publishing company had the name Ahab Music Company (BMI) until the mid 1970s when it changed to the more business-sounding Ray Stevens Music (BMI). Ray has several music publishing outlets but the bulk of the songs are published under Ray Stevens Music. The camel in "Ahab the Arab", Clyde, became the name of his personal record label in 1988. In 1991 he opened up a theater in Branson, Missouri. The design was inspired by the desert imagery mentioned in "Ahab the Arab" and throughout the venue one could see imagery that could've come directly out of Arabian Nights or Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Clyde the camel became his logo. Clyde Records gained it's first taste of profit in 1992/1993 during the VHS explosion in Ray's career. After the major record labels refused to finance/promote a home video from Ray titled Comedy Video Classics he took matters into his own hands and released the VHS on his own label, Clyde Records. This home video led to other home video releases...sold directly to customers through television commercials and print advertisements. By the mid 1990s he had sold more than 3,000,000 home videos through direct marketing. Comedy Video Classics, Ray Stevens Live!, and Get Serious! are landmarks in home video marketing. Clyde Records became something of a stand-by for Ray throughout the '90s and 2000s. If he happened to not be signed to a major label but wanted to release new music for the fans he'd simply release the music through mail-order via his fan club and later, after the fan club dissolved, he'd sell his music through his own website.

Some of the career milestones for Ray Stevens include record, single, and home video sales of a combined 20 million. 2 Grammy awards: a 1971 win for "Everything is Beautiful" and a 1976 win for "Misty". 3 Gold Singles: "Gitarzan" (1969), "Everything Is Beautiful" (1970), and "The Streak" (1974). Numerous Gold and Platinum albums and home videos (throughout the '80s and '90s). The fan-voted Music City News Country Awards honored Ray as Comedian of the Year for 9 consecutive years (1986-1994). In 2012 he released a 9-CD box set, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music, a beautiful salute to comedy and novelty songs both past and present. Ray performs his versions of many, many, many novelty songs made popular by other artists plus he offers some of his own recordings, too. He hosted a summer television series for Andy Williams in 1970. In the latter half of 2014 he started hosting Ray Stevens' Nashville on the RFD cable channel. The series ran on RFD for a season and a half. In late 2016 the series became associated with PBS and this month (January 2017) it started popping up on scattered PBS stations across the country. The program's title has changed to Ray Stevens' CabaRay Nashville. 

In 2009 Ray added another dimension to his career...he began to release music video content on-line...specifically on the video hosting site, YouTube. At first he issued music videos from his past but in late 2009 he released a new recording, "We the People", and it's music video took off in a tremendous way. He became hot on the internet...releasing a string of music video content taking jabs at the Obama Administration and becoming a headliner at several Tea Party and Conservative events. Oh yes...saying that he added political humor to his career in 2010 is a huge understatement...the YouTube music videos he released during that time period, 2010-2013, became viral video sensations. Nearly all of them have obtained more than a million unique views (some topping more than three million!). At some point this year (2017) Ray's entertainment venue, CabaRay, is set to open. It's still under construction on River Road in Nashville. His television program, according to some reports, is eventually going to start taping at that venue and he's moving his offices and recording equipment from his longtime studio in Nashville to the CabaRay venue.

Happy Birthday to the one and only Ray Stevens!! May he forever remain creative, compelling, unpredictable, and entertaining!! Here's also hoping his television series comes to a PBS station in my area! Check your local PBS stations and see if you are receiving the program!

A Birthday for Ray Stevens...

A great big Happy Birthday goes out to the one and only Ray Stevens on this January 24th! Born Harold Ray Ragsdale on January 24, 1939 in Clarkdale, Georgia he later became the super entertainer, Ray Stevens. Seeing that his birthday falls on a Sunday I don't think there's going to be much on-line reaction on his social media pages beyond a general birthday announcement...usually a celebrity birthday gets a mention on their Facebook page and from there the fans of that celebrity post 'Happy Birthday' greetings throughout most of the day. In previous birthday's for Ray he's posted pictures of small gatherings featuring him standing or sitting near the birthday cake. Sometimes a brief video of the people singing Happy Birthday to him is posted on-line, too. As I do on his birthday I make mention of a couple of internet sites that have his birth year wrong. There is going to be some on-line sites that post Ray having been born in 1941. This is inaccurate. Ray's true year of birth is 1939...meaning that he reaches 77 years young today...

But for Ray Stevens age is only a number, not a warning indicator...for the highly active Ray Stevens is currently enjoying the success of his RFD television series, Ray Stevens' Nashville and I'm sure there is to be some kind of CD release this year. Ray Stevens' Nashville, which runs half an hour, airs every Saturday night at 8:30pm Eastern. It's been on the schedule just over 3 months at the moment. If I recall correctly there's to be 23 or 26 first-run episodes. The series debuted in early November of 2015. It's title is based on Ray's memoir, itself borrowed from his 1973 hit country single, "Nashville". Off to the above right is my vinyl album of a compilation release by RCA titled Collector's Series. I've had this particular title on cassette and CD but never on vinyl. The collection was released in 1985, originally, and then in 1987. It was released on CD for the first time in 1992. No complete collection of his RCA recordings have been made available...unfortunately! I have his studio albums for RCA on vinyl (1980, 1981, and 1982) and I have a cassette copies of 1980's Shriner's Convention and 1983's Greatest Hits, too. However, I have no cassette copy of his 1981 and 1982 albums nor have they ever been issued on CD or in Mp3 format. The RCA era is pretty much as scarce as his Warner Brothers era happens to be as far as availability on modern-day listening devices. The Ray Stevens vinyl albums I have are among the things I cherish the most. They're priceless...sure, the LP's can be found on eBay and other on-line auction sites but once I purchased the albums of his that I've got I've never considered putting a price on them. I still hold out hope that someday cassette copies of his 1981 and 1982 albums come up for sale...but I don't have any hope that RCA is going to release them on CD.

Following up on my previous blog entry concerning the CD release of the Ray Stevens Monument singles (1965-1970) there has since been a product page added on America's Amazon page. You can read about the CD and it's price in American dollars by clicking HERE. It's available for Pre-order...and it states that it'll be available here on March 4th. I'll post more about this CD the closer it gets to March 4th.

In the meantime wish Ray Stevens a Happy Birthday on social media today!

Ray Stevens...Since it's your Birthday...

Birthday greetings go out to the one and only Ray Stevens!! Here in the eastern time zone it's a little after 11pm and so there's another hour left to this day. In the central time zone you've got 2 more hours of celebration, Ray!

In my previous blog entry, the first for 2015, I mentioned an upcoming book signing that's to take place in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Ray is to sign copies of his memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville. I also mentioned information about an upcoming comedy CD...titled Here We Go Again. Several hours after I posted my previous blog entry on Thursday news surfaced that Ray had signed a contract with a booking agency...a company called Kinkead Entertainment Agency.

The article can be found HERE.

The date of the article is January 21st but I didn't come across it until yesterday. This, of course, is great news for fans of Ray...he's going to go out on tour again. It's still too early in the year to know if he's going to put on a full tour and be out on the road for days or weeks at a time or if it'll be a series of concerts spread out over the course of the summer months.

Earlier in the day an article appeared in southern gospel music circles that featured information about Ray's recording of a song called "The Baptism of Stumpy Brown", from the pen of Buddy Kalb and Allison Speer. The article stated that it's from his upcoming comedy CD, Here We Go Again. The article further goes on to provide the label and distribution information and longtime fans will perhaps be interested in discovering that the CD isn't going to, well, if you want to get more detailed information, click HERE.

Okay, with all that information, we at least know the titles of 2 songs that'll be on the upcoming CD. "The Baptism of Stumpy Brown" and "Pickin' on the Chicken" (see previous blog entry about that song).

Hitting 20 this year is the 3-volume set of Ray Stevens projects released on Warner Brothers in 1995. I've got these on CD copy, too. The tapes feature recordings that Ray did in the mid to late 1970s during his brief stay on the label (1976-1979). As I've mentioned in other blog entries through the years, this 3-cassette/3-CD collection, continues to remain vital for any fan of Ray Stevens that doesn't have any vinyl in their collection. For you see, none of Ray's studio albums for the label have ever been re-released onto CD or Mp3. Cassette copies are scarce and long out of print. You may, once in a great while, see a cassette copy of one of his studio albums for Warner Brothers become available on eBay (for outrageous asking prices). Due to the lack of his Warner Brothers studio albums in CD/Mp3 format, these 3 projects from 1995 are the only thing commercially available that document a good dose of his material at the label. Two of these projects are available in Mp3 format at Amazon (The Serious Side of Ray Stevens and Do You Wanna Dance?). The third release in the series, Cornball, didn't get an Mp3 release, strangely enough.

1988's I Never Made a Record I Didn't Like. I have it on vinyl but I could never get a satisfactory image of it. The image of the vinyl copy is located below. This studio album is available in Mp3. It also seen an early 1990s release on CD format. Sellers on eBay often have CD copies of Ray's studio albums from the mid-late 1980s on sale for more than $50.00 a piece, usually!! This is more than likely due to the limited availability those studio albums seen in CD form the first time around. The vinyl and cassette copies are more reasonably priced and became the most commercially available the longest. This is also the comedy album that introduced the fans to "Surfin' U.S.S.R.", "The Booger Man", and "The Day I Tried to Teach Charlene MacKenzie How to Drive". I have never seen Ray perform "Surfin' U.S.S.R." on any television appearance...it's production may not lend itself to a televised performance...but the song became his second ever music video and I'm sure he's performed it at least once on a television appearance of the time period but to date I've not seen it. He performed "The Day I Tried To Teach Charlene MacKenzie How to Drive" on the 20th Anniversary Hee Haw television special and I finally seen the performance on YouTube. He performed "The Booger Man" during a guest appearance at The Grand Ole Opry in the late 2000s during an October appearance.

The vinyl copy of Ray's 1988 studio album. Usually the backs of his albums feature exclusive images rarely, if ever seen, unless you happen to have a copy of the album. This time around, though, the back of the LP simply features a list of the songs and the album credits (unlike his first 3 studio albums for MCA). The backs of the 1987, 1988, and 1989 studio albums contain no additional photography...just a list of songs and credits. One of the songs on the 1988 album, "Mama's in the Sky with Elvis", actually made it's debut a year earlier on Greatest Hits, Volume Two. I'm surprised the song didn't became more widely known beyond his fan base considering that it's about Elvis. One of the main reasons I began this fan created blog is to create awareness for Ray's music...all of it...from all points in time. If you've never heard of that song until reading this then I've done my job. The Mp3 copy of the studio album can be purchased HERE. Based on the popularity graphics at Amazon I'm surprised not enough people have bought his version of Michael Jackson's "Bad" to register a popularity ranking. It's track 5 on the album. The site likes to highlight which individual song have gotten the most purchases from a digital release.

"Is Losin' Streak on CD or Mp3??". The answer to that question requires a simple reply: "No!!". It's a shame, a travesty, borderline tragic that this 1973 studio album has never seen the light of day in modern technology. Once upon a time it had availability in vinyl, 8-track, and cassette. Of those formats the cassette has long since been the most scarce and the 8-track is probably of interest to those that may have an 8-track player that's still functional. As you can see in the collage, I've got the vinyl copy. I found an image of the cassette copy and hastily saved it for posterity. Perhaps if you come across a junked 1973 Thunderbird and look under one of the seats left you may find a well-worn cassette or 8-track copy of Losin' Streak or if you remove the large, fuzzy dice from the sponge exposed backseat you might see a vinyl single of "Losin' Streak" slightly used but still in good audio form from years of neglect. The studio album has had decades of neglect and one day I hope some distribution company out there remasters this album and puts it out in CD or Mp3 format. Fans of Ray Stevens, a good majority of them, have been on an extended losing streak as it pertains to this elusive gem. There's never been a CD or Mp3 version made available of this 1973 studio album. So, for the time being, if you come across a vinyl copy...get it! Turntables are still being manufactured so it's not such a far fetched notion to actively pursue/purchase vinyl LP's.

The 1973 album featured no chart hits. Recording released as commercial singles included "Losin' Streak" and "Inside". The project is one of his most unique and the choice of songs are interesting, too. The cassette off to the left highlights four of the songs. I can tell you that in the decades since this album became available only "Bye Bye Love" has seen the most widespread inclusion on compilation albums through the years. Your guess is as good as mine but I happen to think that the familiarity of the song, a huge hit for The Everly Brothers, is the main reason it had gotten much more attention from those that put together all of those compilation albums on Ray through the decades. I'd even go further and say that a lot of the people in charge of compiling those various projects on Ray, at first, assumed his recording of "Bye Bye Love" would be a bouncy sing-a-long in the tradition of The Everly Brothers. The compilers must have been taken by total surprise when they heard Ray's dramatically different arrangement and vocal performance. This album also contains his version of "Easy Loving". The recording by Freddie Hart became a huge hit...recorded as a ballad...but Ray changed it's tempo and arrangement for his version. This and "Bye Bye Love" are the only songs from this studio album to get some attention on later compilation projects. Again, I happen to think the reason for "Easy Loving" becoming available on later compilations is because it has to do with the familiarity of the song's title. The album also contains "Idaho Wine", "Being Friends", and "Things Work Out". Overall the album has an intimate, easy-listening feel. The title track features a hefty dose of electric guitar and an urgent delivery and "This is Your Life" is amazing. He may be performing that song for the album's photo shoot...it forever remains a mystery as to the reason behind the usage of that particular image for an album that is mostly understated and soft.

Yes, you're right...that's Johnny Cash on the cover of this particular magazine. I purchased this on eBay more than 5 years ago because I wanted the article about Ray Stevens. During that point in time I had gotten onto a zealous quest to find any magazine I could find that featured stories/interviews concerning Ray Stevens. I did this because I found it interesting to read thoughts and commentary from authors and from Ray taken at various moments in time. I also wanted to get some sort of grasp on how his career had been represented through the media and the kinds of articles that had been written about him in the years before I became aware of his music. I became aware of his music in the latter half of the 1980s. But, anyway, this magazine offers a story authored by John Pugh. The cover refers to the article as "Ray Stevens: The Mad Genius of Music Row". The now out of print publication, published monthly, has a cover date of April 1979. The interviews for this publication often took place weeks or months before the magazine became available to it's subscribers and so, keeping that in mind, there's no mention of his current single at the time, "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow", but I'm sure the interview/article was included in that specific issue as a promo for Ray's music, in general, to coincide with the release of the single nevertheless. The single debuted on the charts in late March of 1979. A further magazine, People of all things, mentioned the single in an article from May 28th of that year. I don't have that issue in my collection but you can read the article on-line if you do a search for Ray Stevens + People magazine.

As it passes midnight in the central time zone, it's Sunday. I'm sure Ray Stevens celebrated his birthday and had some sort of a party. Usually there's pictures that surface in the hours or days after his birthday that shows him eating cake or laughing it up with any friends/guests. One birthday, recently, had Ray on video blowing out candles on the cake that somebody on his office staff had either made or bought. To clarify, Ray Stevens was born on January 24th in 1939. For whatever reason there are several biographies that list his year of birth as being 1941.  I've come across several radio station press releases citing 1941, too, during their 'Celebrity Birthday' area on their sites. Although anybody would love to have their birth year pushed to a later date in time and there's long been the practice of celebrities putting out false information regarding their year of birth but Ray's birth year is 1939, not 1941. Yes, in hindsight, it's a minor quibble, but I like to provide accuracy here because the internet is often filled up with a lot of misinformation.

Once again...Happy Birthday to Ray Stevens!! Here's to an action packed 2015!!