Ray Stevens: The Encyclopedia on YouTube...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! I may have mentioned this earlier this year but 2022, hard to believe, marks the 10th anniversary of the Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. Ray released this 9-CD box set in 2012 and it's chock full of his versions of novelty songs of the last 60+ years. He also re-recorded some of his own comedy songs but the majority of the recordings on here are Ray's take on other novelty songs like "Mother-in-Law", "King Tut", "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport", "Little Brown Jug", "Huggin' and Chalkin'", and many, many, more. I don't know if it's because 2022 is the 10th anniversary but Curb Records has uploaded dozens of songs from the Encyclopedia onto YouTube. This is a big deal because, until now, the only way to hear a large amount of Ray's phenomenal recordings of classic novelty songs was to have the 9-CD box set. In 2012 Ray promoted the collection in a series of TV appearances and he made a few online advertisements. I wrote numerous blog entries in 2012 promoting the box set, too. The collection remains a masterpiece and a salute to the novelty song. If you have this box set then you're already familiar with the songs and the booklet. In the booklet you'll read Ray's commentary on all of the songs he recorded for the Encyclopedia plus a lot of facts surrounding the times and places each song made it's impact. Don Cusic was also one of Ray's collaborators. When you watch some episodes of Ray's CabaRay Nashville television show you'll see segments featuring Don Cusic introducing facts surrounding the box set. On the show Don is wearing a graduate uniform and is known as Professor Cusic. Here are a few of the songs Curb Records uploaded from the Encyclopedia onto YouTube...

"Searchin'" is just one of several recordings originated or popularized by The Coasters. I'm excited to finally promote individual audio tracks from the Encyclopedia so you all can hear how great they are. In "Searchin'", Ray is at his Coasters best...several times inserting throaty vocalizations which were like a hallmark of their overall sound. Here we go...

Now, wasn't that fabulous??? It's like Ray is in another world whenever he's covering songs originated by The Coasters or any other rhythm and blues vocal group. If you're familiar with the song, "Cigareets and Whuskey and Wild, Wild Women", then you'll love Ray's rendition of it. It was popularized, originally, by Red Ingle and I've also heard a recording of it by Buck Owens. Now, speaking of Buck, this Ray Stevens rendition will have you thinking of Hee Haw...

 Now, this one is just plain fun...his take on "Mother-in-Law"... 

Most remember Nervous Norvous from the many plays he got on the novelty song broadcasts of Doctor Demento...a song by the name of "Transfusion". A novelty song about a guy that can't get enough blood transfusions and we're left to wonder if the guy gets into car wrecks on purpose just to get another shot of the red stuff. I hope you love hearing these audio tracks from Ray's 2012 Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. There is so much more to hear over on YouTube. Do a search for Ray Stevens + Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music on YouTube and the results will showcase what Curb Records uploaded. Here's Ray's version of "Transfusion"...

Ray Stevens sings "The King is Gone and So Are You"...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! The latest performance video from Ray Stevens appeared on his social media Saturday morning in the form of "The King is Gone and So Are You". This humorous song originated in 1989 when it was released as a single by George Jones. I can't exactly say it originated in 1989 since I don't know when the song was written...but it was popularized by George Jones in 1989. The song's original title was "Ya Ba Da Ba Doo" but threats of a lawsuit from the owners of the Flintstone characters caused the song to receive a new title, "The King is Gone and So Are You". I've seen copies of the single with it's original name come up for sale online. 

Ray Stevens recorded his version of the song in 2012 for his 9-CD release, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The song's lyrics are humorous but the song itself is delivered seriously. George Jones recorded it seriously though at times he'd chuckle in certain moments in the song...and the music was traditional country. Ray sings it as a ballad, as George did, with a heavy use of country instrumentation. The main difference is the phrasing of the lyrics. Ray has a pop/crooning vocal delivery which influences his phrasing whereas George's voice and phrasing has country written all over the performance. 

The song is about a guy, upset about a woman having left him, spending the night drinking whiskey from a decanter that looks like Elvis. The guy pours his whiskey into a Flintstone jellybean jar. The absurdity of the scenario was intended to categorize it as a novelty song yet those that hear the song don't necessarily laugh...they usually shrug and think to themselves "Oh, I know a guy like that!!". This performance from Ray's CabaRay Nashville television series. One of Ray's harmony singers, Sheri Copeland Smith, previously worked for the George Jones team. She and her husband, Barry Smith, toured with George for numerous years prior to her joining Ray's team.  

Ray Stevens and T.G. Sheppard audio track: "This One Burger King Town"...

It's the birthday of T.G. Sheppard today...and on the Ray Stevens social media he uploaded their 2012 recording, "This One Burger King Town". I've written about this duet...mostly back in 2012 when it was brand new...and when T.G. was a guest on Ray's CabaRay Nashville television show I wondered why the two didn't perform it. He appeared on Ray's show in Season One, episode 10...it was one of a few episodes to have two guests...the other guest happened to be Tanya Tucker. If you're very familiar with the music and career of Ray Stevens, as I am, you'll know that he hasn't recorded many duets. He appeared on various awards shows back in the '70s and '80s and often sang with others in group sing-a-longs and often sang duets with hosts of television shows (such as Tom T. Hall in the early '80s when Tom T. was hosting Pop! Goes the Country). Ray sang with Louise Mandrell on the early '80s television variety show that her sister, Barbara Mandrell, headlined. In his two appearances he sang with Louise on "How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You" and "With a Little Help From My Friends". Ray also sang various duets in the early and mid '80s on telecasts of the Music City News Songwriter Awards. I'm attempting to establish that Ray isn't a stranger to duets on television programs.

He sang "We've Got the Music in Music City" with Tammy Wynette and on another awards show sang "Close Enough to Perfect" with Sylvia. On a television appearance honoring Minnie Pearl he sang a song with several other artists, "Howdee, Cousin Minnie". A television special honoring Ralph Emery in 1990 included a song Ray performed with other recording artists, "Ralph, You Have Embarrassed Us All". He sang harmony and was the producer, music arranger, and publisher of the Chet Atkins recording, "Frog Kissing". The two performed it on television at least twice that I'm aware of...once in 1977 on a television show hosted by Marty Robbins and once more in 1980 on a Chet Atkins tribute special. There have been several studio recordings from Ray that include guest vocalists/duet partners but he's never gained the sort of reputation of having recorded a wide variety of duets. "This One Burger King Town" happens to be one of those rare duet recordings from Ray Stevens. The song deals with small town gossip and the sort of things that often happen in just about any rural town across the country. Ray and T.G. come across as observers relating things that take place and what people are talking about in the small town. The song ends appropriately enough with Ray and T.G. gossiping with one another during the fade out. Have a listen...

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Splish Splash"

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens!! Yes, it's me once more and I'm going to be embedding Ray's 2012 recording of "Splish Splash". The song originated in 1958 and was a monster hit for a newcomer to pop music, Bobby Darin. The song was written by Bobby with a phrase suggested to him by radio disc jockey, Murray the K, which the disc jockey himself had gotten the phrase, 'Splish, Splash...I was takin' a bath...", from his mother. Bobby wrote the song and, as mentioned, it became a big hit in 1958. The novelty song had even crossed over and became a Top-10 Rhythm and Blues hit as well as a Country music hit. Ray recorded his version of the song for his Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. He performed it on an episode of his CabaRay Nashville television series...but that performance has yet to surface on YouTube. Ray does a great rendition of this classic Bobby Darin hit...and he even throws in a throaty, urgent vocal near the beginning of the song...reminiscent of numerous pop music artists of that era...and later on, Billy 'Crash' Craddock. So, now, get ready to "Splish Splash" as you've never splashed before...and make sure there's no soap on the floor!! 

Ray Stevens audio clip: "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"...

Earlier today Ray Stevens uploaded an audio of his recording of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus". The novelty song goes back to 1952...brought into the category of Christmas novelty songs by Jimmy Boyd. The song's been covered by a wide range of recording artists over the decades...in some cases there have been parody songs of it...ironic given that "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", in it's original form, was meant to be a novelty song. The eye catching title of the song made it an automatic novelty...and while it's more of a cute song rather than a laugh out loud fest it often found itself on compilation collections of Christmas novelty songs. The plot of the song is a boy, on Christmas Eve, walks downstairs when he's suppose to be asleep. He sees Santa kissing his mother underneath a mistletoe. It baffles the boy as to why his mom is kissing someone other than dad...not realizing it's his father dressed as Santa. If you appreciate the song then you'll understand it's suppose to be sung from a little boy's point of view. If you're a cynic or just someone that hates novelty songs entirely then you're not even going to understand the point of the song or anything else about it. When Ray recorded the song he sang it straight...he didn't perform it in a little boy voice. Here is Ray Stevens singing "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"...

Ray Stevens: "Merry Christmas" 8 years later...

The exact date was December 22, 2012 so I'm two days early...but 8 years ago the Country Music Hall of Fame member, Ray Stevens, released a new music video titled "Merry Christmas". The song gets to the point of what Christmas is all about and, overall, it's a defiant stance against a hostile politically correct culture that prefers to say Happy Holidays or Season's Greetings as to not single out/celebrate any specific religion...that religion being Christianity...and in this song Ray belts out the pride of celebrating Christmas and saying the phrase, "Merry Christmas". Ray takes the point of view that he doesn't discriminate against other religions and he doesn't protest any sort of religious celebration yet Christianity, and the saying of the phrase, "Merry Christmas", has long been under attack...but in spite of all that he's going to continue to say "Merry Christmas". When Ray issued the music video in 2012 it was only available as a video...the song would eventually receive placement on Ray's 2016 Christmas album, Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me. Now, then, from the pen of Ray Stevens comes the pointed, Christmas commentary in song, "Merry Christmas"...share this one with all of your on-line friends...in addition to the silly, comical Christmas songs Ray Stevens has recorded over the years.

Ray Stevens: Sunday YouTube analysis...

Here I am on a Sunday mid-morning with the clock about ready to click to 12pm with the threat of a minor wind storm approaching. The wind guests are said to be in the range of 45 to 55mph at various moments throughout the day. I can hear the winds kicking up outside. 

I was looking at the YouTube videos of Ray Stevens prior to writing this blog entry and I was adding up the unique views of his recent video uploads. I did an estimated total rather than doing it down to the specific number. In my analysis I added up the unique views of the following music video uploads that shown up in the last 6 days: "Everything is Beautiful" (6.7K), "Everything is Beautiful" / "United We Stand" (4.7K), and a 1987 television performance of "It's Me Again, Margaret" (7.8K). Those three video uploads have a combined unique view count of  over 19.2K, or, in other words, more than 19,200 unique views. When you see the capital letter, K, following a number it's referencing numbers in the thousands whereas the capital letter, M, references numbers in the millions. 

Ray's videos are typically active on a daily basis on YouTube. "The Quarantine Song", his music video from May of this year, has over 1.8 million unique views. "Grandpa Voted Democrat", several days ago, was in the 2.8 million range but now it's exceeded that with 2.9 million...specifically speaking that's 2,906,191 unique views. That particular music video was sitting at 2,877,319 on November 11th and since then it's added 28,872 unique views to bring it to it's current total as of this writing. When you do in-depth analysis of the music videos that I'm highlighting in this blog entry you can see that the three video uploads that debuted within the last 6 days (going back to November 9th) did great at grabbing a combined estimated figure of 19,200 but then we take a look at "Grandpa Voted Democrat" and see that in the last 4 days (going back to November 11th) that music video took in 28,872 unique views by itself. 

Since I like rounding the numbers, for easy math, let's add the combined unique views of the three video uploads of the last 6 days (19,200) with the unique views obtained for "Grandpa Voted Democrat" in the last 4 days (rounded up to 29,000). When rounding the numbers we find that a combined total of 48,000 devices (computers, I-pads, I-phones, cell phones, smart phones, etc.) had Ray Stevens video content airing at some point during the last 6 days. Keep in mind that number is focusing only on four specific video uploads and the unique views they've obtained since November 9th. I didn't factor in how many additional people have seen other video content on his YouTube channel, like "The Quarantine Song", for example or video content featuring guests that have appeared on his locally syndicated PBS television series, CabaRay Nashville. Ray's YouTube video uploads remain active and engaging on his social media accounts.

Ray Stevens: "Grandpa Voted Democrat" hits 2.8 million unique views...

It's me once again!! As you know I've been writing blog entries surrounding new music videos from Ray Stevens (released this past Monday) and in my previous blog entry I noted that Ray has two entirely different music videos that are just as active on YouTube and social media as the brand new music videos happen to be. I mentioned the highly active "The Quarantine Song" music video and I also mentioned "Grandpa Voted Democrat". I believe everyone can be united in a fight against voter fraud wherever it may exist or at least be united against the presence of voter fraud and irregularities that undermine the integrity of the voting process. To deny existence of fraud or to diminish it as being so miniscule that it has no impact on the outcome of an election is an irresponsible attitude, I think.

On August 11th of this year the music video had garnered 2,511,520 unique views. The video had been uploaded onto YouTube in 2012. On October 13th of the year the music video had risen to 2,713,458 and I wrote a blog entry promoting the music video obtaining 2.7 million unique views. Now then, I just looked at the totals for the 8 year old music video, and as of right now the video is sitting with 2,877,319 unique views. This is a pickup of 163,861 in less than a month's time. It's a pickup of more than 300,000 unique views between August 11th and November 11th. It's hard to tell how the post-election fallout will continue to play out. There's numerous lawsuits and mandatary recounts that are going to take place...and some States are still counting votes more than a week after election day!! 

However this all plays out in the next couple of months, "Grandpa Voted Democrat" takes on voter fraud in a lighthearted fashion...but it makes it's point crystal clear if you listen carefully. Also, the sentiments expressed in the music video are still relevant in 2020. I don't know if that's something to be proud of or not?? This video, as mentioned, debuted in November 2012 and here we are 8 years later...with situations emerging from various States which allow the idea of voter fraud and corruption to dominate the election cycle!

Ray Stevens: "Grandpa Voted Democrat" hits 2.7 million unique views...

It's me once again and I decided to take a look, once more, at the Ray Stevens music video "Grandpa Voted Democrat". As you could probably guess with this being election season the music video has had a resurgence of on-line sharing and discovery. The video made it's debut on November 3, 2012 and it had a massive response not only on that day but in the days and weeks after the 2012 election cycle came and went. The issue of integrity in the 2020 elections became an issue when a lot of States, using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse, decided that this election cycle voters in States that have never dealt with mail-in voting, would receive ballots in the mail and for them to fill the ballots out and then mail them back. Mail-in voting had become something of a routine thing in a few States. Early voting is going on as I type this. Some, like myself, prefer to wait until Election Day to cast my vote. We're three weeks away from Election Day. 

The decision by some States to mail out ballots by the millions has obviously alarmed a lot of people who feel there's too much potential for fraud and abuse when ballots are being mailed out to voters...in some cases to people no longer living or being mailed to addresses of voters who no longer live at that location. I may have referenced this in a blog entry from August of this year but a relative of mine recently received voter correspondence for someone in the family who recently passed away. The relative that passed away was living at the same address as the caretaker...but the local office hadn't deleted the relative from the voter registration records. 

We've all heard stories of local fraud and abuse taking place with ballots...and the argument from Democrats is always the same: "it's isolated...it doesn't represent the country as a whole...". Well, in a national election where millions of mail-in ballots have been sent out, the potential for larger widespread ballot abuse should be something that we keep in the forefront and not let it become lost among the chaos and confusion that's bound to show up in three weeks time. The rush to push mail-in voting when it was not necessary deliberately set the stage for chaos and confusion. COVID-19 is simply a convenient scapegoat. 

"Grandpa Voted Democrat", back on August 17, was sitting with 2,511,520 unique views. When I looked at the numbers a couple of minutes ago the unique view count had risen to 2,713,458. This is a pickup of 201,938 unique views in a little more less than 2 months time! I'm hoping there will be no voter fraud, abuse, or integrity issues but it's difficult to say there won't be with this year's election cycle consisting of so much mail-in ballots in the postal system. I'm hoping with so much attention focused on fighting the potential for fraud and abuse that it causes those who are thinking about disrupting the 2020 elections to think twice. 

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Poison Ivy"...

Hello all Ray Stevens fans!! In this blog entry I'm embedding one of the recent uploads on Ray's YouTube channel. The upload is an audio track of his recording of "Poison Ivy"...Ray recorded the song during sessions for his Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. This box set was released in February of 2012 and so the recording could have taken place anywhere during the latter half of 2009 on into the midway point of 2011. In a lot of Ray's interviews in the first half of 2012 he mentioned that he worked on the box set for two years and so I'd say he began recording the songs at some point late 2009 and all through 2010 and 2011...which if I'm accurate on the time line it obviously means that the box set was being put together simultaneously while he was being discovered by a whole host of people on-line through his politically charged YouTube music videos. In 2010 and 2011 he issued two politically themed CDs: We The People and Spirit of '76. When you see Ray speaking in interviews or read any of the interviews and he makes mention that he's constantly working...it isn't an exaggeration...he's ALWAYS working/recording even if the music won't be publicly heard for several years time. In more recent interviews he's remarked that he has an entire backlog of recordings just waiting to get released...and he'll be in charge of the timing and planning of what music gets unleashed first...and we can't wait. 

The Coasters are one of Ray's all-time favorite music groups...read any professional biography in an assortment of CD liner notes or inside magazines and you're likely to see The Coasters listed as one of his primary influences. Ray had already shown his love of the group in 1969 when he recorded "Along Came Jones", "Little Egypt", and "Yakety Yak". The Coasters were contemporaries of Ray Stevens...they weren't a group that he grew up hearing on the radio...but Ray nevertheless loved their music and it's interesting to point out that when Ray issued his first single in 1957, "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon", he was doing his vocal impression of Coasters lead singer, Billy Guy, but that's just my opinion. Ray has never officially stated that he was doing an impression...but I happen to think he was. "Poison Ivy", for The Coasters, was a gigantic hit for them in 1959. It was their third hit...following "Charlie Brown" and "Along Came Jones". By the way, Ray recorded a version of "Charlie Brown", "Searchin'", and other Coasters songs for 2012's Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. Historians say that while The Coasters were huge with rhythm and blues fans and their music was all over rhythm and blues radio stations, "Poison Ivy" put them into what historians call 'the mainstream' which I take it was their way of saying until "Poison Ivy" came along The Coasters weren't known outside of the rhythm and blues audience. 

Ray overdubs his own voice to make it sound like it's a group singing "Poison Ivy". It's a great rendition in my biased opinion. Here is Ray's audio recording of that song...

Ray Stevens: "Grandpa Voted Democrat" hits 2.5 million unique views...

Hello all!! I'm taking a look back at "Grandpa Voted Democrat", one of the classic political comedy songs Ray Stevens released in 2012. The song itself is from his political comedy CD, Spirit of '76, released a year earlier in 2011. The video hit YouTube just prior to the 2012 election and so when you watch the video you're going to see some topical imagery from that time period...screen caps from cable news channels...and other imagery on the minds of people during that election cycle. An unforeseen benefit to Ray's funny political videos is seeing public figures in entertainment and politics that have either gotten out of the spotlight or have since been voted out of office.

I took a look back at this particular music video back in May of this year. When I reported the numbers in May the video had 2,330,401 unique views. A couple weeks later in early June it had risen to 2,396,531. A quick math recap shows that from May 22, 2020 through August 17, 2020 the "Grandpa Voted Democrat" video had been accessed 181,029 times to bring it's overall total of unique views to 2,511,520 as of this writing!!

Ray Stevens and the "William Tell Overture"...

It's me once again!! As most of you long time fans of Ray Stevens are aware one of his musical influences was Spike Jones and the City Slickers. This band released numerous novelty songs throughout the 1940s and 1950s. The music was often played straight but comedy was layered over top of the music. Eventually the group began using household objects as well as instruments that were created for comical effect. Spike was actually the figure head of the group...the vocalists heard on his recordings were members of his band. Spike had several network radio programs throughout the '40s and he had a presence on television throughout the '50s, too. Some of Spike's vocalists were George Rock, Red Ingle, Doodles Weaver, Mickey Katz...for one recording Paul Frees did an impression of Peter Lorre on a recording titled "My Old Flame". Spike's comedy recordings featured heavy use of cowbells, gun shots, whistles, sirens, and other sound effects. Some of his recordings featured a vocalist singing a ballad, straight, but comical sound effects would be added at just the wrong time throughout.

In 2012 Ray issued his amazing box set, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. Ray recorded his versions of novelty songs that dated back to the early 1900s and running through the successive decades. Ray did versions of several Spike Jones classics for the 2012 box set. He tackled "My Old Flame", for example, and included a rendition of "All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth", "Cocktails for Two", "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", and "I Went To Your Wedding". In addition to those he also did his rendition of "William Tell Overture", a Spike Jones release which featured vocals by Doodles Weaver. The recording satirized a horse race and broadcaster Clem McCarthy. Ray uploaded his rendition of the "William Tell Overture" on YouTube not too long ago. I'd also like to add that Ray remained faithful to the original arrangements of the novelty songs he covered in the 2012 box set. Here now is Ray's rendition of the Spike Jones classic...



Ray's Spike Jones influence played a big role in his 1990 rendition of "Help Me Make It Through the Night". Ray begins the song as a ballad before being 'interrupted' and told the performance isn't up-tempo enough. Afterward we hear gun shots and the song starts over as an up-tempo sing-a-long with comical sound effects mixed in throughout the recording. Ray made a wildly popular music video of the song as I'm sure all of you are very familiar with...but the execution of the song's performance was a tribute to Spike Jones.

Ray Stevens: An Update on the Voter Fraud music video...

It's me once again!! I wasn't intending on composing a blog entry about the Ray Stevens music video, "Grandpa Voted Democrat", until later in the year as we get closer to the national election in November. However, news surfaced throughout yesterday regarding the Georgia primary and what's being described as the voter chaos that ensued as a result of new voting machines. The story isn't necessarily about voter fraud in the basic sense of the definition but it nevertheless plays into a lot of anxiety surrounding the voting process during a pandemic, the concept of mail-in ballots, and the reliability of accuracy heading into a Presidential election this coming November.

If you recall, back in November 2000, Al Gore held the country hostage with constant re-counts of the Florida vote due to chaos at polling places and voters not filling out their ballot correctly in a couple of notable counties. That particular State, in that particular year, stood between him and the White House...and so a re-count was understandable and I believe a re-count was required by Florida law due to the race being so razor thin close...but what become intolerable were the repeated calls for re-counts. It caused the Gore Campaign to appear as if they didn't trust the results because each subsequent re-count always shown George W. Bush the victor. Eventually the Secretary of the State of Florida ended the prolonged series of re-counts in early December by certifying that George W. Bush won the State (by as little as 537 votes) and by doing so it gave him enough Electoral votes to become President in 2000.

The Georgia voter chaos is reported on in this LINK.

In the meantime "Grandpa Voted Democrat" has continued to receive some unique view action on YouTube. In a blog entry I wrote last month (back on May 22nd) I reported that the video had 2,330,401 unique views. When I last visited YouTube the unique views for that video had risen to 2,396,531...a pickup of 66,130 in little less than a month.

Ray Stevens: Voter Fraud music video...

Hello all! The subject of mail-in ballots and voter fraud continue to periodically make headlines. There is an effort to play up the advantages of mail-in voting and downplay the pitfalls of mail-in voting...and it's all based on each politician's point of view regardless of party. Ray Stevens addressed the topic of voter fraud in his recording, "Grandpa Voted Democrat", which hit YouTube several days before the 2012 election. Those that downplay voter fraud often argue that cases of it are minuscule and rarely effect the outcome of elections while those that bring up voter fraud argue that you shouldn't have complacency when it comes to votes being counted from unregistered voters and showing indifference when it comes to mail-in ballots that are lost in the postal system. Those who favor mail-in voting for all do not want to hear about what they consider isolated, non-consequential issues of fraud and abuse.

There has long been absentee voting...often for members of the military and for those with over-whelming physical incapability that they're unable to show up in person at the polling place...but what this pandemic has created is an avenue to install mail-in voting on a permanent basis. Do you really think in next election cycle will be 'normal'? It'll more or less be mandated that voters mail-in their ballots...regardless of there not being any pandemic by that time. This is why it's dangerous when Government takes advantage of a crisis. In the aftermath they'll call it a 'new normal' rather than go back to the real normal.

Now, since the workforce is being asked to keep 6 feet apart from co-workers and when you're in line at a store you're to remain 6 feet apart...why in the world can't local polling places have a policy about remaining 6 feet away from the next voter or maybe have a sign on their window saying so many voters are allowed in at a time?? The idea of pushing mail-in voting for the entire country is ridiculous and, yes, a recipe for potential fraud and abuse. The people at the board of elections are, in effect, lazy if they don't want to try and figure out ways to have the polling places open on Election Day...less than 6 months from now. It shows me and it should show everyone that they just don't care...mail-in ballots and mail-in voting is going to be the 'new normal'. In the meantime...here's the Ray Stevens voter fraud music video from 2012...



I hadn't been keeping up with the unique view statistics of this video because it hit nearly 8 years ago but I know that it's gotten a whole new resurgence within the last several weeks based on how many times it's being posted on social media and being re-discovered. The total number of unique views as of this writing is 2,330,401.

Ray Stevens: His Political Comedy Videography...

Hello once more!! I frequent social media sites a lot and within the last several days I've been seeing a lot of video sharing of a certain Ray Stevens music video from 2012 called "Grandpa Voted Democrat". This is one of numerous political comedy videos released by Ray Stevens during what I refer to as his 'political phase' for lack of a better description. It started out of the blue in the final months of 2009 when a video single titled "We The People" hit YouTube and from there it took off like a rocket, as the saying goes. Ray found himself performing in a number of high profile political rallies and events throughout 2010...even appearing on several cable news television programs and talk radio programs.

He found himself back in Branson, Missouri performing a series of concerts at The Welk Theater on the strength of the political music videos. The concerts were broken in two halves in which the first half was a traditional concert filled with Ray's numerous serious and novelty recordings while the second half was strictly a political show where he performed a number of songs that gained their popularity through YouTube.

This videography lists the politically themed music videos, their release date, and unique view count rounded to the nearest hundred thousand or million depending on the level of unique views. In case you were wondering the letter 'K' stands for thousand and the letter 'M' stands for million. As an example: 2010's "Caribou Barbie", a music video about Sarah Palin, has received an estimated 648,000 unique views. 2014's "If You Like Your Plan" has received an estimated 454,000. I'm not posting exact numbers. I've highlighted in bold the music videos that have gotten more than a million unique views and italicized those with more than two million.

1. We The People; 12/11/2009  5.6 M
2. Caribou Barbie; 3/11/2010   648 K
3. Throw the Bums Out; 3/22/2010  1.3 M
4. Come to the U.S.A.; 5/13/2010  10 M
5. The Global Warming Song; 6/29/2010  1.2 M
6. God Save Arizona; 8/4/2010  1.1 M
7. Obama Budget Plan; 4/25/2011  5.2 M
8. Mr. President - Mr. President; 9/27/2011  3.5 M
9. Obama Nation; 7/23/2012  1.4 M
10. Grandpa Voted Democrat; 11/3/2012  2.2 M
11. If You Like Your Plan; 9/22/2014  454 K
12. Nero Fiddled; 10/10/2014  62 K
13. You Didn't Build That; 5/19/2015   401 K

As you can see by looking at the list of Ray Stevens YouTube political comedy music videos almost all of them have well over 100,000 unique views and several more have over 1,000,000. The only politically themed music video to not reach 100,000 or more is 2014's "Nero Fiddled". It's a moving and powerful music video. I'm sure some may have thought it too dramatic or heavy handed and that may have played a role in it's on-line performance...but it's hard to really tell because Ray emerged with "Dear America" a couple of years later. That recording wasn't politically based but it was just as powerful as "Nero Fiddled" and "God Save Arizona". "Dear America", by the way, sits with a little over 363,000 unique views as of this writing. It hit YouTube on September 6, 2016...a couple of months before the Presidential election of Donald Trump. I didn't include it in the list of political music videos because it's a patriotic song. A lot of people want to blend patriotism with their political beliefs but in my opinion those are two separate things.

Anyway, as you can see, I decided to embed "Nero Fiddled" in this blog entry. Ray appears with his back to the camera...and that may have been another reason this particular video clip didn't break loose like the others did.



Now, then, in a much more lighter mood...here's the video clip that's found new life on social media...2012's "Grandpa Voted Democrat"...

Ray Stevens and Friend sing "Tim-Tay-Shun"...

Me and the 9-CD Box Set; 2012

Hello all...a couple of months ago I wrote a blog entry centering on the Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music and how February 2020 marked the 8th anniversary since it's release. Ray usually, but not always, but usually releases new music exclusively through his webpage before it gets a wider release on other on-line stores. The promotional effort that took place for this 9-CD box set back in 2012 was impressive. In addition to releasing several on-line commercials for the box set he appeared in a documentary style video showing him inside the recording studio working on this project. Ray also appeared on local morning television news programs which were uploaded on-line for a national audience to see. In addition to the video content the project also received a lot of publicity through blog sites and interviews from Ray discussing his reason for wanting to do his versions of the greatest comedy and novelty songs of all time. There's a wealth of recordings on the 9-CD box set and eventually there was a sampler CD released containing 12 of the recordings from the box set. Among the 12 songs on the sampler were Ray's versions of two classic novelty hits from the 1940s: "Cigareetes, Whuskey, and Wild, Wild, Women" and "Tim-Tay-Shun". In the case of the former it was originally recorded by Red Ingle in the aftermath of the massive success of 1947's "Tim-Tay-Shun". Red's single became a word of mouth hit but was banned from radio stations. Red, a comical performer with a professional association with Spike Jones, had previously released a parody of the pop song, "Temptation", and asked Jo Stafford to perform it as a duet. She is credited as Cinderella G. Stump on the recording. The song dates back to the early '30s with Bing Crosby being the first recording artist to release it to the public. Perry Como had a hit with it in 1945. Red's comical parody hit number one in 1947 and more hits followed, including the non-charting "Cigarettes, Whuskey, and Wild, Wild Women". His singles were credited as Red Ingle and the Natural Seven. Ray Stevens and Lori Stegner recorded it as a duet for the Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The pair performed it only once on an episode of CabaRay Nashville. Lori, as you can see, is in character as Cinderella G. Stump. Ray gives a lot of facial expressions throughout his performance...the screen cap for the YouTube video clip provides us one of those expressions. Lori is the lead vocalist in the duet.

Me and the Sampler; 2019

I've had the Encyclopedia Sampler CD for a number of years but I never took a photo of myself promoting it until last year. I've never taken a recent photo of myself with the 9-CD box set because of the difficulty in attempting to get an adequate photo. The images that emerge from the web camera on this lap top is a bit more fuzzy/blurry...not like the web camera I used to have which sat perched atop my computer monitor back when I had a desktop model computer. A lot of the songs on this sampler CD were songs that Ray was performing when he made his guest appearances on local news programs and elsewhere. For example he performed "Get a Job" and "The Preacher and the Bear" on an episode of Larry's Country Diner. Although not on the sampler, Ray was performing "Dry Bones" a lot. That song and "The Preacher and the Bear" would later appear on a couple of Ray's gospel CDs. The box set gave Ray the opportunity to speak of his love for the music of The Coasters. He often singles the group out whenever he speaks of his musical influences and he's recorded songs in the past that were originally recorded by The Coasters...but he got to expand on his love of their music on the 9-CD box set with his recordings of "Poison Ivy", "Searchin'", "Western Movies"...also included on the 9-CD collection is Ray's version of "Love Potion Number Nine" which The Coasters recorded in the early '70s but the biggest hit version arrived a decade earlier when The Searchers hit the Top-10 with it in 1964...and prior to that The Clovers, a Rhythm and Blues group that Ray cites as an influence, had a hit with it in 1959.

Ray Stevens and Lori Stegner, "Tim-Tay-Shun"

Ray Stevens: The Encyclopedia...Eight Years Later...

It was right around this time eight years ago that Ray Stevens released his mammoth 9-CD collection, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The official release date happened to be February 28, 2012. As you can see in the photo on the left I purchased my copy of the collection. In various interviews leading up to the release and in follow-up interviews after it became available Ray remarked that he worked on the project for two years. The box set contains Ray's versions of the most memorable novelty and comedy songs of all-time...each song appears in alphabetical order on 8 compact discs. A 9th CD is referred to as a bonus collection featuring songs pulled from Ray's contemporary projects. Now, given that Ray Stevens is himself a legendary performer of novelty songs, it makes sense that throughout the first 8 discs there are selections that Ray previously recorded for himself along side his versions of other artist's novelty songs. There are 12 songs on each disc. On Disc Two, for example, the song titles cover letters C through G. As you can see I noted which recording artist originally did the song...however, I should be more specific...it's a notation on the recording artist that made the song popular...and not necessarily a reflection on who originally recorded it. I should have used the phrase 'made popular by' instead of 'originally recorded by'...but anyway, here's the track list on disc two:

1. Chug a Lug (originally recorded by Roger Miller)
2. Cigareetes, Whusky, and Wild, Wild Women (originally recorded by Sons of the Pioneers)
3. Cocktails for Two (originally recorded by Spike Jones)
4. Convoy (originally recorded by C.W. McCall)
5. Dang Me (originally recorded by Roger Miller)
6. Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavor (originally recorded by Lonnie Donegan)
7. The Dooright Family (originally recorded by Ray Stevens, 1980)
8. Downtown Poker Club (originally recorded by Phil Harris)
9. Dropkick Me, Jesus (originally recorded by Bobby Bare)
10. Dry Bones (origins date back to 1928)
11. Freddie Feelgood (originally recorded by Ray Stevens, 1966)
12. Get a Job (originally recorded by The Silhouettes)

When the project was released there was a lot of confusion surrounding the content...on-line commentary on social media sites of the time period wondered if this was a collection of recordings that Ray gathered up of other performers and was spotlighting the original hit songs. A remark made on a CD review site 'warned' consumers that this is a collection of Ray Stevens recordings and not the originals made popular by the likes of Spike Jones, Roger Miller, The Big Bopper, etc. That reviewer was unhappy that Ray didn't feature the actual recordings of those songs but instead sang his own versions. Yes, as you can tell, that reviewer completely missed the point of this project altogether. That sort of confusion was short-lived thanks to the advertising of the project on social media outlets. One of the several video clips advertising the box set goes into detail about the making of the project and there's heavy emphasis placed on the fact that the songs on the box set are recordings by Ray Stevens and were done as a tribute to the greatest novelty songs of all time.

The video hosting site, YouTube, was the avenue upon which Ray uploaded the advertising for the 9-CD Encyclopedia. The video hosting site had been very beneficial to Ray and so when it came time to begin promoting the collection there were a series of commercials uploaded onto YouTube and then shared throughout the internet. The longest commercial ran 4 minutes and the shortest at 45 seconds. The shortest commercial was designed, specifically, to air on television stations even though there's a video clip that runs 1 minute, 33 seconds meant for television airing, too. Here's that particular video clip, with voice over by Charlie Chase, advertising the collection:



One thing you have to keep in mind is that the above advertisement is from 2012 and it features the original sales price which I found incredibly reasonable with everything you'll be getting: 9 CDs and a thick booklet filled with all kinds of information and personal commentary from Ray on the songs he decided to record for the project. The longer commercial, at 4 minutes, is also from 2012 and it features Ray's longtime songwriting associate, Buddy Kalb, acting as host/emcee:



In this video clip from February 27, 2012 it shows footage of Ray inside the studio, at the piano, as he gives a brief synopsis of why he decided to take on the task of recording his versions of classic novelty songs:



Now, then...fast forward eight years later and we're here on February 23, 2020. The price of this 9-CD novelty fest has dropped...but something like that is to have been expected...the older something becomes the lesser the sales price (unless the item offered has become a rarity then it gets more expensive as time passes). Although I think the original sales price was reasonable it's being sold for a lot less nowadays. On December 7, 2019 the video clip featuring Charlie Chase's voice-over from 2012 was re-uploaded onto YouTube but with a reflection on the new sales price. In addition to the lower sales price it also includes free shipping and handling, a rarity for practically anything in mail order. If you don't have this collection then you should definitely think about purchasing it. In my opinion I feel all fans of Ray Stevens should own this but that's just my opinion.

Ray Stevens and his Christmas music...

Yes, it's me once again!! I posted an earlier Christmas day blog entry filled with several YouTube clips from Ray Stevens and here I am creating a new blog entry to spotlight the audio of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", a Christmas standard that Ray Stevens recorded in 2009. The song is part of his second Christmas album, Ray Stevens Christmas. I've heard a lot of versions of that song but I'd never heard it performed in the manner in which Ray Stevens delivered it...with a generous helping of echo and vocal over-dubs in addition to the prominent presence of the saxophone. The 2009 Christmas CD was no laughing matter...a completely serious album from beginning to end. The music tilted toward jazz/big-band. You can purchase the Mp3 by clicking this LINK. It's a wonderful collection of Christmas songs done in Ray's own style.

The album was not heavily promoted during Christmas 2009 due to other recordings from Ray over-shadowing it. Check the blog archives in November/December 2009 and the entirety of 2010 for what was going on in his career. The album wasn't promoted in 2011, either...but eventually Ray made a music video in 2012 for a song from this album, his Drifters-inspired version of "White Christmas". This was the year he also released music videos for "Redneck Christmas", "Merry Christmas", and his take on the stuttering version of "Blue Christmas"...a novelty single that had been an annual staple on AM and FM radio stations for a number of years at Christmas time. The stuttering rendition had originally been recorded by a fictional group billed as Seymour Swine and the Squealers. Ray had recorded a serious version of "Blue Christmas" for the 2009 CD...but when he decided to record his version of Seymour Swine's rendition in 2012 Ray issued it as a CD single accompanied with the serious rendition...as well as it's debut as a music video on YouTube.

The latest upload...the audio clip of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"...



This audio was uploaded back on December 18th and it's for his clever "Greatest Little Christmas Ever Wuz". A little bit of history surrounding this song is that Ray had originally written and recorded it for a various artists compilation album MCA released in 1985 called Tennessee Christmas. Ray re-recorded the song in 1997 for his first Christmas album, Christmas Through a Different Window. The 1985 recording of the song occasionally popped up on AM radio stations during Christmas season when I was a kid and teenager but I'd never owned a copy of it. I'd always remembered bits and pieces of it, though. Anyway, once it became available on his 1997 Christmas album I felt a sense of euphoria...at long last I had that song in my possession!! It's a very clever song...blending catchphrases and traditions of every major holiday and rolling them up into one. If you don't find yourself grinning or feeling happy when listening to this song then you've got ice in your veins and perhaps resemble the Grinch or Ebeneezer Scrooge when looking in the mirror.

Ray Stevens and the Halloween Harmonies...

Hello again...in my previous blog entry I spotlighted the upcoming Christmas season of concerts at the Ray Stevens' CabaRay showroom beginning November 1st. However, we don't want to forget about Halloween this coming October 31st. I sometimes post a blog entry each year spotlighting the novelty songs Ray has recorded with a Halloween theme...they're the same songs, of course, because to date he hasn't recorded any new songs with a Halloween theme...but in order to prevent my blog entries surrounding his Halloween songs from being buried in the archives I sometimes resurrect the concept this time each year. Oh I could easily instruct readers of this blog to search the archives on the right hand side of the screen for the month of October in each previous year but that could be a bit time consuming and so I bring back the topic with, hopefully, a different take or angle each time.

On the YouTube front Ray's been issuing audio tracks and performances from his CabaRay Nashville television series of Halloween themed songs from his career. The first of these happened to be a performance from his television series of "Spiders and Snakes". Now, for those very familiar with the song, you'll know that is has nothing to do with Halloween but the title of the song lends itself to creatures you might find slithering and crawling around in any number of deep, dark dungeons and basements. The song was a huge hit for Jim Stafford but Ray recorded a version of the song in 2012 for his 9-CD comical bonanza, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. Ray performed the song on an episode of CabaRay Nashville and here's the performance...



Elsewhere on that 2012 project are Ray's versions of several other novelty songs that have long since been identified with the Halloween season: "The Purple People Eater" (originally recorded by Sheb Wooley in 1958), "The Witch Doctor" (originally recorded as David Seville, alias of Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., in 1958), "Monster Mash" (originally recorded by Bobby 'Boris' Pickett in 1962), and "Haunted House" (originally recorded by Jumpin' Gene Simmons in 1964). A bit more obscure is Ray's take on "Transfusion"...itself not explicitly a song dealing with monsters and ghouls but, in my mind at least, it's title conjures up imagery of mad scientists. That particular novelty song was originally a hit in 1956 by Nervous Norvus, a pseudonym for Jimmy Drake. Ray uploaded an audio track of his 2012 recording of "Haunted House". Ray's version features vocal effects not heard in the original from Jumpin' Gene Simmons as well as the prominent vocal presence of Ray's female harmony singers (a big part of his sound) but keep in mind this is an audio track and not a music video...



Ray unleashed a couple of Halloween-type novelty singles in 1965. One of those happened to be titled "Rockin' Teenage Mummies". The novelty was written by Ray and produced by Shelby Singleton and Jerry Kennedy. Bill Lowery was the publisher and it was issued on Mercury Records. Recently the audio was uploaded onto YouTube and I've embedded it below. You can hear the profound influence The Coasters had on his earlier novelty songs...he does an impeccable vocal impression of Billy Guy, the lead singer of The Coasters, in the 1960 novelty single, "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon"; you'll hear Ray using a Billy Guy vocalization throughout most of that song. The scat-singing from Ray heard in "Rockin' Teenage Mummies" has the gravelly vocal cadence associated with Coasters classics like "Searchin'" and "Poison Ivy".



The second Halloween-type song from Ray Stevens in 1965, also on Mercury Records, and written by Ray...produced by Shelby Singleton and Jerry Kennedy...and published by Bill Lowery...was "Mr. Baker the Undertaker". This novelty was far less jaunty, if that's the proper description, of "Rockin' Teenage Mummies". The mummies, in my opinion, was satirical but you'll have to dig for examples of it underneath the layers of frenetic vocalization and uptempo delivery. The story about Mr. Baker, on the other hand, maintains the same uptempo delivery but Ray is far less frenetic vocally and the lyrics create a scene of an undertaker and his assistant, an Owl named Al, cheerfully awaiting the next mistake from the hospital. You can hear the audio of the song on a site called 45cat which features an embed originating from YouTube. I'm not embedding the clip due to it not being officially uploaded from Ray but I'll share a link to the 45cat website with the embedded audio clip. The site also contains audio of the novelty song's B-side, too. You can visit the site by clicking HERE.

One of the later recordings from Ray, from 1988, tackles the Halloween concept head on...a bluesy novelty titled "The Booger Man". Ray sings about a fictional monster that could put the classic movie monsters to shame...by song's end the focus shifts to Ray and a nameless woman parked near the woods. Ray uses the story of the previously unseen monster to coax the woman into getting a bit more intimate and cozy...suggesting that he hears something out there and she better slide closer...proclaiming the monster's now sitting on top of the car. A couple of years later, in 1990, Ray released "Sittin' Up with the Dead". This song, also adopted as a Halloween novelty, is about an archaic southern custom of keeping the recently departed company until an undertaker/funeral director is able to get to the residence to retrieve the deceased. A very famous music video from Ray was released on the song in 1990 and it's available for viewing on YouTube (it's received more than two million unique views since being uploaded). It was part of Ray's Multi-Platinum 1992 VHS, Comedy Video Classics, as well. I'm going to embed a performance of the song from CabaRay Nashville, however. The reason being is that it's a song that Ray rarely ever performed on television or even in concerts, even though it was made into a very popular music video, but he performed it once on his television series and here it is...

Ray Stevens: The Road to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Part Twenty-Five...

Hello all...we're still in 2010 as I begin this installment of the mini-blog series. This was a year filled with so much activity it's near impossible to recount everything that was happening as Ray's political comedy videos were taking him all over the place. On tax day as it's called (April 15th) he appeared at a large Tea Party event organized by Freedomworks. The event lasted all day but Ray was part of the evening line-up and performed "If Ten Percent is Good Enough for Jesus". This particular song received new life, as the saying goes, during this political era of his music career. The song had previously been recorded by Ray nearly 20 years earlier in 1993...and it was a fan favorite then but in 2010 it took on whole new life thanks to it's exposure at Tea Party events such as the one Freedomworks organized in 2010. The song was part of the 22 track We The People album released that year. It reached the Billboard Country Album chart...his first album to appear on this chart since 2002's Osama Yo' Mama. The album also appeared on the Billboard Top Comedy Album chart...a secondary chart that, as you could imagine, ranks comical releases. It hit the Top-5 on this chart. The driving force behind the successful YouTube music videos were the public, in general, viewing them and sharing them on social media sites. A unique view is best described as the first viewing of a video from a computer, smart phone, or any other kind of on-line device. The tracking used to total the number of unique views for a YouTube video doesn't count additional views from the same device. The reason for that is obvious...multiple plays from the same on-line device would no doubt skew the numbers...and so the policy of counting one view per device keeps things on the level and doesn't allow for artificial view counts.

The music video that broke through and pushed Ray's visibility into the on-line stratosphere (if there's even such a place) is "Come to the U.S.A.". On the surface the song may cause a listener to think that Ray is inviting an onslaught of illegal immigrants to set their sights on the United States but in truth the song uses sarcasm and points out how illegal immigration is dealt with in other countries whereas the United States Federal Government more or less knows about the situation but often turns their collective eye away. A lot of the reason is for labor reasons. Cheap labor...performing jobs that the average U.S. citizen wouldn't do for minimum wage or less...can be given to desperate illegal immigrants. It's exploitation, of course, but there's so many other things tied into it that it would take more blog entries to explain it all. If you're wanting a more detailed look at this music video and the subject matter visit the archives of this blog...go to the year 2010 and look for blog entries focused on "Come to the U.S.A." and you'll get my commentary and information from that time period. The video itself has obtained more than 10,000,000 unique views since it debuted on YouTube back in May of 2010. Along the same lines of cheap labor...but this time around focusing on America's jobs being sent to Mexico...is "Sucking Sound". This song had previously appeared on the non-political Hurricane CD but it's an example of one of those songs from Ray that, from time to time, takes on a topical subject matter and placed on a collection of lighthearted comedy songs. Ray does his vocal impression of Ross Perot in this recording...a song that he co-wrote with Buddy Kalb...and it's a perfect fit on the 2010 We The People album. Some of the songs on that album originally appeared on the Thank You album from the early 2000s: "Let's Roll", "Stand Up", and of course "Thank You".

Since we're in a topical vein and Ray's career had taken a political/topical/patriotic turn do you all remember the lawsuit filed against the Arizona State Government by the Federal Government? This surreal event in U.S. History began brewing in the latter half of 2009 and it reached a boiling point in 2010. The Governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, and several local police officers were stopping suspected illegals at the Arizona border. The Obama Administration stepped in and the Attorney General at the time, Eric Holder, filed lawsuits preventing the Arizona State Government from enforcing existing immigration laws. This entire controversy turned up in a very serious recording from Ray titled "God Save Arizona" which he co-wrote with Buddy Kalb. The music video, believe it or not, created some controversy with YouTube. It was uploaded in August of 2010 but was taken down without warning several days after it made it's debut...but it eventually returned to the video hosting site and has remained on-line ever since. If I recall correctly the video had fell victim to a lot of troll-induced flagging from those that didn't like the opinions expressed in the song and, as a precaution, YouTube took the video down for their own 'investigation' and they felt that it didn't violate any of their 'rules' and it returned to the video hosting site. The video, like all of Ray's previous politically themed videos, was an immediate social-media hit and in September the video was given exposure on an episode of Bill O'Reilly's television series on Fox News Channel.

In the winter of 2010 publicity eventually surfaced surrounding Ray's Christmas CD from 2009. The project had gotten overlooked due to the enormous launch of "We The People" on the internet and everything else that came along in 2010. The holiday album, as mentioned in my previous blog entry, features serious Christmas songs...most of them done with new arrangements...while some remain faithful to the traditional arrangements. In this collection you'll get Ray's versions of "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow", "Jingle Bells", "Winter Wonderland", an original titled "Deck The Halls with Teardrops", plus his take on "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" plus more. In November 2010 onto YouTube arrived the music video of "Nightmare Before Christmas" from his comical Christmas album thirteen years earlier.

The political overtones in his career remained intact in 2011 as he was one of the guests at CPAC in February. The acronym stands for Conservative Political Action Conference. He performed a couple of songs during his CPAC segment: "Mr. President, Mr. President" and "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore". The latter deals with the security measures in place from the TSA while the former features Ray as a reporter asking Obama a series of questions with predictably humorous answers. A couple of months later a brand new video emerged, "Obama Budget Plan", in April. This song/video was centered around the Federal Government's spending habits...debt and deficit were some of the topics headlining nationally and this song told the story of a married couple that decide to print their own money, spend more and more, but have no care or concern because they can simply print more money just like the Federal Government does. The video has a twist ending...visually...evoking sentiments that I'm sure are held by many when it comes to their wishes for many members of Congress.

2011

The music video for "Mr. President, Mr. President", the song he debuted at his CPAC appearance in February, hit YouTube in September 2011. The music video uses images of Obama during a press conference, making it appear as if he's listening to the questions being asked by Ray, whose dressed in traditional newspaper journalist attire...with pen in hand...it's a very funny song and video but the critics were plenty. Some criticized the old-fashioned look of how Ray portrayed the reporter...taking swipes at Ray for not being 'current' and having the reporter wireless or sporting some sort of technological device...rather than appearing as if he's from the 1940s or 1950s. The politically charged critics, of course, criticized the song simply on the grounds of it putting Obama in a humorous light. This run of political and topical music videos ultimately led to the release of Spirit of '76, an 11 track album, which features the audio recordings of several songs previously released in music video format on YouTube: "God Save Arizona", "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore", "Obama Budget Plan", and a couple of songs that would eventually become music videos after the release of the CD: "Mr. President, Mr. President" and more than a year later, "Grandpa Voted Democrat". There are several other songs on the 2011 album that I thought would have been perfect for music video adaptation: "Cap'n Trade the Pirate" is hysterical and it could have easily played into the imagery depicted in the music video for "The Pirate Song" more than a decade earlier. I always envisioned "New Normal" as a music video presented on intentionally grainy film and given a classic country music 'look'...the way Ray sings the title phrase had me thinking of Hank Williams and in my mind I invented a possible direction of staging a music video and have it look as if it's from the 1950s. The We The People album from 2010 featured a couple of songs that I think could have been turned into funny music videos but weren't: "Solar Powered Song" and "We Are the Government".

Clyde Records, in November 2011, issued the DVD collection Internet Video Hits. This release was designed to provide a collection for the music videos that Ray had issued on the internet over the last year and a half. Ray, when speaking of the release, mentioned that it's been issued mainly for those that are older and perhaps do not have any interest of being on the internet but are fans of his nevertheless...and so this DVD would provide the non-internet fan base the chance of seeing the on-line music videos in one collection. The DVD seen a wider release in February of 2012. The DVD features 9 political music videos with a bonus music video dealing with political correctness, "The Nightmare Before Christmas", added to round out the total.

Throughout most of Ray's television appearances on cable news programs and on talk-radio in the aftermath of "We The People" he often mentioned a project he was working on in which he would pay tribute to novelty songs of all time periods and music formats. The project surfaced in February of 2012 as The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The project took two years, according to Ray's interviews as well as the on-line YouTube advertisements, and it's a massive collection of songs. It's a 9-CD box set complete with an extensive booklet with liner notes, commentary, and stories behind the songs Ray chose to record for the collection. When the project was still in production there were some fans that thought Ray would be presenting a collection of novelty songs recorded by other artists...they didn't realize that Ray himself would be performing the songs. So, in this 9-CD collection, we have Ray's versions of novelty classics such as "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose it's Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?", "Little Brown Jug", "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini", "Three Little Fishes", "Open the Door, Richard", "Mairzy Doats", "Haunted House", "Poison Ivy", "Chug-a-Lug", and dozens of others. Ray actively promoted the 9-CD project and performed songs from the collection on several television programs. The collection featured songs from his own career, too, given that Ray is one of the legendary performers of novelty/comedy songs. Ray's cover of a Toby Keith single, "I Wanna Talk About Me", is on this 9-CD collection. Ray remarked that it comes across as a novelty song to him and so he decided to do his version of the song for this collection.

In the midst of the publicity for the 9-CD box set, though, came a book from Ray titled Let's Get Political. The book features lyrics for the songs found in We The People and Spirit of '76 as well as his remarks and opinions of all the songs and his thoughts surrounding topical issues of the day. It was sold through his website's store. It's a soft-cover book and in digest form...meaning that it's comparable in size to an issue of Farmer's Almanac, for example. In July 2012 a music video for "Obama Nation", a song from Ray's 2010 We The People album, hit YouTube.

In November 2012 "Grandpa Voted Democrat" from 2011's Spirit of '76 hit YouTube. The song deals with voter fraud...a very real concern in any election but it was one of the headlining concerns of the American voting process in a series of recent election cycles both local and national. Now, as history shows, Obama won re-election in November 2012 but the Republicans gained even more control in Congress and the Senate...it built on that party's momentum from 2010.

In my previous installment I made mention of the six week run of concerts Ray performed at The Welk Resort in Branson, Missouri during the fall months of 2010 at the peak of his involvement with political humor. The concerts were split in two segments: The first segment was his traditional concert performance featuring his classic hits like "The Streak", "It's Me Again, Margaret", "Gitarzan", and others while the second segment was political. Some of his performances at this run of concerts eventually found their way onto DVD. Ray issued Such a Night: 50 Years of Hits and Hilarity on Stage...LIVE! as well as a secondary DVD called Patriots and Politics. The DVDs were released on Clyde Records in 2012 but the concert footage was taped in October 2010. I had never seen Ray perform any of the politically themed songs in concert and so the secondary DVD was my chance of seeing him perform "We The People" and "Come to the U.S.A." in a concert setting. I had seen him perform "Safe at Home", though, and "Thank You", in concert. The former is actually nostalgia-laced without a trace of politics at all but it speaks to America's core values and therefore it's categorized as a patriotic song. It had actually originated in 2000 on a studio album Ray issued that year called Ear Candy...but it had long since become part of his concert set-list and ever since 2010 it's been something of a mainstay in his concert performances given the response from the audiences. Ray closed out 2012 in a festive mood...releasing several Christmas music videos on YouTube. "White Christmas" is performed much in the same manner as The Drifters, one of Ray's favorite Rhythm and Blues groups. "Redneck Christmas", at long last, is presented in music video form...even though it's lyrics paint a clear picture already it's fun to actually see a music video of that particular song brought to life. "Blue Christmas" is performed as Porky Pig...which is based on a novelty song from a number of years earlier from a fictional group called Seymour Swine and the Squealers. Ray performs most of the song in a stuttering, stammering fashion before concluding the song straight. The song was issued as a single in 2012 as it's not part of his 1997 or 2009 Christmas albums but it was also made into a music video. A social commentary release titled "Merry Christmas" hit YouTube in December 2012 as well. This, from the pen of Ray Stevens, takes on the politically correct advocates head on and their War on Christmas. Ray proudly voices his right to say 'Merry Christmas' rather than Happy Holidays or Season's Greetings. This was the fourth Christmas music video in the bonanza of music videos that Ray issued in December of 2012 and it was the most somber of the bunch...which goes without saying.

Now, let's see...2010, 2011, and 2012...my oh my how hectic and full of surprises those years provided for Ray Stevens on his road to the Country Music Hall of Fame. In a career laced with unpredictability those three years were about as unpredictable as you could get...his career was as eclectic as ever...being stretched in many different directions and having his hands in several more projects yet to see release as 2012 came to a close. In my next installment I'll take a look at 2013 and 2014...maybe also part of 2015. Ray's main focal point in this era, post-political humor, was a return to more conventional, traditional forms of music expression...but he didn't completely silence himself on matters of politics though...and he issued a much anticipated (from this fan's point of view) career look-back in print form...not necessarily an autobiography...more of a memoir...and more about that in my next installment in Ray Stevens road to the Country Music Hall of Fame!