Ray Stevens: The Christmas Time of the Year

Hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! The Christmas season at the CabaRay showroom wrapped up last weekend and the showroom will be closed until December 26th. There are two more concerts scheduled to wrap up 2023. Those additional concerts from Ray Stevens will take place on December 29th and December 30th. There won't be a New Year's Eve show and I'm sure most of you may have some kind of idea of why. In case you're not aware it was on New Year's Eve (December 31, 2021) that Ray's wife of 60 years passed away from cancer. Although I've not been able to find any information online to confirm my opinion, and it's just my opinion, I'd say that in tribute to her he made the decision to forgo future New Year's Eve concerts and so there wasn't one, obviously, in 2021 and there wasn't one in 2022 and there isn't going to be one in 2023. In 2024 Ray will have the Indie Country Showdown scheduled to take place at his CabaRay on select dates early next year. Ray's first concert of 2024 at the CabaRay will be early in March. If you're planning on attending any Ray Stevens concerts at the CabaRay in 2024 the tickets are on sale. 

It's the Christmas time of the year...we're two days from the holiday. Have you spotted Santa Claus anywhere? If so, was he watching you? Maybe you'll see Santa Sunday night...and as for this music video nearly 6 million have seen it on YouTube over the course of the last 14 years. It was uploaded in 2009 for those that don't want to do the math. 

Ray's first ever music video just happened to be his 1985 rendition of "Santa Claus is Watching You". The song, which Ray originally recorded and wrote in 1962, received an almost entirely different set of lyrics. Actually, 99 percent of the lyrics were re-written in the 1985 rendition with the exception of the song's title and hook lines such as "he's everywhere! he's everywhere!" and the exaggerated list of Santa's reindeer. The 1985 rendition has a love song overall theme whereas the 1962 recording was strictly aimed at children. 

Do you own any of the Ray Stevens Christmas albums? In this day and age it may sound old fashioned to ask such a thing when any one of us can easily visit YouTube, for example, and search for songs and albums and immediately have the ability to listen. So, then, do any of you have any of Ray's Christmas songs or albums in your audio library? If you do are they the comedy Christmas songs or do you also have the non-comical Christmas songs in your audio library, too? To date he's recorded three Christmas albums. 

1. Christmas Through a Different Window; 1997 (all comedy)

2. Ray Stevens Christmas; 2009 (non-comedy)

3. Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me; 2016 (comedy and non-comedy)

"Bad Little Boy", which you'll see/hear in the video below, comes from the 1997 Christmas album. This performance is from The Statler Brothers Show. In the late 1990s Ray had a Christmas concert series at Opryland's Acuff Theater and as you all could imagine it was tied to the 1997 album. If you were listeners of the Grand Ole Opry's radio programs at that point in time you may remember that Ray's Christmas concerts were promoted on-air. How? Well, his series acted as a sponsor of several Opry segments. You would've heard one of the Opry announcers say something like "...and this portion of the Opry is presented by the Ray Stevens Christmas Show at the Acuff Theater in Opryland..." followed by more information about his concerts. 

Wasn't that fun? Now, getting back to the Christmas albums... the first Christmas album features original songs. The second Christmas album contains an original, "Deck The Halls with Teardrops", with the remainder of the album being his arrangements of Christmas standards. On the third Christmas album it features a couple of original songs, some Christmas comedy songs, and some Christmas standards. The original songs, "Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me" and "Claws (A Cat's Letter to Santa)", appear on the third Christmas album but it also includes his rendition of Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You", his rendition of the Spike Jones classic, "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth", and "Merry Christmas", a song that until the 2016 Christmas album came along was only available as an audio track online and in music video format. 

The music video of "Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me" has gotten just a little under half a million unique views on YouTube, so far. However, I'm sharing his performance of the song from his TV show, CabaRay Nashville. All of you fans of Ray Stevens have a Merry Christmas. I'm sure I'll make another post before the end of the year. I typically post a look ahead to the New Year blog entry at some point. 

Ray Stevens: Early '90's "Santa Claus is Watching You" performance...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!!! I don't know if too many of you recall seeing Ray perform "Santa Claus is Watching You" on The Family Channel in the early 1990s or not. I remember watching it on TV the night it aired. It was a television special starring various recording artists synonymous with Branson, Missouri. Ray was very synonymous with Branson in that time period...he was one of the Top-10 attractions during his 3 season stay (1991, 1992, 1993). If you look closely he was probably among the Top-3. Ray performs "Santa Claus is Watching You" with the added assistance of Yakov Smirnoff and Janice Copeland. Ray's Branson concerts featured Janice Copeland as a comical co-star and as a featured vocalist. If you have Ray's VHS titled 'More Ray Stevens Live!' you'll see her as a serious vocalist but then you'll see her as a comical alter ego, Beulah. She was also in the 'Ray Stevens Live!' VHS, too. You're going to love seeing this early 1990's performance and if you remember that era in Ray's career it'll immediately send you into a time warp. Country Road TV uploaded this early 1990's television performance. 

Ray Stevens: CabaRay Christmas Concerts 2023

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! As many of you may know it's Christmas season at the Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom. The Christmas concerts began this past Saturday (November 25th) and they'll continue through December 30th. Also, as a reminder, a Thursday night concert has been added in addition to the usual Saturday night concert. November 25th and this coming Thursday, November 30th, are the first CabaRay Christmas concerts of the 2023 season. As we look ahead to the upcoming concert dates make sure to make note of these for the month of December:

December 2nd, 7th, 9th, 14th, and 16th will be the heaviest of the Christmas concerts leading up to the holiday. Ray will then take a break to celebrate Christmas with his family and will return for concerts on December 29th and December 30th. I don't know if those two concerts (the 29th being a Friday) will be a full Christmas show or if it'll be a regular concert with a few Christmas songs sprinkled throughout. In years past he kept the Christmas spirit for the entire month of December and so it's possible the concerts on the 29th and 30th will be Christmas dominated, too.

How many of you have seen Ray's music video, "Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me"? I'm sure most of you have seen it and watched it many times over the years. Did you know that it's nearing half a million unique views on YouTube? It was uploaded back on November 16, 2016 and as of this writing it's received 455,622 unique views. Could it push into the 500,000 level by the end of the year? It's anyone's guess but if you want to see it reach that level by year's end then you'll need to share the video with those who haven't watched the video yet.   

Ray Stevens: YouTube Christmas Playlist...

Hello all Ray Stevens fans!! We're a few days from Christmas 2022 and for a lot of us we're going to be under a sub-arctic deep freeze for several days beginning early Friday morning. Wind chill readings will reach something like -30 and so it's not sure what's to come in the days ahead. Some people are getting blizzard/white-out conditions while others will get light snow (by comparison) aided by the sub-zero wind chills. Earlier this evening Ray Stevens shared his YouTube playlist of Christmas songs. The playlist contains 46 publicly available songs and Christmas-themed performances but there are 14 videos not available. My guess is those particular videos were once part of the playlist but weren't watched/shared as much and therefore become private/hidden. The playlist is a combination of music video productions and live performances from his CabaRay Nashville television series. There are various renditions of "Santa Claus is Watching You" in the playlist...including an audio of the 1962 recording, a live performance from the 1980's on Nashville Now, the 1985 music video, and a performance on CabaRay Nashville. Although Ray recorded an album of comical, funny Christmas songs he also recorded an album of traditional, serious Christmas songs plus an album of both funny and serious Christmas songs. The album titles are Ray Stevens Christmas Through a Different Window; Ray Stevens Christmas; and the third is titled Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me. To view the YouTube playlist click HERE.

This particular Christmas album features 10 recordings. The entire album is great but some of the songs I'm highlighting will be among your best of the best I'm sure. First off there's the title track, "Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me". Ray made this into a playful music video...complete with stuffed animals...and it's one of the few original Christmas songs to come out of Nashville in decades. Jeff Bates and a disc jockey by the name of John Ritter (not to be confused with the late actor) wrote the song. Ray performed it on his CabaRay Nashville television series, actually, before the song was released on CD. Ray follows this serious recording... yes, in spite of the amusing looking video, it's still a serious recording... Ray follows it with 6 consecutive Christmas songs that range from whimsical to hilarious: first off there's the back-to-back recordings of traditional Christmas songs - "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and "Frosty the Snowman". We then have "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" a recording which had previously appeared on Ray's 2012 9-CD box set, Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. We next have Ray and his marvelous cover of "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" which also comes from the 2012 9-CD box set. Track 6 is the original, "Claws (A Cat's Letter to Santa)". It's from the pen of Taylor Craven and Tommy Moore. Track 7 is Ray's outstanding rendition of "All I Want For Christmas is You"... the same song written and popularized by pop singer Mariah Carey. If you're wanting to hear a different rendition of the song... done completely serious but in the Ray Stevens type of style... look for the embed of the audio track at the end of this blog entry!

The final three songs on the 2016 CD are all originals, too. "Merry Christmas" is a statement on political correctness and how it's perfectly fine to publicly say "Merry Christmas" in addition to, or instead of, the generic Happy Holidays or Season's Greetings. The song had become a hit on Ray's YouTube channel prior to it being released on CD. "Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day" is a song from the 1960s that Brenda Lee had previously recorded. She released her recording of it in 1964. Ray's music arrangement compliments the lyrical sorrow. The album's closer is a song Ray had written in the early 1960s and Perry Como, of all people, ended up recording it... the spiritually themed "Christmas Bells in the Steeple". Now, then, are you all ready for Ray's fabulous rendition of "All I Want for Christmas is You"??? Here it is...

Ray Stevens: Christmas at the CabaRay 2022...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! As you can see this blog entry is written in red because it's the first Christmas themed blog entry of the season. I don't make it a point to write all of my blog entries during Christmas season with Christmas colors but I decided to do so today. Later this evening is the first Thursday night concert at the CabaRay and it is also the first Christmas themed concert. Each concert until December 17th will be a Christmas show. As mentioned in a previous blog entry the November concerts at the CabaRay will take place on the 10th, 12th, 17th, 19th, and the 26th. Later this month I'll be posting a blog entry spotlighting the CabaRay concerts for next month. There won't be a concert on the 24th because that's Thanksgiving. This LINK to the CabaRay will tell you all about the concerts and how to purchase tickets and there are numerous detailed photos to browse through in case you've never been to the CabaRay in person. There are several photos that circulate online...those would be called publicity photos but the CabaRay webpage has even more photos and information about Ray's showroom located on the west side of Nashville. The showroom opened to the public in January 2018. The video promo below is for the 2021 Christmas concerts at the CabaRay. Now, since the website and telephone information hasn't changed, this 2021 video promo is being used to promote the 2022 Christmas concerts, too. 

When Ray performs his concert on the 26th it'll be four days after his induction into the Musicians Hall of Fame. That induction takes place on November 22nd. If video or photo from the ceremony makes it's way onto the internet I'll be sharing that in this blog. 

There still hasn't been any video surface of Ray's appearance on Larry's Country Diner. An audio surfaced yesterday of him singing "The Gambler and the Octopus"...so, this means that Ray sang at least four songs during his appearance: "The Gambler and the Octopus", "Where Are All the 12 Year Old's?", "Cup Holder", and "When Bubba Changed His Name to Charlene". If you read a previous blog entry from a few days ago you'll know that my DVR failed to record Ray's episode of Larry's Country Diner and so I have no specific information to blog about when it comes to that episode other than what I pick up from the internet and from what some other fans of Ray had to say about the episode. Meanwhile, don't forget to click the link above or watch the video promo of Christmas at the CabaRay 2022. 

Ray Stevens: Well, it's Christmas Eve...

Yes, it's just after Midnight so it feels a bit bizarre to say it's Christmas Eve. I usually wait until it gets past 6pm before I consider it Christmas Eve. The evening before Christmas Day. Regardless of this it's still the day before Christmas and I'm embedding Ray Stevens Christmas songs...something of an annual tradition on this fan created blog page.

"Winter Wonderland" is a Christmas classic that Ray recorded for his 2009 album, Ray Stevens Christmas. As you can see the album's cover photo appears on the YouTube video screen as the audio plays. When you Google search the song, for whatever reason, a YouTube audio clip of another recording artist shows up first in the search results. I'm assuming the artist or his management is paying for the immediate search result considering the song goes back decades but yet a YouTube audio of his recording shows up first. The song goes back to 1934 and was written by Felix Bernard and Richard Bernhard Smith. Originally written as a romantic love song...a couple walking along in the winter landscape. They decide to build a snowman and call it Parson Brown. In research several years ago I found out that more than a decade after the song was written additional lyrics were added to align the song with Christmas and children. So, when you hear the song, you'll hear it go from a romantic date between a couple in the winter landscape to a childlike frolic with the mentioning of building a snowman and pretending it's a circus clown. 

Building upon the Christmas mood we have a song Ray wrote titled "Deck the Halls With Teardrops". It uses a familiar riff to tell a lonesome story and it's one of my favorite songs on the Ray Stevens Christmas album.

The song "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" is another Christmas standard that Ray Stevens recorded. The song, written in 1945 by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styn, was reportedly written during a heatwave in California as the writers were thinking of colder weather...and I imagine one of the writers exclaiming in frustration "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" when thinking of the heatwave. It's probably why the song is titled the way it is. Even if it turned out at some point that the story behind the song's creation isn't true it's nevertheless still a good story. This song nor "Winter Wonderland" ever explicitly state that it's Christmas nor is there any mention of Santa Claus, sleighs, bells, or any other Christmas description. 

There are a lot of songs that weren't originally intended to be Christmas songs but because they fit the wintertime mood and explicitly describe snow and cold temperatures in the lyrics they've become synonymous with Christmas and they're played every season. In this area we're not going to have cold weather or snow on Christmas...one of the very few times Christmas Day will be in the low 60's. Due to the warmer weather our part of the United States, this year, is more in line with Bing Crosby's 1950 recording about Hawaiian Christmas, "Mele Kalikimaka". But I'd rather have the warmer weather than icy, snowy roads and freezing temperatures...even though, deep down, everyone wants snow on Christmas...so "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!"...

Ray Stevens audio track: "Christmas Bells in the Steeple"...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! Well, we're now 5 days until Christmas and here I am spotlighting one of the songs on his 2016 Christmas album, Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me. This time around it's his rendition of "Christmas Bells in the Steeple". This song is something I was not aware of until Ray recorded it...and after he recorded it and the Christmas album was made available he informed a lot of us that he wrote the song and that Perry Como originally recorded it in 1967. It's a mystery as to why Ray had never thought to record it decades earlier but in 2016 he recorded the song he'd written nearly 50 years earlier. 

I've come across copies of Perry Como's recording...the label he recorded it on, RCA, featured Chet Atkins as the record producer. Since Ray wrote the song he was also the publisher. Perry's 1967 recording featured "Love is a Christmas Rose" as the B-side. As far as Christmas songs are concerned the two strongly associated with Perry Como are "There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays" and "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas". Those two songs are among the most well known sing-a-long Christmas records of all-time. By contrast "Christmas Bells in the Steeple" deal with a much more somber situation and it's a ballad.  

Ray Stevens: Closer to Christmas...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! We're getting closer to Christmas...we're 6 days and counting until December 25th. In 2016 Ray Stevens released his third Christmas album titled Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me. The title track comes from the pens of Jeff Bates and John Ritter. No, before you get confused, I'm not referring to the late actor with the same name...the John Ritter that co-wrote the song with Jeff Bates happens to be a disc jockey who hosts an inspirational/gospel/country radio show called Rise Up Country. Ray's album was released in November of 2016. A little less than a year later, October 2017, the two writers of the title track of Ray's 2016 Christmas album released a book based on their story. The title track tells the story of Mary and Joseph from the perspective of the donkey. The song features several donkey brays from Ray. If you listen to the song it comes off like a serious Christmas song...but if you watch the music video you'll get a completely different feeling. In the video, as you hear Ray sing, your eyes will naturally focus more attention on the various hand puppets and the bright colors that fill the backgrounds. Ray, in a music video first for him, shares the camera with a hand puppet of a donkey. The whimsical feel of the music video contrasts the serious nature of the lyrics, I think.

As I've written in other blog entries Ray included an array of different types of Christmas songs on this collection. In his first Christmas release in 1997 he filled it with comedy Christmas recordings. In his second Christmas release in 2009 it was mostly Christmas standards but on the third Christmas release in 2016 it was Christmas standards, Christmas comedy, and a couple of original songs. One of the songs Ray included in the 2016 Christmas release was his version of "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer". That song was originally recorded by a man named Elmo Shropshire and his wife, Patsy. Their recording became a monster Christmas novelty...growing in popularity each Christmas season throughout the 1980's. I still like hearing the song. A music video was eventually produced and it aired on The Nashville Network numerous times in the 1980s and early 1990s.  

Now, unfortunately, a much younger generation was gaining influence with radio programmers and this forthcoming generation had no sentimentality for this song or any of the classic Christmas novelty songs, in general, and as a result the silly "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" went from being an annual Christmas standard heard at least a hundred times during the Christmas season all over the country to a song that now gets voted as "one of the worst Christmas song of all-time". My question is: who decided comedy Christmas songs were terrible? In fact, who decided comedy songs, in general, are terrible? If one has that mindset then you apparently take yourselves too seriously. When it comes to "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer", Elmo's original and any re-recording by him feature his distinctive voice. Ray sings the song straight...there isn't any exaggerated vocals or wild sound effects...except near the very end of the song when Ray changes his voice to play the role of Grandpa when the harmony singers holler "sing it, Grandpa!!". Grandpa isn't wearing his teeth...and you'll be able to tell...

Ray Stevens: Christmas Discount Sale...

Hello once again Ray Stevens fans!! The photo over on the right is an image of the Star located in downtown Nashville, Tennessee at the Music City Walk of Fame. The location is just outside of the Country Music Hall of Fame. The official address is Demonbreun Street in between 4th and 5th Avenue. The Country Music Hall of Fame is right across from the Music City Walk of Fame. Next door to the Walk of Fame is the Bridgestone Arena. It's a massively congested area of traffic and one way streets. Ray received his Star on August 21, 2018. Ricky Skaggs was on hand to do the official presentation and unveil Ray's Star. The Music City Walk of Fame has a website and there's a page for each inductee. Here's the Ray Stevens PAGE over on the Walk of Fame website. Once there you'll see a few photos from that August 2018 day. The following year, as almost all of you should know by now, Ray Stevens was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Now then...to the focal point of this particular blog entry. There will be a discount sale at the Ray Stevens webstore for two days only. The sale begins tomorrow (Saturday) and it's for two days...tomorrow and Sunday. The sale is for everything in the webstore. All items are going to be marked down 20 percent. Ray's webstore has a lot of CD's, T-shirts, coffee mugs, and an assortment of trinkets featuring Ray's name or his face. There are DVD's full of music videos as well as the two DVD releases containing episodes of his CabaRay Nashville television program. Everything will be discounted in time for Christmas. The webstore, at the moment, doesn't reflect the discount sale since it doesn't begin until tomorrow but here's the LINK to the Ray Stevens webstore. Browse through the online store and take note of what you'll be ordering during the next two days during the discount sale.    

Ray Stevens: 2021 Christmas Bundle...

Country Music Hall of Fame member, Ray Stevens, is offering a Christmas Bundle sale at his online store. As you can see on the plaque, Ray Stevens was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019. The items in the bundle can be purchased separately but if you choose to do that you'll pay shipping and handling for each item...the allure of the sale for a lot people is the elimination of a shipping fee for each item...during one of these kind of sales you only pay one shipping fee for all items offered. The items being offered are a red CabaRay Christmas tree ornament, a CD copy of his most recent Christmas release, Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me, and the just released Merry Video Christmas DVD. The Christmas Bundle sale lasts until December 18th. Some of you, like myself, have nearly everything in the Ray Stevens online store. I don't have a lot of the CabaRay items, however, but I do have most of the other items in his online store. The CD is named for a song that Ray turned into a music video. He appeared in the video with a collection of stuffed animals and puppets. Elsewhere on the album is "Claws, A Cat's Letter to Santa". When the CD was brand new I was hoping that particular song would become a music video but none ever came about. "Merry Christmas" was put on the CD...it had originated as a YouTube music video. A song that Ray wrote, "Christmas Bells in the Steeple", closes out the album...and at the time of the CD's release Ray posted a video describing the song and that it had originally been recorded by Perry Como. Although Ray wrote it he never recorded the song until this CD came along. In a Christmas CD full of highlights one of those being "All I Want For Christmas Is You", the song that Mariah Carey wrote and a song you likely hear each Christmas season. Ray sings it serious...and the fact is that 7 of the 10 songs on here are performed non-comically. The only comedy on here are his renditions of "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth", "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer", and "Claws, A Cat's Letter to Santa". The DVD, on the other hand, contains 6 music videos and was released the day after Thanksgiving (this past Friday). It's now part of this Christmas Bundle sale. You can visit Ray's online store and take a look at the Christmas Bundle when you click HERE. Once you arrive there you'll see the new banner promoting the Christmas Bundle sale...I've embedded it below...

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Jingle Bells"...

Merry Christmas to all the Ray Stevens fans out there!! I do want to begin this blog entry, though, with sad news. Earlier this morning in Nashville, Tennessee a man-made explosion destroyed a number of buildings in the downtown area. The news reports say the explosion come from an R.V. parked in the area. There were only a few injuries to people because most of the buildings in that area were empty...with it being Christmas Day. I'm sure the security cameras in that heavily congested area will identify whoever exited the R.V.

In my personal opinion I say the explosion was an act of local terrorism of some kind...but to dwell on the explosion on Christmas Day would give the culprit what they want...and so in continuing with the Christmas themed blog entries I'm going to be embedding an audio clip of "Jingle Bells" and it's performed in a way that only Ray Stevens could dream up! The Christmas album you see in the photo is from 2009 and it's titled, Ray Stevens Christmas. It was Ray's second Christmas album and unlike his first Christmas album in 1997 this 2009 release contains all serious recordings. The 2009 collection from Ray Stevens features an assortment of Christmas standards like "Jingle Bells", "White Christmas", "I'll Be Home for Christmas", and "Winter Wonderland" as well as "Silent Night". As is the norm of every album that includes a majority of cover songs from Ray Stevens the recordings are all arranged differently from what you might be familiar with. These kinds of projects allow Ray to demonstrate his music arranging prowess...and with "Jingle Bells" he offers a much different music arrangement and he even adds in a few extra lines to solidify it's a Ray Stevens recording above all else. Here's the "Jingle Bells" audio clip... 

Christmas music re-arranging is sometimes a hands-off subject because millions of people prefer to want to hear the traditional way in which Christmas songs are performed...so if someone messes around with what's considered a beloved classic there's a risk of offending a certain segment of the population. Then there are those who want to hear different arrangements and variations on Christmas songs. I've never had any specific way in which I want to hear "White Christmas", as an example. I grew up with two distinctive renditions...one by Bing Crosby (the all-time classic) and another by Elvis Presley (another all-time classic). The Drifters, a rhythm and blues group that Ray often cites as an influence, recorded a version of "White Christmas", too. Ray tips his Santa hat to the Drifters with his rendition of "White Christmas"...doing an excellent impression of the vocal group. His harmony singers are on hand as Santa's helpers in the music video...and yes, there are some comical overtones to be sure...but it's not a comedy video at all. The music video debuted on YouTube on December 3, 2012 and it's gotten over 300,000 unique views. It's gotten YouTube commentary every year since it debuted and this year is no different.  

Ray Stevens: Christmas jokes...

In this blog entry it's a couple of Christmas themed jokes from Ray Stevens. The jokes come from Ray's television series, CabaRay Nashville. If you're familiar with his locally syndicated PBS series you'll know he typically closes the show with a joke prior to the closing credits. The other day his social media platforms featured a Christmas joke and about an hour ago another Christmas joke was uploaded. These jokes come from his Christmas episode of CabaRay Nashville. Up first is a Christmas divorce joke about a couple that's been married for over 50 years and the phone conversation the father had with his son...

You'll never know what sort of joke Ray will close the show with. The other joke involves the tale of a bad kid on Christmas and how his parents rather him write an apology letter to Jesus rather than Santa Claus. I don't know if Ray will be uploading anymore Christmas-themed videos tomorrow or not. I didn't think he would upload a second Christmas joke but yet he did...and because he's uploaded two I decided to spotlight both of them in one blog entry. The video above was uploaded to Ray's YouTube channel almost a week ago. It's been seen by over 12,000 people. I'm sure the video below will get just as many unique views throughout the rest of the night and into Christmas Day. 

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville performance: "Nightmare Before Christmas"...

Well, here I am once again composing a blog entry about Ray Stevens...and on Christmas Eve! Well, you knew I'd do that sort of thing and I'm likely going to write some blog entries on Christmas Day tomorrow. In keeping with the Christmas colorization text the last blog entry I wrote was in bold, red text and as you can see this text is in bold, blue text. Will my next blog entry be bold and green? It might be...but let's focus on the blog entry I'm currently writing. Earlier today a video of Ray Stevens performing "Nightmare Before Christmas" on his CabaRay Nashville television show was uploaded onto YouTube. A couple of blog entries ago I made mention of the official music video and how it had reached 1,000,000 unique views. In this performance he sticks close to the recorded version...I mention this because he sometimes likes to change words or emphasize specific words in a performance that he didn't emphasize in the recording. Ray speaks about his distaste for political correctness prior to his performance of "Nightmare Before Christmas". 

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: "Nightmare Before Christmas" reaches 1,000,000 unique views...

Hello all you Ray Stevens fans!! We're slowly making our way to Christmas Day...it's this coming Friday! The pandemic has more or less mandated commercial television to not run many, if any, overly festive Christmas commercials because of the medical establishment's "warnings" of large get togethers. There's been several COVID-19 style Christmas commercials...one of the commercials show laptop computer screens with a collection of people on it...promoting some kind of isolated Christmas celebration among family. I know there's some out there who will actually attempt to have what they're calling a virtual Christmas but that won't be taking place in my house. We plan on having our usual Christmas dinner and I know well in advance I'll be watching whatever football games are airing...so Christmas Day 2020 won't be any different here. Now, of course, it helps that the only people at our Christmas Dinner are close relatives who we're pretty sure aren't out and about and on the town and therefore potential carriers of the virus. So, yes, we're taking precautions...as any family should...but we're not going to let any sort of Government over-reach ruin the holiday season.

Now, then, Ray's music video of "Nightmare Before Christmas" slowly amassed 1,000,000 unique views recently. The video made it's debut on November 3, 2010. A number of Ray's songs as well as his music videos have very long shelf lives...it's a testament to Ray's creative abilities first of all and secondly it's a testament to his enduring appeal. It's also a testament to his skills as a marketer in that he knew that Christmas music would receive annual activity and that there would perhaps be some sort of an audience awaiting the Christmas comedy videos year after year. In a television special on Ray Stevens that aired in the late 1990s on The Nashville Network the subject of durability and longevity came up. Ray remarked that quite a few of his albums crept along and eventually became Gold or Platinum with little to no mainstream hype or hardly any radio publicity. His success continues to mystify and baffle the so-called hip music critics...and given that his music video output on the internet has become so successful and omnipresent through YouTube and Facebook, it's generated one of the largest followings of a performer known almost exclusively as a 'comedian' or 'novelty singer'. His YouTube videos have collectively gotten more than 131,000,000 unique views since he opened his YouTube channel in 2009. I rounded the number rather than post specifics. If you visit his YouTube channel's 'About' section you'll see the most recent total of unique views his video content has received.

A couple of days ago I posted a blog entry where I highlighted "Nightmare Before Christmas" nearing the 1,000,000 mark. After I published that blog entry I went over to YouTube and refreshed the video statistics and at that time the video had pushed into the 1,000,000 level with a unique view total of 1,000,216. Today, before I began composing this blog entry, I looked at the recent unique views for the video and now it's got 1,019,578. There have been a couple of people, myself included, that have been posting links to the video on social media sites. I'd like to think I played a small part in re-introducing the video and helping it rack up an additional 18,000 or so unique views these last couple of days. 

The video features several camera tricks...in several scenes we see Ray Stevens playing three parts: Santa Claus, The Judge, and the hyper Prosecutor. A camera trick enabled Ray to appear on screen side by side by side. He'd done this sort of thing earlier in his music video for "Freddie Feelgood" where all five members of the band (all played by Ray Stevens) appeared on screen at the same time. The song originated in 1997 on Ray's first Christmas album titled Christmas Through a Different Window. Once Ray opened up his video hosting channel on YouTube he began issuing direct-to-YouTube video content in addition to posting music videos from the past that had originally only been available on VHS tape. This music video debuted, as previously mentioned, in November 2010. YouTube and Facebook have been good for Ray Stevens these past 11 years...his YouTube channel came along in July 2009. I don't know when his official Facebook page debuted...but I'd say it's been around just as long as his Facebook page. It took 10 years for this music video to get to 1,000,000 unique views...talk about durability!! In a future blog entry I might post a screen cap of Ray Stevens from the music video where he's on screen as Santa, the Judge, and the Prosecutor. I know you'll love the song/video in case you've never seen it before.

Ray Stevens: Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow audio clip...

As we flip the calendar to December it's inevitable that Christmas will become the focal point of the month. The funny thing is we got an unexpected small snow storm during most of the late evening and overnight and when I looked out the front and back door snow was all over the place. The roads are perfectly fine but our porch and and patio and shed and cars are covered in snow. It's our first snowfall since early 2020. I can't say it was completely unexpected...the local weather reports said we'd get something like 2 to 3 inches of snow (those reading who usually get a foot of snow or more are probably laughing right now). But, the point being, it wasn't completely unexpected but in this region the local weather meteorologists are known for slight exaggerations in forecasts. It's become routine around here if the weather report says there's going to be 2 to 3 inches of snow it'll more likely be a dusting but if they say there's going to be just a slight dusting of snow then usually it turns out to be half a foot of snow or more. Now, of course, I'm exaggerating too...but you get the point. Ray Stevens is in the Christmas spirit...he's kicking off the month of December by uploading an audio clip of his 2009 recording of "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" and how appropriate as I look out the windows this afternoon. The snow's tapered off...but the high today will be a balmy 32 degrees. Tomorrow it'll be 45...so hopefully much of this snow will melt away! This 2009 recording comes from the Ray Stevens Christmas album. It's an all-serious Christmas album...a companion to the comical Christmas Through a Different Window album that Ray recorded in 1997. The album cover of the 2009 release in seen below on the audio clip. 

Ray Stevens: Christmas 2019...

Hello one and all and Merry Christmas!! Ray Stevens wrote this song and taped a video for it in 2012 and it immediately struck a chord with the on-line community...the song, "Merry Christmas". It debuted as a music video and wasn't found on any CD until several years later in 2016 when Ray issued his third Christmas album, Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me. It's a powerful song in a lot of ways...some may find it too strong for the overall season...but it's a song that cuts through a lot of the glib chatter that comes with festive holidays and addresses the decades long verbal assault from varying sectors of society when it comes to using the phrase 'merry Christmas' rather than 'Happy Holidays' or 'Seasons Greetings'.



Now, staying with this same 2016 album, we have an audio upload from Ray of his sensational version of "All I Want For Christmas Is You", previously a massive hit for one of it's writers, Mariah Carey. When Ray's 2016 Christmas CD was released and I heard his version of that song I instantly made it among my all-time favorite Ray Stevens recordings of any season. Ray uploaded this audio clip a couple days ago back on December 23rd.



Wasn't that fabulous?? An upload arrived yesterday in the form of a performance by Ray Stevens on his CabaRay Nashville television series. It comes from one his Christmas episodes (he taped two separate Christmas episodes) and he's singing the title track of his third Christmas album in this video clip...here's Ray singing "Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me"...



As many of you should know there is an official music video of that song, too. In it Ray shares the spotlight with a group of puppets and stuffed animals. It's a cute music video that I've shared in previous Christmas themed blog entries I've written but this is the first time his performance of the song from his television series has become available on-line. If I were to rate the official video and the CabaRay Nashville performance as to which one I preferred I'd rate the television performance first and the official music video second...even though I love both. The television performance doesn't include the donkey braying heard in the studio recording nor does it contain the harmony vocals and over-dubs from Ray. The trio of back-up singers on Ray's television show handle most of the vocals that, in the studio recording, were performed by Ray.

Ray Stevens: Cyber-Monday Sale...

It's early Monday morning...those of you that are fans of Ray Stevens, as I am, are aware that he's having a discount sale at his on-line store. The sale is half over, though. There was a Black Friday sale and today it's a Cyber Monday sale. The advertisement for the sale is posted on his social media sites and I've decided to place the advertisement here as well...

2019

Keep in mind the above image is just an image...it isn't a link to his on-line store. You can visit his on-line store and take part in the Cyber Monday forty percent off sale by clicking HERE. One of the items you should look at, if you don't already have it in your personal collection of Ray Stevens items, is the combo pack of the First and Second season of his CabaRay Nashville television series. The price of the item regularly sells for $34.99 and with the forty percent discount it'll cost $20.99 and that's a huge discount on 26 half hour television programs. There's 13 episodes per Season. The T-shirts regularly sell for $20.00 and with the discount they'll cost $12.00. These discounted prices aren't factoring in the shipping/handling charge. I'm basing 'my' math skills, by the way, on a website that does percentages/discounts and so I'm pretty sure the discount prices I'm mentioning are accurate. The 9-CD box set is something every Ray Stevens fan should have and it sells for $40.00 but with the discount it'll be $24.00 plus shipping/handling and that is a deal nobody should pass up if you don't own this massive collection.

Given that this is the Christmas season there's the three Christmas albums that Ray's recorded and they're available for purchase at Ray's on-line store. The 1997 release, Christmas Through a Different Window, was Ray's first ever Christmas album and it sells for $9.95 whereas the 2009 release, Ray Stevens Christmas, sells for $10.95, and then there's the more recent Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me from 2016 and that one sells for $9.99. All of these are forty percent off today. I'm guessing the reason the 2009 release has a higher selling price is due to the music being completely serious!? The 1997 release is all comedy while the 2016 release mixes both comical and serious Christmas recordings in one collection.

In the collage below, which I've posted before, I have the three Ray Stevens Christmas CDs displayed in chronological order (1997, 2009, 2016) and a photo of Ray from inside his CabaRay showroom in West Nashville. The second Christmas album from 2009 wasn't promoted nearly as much as the 1997 and 2016 CDs happened to be. However, the 2009 release had it's share of publicity when his rendition of "White Christmas" hit YouTube as a music video in 2013. Ray recorded a serious version of "Blue Christmas" for that 2009 CD but then, without warning, issued his version of a comical rendition of the song originally made famous by a fictional band called Seymour Swine and the Squealers. Ray would make a music video of the comical version of "Blue Christmas" and issue it as a CD single, too. The 2009 CD featured a Ray Stevens original titled "Deck the Halls with Teardrops".

Here's a link to the Ray Stevens on-line store once again...click HERE and shop for whatever interests you in the career of Ray Stevens...40 percent discount on all items today only...it's Cyber Monday after all.

Ray Stevens CabaRay: November Concerts...

Hello one and all...as we wrap up the month of October it's time to take a look at the upcoming month of November at the CabaRay showroom. The concerts scheduled for the month of November are going to take on a festive mood as Christmas season gets underway at the CabaRay beginning November 1st. This will be the second season of holiday-themed concerts and like last season the concerts will take up the final two months of the year. Also, the emphasis on Christmas will get heavier as the days get closer to December, obviously...but the stage will be decorated for Christmas beginning November 1st.

Last year the Christmas concerts were scheduled for November 2 through December 29...this year the Christmas concerts are November 1 through December 28.

Although the advertisement shows the time range for the Christmas series of concerts at the CabaRay it doesn't go into detail about the  actual concert dates. So, below, is a list of Ray's concerts at the CabaRay for the month of November:

November 1st, 2nd, 7th, 8th, 9th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 29th and 30th. All you need to know about purchasing tickets to the CabaRay can be found HERE. If you look at the numerical pattern for the month of November you'll see a series of three dates in a row. This is because Ray will be appearing on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights during the middle half of the month. There is also going to be a taping of Larry's Country Diner on November 13th. Whenever the series does a taping at the CabaRay it's always on a Wednesday. When you're visiting Music City, U.S.A. during the Christmas season be sure to include the CabaRay on your list of destinations. Oh yes...in case you didn't know you can purchase tickets at the showroom during regular business hours...you don't necessarily have to purchase them on-line or order them well in advance even though purchasing them in advance is my preference. If you're an impulse consumer and decide, at the last minute, to attend one of his concerts be sure to have their phone number saved in your list of contacts so you can inquire about tickets. Their number is 615-327-4630. Their box office, as you'll see when you click the link, is open Monday through Wednesday from 9am to 5pm and during Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (concert days) the box office hours are extended to 7:30pm. So, yes, Ray gives people plenty of opportunity to attend a concert and take in all things CabaRay.

Ray Stevens Christmas Nuggets...

Merry Christmas from this long time Ray Stevens fan!! I've been a fan of Ray's ever since discovering one of his recordings, "The Mississippi Squirrel Revival", on a jukebox in a local pizza place in the late 1980s. A couple of blogs ago I put together a sort of 'celebration' of my 10th year as a blogger of all things Ray Stevens. I've always been an independent blogger with no personal or professional connection to Ray whatsoever...this fan created blog is strictly for my and hopefully your pleasure as well. Ray's been uploading several Christmas themed performances on YouTube lately. Two of the performances come from his CabaRay Nashville television series. One of them is his performance of "White Christmas" with Deborah Allen while the other is a performance of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Suzy Bogguss. 

In addition to those he uploaded a performance of "Bad Little Boy" from a television appearance in 1997...the very year the Christmas Through a Different Window album was released. The performance comes off like a live music video and by that I mean he performs it with plenty of stage props (giant toys and a giant chair to cause him to look smaller). If I recall correctly I once remarked that "Bad Little Boy" was like a modern update on the Spike Jones classic, "Nuttin' for Christmas". In fact one of the repeated phrases in Ray's recording echos the same sentiments. In case you missed it here's that video...



There's been a number of things happening in the world of Ray Stevens over the last week and a half...certainly in the last week. Events started out typical enough...several advertisements appeared on YouTube for the Christmas at the CabaRay concerts in addition his New Year's Eve celebration taking place at the CabaRay; but...then came the breaking news surrounding his decision to sell his Music Row property (which includes his long time recording studio). The buyer of the property will use the space to construct a 7-story building designed to benefit the music industry and lure economic vitality to the region once more. Detractors/preservationists are saying it's one more nail in the coffin in the destruction of Music Row's historical buildings. Those who support Ray's decision and the property sale, in general, see it as a way to bring in music-driven business and who knows? The building, based on the art work of the finished project, is certainly large enough to include office headquarters for songwriters, publishers, musicians, and the like...and serve as a beacon for those wanting to get their foot in the door in Music City. The local paper published an article all about the breaking news and it included commentary from Ray and how he had held off selling his property until the right buyer came along. At the time of the article the sale hadn't been finalized yet but it looks to be finalized probably early next year. You can read the article by clicking HERE. 

In addition to the Christmas concerts at the CabaRay, the upcoming New Year's Eve concert, the breaking news surrounding his Music Row property, and the Christmas themed YouTube video clips...on top of this a decision was made by those at RFD-TV to remove his two television programs that they'd just started airing the last couple of weeks. There wasn't any kind of explanation given...I posted several comments on RFD's social media sites hoping to get a response and I even sent a personal message/e-mail inquiring as to the reason both CabaRay Nashville and Rayality TV were suddenly removed without any explanation whatsoever. Given that I sent that message a couple of days ago I'm sure the office staff at RFD is on Christmas break and aren't going to reply until later this week or in the New Year.

CabaRay Nashville had been placed on RFD's schedule on Saturday night and Rayality TV was placed in the 9pm time-slot on Sunday following Hee Haw a couple of weeks ago. Last weekend neither show was on their line-up and neither were listed on RFD's on-line program guide. Prior to last weekend the two shows were listed on the program guide along side the network's other regularly scheduled shows. I know that RFD removed a massively popular series from their Sunday night line-up and placed Rayality TV there. Since then they brought back the massively popular series but yet didn't place Ray's show in a different time-slot on their network...as far as I know it was removed entirely. As far as CabaRay Nashville was concerned it was placed on the same night it previously had aired during the 2015-2016 season and yet it, too, was removed. Could I be jumping to conclusions when I wonder if Ray's most recent business decisions in any way played a role in his two television shows abruptly leaving RFD's airwaves? Is RFD going to bring the show's back in 2019 on a more permanent basis and therefore am I over-reacting concerning their disappearance from RFD? I could be over-reacting...remember, though, I hadn't received a reply yet as to why Ray's programs aren't part of RFD-TV...and so all of my irritation, confusion, and curiosity may prove to be unnecessary should both programs return to RFD's airwaves. I hope to get a reply from them just so I can try and understand their reasoning because, quite honestly, it just doesn't make any sense and it isn't fair to his fans.

Just so I don't close the blog entry on such a gloomy overtone I'm closing it with the bouncy and cute rendition of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" from Ray and Suzy Bogguss. Ray adds in mostly his own lyrics...it's not a total parody or anything...but Ray's comical reaction lines deliberately keep the mood playful instead of romantic.