Hello Ray Stevens fans!! In this blog entry, as you can tell, it's focusing on one of the 4 albums released in the Iconic Songs of the 20th Century box set. This time around it's Slow Dance. Now, compared to the other three albums, this one is much more somber and slower paced as you could probably guess. The concept of the album is to recapture the feel of the slow ballad songs that people would slow dance to in a bygone era. If you have this album then you already know not every song is slow...there are a couple that are mid-tempo...but the overall feel of the music remains slow love ballads. I'd say the only song on the album that pushes the tempo a little bit, as far as the music accompaniment goes, is his rendition of "The Great Pretender" but definitely "Answer Me", a song he'd previously recorded several decades earlier as "Answer Me, My Love". There are 12 songs on the album and the playlist is on YouTube...and anybody can listen to the album or any other Ray Stevens album that's been uploaded to the site. Your favorite performances may not be mine. Do you want to know what my favorites are from this album? I won't mention them all but a couple are "Slow Dancing", "Stardust", "Answer Me", and the album closer, "What a Wonderful World". All of the songs have been re-arranged in a Ray Stevens style and so, if you're thinking that these songs will be carbon copies of previously recorded versions by other recording artists, you'll be in for a major surprise. Ray opens the album with his soulful rendition of "Only You and You Alone".
I'll probably come across like a broken record, on repeat, when I say that this album and the other three that make-up the Iconic Songs of the 20th Century box set are must-have for any Ray Stevens fan. I especially feel that those out there who say they prefer the more serious side of Ray Stevens should take a listen to this album and the other three: Great Country Ballads, Melancholy Fescue, and Nouveau Retro. Those three, along with Slow Dance, represent some of the most recent serious recordings from Ray Stevens. Those of you that have been waiting for some non-comical recordings from Ray, well, those albums should be an answer to your wishes.
You can listen to the Slow Dance album when you click HERE. While at YouTube, and after you listen to Slow Dance, visit the other YouTube playlists of the three albums mentioned above.
It's me once again!! In this blog entry I'll be embedding a YouTube link to the Slow Dance playlist. I've previously provided links to the YouTube playlists of three Ray Stevens albums that were released earlier in the year: Great Country Ballads, Melancholy Fescue, and Nouveau Retro. This one, Slow Dance, was released in between Melancholy Fescue and Nouveau Retro. Ray released the albums, in digital download format, one per month: February, March, April, and May. In July all four digital downloads were issued in CD format and packaged in a box set titled Iconic Songs of the 20th Century. The Slow Dance album was the one that could easily be described as collection of Ray Stevens singing romantic ballads. As you can tell from the album cover the emphasis on romance, love, and all that comes with it would be the focal point throughout. The title track refers to the song "Slow Dancing", a song that that was a pop hit for Johnny Rivers and a country hit for Johnny Duncan. The song's subtitle is "Swaying to the Music". If you're familiar with my blog entries you'll know that I don't include subtitles when it comes to song titles or album titles. I use the main title almost always. Anyway, in addition to Ray's rendition of "Slow Dancing" you'll also hear his renditions of songs as diverse as "Stardust" and "Only You and You Alone" to "Unforgettable" and "What a Wonderful World". Ray also gives us his take on "The Great Pretender". You can listen to all of the audio tracks from Slow Dance on it's YouTube playlist, provided by Curb Records, located HERE.
Ray uploaded some brief promo videos for each of the four releases. This promo for Slow Dance arrived on YouTube in July...
Well, well, it's me once again!! In my previous blog entry I included the YouTube play totals, as of today, of Ray's Great Country Ballads digital album. I embedded Ray's recording of "Sweet Dreams" because it was the lowest played audio track in the thousand play range. It was sitting with 1,146 plays. "City Lights", at 1,198 plays, as you can see only needs two unique plays to reach the nice, rounded number 1,200. I made the remark in my last blog entry that Great Country Ballads is the digital album with the most audio tracks (8) at 1,000 plays or more. I'm going to make a slight correction...this accomplishment is tied with Slow Dance, the digital album released back in April. In fact, Slow Dance has a chance of moving ahead and claiming the most audio tracks with 1,000 plays or more considering "Answer Me", as of this writing, is sitting with 980 YouTube plays. If it reaches 1,000 plays then, of course, Slow Dance will take the lead.
Ray's updated rendition of "Answer Me" from Slow Dance has gotten 980 YouTube plays. Interestingly the 1967 recording from Ray, known as "Answer Me, My Love", sits just under 800 YouTube plays...with 799. Now, isn't that some sort of neat or what?? 😮
It's worth pointing out that Slow Dance has made the most appearances on the Amazon Best Selling New Releases Top-100 list. If you search New Releases + Digital Music + Country and look over the Top-100 you'll find Slow Dance there, as of this writing, at number 55. Although the digital album's been out since April and no longer a "new release" I'm not complaining...it's fun seeing Ray Stevens among the Top-100. The letter, K, refers to plays in the thousands. An audio track at 1.4 means that the play count is somewhere between 1,400 and 1,499.
1. Only You and You Alone (9.3K audio plays)
2. Unforgettable (3.6K audio plays)
3. Make Believe / It's Only Make Believe (3.4K audio plays)
Welcome, welcome...to all you fans of Ray Stevens and to those who come across this blog and discover the music of Ray Stevens! While looking over the digital Country Best Selling list on Amazon I came across Slow Dance among the Top-100. This is by far the digital album with the most appearances on this particular Top-100. I haven't kept count but Slow Dance periodically shows up within the Amazon Top-100 Country Best Sellers and almost without notice...and the reason I say that is because Ray, as you all know, released four digital albums this year and for Slow Dance to be the one that's made the most appearances in the Amazon Top-100 is not what this Ray Stevens fan expected. I was thinking either Melancholy Fescue or Great Country Ballads may be the one that would make the most appearances on the Country Top-100 simply because Ray is more connected, overall, to a country music format...and Melancholy Fescue is a bluegrass flavored album and Great Country Ballads is self-explanatory...so I was thinking either of those two digital albums may show up more frequently in the digital Country Best Sellers but it's Slow Dance which accomplishes this. Slow Dance is filled out with renditions of pop music standards by Ray Stevens which also include re-arrangements that he came up with...the song titles on that digital album being so iconic to a wider audience is probably why that particular digital album has made the most return appearances on Amazon's list. There's a medley on there called "Make Believe / It's Only Make Believe" which is great. Some of the other songs Ray updates include "Stardust", "What a Wonderful World", "The Great Pretender", "Unforgettable", and the title track refers to the song, "Slow Dancing". The fourth digital album, Nouveau Retro, has the unenviable task of following the first three...and while it's made appearances on that Top-100 list from time to time it hasn't made as many appearances as Melancholy Fescue or Slow Dance. I close out this blog entry with the audio track "Make Believe / It's Only Make Believe"...it's gotten over 3,400 plays on YouTube so far...
Hello out there on this Saturday afternoon!! Ray Stevens recently uploaded onto YouTube a promo video for his digital album, Slow Dance. This follows the video promo's he did for Melancholy Fescue and Great Country Ballads. He's posted these promo videos on Facebook but they hadn't been placed on YouTube until recently. The Slow Dance promo was uploaded on YouTube within the last half hour. A video promo for his fourth digital album of the year should be forthcoming and once it appears on YouTube I'll be sharing it here on this blog page. He makes mention of the fourth digital album in this promo but I'm sure he'll upload a video promo focusing exclusively on the fourth release. Slow Dance is the digital album that contains standards filled with romance, love songs more or less, and there's one song that deals with dancing...his lovely rendition of "Slow Dancing". Some of the other songs Ray covers on Slow Dance include "Unforgettable", "Only You and You Alone", "The Great Pretender", and a medley containing "Make Believe / It's Only Make Believe".
If I'm not mistaken, I'll have to look through my notes, but I seem to recall an episode of his television show, Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville, where he performed a song called "I Remember You". If I'm remembering correctly, once he finished with the performance, he mentioned it was going to be on an upcoming album of his called Slow Dance. As I was typing this I went through my notes and refreshed my memory. He performed "I Remember You" but according to my notes he didn't say it would be on any upcoming album. I had made that assumption on my own when I was taking notes. He'd also sang "Unforgettable" on his television show...and that song did end up appearing here on Slow Dance.
Well, how in the world is everyone doing on this July 6th?? It's officially the start of a brand new week after an extended Fourth of July which stretched into Monday due to the 4th falling on a Sunday this year. I wrote numerous blog entries over the extended holiday and for my first blog entry post-July 4th I'm bringing news of Slow Dance making a return to the Amazon Top-100 Country New Releases list. This marks the second time that Slow Dance has returned to the Country Top-100 on Amazon since it's original appearances back in April. The highest position it achieved on the New Releases list when the digital album was brand new happened to be within the Top-20 at 18. Slow Dance returned to the Top-100 exactly one month ago at number 33...today it's sitting at 36. I didn't write a blog entry about it making a return to the Top-100 back on June 6th because I was in the middle of writing blog entries about a novelty song that Ray released on June 4th...and I felt writing a blog entry about a digital album of his serious recordings would clash with, and break-up, the comical mood that my recent string of writings surrounding his comedy song had established.
The Amazon lists are updated every hour and so by the time this blog is published and available it may rank higher or lower than where it currently is...but as of this writing it's at 36. The songs on Slow Dance are pop standards done with brand new arrangements by Ray Stevens. This album and the other three in the covers series (Great Country Ballads, Melancholy Fescue, and Nouveau Retro) are much of a music arranger's delight as they are perhaps a recording artist's delight. On Slow Dance we hear 12 songs brought back and arranged completely different. Some of the songs Ray recorded for this album are "Stardust", "Unforgettable", "Slow Dancing", and "Only You and You Alone". Yesterday on Ray's social media "Only You and You Alone" made an appearance in a Facebook post promoting Slow Dance. I don't know if the publicity of that one Facebook post caused Slow Dance to make this return to Amazon's Top-100 or not...I just know it returned and I decided to compose a blog entry about it. Here's the Ray Stevens rendition of "Slow Dancing"...
Hello all once again!! As we approach May 21st I decided to write a blog entry focusing on the title track of the current Ray Stevens digital album, Slow Dance. The title track is actually "Slow Dancing" and the song was a previous hit for a couple of artists named Johnny. The pop recording is associated with Johnny Rivers whereas the country recording is associated with Johnny Duncan. As a fan of country music I was more familiar with Johnny Duncan's recording and later on I heard the Johnny Rivers rendition. In this blog entry you'll be hearing the Ray Stevens rendition...it's a romantic love song...deeply romantic one could say. When hearing Ray sing it I'm reminded of some of the highly emotive love songs he recorded for RCA in the early 1980s...songs that ran the gamut from aching, passionate love pleas to calls for reconciliation...songs like "I Believe You Love Me", "One More Last Chance", "Let's Do It Right This Time", "Always There", "Take That Girl Away", and the equally amazing "Why Don't We Go Somewhere and Make Love". Curb Records uploaded the audio track of "Slow Dancing" on April 22nd which was a day before the Slow Dance digital album was available for purchase. I don't know if Curb Records will release the audio tracks for the digital album to be released on May 21st a day earlier or not...if they do I'll make a note of it in a future blog entry. For now listen to the title track of Ray's current digital album, Slow Dance.
Hello all once more!! The current Ray Stevens digital album, Slow Dance, had been off the Amazon Best Selling New Releases Top-100 digital album list for a couple of days...when I checked that list about 20 minutes ago I seen that Slow Dance has returned and as of this writing it's within the Top-40 of the Top-100. All three digital albums that Curb Records has issued on Ray this year have made an appearance on this Amazon list. In less than 2 weeks the fourth digital album will be released...it becomes available on May 21. Nouveau Retro, based on the song selection, appears that it will be a sequel to Slow Dance...but we'll have to wait and hear for ourselves to know if the arrangements of the songs on Nouveau Retro mimic what's on Slow Dance. Earlier today on his Facebook page Ray uploaded an audio clip of "Make Believe / It's Only Make Believe". The medley is track number three on the Slow Dance album. The first part of the medley, "Make Believe", originated in 1927 and is tied to the musical, Show Boat. A commercial recording of the song arrived in 1928. The recording was from Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra featuring Bing Crosby as the vocalist. "Make Believe", given it's late '20s origin, is often a song that shows up on albums of showtunes. A showtune, for those curious, is a song that originates in a musical. The song's writers are Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein, II. The second part of the medley, "It's Only Make Believe", was written by Conway Twitty and Jack Nance. The song was a huge hit for Conway in 1958 and into 1959...hitting number one on the pop chart in America and hitting number one in more than 20 other countries. Ray re-arranged the song to musically fit the sound of Slow Dance and he changed the phrasing to fit his own delivery. Ray didn't do any Conway growl or attempt to mimic Conway's legendary recording.
Those wanting a copy of Slow Dance can purchase it directly from Amazon by clicking HERE. Curb Records has uploaded all of the audio clips onto YouTube...so, for those that want to listen there, just go to YouTube and search for Ray's name and the album, Slow Dance, and all the audio clips will show up in the search results.
Now, of course, since I've mentioned the audio clip of "Make Believe / It's Only Make Believe" I'm going to embed it below...
It's me once again...and in this blog entry I'm posting about an article written about Ray Stevens in the May 2021 issue of Country Music People. This magazine, as far as I know, isn't sold at news stands in retail stores nor is it in the magazine racks of retail stores. The origin of the magazine is European. A single issue of the magazine is 4 pounds 99 pence. The interviewer is Duncan Warwick. Ray posted images from the magazine on his Facebook page...and if you click on each image and then click the magnifying icon you'll be able to read the entire interview.
The interview concentrates a lot on Ray's current music and the projects that he's wanting to release in the not too distant future. Later this month he'll be releasing the fourth digital album in his series of releases...in June the 4 digital albums he'll have released will become available in CD format in a Box Set. Then he'll be issuing another series of 4 digital albums followed by a volume two Box Set!!
If you're a fan of Ray Stevens as I am...and you must be since you're reading this...anyway, if you're a Ray Stevens fan then this is like heaven on Earth right now...a lot of new recordings flowing from the legend...and even more new recordings from him on the way! If you want to purchase a copy of the magazine containing the interview...you can read about the publication and it's price by clicking HERE. If you want to just read the contents of Ray's interview then visit his Facebook page and click the images in the post dated Saturday May 8, 2021 at 12pm.
The banner above is something I created one day just for the hell of it. I took an image of Ray Stevens that just happens to be one of my favorite images from one of the various compilation albums that were released on him. I tilted the photo and then inserted the photo of Ray from his 1975 album, The Very Best of Ray Stevens, and created that phenomenal collage! No, in all seriousness, I don't think it's that phenomenal...but I like it and so that's why I'm sharing it with you all.
Hello once again all you fans of Ray Stevens!! I felt like doing a recap of the last 3 months since we're a couple of weeks away from Ray releasing his 4th digital album of 2021. Ray began releasing one digital album per month beginning this past February. The first release, Great Country Ballads, has seen a lot of activity on YouTube. The audio clips that Curb Records placed on YouTube have definitely attracted some attention. In the traditional sense a unique view is captured when a computer accesses a video clip for the first time. Multiple views from the same computer/device isn't counted. When it comes to audio I wonder if they call it a unique play or a unique listen since we're not viewing...we're listening to the music. I assume it's still referred to as a unique view even for audio clips.
Whether it's a unique view or a unique listen the 12 audio clips from Great Country Ballads emerged in late February. Ray promoted one of the audio clips on his social media pages...the audio clip of "Your Cheatin' Heart". Since this audio clip was promoted on his social media pages it has the most unique listen's to date, 9.4K. The second most listened-to audio is "Please Help Me I'm Falling" with more than 5,000 unique views. Ray's rendition of "Crazy" has received 2.1K. "City Lights" and "I Can't Help It If I'm Still in Love With You" both have a little over 1,000 unique views. The remaining audio clips from the album have unique view totals that range between 500 and 900. The audio clip with the lowest unique views is "Till I Get It Right" at 520. I'm by no means a tech person...that is I don't know the intricate details of how unique views rack up or how to decipher between what's called a paid view and what's called an organic view. I'm guessing that an organic view, from what I've been able to find through online searching, is referred to as any webpage or video clip that gets clicked by an online user, on their own, without having any kind of paid advertising steering them into the direction of the webpage or the video link. I guess organic views are what make up the traffic on this blog considering I don't pay to have it promoted all over the internet but the stats, which are visible only to me, show that visitors from all over the country and the world visit this blog.
Ray followed Great Country Ballads in late March with his much anticipated Bluegrass project, Melancholy Fescue. He subtitled the album High Class Bluegrass due to the music being a blend of Bluegrass and symphonic accompaniment. The audio clip promoted by Ray happened to be "Goin' Out of My Head" and that particular audio received, to date, 3.9K. A second audio clip matched this, the medley "Ruby / Ruby Baby"...to date racking up 3.9 thousand unique views. The third most played audio from the digital album is "Oh, Pretty Woman" at 2.3K. Ray had been planning this album for a number of years...actually, he'd been planning several of these albums for almost a decade...and he made a music video of "Unchained Melody" and uploaded it in October 2013. Since the music video's been online for nearly 8 years it's obtained more than 900,000 unique views. The audio clip from Curb Records has gotten a little over 1,000 unique views. Ray's medley of two songs with the same title "In The Still of the Night / In the Still of the Night" has 829 unique views. The online activity of these audio clips are ever changing so these reports I'm doing right now are a snapshot in time. The view-counts will increase with the passage of time.
Following Great Country Ballads and Melancholy Fescue, Ray delivered his third digital album in late April titled Slow Dance. It's only been available for a week and a half...tomorrow will mark it's second week of availability (it was released on April 23rd). A couple of audio clips were promoted on Ray's social media pages. The first being "Only You and You Alone" and it's gotten 8.3K. Organic views have caused "Unforgettable" to garner more than 3,000 unique views on YouTube. Ray recently posted an audio clip of "Slow Dancing" on his social media pages and it's nearing 2,000 unique views at the moment. I'm reporting on the unique views of YouTube. Ray also shares some of his audio clips on his Facebook page but I'm only focusing on the YouTube stats. Some of the other audio clips from Slow Dance that have gotten at least 1,000 unique views are: "The Great Pretender" at 1.3K; "Make Believe / It's Only Make Believe" at 1.4K; and "Dream" which also has 1.3K. An audio clip nearing 1,000 unique views is "I'll See You In My Dreams" which has 955 as of now. In case you didn't notice most of the songs on this album are part of what's promoted as The Great American Songbook. Ray does a rendition of "Stardust" (645 unique views) and "What a Wonderful World" (805 unique views).
All three digital albums saw some activity on the Top-100 New Releases Digital music chart on Amazon. Slow Dance continues to appear on that Top-100 list.
The fourth digital album will be released near the end of this month...May 21st is release day! Nouveau Retro will feature several more songs from the Great American Songbook did in ways that are completely different. The album hitting later this month appears to be a ballad heavy offering much like Great Country Ballads and Slow Dance. Melancholy Fescue was the only one featuring more up-tempo songs...which was to be expected given it's a Bluegrass album. Glancing over the songs that are on Nouveau Retro I see "Cry Me a River", "Earth Angel", "April in Paris", and "You Don't Know Me" just to name four. I'll start writing more about that digital album the closer we get to May 21st. In the meantime here's Ray's awesome rendition of "Unforgettable" from Slow Dance...
As we experience the second day of May 2021 I'm going to embed an audio clip of one of the songs from the current digital album from Ray Stevens, Slow Dance. The audio clip this time around is his rendition of "As Usual" which had been previously released in 1964 by one of Ray's long-time friends, Brenda Lee.
Ray's professional friendship with Brenda Lee goes back decades. She appeared on the Life and Times of Ray Stevens television special that aired on The Nashville Network in 1998 and spoke of how long the two known each other. She mentioned that she first heard of Ray as a music arranger, musician, and songwriter but then discovered his comedic abilities. Brenda, as mentioned, recorded her rendition of "As Usual" in 1964...and just as ironic is the fact that on her Christmas album that year it included a song that Ray published called "Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day". It became a Top-20 hit in the United Kingdom. Some single releases credit the song publisher and on those single releases it'll show Ahab Music Company. Ray recorded his version of the song on his 2016 Christmas album.
In the collage we have a photo from 1976 next to a photo from 2018. In the 1976 photo we see Chet Atkins, Ray Stevens, Brenda Lee, and Roy Acuff. In the 2018 photo we see Ray Stevens, Brenda Lee, Jeannie Seely, and Ben Folds. In the 1976 photo the group was backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, I think. In 2018 the group seen in the photo were the recipients of Star plaques on the Music City Walk of Fame that year.
Well, hello all of you Ray Stevens fans!! It's been a few days since I wrote a blog entry spotlighting something on the current Ray Stevens digital album, Slow Dance. I decided to spotlight a song that goes way back...from the pens of Isham Jones and Gus Kahn. The composer, Isham Jones, put the song out first as an instrumental in 1925 and it hit number one on the pop chart for more than 10 weeks. Ray majestically sings "I'll See You in My Dreams"...the song opens up with Ray singing about growing older and he'll continue to see the love of his life in his dreams no matter what. It's a no doubt love song...originating in 1924 and first hitting in 1925...and a series of big bands and instrumental groups recorded the song throughout the decade and into the 1930s. Bing Crosby was among the vocalists who recorded the song in the 1940s and it was brought back in the 1950s as the title of a movie starring Doris Day and Danny Thomas. Pat Boone had a hit version in 1962. Since then it's been recorded by several recording artists who specialize in the pop music sounds of the '30s, '40s, and early '50s before the arrival of rock and roll...and it's also been interpreted by instrumentalists in various music formats. Ray Stevens is the most recent recording artist to bring back 1924's "I'll See You In My Dreams" and here it is...
Well, as mentioned in my previous blog entry, I'm back with another audio clip from the current Ray Stevens digital album, Slow Dance. This time around I'm spotlighting "Dream". When I was looking over my review of the digital album I noticed that I never even made mention of "Dream" at all. Instead of going in and editing my review I've decided to just compose a blog entry with an audio clip of the song. "Dream" goes back to 1944 and it's from the pen of Johnny Mercer. Research shows that the song was written as a theme song for a radio program starring the songwriter. It was a summer replacement program for Bob Hope's radio show. Frank Sinatra recorded the song as did a series of other pop artists of the time period (mid to late 1940s). A group called The Pied Pipers issued a recording of "Dream" in 1945. Frank Sinatra recorded it a second time in 1960. Ella Fitzgerald recorded a version in 1964 with a jazzy flavor underneath Nelson Riddle orchestrations. Numerous other crooner-style pop singers did renditions of the song...songwriter Johnny Mercer is synonymous with The Great American Songbook. Now, in April 2021, it's Ray Stevens turn with "Dream". I've only heard the renditions of "Dream" from Frank Sinatra and the recording by Ella Fitzgerald...I wanted to hear how their version of the song sounded. Ray's rendition benefits from modern technology and his arranging style...the kinds of instruments heard in his recording are vastly different from the Sinatra and Ella recordings and his has a more urgent vocalization compared to the more softer Frank Sinatra 1940's vocal delivery.
This is such a grand album and right off the bat we're treated to the swaying rendition of "Only You", a former hit for The Platters. Ray hits similar notes in this recording that rival his 1975 recording of "Indian Love Call", for example. This opening track sets the stage for the entire digital album. Track two, "Unforgettable", has Ray bringing in his famed harmony singers to repeat numerous passages but it isn't in the vein of a Gladys Knight and the Pips style. Ray continues the soft sounds and lush arrangements heard in "Only You" in his rendition of the "Unforgettable" Nat King Cole classic. Ray, no stranger to vocal over-dubbing, creates harmony vocals in his own voice and it shows up near the end of the recording...and this is in addition to the harmony from the female back-up. On Track three Ray combines the song, "Make Believe", with the Conway Twitty hit "It's Only Make Believe". The first half of the medley originated in the musical, Showboat. Ray doesn't attempt to match Conway or keep the same arrangement...Ray interprets the song, vocally, like any number of pop music crooners and the music is in line with the sound heard in the first two tracks. Ray does, however, conclude the medley with a dramatic finish. The arrangement and instrumentation heard in the first two tracks of the digital album, as mentioned, sets the stage for Slow Dance. There are solos of the saxophone in several recordings. The arrangements found on this digital album aren't in the same manner heard in Great Country Ballads but they're of the same family...if that makes any sense. Ray covers The Platters a second time on this digital album with "The Great Pretender". He re-arranged the song...from the instrumentation and the phrasing...so there isn't any vocal gymnastics that were found in the original. Ray croons the song and so the performance matches the feel that Ray is going for.
"I'll See You In My Dreams" had previously been recorded by Doris Day and then Pat Boone...and that slow ballad leads into Ray's equally wonderful rendition of "Slow Dancing". That song became popular through a recording by Johnny Rivers but as a child in the 1980's and in a family that listened to country music I was way more familiar of "Slow Dancing" by Johnny Duncan. Ray sings "Slow Dancing" as a straight ahead love ballad...he doesn't do the narration that Johnny Duncan has on his recording...but Ray does a great job on it, I think. "Slow Dancing" ties into the album's title, Slow Dance.
If you're a longtime fan of Ray Stevens, as I am, or if you've followed his career since the 1960s then you may be aware of a 1967 recording on Monument Records called "Answer Me, My Love". The song was only released on a single-only and didn't appear anywhere until a mid 1990's CD release of his 1968 studio album, Even Stevens. The track on this digital album called "Answer Me" is the same song that Ray recorded in 1967. Now, given that we're in 2021, this updated "Answer Me" features entirely new instrumentation and a slightly different phrasing and tempo than his 1967 recording did.
If you're a recording artist and are wanting to cover songs from a certain time period in pop music or you are doing an album filled with songs from what's called The Great American Songbook chances are you'll do a version of "Stardust". That particular ballad originated in 1927 from Hoagy Carmichael...lyrics written by Mitchell Parish. The song had been recorded by numerous artists throughout the late '20s and into the '50s. The song was revived several more times in the 1960s but then country singer Willie Nelson recorded it and named one of his albums after the song. That 1978 album of pop standards from Willie would spend 10 years on the country album chart. "Stardust" has been recorded several more times since then by other recording artists and with Slow Dance we have Ray Stevens adding his rendition of "Stardust" to the long list of versions that have come before.
Ray follows "Stardust" with his rendition of "As Usual" which had been a hit for one of his long-time friends, Brenda Lee, in 1964.
Ray had previously released a salute to Frank Sinatra in 2008. I bring this up because track eleven on Slow Dance is "This Is All I Ask" which Frank Sinatra previously recorded...from the pen of Gordon Jenkins...and Ray packs it with an almost power ballad approach...pushing all the right emotive buttons you could think of. Now, not to be outdone, is the closing song...the iconic "What a Wonderful World". Ray keeps the soft, lush arrangement throughout. In the back of my mind, before I'd heard Ray's version, I thought that he might slip in a brief vocal impression of Louis Armstrong but he kept it straight and didn't veer off into doing that. Slow Dance is everything I had hoped it would be. I wasn't sure how he was going to arrange most of these songs but he updated them considerably and changed the phrasing on several so as to not be a carbon copy of the originals. When I'd found out that "Slow Dancing" was among the songs on this album I tried to hear Ray narrate parts of the song the way Johnny Duncan did but, as mentioned, Ray by-passed that technique and sang the song without including narration. The album's photo ties into his television series, CabaRay Nashville. Ray always asks someone in the audience to dance with him as an instrumental of "Everything is Beautiful" plays in the background as the credits roll.
I can't wait to hear the fourth digital album Ray Stevens is scheduled to release...that one will hit in late May. I'll be adding YouTube video content of audio clips from Slow Dance in the hours and days ahead.
I did a quick look over on Amazon's New Releases list and seen that Slow Dance from Ray Stevens is, at this hour, sitting in the Top-20. It's a list of the Top-100 best selling New Releases in the digital Country format. Ray's first digital album this year, Great Country Ballads, also remains on the Top-100 over there on Amazon. When I was writing my previous blog entry about Slow Dance I had Amazon's Top-100 list open in another tab and had seen that it was in the Country Top-20 but rather than make mention of it in passing in my previous blog entry I decided to write a new blog entry spotlighting it's appearance on the New Releases list. Why? Well, it's newsworthy/noteworthy in my opinion, and this is a fan created blog entry all about Ray Stevens and so why not provide that sort of information? In my previous blog entry I mentioned Ray offered commentary about this digital album. It's over on his Facebook page. He also posted it on his other social media pages. I haven't pasted the commentaries here. I'll probably wait until the CD copies are released in the box set in June and in my review/overview of that release I'll paste all of his commentaries in that blog entry. Have you purchased Slow Dance yet? Have you listened to any of the audio clips on YouTube? Some of my favorites from that album are "Only You", "Stardust", and "Slow Dancing".
Well now, all of the fans of Ray Stevens, we've reached release day of Slow Dance!! I purchased my copy real early this morning...some point before 1am. Since it's only available as an Mp3 digital download I can't pose with a photo of the actual album which is why I've been posting the promotional images in these blog entries. However, in June, the box set Iconic Songs of the 20th Century will be released. This box set will contain CD copies of the digital albums that Ray has been releasing during the first half of the year. Once I get the CD copies of these albums I'll be placing them in a blog entry review of the box set when it arrives in June.
I purchased my copy of the digital album over on Amazon. I've listened to the 12 songs twice...once in my Amazon music library and a second time over on YouTube. Curb Records, as they did with the previous two digital albums, have uploaded all 12 songs onto YouTube. Also, as he did with the previous two digital albums, he's provided some commentary about the release and why he wanted to record the songs. The promotional photo, as you see, has Ray dancing with an unidentified partner with a rose in their hand. As I pointed out in a previous blog entry this photo likely comes from one of the closing scenes from his television series, CabaRay Nashville. Ray asks an audience member to dance with him to close out each episode while an instrumental of "Everything is Beautiful" plays in the background. I don't know if the partner in that photo is an actual audience member from the television show or if she's part of Ray's music company and was asked to pose with him for the album cover. Once I listen to Slow Dance a couple more times I'll be writing a review. I will say that based on listening to the album twice the songs I'll be highlighting are "This Is All I Ask", "Stardust", "Slow Dancing", and a couple of others. You can purchase your copy of Slow Dance over on Amazon by clicking HERE. If you'd rather listen to them on YouTube simply search for 'Ray Stevens + Slow Dance' and all of the uploads from the digital album will show up in the search results.
As mentioned in my April 15th blog entry, Slow Dance is fast approaching. Now we're just two days until the release of the digital album. This is the third of four new digital albums Ray's been releasing this year and like the previous two this one includes 12 songs. The first release concentrated on country music songs, the second release concentrated mostly on pop/rock and roll songs re-arranged in a bluegrass delivery, this third release will concentrate on pop music standards...and based on a brief audio clip of "Unforgettable" the music arrangement was different but the tempo remained the same...but that's based only on a brief audio clip posted on his Facebook page. The photos of Ray on the previous two releases originated in his CabaRay showroom. The photo that appears on the Slow Dance release resembles the kind of dance that closes out each episode of his CabaRay Nashville television show. It may have been taken during the recording of an episode...with her back to the camera it's hard to tell who it is...it may be the show's syndicator or someone within the show's production staff. The reason the television show closes with Ray dancing with a member of the audience, if I recall correctly, is in reference to his years in high school performing at sock hops and other dances. The concerts would always end with a slow dance and I think that's why he incorporated a slow dance at the end of each episode of his television show...as a way of bringing each episode to a close. Ray often remarked that he and the band would end their high school concerts with the song "Goodnight Sweetheart" during the slow dance. That particular song isn't on this 12 song collection, though. However, these are...
1. Only You and You Alone
2. Unforgettable
3. Make Believe / It's Only Make Believe
4. The Great Pretender
5. I'll See You in My Dreams
6. Slow Dancing
7. Answer Me
8. Stardust
9. As Usual
10. Dream
11. This Is All I Ask
12. What a Wonderful World
In a previous blog entry I wondered if "Answer Me" is the same song as "Answer Me, My Love" or if it'll be an entirely different song. Ray recorded a song called "Answer Me, My Love" in 1967 and it remained as a single-only until the mid 1990s when it appeared on a CD release from Varese Sarabande. I'm almost certain that "Answer Me" on this upcoming digital album will be the same song Ray recorded back then...but modernized. I'm anxious to hear how he'll sing "It's Only Make Believe" which will be part of a medley, Track 3 on the album. I'm also curious if he'll attempt a Louis Armstrong impression for "What a Wonderful World" or if he'll sing it in his own voice. It'll be around this time two days from now I'll more than likely be listening to Slow Dance in my online music library.
Hello all of you Ray Stevens fans!! As you can see from my blog entry title we're fast approaching the release of Slow Dance...the upcoming digital album from Ray Stevens where he offers his renditions of numerous pop music standards and love songs. Among the songs Ray selected to cover are: "Unforgettable", "Stardust", "I'll See You In My Dreams", "The Great Pretender", and "What a Wonderful World". The album title is in reference to the song, "Slow Dancing", which had been a hit for Johnny Rivers and later on a country hit for Johnny Duncan. I'm anxious to hear the way Ray Stevens arranges these songs. I'm sure he'll re-arrange them...someway.
When looking over the song titles they range from early pop to mid '70s pop...with the album's opening number his rendition of "Only You and You Alone", originally a massive hit in 1955 for The Platters. "As Usual", originally a hit in 1964 for Brenda Lee, is also covered by Ray on this digital album. There is a medley consisting of "Make Believe / It's Only Make Believe". I know very well the second half of the medley..."It's Only Make Believe" was a huge pop hit for Conway Twitty in 1958. The first half of the medley, "Make Believe", is a mystery for now. There's a 1927 pop song from the Show Boat musical with that title and there's a 1982 pop hit by the group, Toto, plus there's numerous other songs called "Make Believe".
The renditions that will be the most eye-catching for the curious will likely be: "Only You and You Alone", "What a Wonderful World", "Slow Dancing", and "The Great Pretender" but for us Ray Stevens fans we'll be anxious and excited to hear all of the songs. The digital album will be released next Friday (April 23). I'm assuming that there will be a sneak peek audio of one of the songs from the album prior to it's April 23rd release. If this happens I'll, of course, embed the audio clip in a future blog entry.
I can hardly contain the excitement!! I just visited the social media sites of Ray Stevens and learned that he'll be releasing all new recordings beginning in a few weeks!! Ray, who signed with Curb Records in the latter half of 2020, is embarking on a mammoth project. It's not going to be as big as 2012's Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music but it's definitely of the same magnitude as far as brand new recordings being released. According to the press release Ray will issue 4 albums worth of new recordings beginning later this month and running through May. These albums will be released digitally and given that they're going to be released through Curb Records expect to find them in the digital download section of Amazon. The report further goes on and says that all 4 albums will be issued in CD format, too, as a box set in June. Yes, before you can ask, I'll be purchasing the digital downloads and then I'll be getting the CD release of those 4 albums in June!
On Ray's Facebook page he revealed the images that appear on each of the 4 albums. If you're a longtime fan of Ray's or are familiar with some of his older interviews this past decade (2010-present) you'll know he's talked of a Bluegrass album with the title, Melancholy Fescue. If you're familiar with his music video of "Unchained Melody" this is one of the songs that will be on that particular CD. That music video hit YouTube back in October of 2013! Yes, that's how long this Bluegrass project's been on the backburner in Ray's career. That upcoming album is subtitled High Class Bluegrass...in other words the recordings will be of songs you wouldn't expect to hear arranged in a Bluegrass fashion, like "Unchained Melody". The video's gotten over 850,000 unique views since it's premiere in October 2013.
Just in case you're new to the music/career of Ray Stevens here's the 2013 music video of "Unchained Melody", one of the songs that will be on 2021's Melancholy Fescue...
The names of the upcoming albums are: Great Country Ballads (February 26th); Melancholy Fescue/High Class Bluegrass (March 26th); Slow Dance (April 23rd); and Nouveau Retro/What's Old is New Again (May 21st). As previously mentioned all four of these upcoming digital albums will then be released on CD on June 18th in one box set called Iconic Songs of the 20th Century (The Soundtrack of Our Lives). Ray made mention of these projects in his interview last year at the Musicians Hall of Fame. I wrote a blog entry and included an embed of the interview. The interview can be seen on YouTube in case you don't want to search the archives section for the exact blog entry where I shared the video. There will be 12 songs on each of the albums according to a press release found on Music Row's webpage.
Great Country Ballads: "Please Help Me I'm Falling", "Crazy", "City Lights", "I Can't Stop Loving You", "Bouquet of Roses", "Room Full of Roses", "Your Cheatin' Heart", "Cryin' Time", "I Can't Help It If I'm Still in Love With You", "Making Believe", "Sweet Dreams", and "Til I Get it Right".
Melancholy Fescue (High Class Bluegrass): "Ruby/Ruby Baby", "Pretty Woman", "In the Still of the Night", "At This Moment", "Twilight Time", "Unchained Melody", "Spring is Here", "Sophisticated Lady", "People", "Can't Take My Eyes off of You", "Goin' Out of My Head", and "MacArthur Park".
Slow Dance: "Only You and You Alone", "Unforgettable", "Make Believe/It's Only Make Believe", "Great Pretender", "I'll See You In My Dreams", "Slow Dancing", "Answer Me", "Stardust", "As Usual", "Dream", "This is All I Ask", and "What a Wonderful World".
Nouveau Retro (What's Old is New Again): "April in Paris", "Blue Moon", "Earth Angel", "Lay Me Down, Roll Me out to Sea", "Cry Me a River", "Mountain of Love", "Talk to Me", "Young Love", "Indian Love Call", "No, Not Much", "You Don't Know Me", and "Always Chasing Rainbows/Over the Rainbow".
As you read earlier in the blog entry I'll be purchasing the digital downloads and the CD...some may choose to purchase only the digital downloads whereas some may actually wait until June and purchase all of them in one box set. In this computer age I always prefer to have music on CD as a backup and so I still purchase CD copies of Ray's music (if available) in addition to the digital downloads. What do the album/promotional covers look like?? Well, take a look at this...
