Ray Stevens: I Have Returned...this week in 1986...

One of the funniest Ray Stevens recordings, "The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone", was part of an album that was released in the latter half of 1985. I Have Returned hit late in the year on the heels of He Thinks He's Ray Stevens, which had seen it's release hit the Country Top-10 and eventually receive Gold certification (half a million in sales). The bulk of that 1984 album's success took up most of 1985 and so in the fall of 1985 along came the follow-up, I Have Returned. The novelty album began a slow climb up the Billboard Country chart and peaked at Number One for the week ending March 15, 1986. It, too, would eventually become a Gold record. Earlier today on Ray's social media sites an audio of the full version of "The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone" emerged. An edited copy of this song appears on the MCA 1987 album, Greatest Hits, Volume Two. It's the single release, radio edit of the song. The album version is broken in two parts and that is what you'll hear below...



I Have Returned:
1. Thus Cacked Henrietta
2. Hugo the Human Cannonball
3. Vacation Bible School
4. Armchair Quarterback
5. The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone, Part One
6. The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone, Part Two
7. Kiss a Pig
8. The Haircut Song
9. The Pirate Song
10. Punk Country Love
11. Santa Claus is Watching You

Ray Stevens: The Taylor Swift Music Video, Entry 12...

Hello once more to the fan-created blog focusing on the music and goings-on in the world of Ray Stevens. In my previous blog entry I mentioned the sale of one of Ray's DVDs, Such a Night: 50 Years of Hits and Hilarity. The sale runs until the end of this month. You can visit the product page HERE and purchase your copy. This DVD has only been available exclusively on Ray's website since 2012 and offered at the merchandise table at concerts. It's never been the object of television advertising and so the general public is probably not aware of it's existence and it's not been officially marketed for sale on Amazon even though consumers often offer copies of it for sale in the Marketplace area. The concert footage comes from performances at The Welk Theatre and Resort in Branson, Missouri.

I had been noticing the increasing number of unique views of Ray's "Taylor Swift is Stalkin' Me" video and it passed the 300,000 mark earlier this morning.



One of the more bizarre things in entertainment news is the recent flap over the criticism of a current song from Taylor Swift by Miley Cyrus. I read the original commentary and the point Cyrus happened to be making about double standards, ageism, and sexism. Although this isn't the place for any kind of argue and debate, especially about non-Ray Stevens subject matter, I brought it up because half of the subject matter ties into Ray's music video. The current total of unique views for that particular video are 300,222. The song/music video had been heavily promoted by Ray through appearances on a couple of radio talk shows and a couple of appearances at the Grand Ole Opry...all of it leading up to the release of his current CD, Here We Go Again! in late March.

The CD spawned the current mini-tour he's been on...his next concert appearance is scheduled for September 12th at The Andy Williams Theatre in Branson, Missouri. Tickets to this concert became available awhile back and so it may be sold-out or a near sell-out. You'll have to call 1-800-MOON-094 to find out any information. I'd posted about this concert several months ago...several times...but now it's only a calendar month away from taking place. The tickets happened to go on sale back on May 18th. Click the upcoming link and you'll be able to read much more information about the appearance via this PRESS RELEASE. It contains a local number to call in case you're in the general area.

On September 19th he'll be in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at The Alabama Theatre. You can click HERE for information. If you're like me you'll like the advertisement for his appearance...the image from the Ray Stevens Gospel Collection, Volume One is being used as a publicity photo.

On September 26th Ray appears for the third time this year as a guest on the Grand Ole Opry. I can't recall any other year that Ray's made as many guest appearances at the members-only Grand Ole Opry. In addition to that third Opry guest appearance Ray had also appeared on the Opry Country Classics radio series hosted by Larry Gatlin several months ago. Ray's never been a member of the Grand Ole Opry...can't understand why he's never become a member by now...he lives in Nashville, too...but nevertheless he'll make another guest appearance next month.

In addition to the current CD and the music videos, "Taylor Swift is Stalkin' Me" and "You Didn't Build That", let's remember that Ray has a memoir on the market titled Ray Stevens' Nashville. The book can be purchased on several sites but I often supply a link to my Amazon review located HERE. Once there you'll see the Add to Cart button over on the right hand side of the page.

Here's a Ray Stevens 50 year time capsule in 6 lines:

1965: Mercury Records releases the novelty single "Rockin' Teenage Mummies".

1975: Barnaby Records releases the single, "Misty", and it takes home a Grammy.

1985: MCA Records album He Thinks He's Ray Stevens is certified Gold.

1995: Direct-to-Home Video movie, Get Serious!, is released.

2005: Records the novelty single "We're Having a Baby (The Natural Way)".

2015: Releases 2 comedy music videos and the CD Here We Go Again!

Of course that's just a generic time capsule and nothing incredibly detailed at all and it only covers the previous 50 years, in 10 year increments, dating back to 1965...and we all know Ray's music career dates back to 1957. I thought it rather amusing to compress 50 years into 6 lines...it can be seen as a satiric look at modern day biographers, too, because of this lack of detail and depth I purposely gave the time capsule. If I wanted to get detailed I could've pointed out activity in Ray's career in every single year from 1965 through the present but I chose not to...this blog entry is long enough as it is...but there's some other things I want to highlight and so the blog entry is going to become longer...

In the 50+ year of Ray Stevens the re-releasing of studio albums is a part of the cycle. Record companies and their subsidiaries and independent labels getting license to issue previously recorded songs is commonplace. In 1997 Ray Stevens released a comedy album for MCA titled Hum It. The album features Ray on the cover as a referee in a picture frame next to a visual parody of Whister's Mother (also Ray Stevens). Curb Records reissued the 1997 CD in 2011...accompanied by a slightly different visual appearance in cover art...

The original release, from March 1997, tickled the funny bones of most of the music critics. A lot of attention tended to be given to the cover art...some mistakenly thinking that Ray appeared as Mother Bates instead of Whistler's Mother on the cover. I believe it took place in an interview with Crook and Chase but Ray was eventually asked why he dressed up as Norman Bates' mother on the CD cover and that led him to explain the concept behind the cover art. Ray explained that the album's title is based on the idea that Whistler's Mother is tired of whistling and from now on she'll just 'hum it' instead of whistling. The Ray referee in the picture blowing a whistle right next to the "mother" suddenly made a lot of sense to those that couldn't originally understand the concept behind the cover art. Once this little bit of curiosity was solved the focus became the music. One of the highlights of the album is "Mama Sang Bass"...it represents a rare time in the career of Ray Stevens that he performs a duet...but not in the conventional sense. In this case J.D. Sumner, famed bass singer, appears on the recording as Mama. Ray plays the part of Daddy in a high, tenor voice. The song's story takes place in a church setting, mostly, as Ray tells about a couple that work in factories that ultimately impact their chemical structure. Mama worked in a plant that made steroids and Daddy worked in a plant that manufactured birth control pills. As time goes by Mama seems to be developing attributes conventionally applied to men. Daddy, meanwhile, sees a reversal too...each going so far as to change habits. Daddy becomes family cook and Mama finds herself needing to shave her face. Ray performed this song only once on television...J.D. Sumner himself appeared on the program and had a lot of fun playing Mama. Ray promoted a couple of other songs from the album, though, in music video format: "Virgil and the Moonshot" and "Too Drunk To Fish". This being 1997 and years before the creation of YouTube and social media as we know it the videos didn't get the kind of exposure they currently do via social media. An audience of more than 64,000 have seen the video of Virgil's adventure in outer space. On the other hand an audience of almost a million have seen "Too Drunk To Fish". The current total number of unique vies for that video are 999,983!! The video needs 17 more discoveries to reach a million. Please note that the video's uploaded by a channel called RayStevensVEVO and not the usual RayStevensMusic. However, this music video's long been available on-line and it'll be nice to see it crack the million mark...the embed closes out the blog entry.

Curb Records, as mentioned, reissued this CD in 2011. If you glance back up at the 1997 release the background color is a bit more green and this one is much darker. Also the lettering is changed. Instead of Ray's name appearing across the top of the cover it appears beneath the photo of the referee and the title appears in bigger letters underneath his name. Also the color of the lettering has changed from yellow to white. Also, the color is so dark that one can't see the chair as you can in the 1997 release. In addition to the songs I mentioned the rest of the CD features songs ranging from amusing to charming. One of the amusing is "She Loves Elvis Better Than Me"...a tale of a guy whose wife has a flirtation with the late King of Rock and Roll. The album opens up with a rollicking tale of family fun in an "R.V." that seems to create more chaos than comfort. On the charming level is "I'll Be In Atlanta". I love that song!! It's got a great arrangement/melody steeped in Dixieland and it's fun to listen to Ray incorporate imagery and characters from Gone with The Wind. Even though it's never explicitly stated that he's doing so you can't help but think of the film as he name drops the likes of Scarlett, Rhett, Melanie, Ashley, Prissy, Mammy, and the plantation house of Tara. Ray performed this song a couple of times on television appearances in the mid 1990s. Did I forget to mention I love the Dixieland arrangement??

Ray Stevens: What's Planned for 2015??

An early New Year's Eve hello to all the fans of Ray Stevens!! As has become the tradition each year I speculate and opine on things to come in the new year as far as the career of Ray Stevens is concerned. Here's hoping that 2015 is the year a couple of much-anticipated projects see the light of day: a Bluegrass CD, a novelty song CD, and Volume Two of the Gospel Collection. If the follow-up to the gospel CD is to be in the near future I assume it'll arrive around Easter but that's just my guess because for all we know Ray could issue Volume Two this coming January...but that doesn't seem likely. Ray has also, at various times throughout 2014, mentioned that he's also working on a CD of non-political comedy songs.  

A lot of us Ray Stevens fans have been aware of a future Bluegrass project from Ray...he's made mention of the project several times over the years (!) and as mentioned in the above greeting here's hoping the project gets a release in 2015. I believe it was early 2013 or it may have been in late 2013 when Ray appeared as a guest on the Grand Ole Opry and made mention of an upcoming Bluegrass project and performed "Pretty Woman" in a Bluegrass arrangement. His music video of "Unchained Melody", in Bluegrass-style, is also a song that's to be on this anticipated release. In early interviews he stated that the CD's title is Melancholy Fescue...but it's hard to tell if that's going to remain the official title or if it's just the working title.

Checking the anniversary calendar for 2015 there's several big projects that reach a milestone this coming year.

First and most importantly is Ray Stevens reaching 76 next month on January 24th.

Starting things off...reaching 45 in 2015 is Ray's monster hit from 1970, "Everything is Beautiful". The single re-defined 'Ray Stevens' in the eyes of the buying public. Even though Ray had long displayed his serious side on many albums and single releases since the late '50s, "Everything is Beautiful" cemented his image as a pop vocalist and pretty much all of Ray's single releases during the 1970s were non-comical (exceptions included a novelty single late in 1970, a comedy LP in 1974, and a couple of out of the blue novelty releases later on that decade). Also, Ray had a major boost in his career thanks to consistent exposure on television. He'd become one of the recurring guests on Andy Williams' television program in 1969...Ray was named the host of Andy's summer program in 1970...and Ray remained a frequent guest on Andy's program through 1971. "Everything is Beautiful" became the summer television program's theme song/music. In America the single had hit #1 for 2 weeks on the pop chart and #1 for 3 weeks on the Adult-Contemporary chart (spanning the months of late May through late June 1970). The single entered the Hot 100 in April 1970 and by it's 9th week it took control of the #1 spot. It vanished from the pop chart after it's 15th chart week but it continued to appear on several international charts. Ironically, the single had it's biggest impact just prior to Ray taking over Andy's television program in late June. The single had already left the Top-10 portion of the pop chart by the time the first episode of Ray's summer program aired. Nevertheless, the exposure of the song each week (theme music) helped sales of the album, Everything is Beautiful, and the single continued to register sales even after the song became a recurrent. The 1970 album hit the Top-40 half of the Billboard 200 in July...the title track and "A Brighter Day" are the only self-written songs on the album. The rest of the recordings are Ray's versions of contemporary pop songs of the era. The summer television program ran from June 20 to August 8.

Other single/album releases from 1970 that are turning 45 in 2015 are: "America, Communicate with Me" and "Sunset Strip", both from Ray's album, Unreal!!!. Each single reached the Top-10 on the Adult-Contemporary chart...but their impact on pop music listeners/consumers didn't duplicate the smashing success of "Everything is Beautiful" (pop music consumers then, much like today, are traditionally the under-40 audience...the advertiser targeted 18-34 age group). 

Oh, before I forget...Andy owned the Barnaby Records label that Ray recorded for during the first half of the 1970s (1970-1975) and Andy's brother, Don, was Ray's manager for many, many years.

Here's a performance of "Everything is Beautiful" from that very summer television program in 1970 as hosted by Ray Stevens...



In December 1970 "Bridget the Midget the Queen of the Blues" hit the music scene. Oh yes, amidst the angst, protest, and unrest of 1970 Ray Stevens hadn't lost his funny bone and this funny bit of comical mayhem emerged as a single. It had it's biggest impact in the early half of 1971...nevertheless, the novelty single entered the charts in late December 1970 so it, too, reaches 45 in 2015.

Reaching 40 in 2015 is Misty. Released in 1975, the Misty album featured Ray's versions of several pop standards delivered in various original arrangements. The album, of course, is named for one of his single releases that year, "Misty". The single's arrangement (most notably piano, fiddle, and iconic steel guitar) earned Ray his second Grammy. Previously, "Misty" had been made popular by Johnny Mathis. His recording featured a much more slower vocal and even slower music. Prior to that, one of the song's composers, Erroll Garner, had an instrumental recording on the market. Johnny Burke wrote lyrics to Erroll's music. Ray turned the song around and gave it an up-tempo, Bluegrass-flavored presentation. This jolt in music arrangement for a song popularly known as a slow ballad sums up the Misty album. The songs that Ray covers are arranged in the opposite of what's popularly familiar. "Misty" became a Top-5 country music hit, a Top-20 pop hit, and a Top-10 hit internationally (music surveys published in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, and Austria ranked the song in their Top-10). In addition to "Misty", other single releases from the album include: "Indian Love Call" and "Young Love". Ray included 2 original songs on the album, among the cover songs: The self-written "Sunshine" is a toe-tapping sing-a-long and then there's the romantic "Take Care of Business". It's been said in several publications that the song's writer, Layng Martine, Jr., sought inspiration for it's title by the popular hook line in Ray's 1968 hit "Mr. Businessman". Aside from those similarities there's nothing else in common between the songs. Ray's versions of "Lady of Spain", "Deep Purple", and "Cow-Cow Boogie" are great, too!

Stand back or else risk getting run over by Coy...oh yes, 2015 will mark the 35th anniversary of "The Shriner's Convention", commercially released in early 1980.

One of Ray's Gold albums, I Have Returned, turns 30 in 2015. The album hit the market in the latter half of 1985 and ultimately climbed to #1 in early 1986 on the Billboard Country Album chart. Single releases from that project included: "The Haircut Song", "The Blue Cyclone", and the seasonal "Santa Claus is Watching You". The re-recording of "Santa Claus is Watching You" became Ray's first music video (for more information on that song see my 2014 Christmas day blog post in the archives).

A couple of other recordings from that 1985 album have become popular amongst fans of Ray Stevens and have since been immortalized in music video form: "Hugo the Human Cannonball" and "The Pirate Song". Strangely enough "Kiss a Pig" nor "Punk Country Love" have entered music video territory...but the two songs are hysterical in their own kind of way.

Turning 20 in 2015 is Ray's 1995 direct-to-home video movie, Get Serious!!. This home video movie became the third best selling video project for Ray Stevens during the 1990s (following 1992's Comedy Video Classics and 1993's Ray Stevens Live!). Since the home videos were sold through direct marketing during their initial availability the titles weren't eligible to enter the Billboard sales charts (no retail availability). The 1992 home video entered the Billboard video chart in May of 1992, several months after it's explosive run on television. Get Serious!! seen a retail release in late 1996 (almost a full year after it's direct marketing campaign began) and it entered the Billboard video chart in January 1997 and it remained among the top selling home videos through the fall of 1997.

And so, here's to an upcoming new year...and here's hoping that it'll be filled with a lot of Ray Stevens music!!