Ray Stevens: "Dizzy" performance by Tommy Roe...

Hello all you fans of Ray Stevens on this Mother's Day 2021. Today is also the birthday of Tommy Roe and earlier this morning Ray uploaded a video clip of Tommy's appearance on CabaRay Nashville. The video clip features a brief interview/conversation between Ray and Tommy...and then the performance of "Dizzy". If you're not familiar and hadn't looked up information about him yet I'll mention that Tommy Roe was among the artists who migrated from Georgia and into pop music history. Ray shares a history with numerous 1960's recording artists from the Atlanta, Georgia market such as Joe South, Billy Joe Royal, Jerry Reed, Sonny James, and Tommy Roe. The common link happened to be disc jockey, music publisher, and executive Bill Lowery. Tommy's biggest single is the million selling "Dizzy" but he had several more hit singles...including three more that sold a million copies each. His other million selling hit songs are "Shelia", "Sweet Pea", and "Jam Up and Jelly Tight". Tommy retired from recording and giving interviews early in 2018 and so, in hindsight, his guest appearance on CabaRay Nashville is officially one of his last televised appearances before making the decision to retire.

Ray Stevens: Seasons of Sessions...

If you all have been familiar with the career of Ray Stevens for as long as I have then you'll be aware that Ray used to appear on recording sessions in Nashville, Tennessee on a fairly frequent basis throughout the '60s and into the early '70s. Ray has often, when asked, spoken about his years as a session musician. He often cites specific things that took place in recording sessions or who he worked along side and as well as any information about the producer of those sessions. Sometimes, due to the passage of time, everything seems like a blur to him. He was declared a Nashville Cat a number of years ago for the sheer amount of recording sessions he appeared on. In addition being a musician he, at times, produced a lot of recording sessions for small labels. He also was a music arranger for a lot of recording artists on top of being a musician and record producer. Ray could more or less do it all, technically speaking, and he eventually became his own music arranger, producer, and leader of the studio band on his albums. 

If everything I made mention of isn't already impressive enough he is also a songwriter. He wrote a majority of the songs he recorded throughout the first half of his career. Well, I should say, he wrote the majority of his recordings between the years 1961 and 1983. He did several covers albums in the 1960s and 1970s which features a lot of songs that he didn't write...but if we're to focus primarily on the albums featuring original songs, well, most of those that were released in that time period were self-written. His songwriting helped him get elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980. The same year he was elected to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. It's also important to point out that a majority of the albums that Ray released during 1962-1983 were mostly all serious...filled with all kinds of ballads of various category. He sang love ballads that fit both the pop and country music formats; he sang rhythm and blues style songs; he sang up-tempo and mid-tempo songs that crossed most all music forms...including gospel music. He recorded social commentary with a heavy topical overtone and then there were the comedy/novelty songs. As I've touched on many times a lot of people would be surprised to learn that Ray really never released that many comedy albums in the 1960s or the 1970s. You'd think he would've had dozens of zany, novelty albums racked up in his discography from that time period but it just isn't the case. In those days the single record was heavily favored over the long-playing album (LP). So back then, if a single became a big hit, then a record company would build an album around it. 

His first two Mercury Records albums feature novelty songs and ballads: 1,837 Seconds of Humor (1962) and This is Ray Stevens (1963). Ray's first album to feature all comedy songs is Gitarzan (1969). In the recording sessions for Ray's earlier albums he played piano/keyboard...since that is his main musical instrument. He wasn't his own record producer in those days...it was Shelby Singleton. In the years prior to Shelby's involvement the main guidance of Ray's career happened to be Bill Lowery. Ken Nelson, Jerry Kennedy, Chet Atkins, Fred Foster, and Ralph Emery were also important figures in Ray's early career. Ray worked with the likes of Tommy Roe, Joe South, Jerry Reed, and Billy Joe Royal in and around Atlanta, Georgia. All of them at one time or another appeared on a local radio series called The Georgia Jubilee. Ray posted a photo from the early 1960s at the ABC/Paramount Recording Studio owned by record producer Sam Phillips. Ray was often on the recording sessions of various vocal groups and recording artists on small labels and larger labels. I can spot Ray from a mile away. There wasn't any background given as to why there's so many women in the photo. Some of us Ray Stevens fans spoke online about it might be some sort of field trip to a recording studio by a local high school music class or something. Ray identified some of the other people in the photo: Billy Sherrill, Tommy Roe, Allen Breed, and Hugh Jarrett. 

As far as Ray's recording sessions go a soul group known as The Tams, for example, some of their recordings were published by Bill Lowery (credited as Lowery Music, Inc.). On some of the single releases by The Tams the performances are credited as Ahab Productions, signaling that Ray Stevens was the record producer. This is no doubt a reference to Ray's 1962 novelty, "Ahab the Arab". Some of the recordings by The Tams were on ABC/Paramount and it's possible this photo is from when Ray was producing and working on sessions with The Tams. He produced their recordings of "Untie Me" and "Disillusioned" and the audio clips are on YouTube. When you listen to "Untie Me" you can hear Ray's 'sound' from that time period all over it. Joe South wrote "Untie Me". When Ray began his music publishing company he called it Ahab Music. He changed the name in 1977 to Ray Stevens Music. He's created several music publishing companies that are in the official umbrella of Ray Stevens Music but almost everything he's recorded since 1977 is credited to Ray Stevens Music.

Ray's involvement in so many recording sessions have almost gone by with little notice over the decades. I've been a fan for years and years and even I'm still discovering information about recording sessions that he participated in over the course of his career. Some of this has to do with the lack of proper credit...musician credits were rarely shown on albums from the '60s...unless the musician publicly disclosed everything they played on it was likely a general audience wouldn't have any idea who played on what.     

Ray Stevens: Vintage Visuals late '50s...

This is an updated photo of myself and an obscure CD titled Ray Stevens: The NRC Years 1958-1960. I posted a photo of myself and this CD in a blog entry last year and in that photo I'm as clean-shaven as Ray happens to be on the CD's picture sleeve. This time around, though, I've got some facial hair (I hadn't shaved in a couple of days) and obviously Ray Stevens remains clean-shaven in the photo. I decided to create this blog entry because of it's dramatic step back from the previous two I'd written. I thought it would be fun to return to the earliest of years in the career of Ray Stevens and return to 1959...oh yes...that's 60 years ago...and give some focus on this group of NRC recordings once more. It's something of a numerical pattern game I like playing...if I've written a blog entry focusing on Ray's career in 2001, for example, the next blog entry may jump ahead 10 years to 2011 or go back 10 years to 1991. I also have another reason for focusing on this time period in Ray's career...but more on that a little later. This CD features 11 recordings on the NRC label...a company originated in Atlanta, Georgia in 1958 by disc jockey/producer/publisher, Bill Lowery, and Boots Woodall. The acronym, NRC, stands for National Recording Corporation. Ray's early career is tied inexorably to Bill Lowery and you can't factually write articles, essays or blog entries on the early career of Ray Stevens and not incorporate the impact, importance, and influence of Bill Lowery. Even though NRC was co-founded by Bill Lowery in 1958 the business relationship with Ray goes back even earlier. As a song publisher and promoter Lowery often visited local radio stations and would promote artists and often the radio disc jockey would engage the artist with an interview. Ray signed his first recording contract in 1957 for a label known as Prep Records, a subsidiary of Capitol Records. Although the Prep and Capitol sessions were produced by Ken Nelson it was Bill Lowery who happened to be responsible for the publishing end. "Silver Bracelet", released in 1957 on Prep, was written by Ray and published by Lowery Music.

One of the recordings that Ray did at the NRC label happened to be "High School Yearbook" based upon "The Deck of Cards". If you know your music history then you'll recognize the latter as a spoken word classic...I am much more familiar with the versions by country music artists but the pop music hit is identified with game show host Wink Martindale. The songwriters of "High School Yearbook" a/k/a "The Deck of Cards" are credited on the NRC recording as W. York, R. Baxley, and S. Singleton which I'm assuming stands for Shelby Singleton!? The song is based upon "Deck of Cards" but rather than it being a cover version about how cards are used by a soldier as a substitute for a bible Ray's recording tells of a high school student that uses a deck of cards to remind him of his less than stellar academic life and that the deck of cards is a substitute for a yearbook...closing the performance stating that as a result of his sloppy performance during Senior year in high school he won't be graduating with the rest of the class.

1959

The concept of a soldier comparing a deck of cards to a bible is credited with being created in the late 1800s but it was never set to music until the late 1940s. Ray's recitation from 1959 doesn't credit T. Texas Tyler as a songwriter...for he's the one that wrote "Deck of Cards" in 1948. The B-side of 1959's "High School Yearbook" is a song Ray wrote titled "Truly True" with Lowery Music as the publisher. In my way of thinking Lowery's desire of making Atlanta an important outlet for music represents the concept of Independent-thinking...that is, rather than working in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, or Nashville he felt Atlanta could produce just as many quality recordings as those places. This independent style of thinking, I'd say, influenced the people that worked for him...and Ray Stevens is no exception. When you think about it Ray has long been his own producer, arranger, song publisher, and session musician who rarely, if ever, releases records as a result of marketing research (often referred to as 'radio-friendly' songs) and he never deliberately chased trends although, being a shrewd businessman, he embraced a lot of styles over the decades and his career has had a lot of twists and turns as a result. His independence, he remarked in his 2014 MEMOIR, has a lot to do with his lack of collaborators as far as album production is concerned. He works with a crew of people on whatever it is that he's working on but he ultimately has the final say on his career decisions and song choices. There have only been a few times in his career where he recruited a co-producer and although his earliest recordings do not credit him as a record producer I'd say he was the creative force behind those recordings as far as their execution given his music arranging prowess.

The 11 recordings on this CD, to my way of thinking, is an almost complete representation of his NRC years. Now, for the most part, the songs on the CD are listed as A-side/B-side. NRC released four singles on Ray during 1958-1960 but he recorded a number of songs for the label that were not released until years later on obscure, low-budget albums. In addition to recording he was also a session musician, music arranger, and songwriter for other artists on the NRC roster. The lack of detailed information surrounding Ray's recordings for NRC as well as Capitol Records tend to add confusion and uncertainty when it comes to bloggers...and this CD goes a long way in adding to the confusion due to the final three recordings on the CD. There is an on-line source that credits the song "Cholly Wolly Chang" to Capitol Records whereas this CD it's credited as a recording on the NRC label. Track ten, "Part of the Time", and the final track, "That's What She Means to Me" must be unreleased recordings for the label. If you do on-line searches for Ray's late '50s recordings you'll also come across an 8-track from Cadet Records titled Lean Times. That 8-track, which doesn't feature a year of release, is one of those releases that adds to the murkiness by blending his Capitol and NRC recordings on one compilation. Lean Times, for example, features "High School Yearbook" but it also features a song he recorded for Capitol in 1958 titled "Cat Pants". Also, Lean Times refers to "Truly True" as 'Truly Truly' as does Crown Records in their 1965 compilation album titled Ray "Ahab the Arab" Stevens and Hal Winters. What exactly are the songs found on this NRC Years CD you may be asking yourselves? Here's the song list...

1. Sgt. Preston of the Yukon
2. Who Do You Love?
3. Happy Blue Year (instrumental)
4. High School Yearbook
5. Truly True
6. What Would I Do Without You?
7. White Christmas (instrumental)
8. My Heart Cries For You
9. Cholly Wolly Chang
10. Part of the Time
11. That's What She Means To Me

Earlier this year a book was released on the life and career of Bill Lowery and his impact on the music industry...with a bulk of that impact originating from Atlanta, Georgia. The book is titled Atlanta Pop in the '50s, '60's, and '70s: The Magic of Bill Lowery. You can purchase the book from Amazon by clicking HERE. The book's been available since April of this year. There's a limited preview section and there's a lot of mentions of Ray...in the index it shows that Ray's name appears several other times in areas of the book without the free preview. The back cover of the book has a nice photo of Joe South, Tommy Roe, and Billy Joe Royal. When you visit Ray's CabaRay showroom in Nashville you'll obviously make a stop inside the piano bar. On the wall overlooking the bar is a large portrait of Bill Lowery, with a drink in his hand, and a banner above that reads: The Bill Lowery High Spirits Emporium.

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...Tommy Roe

Hello once again...oh yes I know that I hadn't posted a blog entry in a couple of weeks but a lot of it had to do with off-line events taking place that took me away from the computer and of course other demands prevented me from posting as well. As most of the frequent readers/visitors of this blog should know by now I rarely post episode summaries halfheartedly which is what you would've gotten if I attempted to simply rush an episode summary to the internet...but I prefer to be as detailed as possible.

Now, to be specific, in this particular blog entry it's a summary of the September 2nd episode of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville which guest starred Tommy Roe. The episode was officially billed as the bubblegum pop show because of it's guest star. A promo for the episode appeared on YouTube several days ago...but yet the episode by that time had already aired...but I'm posting the promo here nevertheless because you never know...at some point the episode is bound to air on PBS stations that pick the show up at some later date...and so this serves as a promo for that episode...



Ray opened the episode singing "Chantilly Lace" in his own style...utilizing a familiar physical presence seen during performances of his immortal classic, "It's Me Again, Margaret". Ray recorded his version of "Chantilly Lace" several years ago and it's part of his 9-CD collection, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. Following the opening performance there's a short clip from his 1995 Get Serious! movie...the clip features George Lindsey as a Shriner introducing Ray to some other members of the shrine and they're presenting Ray with a dune buggy...referred to in the movie as The Mone Mobile.

After this sketch airs Ray introduces Tommy Roe but not before Ray makes mention of their past in Atlanta and the music scene at the time. Bubblegum is the order of the day as Ray grabs a large plastic bin of bubblegum for everybody on the set. Ray and Tommy grab their piece while one of the harmony singers, Sabrina, hands out bubblegum to the band and ultimately the audience. Tommy speaks about his entrance into the industry and "Sheila"...and Ray brings up Tommy's record producer at the time, Felton Jarvis. Ray mentions that he and Felton were once brothers-in-law (Ray and Felton married a couple of sisters). Ray and Tommy speak about Felton's idolization of Elvis, too. Tommy mentions that the first album released on him, also called Sheila, featured musical arrangement by none other than Ray Stevens. I've searched all over the internet but all the images I've come across the music arranger isn't credited. During my image search I came across various single releases of the song and the LP releases in both the America and International market. I was wanting to find an arranger credit for Ray Stevens on a Tommy Roe project as a visual for the blog entry but I couldn't find one. If I ever come across one I'll edit the image into this blog entry at a later date...but back to the summary...

After Ray and Tommy speak about their early musical endeavors, which also included a photo being displayed of Tommy and Ray in the recording studio in the early '60s, Tommy sings his 1969 number one hit, "Dizzy". Throughout the performance the camera pans over to the band and the harmony singers...several of them blowing bubbles as they play their instruments. After the high energy performance of "Dizzy" there's an edit...and these edits/fade outs are commonplace on Ray's television program and if you have an eagle eye you should be able to spot them. Some are more obvious than others. The edits represent where a commercial would be if the series were running on commercial television but because it airs on PBS stations there aren't any commercial insertions. Anyway...after the fade out/fade in...Ray introduces Tommy one more time. Tommy performs "Memphis Me".

Upon the conclusion of the performance Ray walks back into the scene and removes his jacket. Tommy had been performing "Memphis Me" in a white shirt...and so Ray took off his own jacket to reveal a white button up shirt, too. That scene was highlighted in the video promo embedded above. In a bit of coincidence or intent this Tommy Roe episode airing the weekend of September 1st...airing here in my area on September 2...but the coincidence or irony tied to this episode comes from the fact that "Sheila" had hit number one on September 1, 1962...even though it was Tommy's other number one, "Dizzy", that got the spotlight via performance on Ray's show Saturday night. Given that "Dizzy" was performed rather than "Sheila" leads me to assume that Tommy's episode airing the weekend of September 1st was merely coincidence.

In a second installment of the Comedy Theater segment we're treated to the music video of "Dudley Dorite of the Highway Patrol" (from the 1995 Get Serious! movie). Ray follows this with a performance of "Maybellene"...a 1955 classic made famous by Chuck Berry. This is another song that Ray recorded for his 9-CD project, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. As mentioned in previous blog entries concerning the 9-CD project Ray slipped in his performances of a lot of early rock and roll classics that lend themselves to being associated with novelty songs and in this case it's simply due to the song's uptempo, comical story of a man in a V8 Ford chasing the driver of a Cadillac. The girlfriend of the Ford driver is cheating on him and she's cruising all over town in a Cadillac with her new boyfriend.

Ray closes the show with one of his one-liner jokes...and the melody of "Everything is Beautiful" strikes up...meaning it's slow dance time. On this particular occasion after Ray picks somebody from the audience to dance with a 'gorilla' appears from out of nowhere as the credits are rolling. The gorilla cuts in and begins dancing with the woman that Ray had picked from the audience. A funny, unexpected twist to the familiar closing dance scene. The CabaRay venue is suppose to have it's grand opening next month and I have a feeling this is the main reason a lot of the on-line content has been a bit sparse...there wasn't a video promo of the episode that aired this past Saturday night (guest starring Mark Wills)...and so it's my guess that all of Ray's concentration is being placed on the eventual grand opening of the CabaRay.

I'll have a review/summary of the Mark Wills episode at some point...but as a reminder the guest star on the episode that airs this coming Saturday the 16th is Duane Eddy...and I can't wait to hear the stories/memories that come out of this appearance. I wonder if Ray brings up Wayne Twang? If you don't know who I'm referring to then you haven't heard Ray's "The Rock and Roll Show" novelty song.