Ray Stevens: Slow Dance YouTube Playlist

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. 

Ray Stevens: "Slow Dance" returns to the Amazon Top-100...

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"...

Ray Stevens: 3-Month Recap...

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...

Ray Stevens: My Review of "Slow Dance"...

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.   

Ray Stevens: Two Days until "Slow Dance"...

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. 

Ray Stevens: "Slow Dance" is fast approaching...

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.

Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville...Lari White

It's me once more...and Saturday night's episode of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville was another wonderful site to see. Ray opened the show singing "Unforgettable". Oh yes...it's the same song that became internationally famous for Nat King Cole and decades later, through the use of technology, as a duet with his daughter, Natalie Cole. That early '90s creation won 3 Grammy Awards. Based on research Nat King Cole issued the song as a single twice (the 1951 original and a re-recording in 1961). As I was watching Ray perform the song I was wondering if this will be another song from the Slow Dance project he made mention of awhile back. I had brought up that project back in a different blog entry when he performed "Can't Take My Eyes off You" on a previous episode.

This episode differed from most in that after the opening number he announced that he was walking to his red piano. He walked over, sat down, and introduced the episode's guest, Lari White. As one that hadn't really followed her career much I only knew what a casual music listener might know: the names of some of her songs. One that stands out is "Stepping Stone" but on tonight's episode she performed the song that was her biggest single release, "That's My Baby". Prior to her performing the song she spoke of her appearance in a movie called Cast Away. She said that her involvement in that movie was all based upon an encounter with a FedEx driver. She relates the various things she did and for those familiar with the movie she explains that there were two endings for the film but only one was given the go ahead for the final print.

Ray brings up that Lari is from Florida and she speaks of her upbringing a little bit. She and Sabrina (one of Ray's harmony singers) is also from Florida and for several seconds Lari and Sabrina trade commentary about Florida. Lari speaks of her producing career and even though it wasn't brought up in the show one of her projects was a Platinum selling CD by Toby Keith. She makes mention of her first impressions of her would-be husband, Chuck Cannon. This conversation about her husband leads into her performance of "That's My Baby". During the segue-way from conversation to performance Ray escorts her from the side of the piano to the red carpet down front. I had never seen him do that before with any other female guest.

After the performance Lari speaks of her current CD project and states that it's a 2-CD release. One features updated recordings of her hit songs and the other CD is of new songs. The project is titled Old Friends and New Loves. She name drops Cole Porter, for example, in the lead-up to her second performance on the show. Lari takes her seat at Ray's red piano and speaks of the crooner style of pop music...referring to it by the nickname of The Great American Songbook. She then launches into a slow ballad with light piano inflections titled "Champagne". She made a music video of the song and it's on YouTube. On the show she described the outfit that she pictured in her mind during the writing of the song. This episode was recorded earlier this year during one of the taping sessions. The CD was released in March of this year but you can only purchase it from select on-line music sites. It isn't available on Amazon, for example, but if you Google her name and the CD's title you'll find the various ways to purchase your copy.

After her performance of "Champagne" Ray walked out and complimented her and the song and thanked her for being on the show. In the next segment he closes the show with "Dropkick Me Jesus" and you can find his recording of the song on The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music and on his gospel project, Just a Closer Walk With Thee.

On next week's episode the special guest will be Charley Pride. At the moment the local PBS station that airs Ray's show has the upcoming schedule listed through November 18th. I am hoping the website will add more shows to the page because that means more episodes are going to air. Anyway...the guests for the next five episodes are: Charley Pride (October 21); Janie Fricke (October 28); Gary Mule Deer (November 4); Gary Morris (November 11- billed as The Veteran's Day episode); and John Berry (November 18). The website has no more episodes listed but, as mentioned, hopefully the website adds more additional episodes.

There's still a lot of episodes already taped that have yet to air (including a couple of Christmas themed episodes). It'll be nerve racking as late November gets closer and closer...as I frequently visit the local PBS website...to see if additional episodes have been added (or not). At least it'll be airing for the next five Saturday nights...that much I'm sure of.