Hello once again! Ever since I began this fan created blog centered around legendary Ray Stevens one of the albums that I've often spotlighted and singled out is a release simply titled The Best of Ray Stevens. Now, if you're a dedicated fan of his, then you'll know that The Best of Ray Stevens or a variation of that title is the title of many compilation albums that have been released on Ray over the decades. Some may wonder how does a fan keep it all straight given the similar titles of compilation albums and some may have trouble keeping track. One of the things I've always done is relay the year of release or the record company name. For example The Best of Ray Stevens released by Mercury Records in 1970 could be referred to as The Best of Ray Stevens (Mercury) or The Best of Ray Stevens (1970).
I love the album cover. I like the design and I like the photo of Ray that's used. I also like the coloring. Now, eagle eye fans of Ray or those that already are aware, will notice that in the lower left hand side there's a K-Tel mark. That's the record company that issued this particular The Best of Ray Stevens in 1980. As mentioned earlier there can be a lot of confusion for those that are new to Ray's career and are browsing through his album discography given there are several compilation albums using the same title. For this particular album it might be best to explain that it had been released a year earlier by a company called Imperial House. That particular release happened to be a 2-LP set but as you can see it contains the same title, lettering, coloring, and photo that the 1980 K-Tel release has. The 1979 release has the phrase, 2 Record Set, on display just below Ray's name with the Imperial House mark on the lower left hand side of the album cover. The image shown first is the 1979 Imperial House 2-LP release. The 1980 release wasn't a 2-LP collection but it did feature 18 of the 20 recordings found on the 1979 release. The 1979 2-LP set features 20 recordings ranging from the 1960s through his then most recent recording, "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow". However, do not let the inclusion of that 1979 recording fool you. It's the only Warner Brothers recording by Ray to make the album's track list. The label skipped over the recordings he did in 1976, 1977, and 1978. Here is the track list of that 1979 double album. LP One, Side 1: "Ahab the Arab", "Indian Love Call", "Harry the Hairy Ape", "Unwind", and "Gitarzan". LP One, Side 2: "Mr. Businessman", "Along Came Jones", "Freddie Feelgood", "Nashville", and "Turn Your Radio On". LP Two, Side One: "Everything is Beautiful", "America, Communicate With Me", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", "The Moonlight Special", and "The Streak". LP Two, Side 2: "Misty", "Have a Little Talk With Myself", "Isn't It Lonely Together?", "Bridget the Midget", and "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow". The two recordings left off of the 1980 K-Tel release were "Unwind" and "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow".
A budget minded person may ask oneself: why did the 1979 release with 20 recordings contain 2 vinyl albums yet the 1980 release with 18 recordings contain just 1 vinyl album? I wish I knew the answer. Perhaps the company that issued the 1979 release wanted the allure of having the advertisement of "a 2-LP collection!!" to accompany the sales campaign. It's a collection I wish I had. By the way, did I say that the album photo is one of my all-time favorites of Ray Stevens? I think I did...yeah, I did...
Hello once again...and this is my overview of Episode 4, Season 2 of Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. This episode guest stars Leroy Van Dyke. The show opens up with Ray singing "Cooter Brown", an up-tempo number about a local town drunk who had no cares in the world. The song's title is a reference to a Southern United States legend about a man during the Civil War who lived on the State line separating a Union and Confederate State. It's presumably the border between Kentucky and Tennessee or West Virginia and Virginia where "Cooter Brown" lived...drunk out of his mind for the duration of the Civil War...to prevent having to fight in the war. Legend has it Cooter had family that lived in Union and Confederate States so he had allegiance to the North and the South. Ray's recording of "Cooter Brown" is on his 2015 comedy album, Here We Go Again!.
Ray speaks of moving to Nashville in January of 1962 and becoming a session musician and the head of Mercury Records Artists and Repertoire division. He speaks of the magical day in January when he was involved in three separate hit recordings. In one day at Mercury Records he was in the studio for the recording of Joe Dowell's "Wooden Heart" (playing organ), Leroy Van Dyke's "Walk on By", and his own recording, "Ahab the Arab". Leroy's recording was published by Bill Lowery and produced by Shelby Singleton...as was Ray's "Ahab the Arab". I don't know if Ray played on the "Walk on By" session or if he observed it from behind the producer's glass as Shelby Singleton ran the control board. If so that would mean Ray sat in on the recording session and witnessed it but didn't actually play on it...but he may have been an assistant to Jerry Kennedy who was often credited as "orchestra conductor" on some of Mercury's recordings in addition to being one of the mainstays in the Nashville studio system and ultimately a record producer in his own right. Jerry Kennedy is credited as being one of the guitarists on "Walk on By". Ray introduces Leroy Van Dyke and they discuss Shelby Singleton, Jerry Kennedy, and several more. Leroy mentions that he attempted writing songs and it led him to be a co-writers of "The Auctioneer". Leroy performs "Walk on By" after telling it's origins and how he talked the powers that be into allowing him to record the song. Leroy mentions that what sold him on the song was the follow-up line to the song's title: "Just Walk on By...wait on the corner...".
Ray touched on most of the high points in Leroy's career...even asking him to reveal his age. This was asked by Ray because I feel he wanted the audience to take in/appreciate the stamina and mental sharpness of a man in Leroy's age bracket. Leroy was also heavily involved with the Country Crossroads program. The series was created by Bill Mack (the late disc jockey/songwriter known as The Midnight Cowboy) and he hosted it for many decades. He was eventually joined by co-hosts...one being Jerry Clower (beginning in 1973) and the other being Leroy Van Dyke. His involvement with that series wasn't brought up in this episode of Ray's television show but I thought I'd insert it into this overview nonetheless.
After the performance, Ray's live-action/limited animation music video for "Gone for Good" is played. This is followed by Leroy's performance of "The Auctioneer". We get a second dose of limited animation as Ray shows the "Misty" music video and the episode closes with Ray singing "The Bricklayer's Song".
Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! Curb Records quietly uploaded the 1995 soundtrack album of "Get Serious!" onto YouTube a couple of days ago. This CD was originally issued on Ray's own record label, Clyde, as was the direct-to-VHS movie. The soundtrack is notable for the inclusion of the full-length recording of "We Don't Take Nuthin' Off Nobody". In the movie the song was partially performed. In the movie Ray's been thrown into a dungeon by Dudley Dorite. Ray encounters a family of prisoners hanging on a wall in the dungeon...and the father, Luther, is asked how he and the family have kept their positive attitude in light of the dreary dungeon that they've supposedly been locked up in for years. Luther tells Ray that he and his family have perseverance and are filled with family pride. Luther and his wife talk about their pride...sentiments echoed by his parents who are ALSO prisoner in the dungeon. Luther explains it in more detail with the song "We Don't Take Nuthin' Off Nobody". Now, as mentioned, in the VHS movie the song is only partially performed and there's a music video of it on YouTube. However, the full length recording has rarely become available on YouTube...until now. When you listen to the song you'll hear Ray, in character, as Luther...which, in case you've never seen the Get Serious! movie, will explain the reason why Ray is singing the song in the thick southern accent.
Ray's Get Serious! movie was filmed on location in various areas in Tennessee. Ray, in an interview, made mention that most of the footage was filmed in a town called Burns, Tennessee. The movie, 1 hour and 50 minutes, was called a comedy video movie...it's a movie with 10 music videos interwoven into the story...leading some fans to also consider it a new version of a musical. The official description of the VHS in fan club newsletters of the time, when the VHS was still untitled, was Long-Form Story-Driven Music Comedy Video. The VHS received a lot of publicity on The Nashville Network...commercials for the VHS aired many times in the latter half of 1995 following a national preview of the movie on the Lorianne Crook and Charlie Chase hosted Music City Tonight. The episode was subtitled 'Get Serious Night' and it featured Ray and a list of people who had cameo roles in the movie. Ray sang several songs that appear in the movie...opening the show with a performance of "Gitarzan"...Ray swings in from the side of the stage in his Tarzan outfit. The part of Jane in this television appearance was played by Buddy Kalb...who appeared in the audience singing with a prop bone as if it were a microphone. Some of the songs Ray performed on that Music City Tonight episode were "I Used To Be Crazy" and "Ahab the Arab". Now, off the top of my head, the guests that appeared and participated in discussions about their cameo appearances in the movie were Chet Atkins, Jerry Clower, Johnny Russell, Williams and Ree, George Lindsey, and James Gregory. If you've seen the movie you'll be aware that Jerry Clower had more of a supporting role rather than a brief cameo appearance. A running joke as to why the appearances were so brief is because Johnny Russell's presence demanded more camera and it reduced everyone's camera time. Now, of course, that was a joke...because it was soon revealed that Johnny had less camera time in the movie than anyone. In the first part of the Music City Tonight episode the camera would pan over to Johnny, seated in the audience, and he'd give a peculiar wave to the camera. Little did we viewers know but that wave was the only thing Johnny did in the movie...and he was on camera less than 5 seconds.
In the 1995 television appearance Ray didn't sing "We Don't Take Nuthin' Off Nobody" nor did he sing the other original song he wrote for the movie... "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens". Now, for that song, he sang it as a duet with Connie Freeman, his co-star in the movie. Connie played the role of partially deaf Charlene MacKenzie. The music video from the movie was uploaded onto YouTube awhile ago but since half of this blog entry is about the movie's soundtrack I'm going to embed the audio track of Ray and Connie's duet below...
If you're a longtime fan of Ray Stevens then you're aware that throughout most of the 1980s and more heavily in the 1990s there were many compilation albums released featuring songs from Ray Stevens. There are dozens upon dozens of albums released on Ray with the titles of Greatest Hits, The Best of Ray Stevens, All-Time Hits, and The Very Best of Ray Stevens. There's one called His All-Time Greatest Comic Hits and then there's Get The Best of Ray Stevens. Oh, there's also a compilation album titled The Incredible World of Ray Stevens.The compilation albums weren't just here in America...there were compilation albums that were sold overseas and some companies from overseas imported their Ray Stevens compilation albums to America. These compilation albums, most of them, weren't released by Ray Stevens. The record labels upon which he recorded the songs would license and then re-license the recordings to a variety of small-market and overseas record companies. Barnaby Records, in particular, was the label that re-licensed the music the most. Well, technically, Celebrity Licensing would handle the licensing of not only Ray's Barnaby Records recordings (1970-1975) but also his Monument Records recordings (1966-1969). Ray had no involvement in their release. There's often a misconception that Ray deliberately saturated the marketplace in the 1980s and 1990s with his recordings but that simply isn't true. Almost all of those compilation albums were out of his control. Anyway, I began this blog entry recalling those compilation albums because one in particular, All-Time Hits, turns 25 this year. The compilation, released in March 1996, was issued by Mercury Records subsidiary Polygram Records. The label used the imprint Polygram Special Markets. I purchased the cassette copy, first, and later on I purchased the CD copy.
I purchased the cassette due to it including a song from Ray that, at that point in time, I hadn't heard...the song "My Dad". The song is from his 1983 Mercury album, Me. When I bought the cassette I already had the other 7 recordings on other compilation albums but I decided to purchase it anyhow because I wanted to hear "My Dad" so badly...this was at a time when I only had a couple of Ray Stevens vinyl albums and my cassette collection was only made up of his latter day releases. I'm glad I purchased All-Time Hits...when the intro of "My Dad" came on the speaker I immediately fell in love with the song and then hearing the crisp vocals from Ray caused it to become an instant favorite. Also, in the back of my mind, I knew I had to start purchasing vinyl albums online in order to hear all of the amazing Ray Stevens recordings that I hadn't yet heard. Slowly but surely I built up my Ray Stevens collection of music to where it is today. I love the publicity photo that was used as a cover photo for All-Time Hits. The cassette copy has 8 recordings and one of the unique things about this compilation is because it's associated with Mercury Records it includes the original early 1960's versions of "Ahab the Arab", "Harry the Hairy Ape", and "Funny Man". The original Mercury Records recordings of those three songs, in particular, are usually replaced on most of those compilation albums by his re-recordings from the late 1960's. "Funny Man", originally from 1963, was re-recorded by Ray in 1968 and placed on his Monument Records album, Even Stevens. "Ahab the Arab", originally from 1962, was re-recorded by Ray in 1969 and placed on the Monument Records album, Gitarzan. "Harry the Hairy Ape", originally from 1963, was also re-recorded by Ray in 1969 for the Gitarzan album. The CD release of All-Time Hits features what are called bonus tracks. There were three additional recordings placed on the CD release: "Butch Babarian", "Santa Claus is Watching You", and "One More Last Chance".
The one and only...the legendary Ray Stevens celebrates a birthday today!! The Living Legend, born January 24th 1939 reaches 82 today! I find myself having to correct my words as I type because I'm so anxious...typing errors that I have to backtrack and correct due to my excitement. Some of you reading this are no doubt wondering if I'm in need of observation...you're probably thinking: "What in the world?? How can anyone get so excited over someone's birthday...especially when it's not even a family member??". I'm not excited in a familial way...but I do get excited because we're celebrating the birth of Ray Stevens and his music's meant a lot to me and I'm sure it's meant a lot to so many other people over the decades in some way or another. Ray's music provided me something of an escape from reality...even if he happened to be singing a topical song or social commentary I was always in another world when listening to Ray Stevens songs. I loved comedy movies and sitcoms as a kid and so I naturally gravitated toward comedy songs, too. I like my share of non-comedy, too...but Ray was the first singer I'd ever heard that sang songs that were funny and that plays a part in why I'm such a big fan. I like listening to his songs...all of the songs he's recorded...some only know of him for a couple of songs or some know of him as a 'comedy singer' but they couldn't tell you anything he's recorded...they're missing out on so much more by limiting Ray to just comedy. I've got every studio album Ray Stevens has ever released.
Some may ask what's a studio album?? A studio album is a collection of songs that haven't appeared anywhere else. A studio album is different than a compilation album. A compilation album will contain songs from the artist that's previously been released on other albums. A studio album is meant to be a collection of songs exclusive to that release...but songs from the studio album later on may appear on a Greatest Hits or Very Best Of collection in the future. I have Ray's first studio album, released in 1962 on Mercury Records, on the CD in the photo above. That 1962 album, titled 1,837 Seconds of Humor, is paired with his second Mercury Records album from 1963, This is Ray Stevens. Ray wouldn't have another studio album available until 1968 on Monument Records. That album is titled Even Stevens. Some of the early Ray Stevens songs on Mercury and Monument include "Ahab the Arab", "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills", "Rockin' Teenage Mummies", "Mr. Baker the Undertaker", "Make a Few Memories", "Mr. Businessman", "Gitarzan", "Have a Little Talk With Myself", and "Sir Thanks a Lot".
Do you have any Ray Stevens songs in your personal collection? Do you have any of his vinyl albums, cassette tapes, CDs, or Mp3 downloads? Did you know he's been in the music industry since 1957? The record labels he recorded for prior to joining Mercury in 1961 were Prep (1957), Capitol (1958), and NRC (1959-1960). Some of his songs from that late '50s time period are "My Heart Cries For You", "That's What She Means to Me", "Rang Tang Ding Dong I'm the Japanese Sandman", "Cat Pants", "Silver Bracelet", "School", and "What Would I Do Without You?". That's a whole lot of music to take in...but to document it is very simple. His single discography is much longer than his album discography. When I look over his album discography I don't factor in compilation albums that weren't contractually released. Import albums from overseas, for example, that get a release in America aren't contractually obligated projects and so I omit those collections...unless it's a collection that features something obscure/rare from the vaults. Ray comes from an era where recording artists released singles...an album would come along only if a single release became a hit...either on the radio or through sales generated by advertisements or word of mouth. Now, this wasn't a written in stone rule. Some artists preferred to release singles rather than long-playing albums. The thinking being that an album's worth of songs by the same singer would only appeal to the most rabid of fans and not a general audience. Record companies tended to prefer album releases because they cost more...singles cost less from a consumer. That's quite a cynical statement wasn't it? I'm sure not all record companies had that intention but I'd say the majority of record companies gladly welcomed in the money generated from album sales rather than single sales. Also, albums featured a bulk of non-commercial recordings by an artist...and there happened to be a rise in radio stations that specialized in playing album songs rather than single releases. So, in theory, a listener would hear a song and may want to buy it...but since it wasn't available on a single a consumer would have to buy the entire album for just one song. In the course of time this practice backfired...which is why music consumers reverted back to purchasing singles again...this time Mp3 singles...rather than entire Mp3 albums.
I've always seen things from a different perspective. If Ray Stevens issues an Mp3 single I'll purchase it and then, once the Mp3 album featuring that single is released, I'll purchase that too!! That's how much I like the songs of Ray Stevens!! In the photo above it's me, showing off not only the CAT hat, but the 1976 Ray Stevens album, Just for the Record. I was thinking about posting a photo of myself with all of my Ray Stevens vinyl studio albums and put them in this birthday blog entry but then I decided not to do such a thing. I didn't want to drag out all of the vinyl albums...even though they're four or five steps away from me...I decided to just post a couple of randomly chosen photos of myself and some of my vinyl Ray Stevens albums from my collection. I'm sure on Ray's social media sites there will be birthday commentary. In previous birthday posts there's a photo of him and the birthday cake...sometimes it's one piece on a saucer with a lit candle. If there's any such photo or video posted I'll save it for a future blog entry. Since it's Ray Stevens birthday here's a check-list of studio albums from Ray that have been issued since 1962. If you don't have any of these Ray Stevens studio albums in your personal collection do yourselves a favor and purchase whatever's available and give them a listen.
1962: 1,837 Seconds of Humor (Mercury)
1963: This is Ray Stevens (Mercury)
1968: Even Stevens (Monument)
1969: Gitarzan (Monument)
1969: Have a Little Talk With Myself (Monument)
1970: Everything is Beautiful (Barnaby)
1970: Unreal (Barnaby)
1972: Turn Your Radio On (Barnaby)
1973: Nashville (Barnaby)
1973: Losin' Streak (Barnaby)
1974: Boogity-Boogity (Barnaby)
1975: Misty (Barnaby)
1976: Just for the Record (Warner Brothers)
1977: Feel the Music (Warner Brothers)
1978: There is Something On Your Mind (Warner Brothers)
1978: Be Your Own Best Friend (Warner Brothers)
1979: The Feeling's Not Right Again* (Warner Brothers)
1980: Shriner's Convention (RCA)
1981: One More Last Chance (RCA)
1982: Don't Laugh Now (RCA)
1983: Me (Mercury)
1984: He Thinks He's Ray Stevens (MCA; Platinum certification)
1985: I Have Returned (MCA; Gold certification)
1986: Surely You Joust (MCA)
1987: Greatest Hits (MCA; Platinum certification)
1987: Crackin' Up (MCA)
1987: Get The Best of Ray Stevens (MCA; 2-LP television album)
1987: Greatest Hits, Volume Two (MCA; Gold certification)
1988: I Never Made a Record I Didn't Like (MCA)
1989: Beside Myself (MCA)
1990: His All-Time Greatest Comic Hits (Curb; Gold certification)
1990: Lend Me Your Ears (Curb/Capitol)
1991: Number One with a Bullet (Curb/Capitol)
1991: Greatest Hits (Curb; contains "There's a Star Spangled Banner" with new lyrics)
1993: Classic Ray Stevens (Curb; all-new songs in spite of the album title)
1997: Hum It (MCA)
1997: Christmas Through a Different Window (MCA)
2000: Ear Candy (Clyde)
2002: Osama Yo' Mama (Curb; most of the tracks previously released on 'Ear Candy')
2004: Thank You (Clyde)
2005: Box Set** (Clyde)
2007: New Orleans Moon (Clyde)
2008: Hurricane (Clyde)
2008: Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What?!? (Clyde)
2009: One for the Road (Clyde)
2009: Ray Stevens Christmas (Clyde)
2010: We The People (Clyde)
2011: Spirit of '76 (Clyde)
2012: Such a Night...50 Years of Hits and Hilarity (Clyde; CD version of DVD concert)
2012: Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music (Clyde)
2014: Gospel Collection, Volume One (Gaither Productions)
2015: Here We Go Again! (Player Records)
2016: Just a Closer Walk With Thee/Gospel Favorites (Green Hill Productions)
2016: Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me (CabaRay Entertainment)
The 1979 album is a compilation album with, at the time, one new song. I listed it in the discography because the new song, "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow", played a factor in the album's cover design and the album's title. The 1987 greatest hits collections are featured because they were certified for Gold and Platinum sales as was the 1990 release, His All-Time Greatest Comic Hits. I highlighted the compilation release in 1991 because it features a newly recorded and largely re-written version of "There's a Star Spangled Banner" that was exclusive, at the time, to that collection. The song had previously appeared on his 1989 MCA studio album with a different storyline. The 2005 album contained several never before available recordings from Ray among the collection. "Kitty Cat's Revenge", "Driver's Education", "Family Funeral Fight", "The Cat Song", and two single-only recordings making their debut on an album release: "When The Kids Are Gone" and "We're Havin' a Baby The Natural Way".
Ray hasn't released a studio album since 2016 even though he's been active with video content on-line and he keeps his name out there through his social media sites. In the period between mid 2015 and 2020, a big amount of his time was devoted, at first, to the production of his CabaRay Nashville television series. The show was originally titled Ray Stevens' Nashville until it's title was changed to Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville. Ray was also promoting his 2014 memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville. He was incredibly busy to put it mildly. Ray also had his upcoming showroom under construction throughout 2016 and 2017. The CabaRay showroom opened up for concerts in January 2018. In 2019 Ray was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. He signed with Curb Records a couple of months ago (late 2020) and his first release was a 50th anniversary rendition of "Everything is Beautiful" (an Mp3 single release and a music video) and then the record label issued an Mp3 single of "The Quarantine Song" last month (a music video had previously been released in May 2020). On this Ray Stevens birthday we all wish him a Happy Birthday! We also hope to hear some brand new Ray Stevens songs in 2021. An interview Ray gave with the Musicians Hall of Fame last year featured some news about a massive box set-type of project that Ray is finished with but it hasn't been given a release date. Curb Records will handle the release and distribution of the project. I can't wait to listen to it!!
Oh hello...I'm writing a second blog entry of the day and in this one I'm focusing on a September 1978 concert review that appeared in a publication called The Chattahoochee Magazine. The article/review, specifically, appeared on September 3, 1978 and it was written by an author named Whit Perry. The magazine, I assume, was sold as an extra feature within the newspaper being sold in Columbus, Georgia at the time. Regional TV Guides used to accompany the newspaper in this area and so I'm thinking The Chattahoochee Magazine was one of those kinds of publications. In case you're wondering I hadn't found out any information about the publication on-line so it must've been the kind of publication that I'm assuming it to be. I wouldn't have known of this publication's existence had it not been for a 1978 Ray Stevens concert review being shared on-line today through his social media sites. The review singles out a lot of things that took place during Ray's concert and the author shares some quotes from the stand-up comedy Ray interspersed into the concert. He notes how some of the lyrics are changed in the "Misty" performance. The author also provides a backstory of Ray's rise to fame and how "Ahab the Arab" made him a nationally known performer. The author writes of Ray's parents and brother greeting Ray once he walks off-stage and into the media area. The article, as mentioned, comes from a September 1978 publication and the thing that caught my eye is the caricatured illustration of Ray has him clean shaven. One would think the bearded look of Ray, as you see on the 1978 album Be Your Own Best Friend, would've been the most familiar Ray Stevens image when this article was published...but the artist chose a clean shaven depiction of Ray Stevens to accompany the article...
The signature of the caricaturist is scribbled underneath the image and I can't figure out the artist's name...but the caricature of Ray Stevens sitting on Clyde the camel accompanies the concert review from September 1978. You can read the 1978 article/review when you visit Ray's Facebook PAGE. If you're reading this blog entry after January 14th then, of course, once you open Ray's Facebook page search for his January 14th posts and you'll come across The Chattahoochee Magazine images. When you click on the Facebook image, right click, and then select 'open image in new tab'. Once you do that you can magnify/enlarge the article and you can read what Whit Perry wrote. He dissects the entire concert and mentions that during a gospel music segment of the concert Ray makes mention of church groups he used to listen to and he spoke of people named Thurman and Virgil. This review coming in September 1978 that means it's several years before Ray recorded "The Dooright Family", in 1980, a satiric spoof of southern gospel performers. Yes, in that song, for those that haven't heard it, two of the characters are named Brother Thurman and Brother Virgil. So, for me, reading the concert review was a revelation. Also, the author mentions several songs Ray performed...including the elaborate performances of "Ahab the Arab" and "The Streak". The author mentions that Ray got the audience into fits of laughter at one point in the concert before turning abruptly serious with a performance of "Mr. Businessman". Interestingly the author never made mention of "Everything is Beautiful" being performed. He writes that Ray opened the show with "Can't Stop Dancin'" and closed the show with "Goodnight, Sweetheart" as an encore but didn't mention whether or not Ray sang "Everything is Beautiful". I'm sure Ray included it in his concerts at that time...but to not see it mentioned in a concert review is odd. Something else that caught my attention is there isn't any reference to Ray's 1976 Top-20 hit, "You Are So Beautiful", which I thought would've been part of the concert set-list during that period of Ray's career.
Ray was signed to Warner Brothers at the time of this concert...and within the concert review it was mentioned that Ray spoke of Flav-O-Rich, a dairy company that he was a spokesman for from the mid 1970s into the mid 1980s. Meanwhile, the caricature of Ray is very good in case I hadn't mentioned so already. It's difficult to find concert reviews of Ray from this period of his career. I've done all kinds of on-line searches during the last 10 plus years and occasionally I'll come across a stray concert review in the on-line archives of newspapers from the early or mid '70s or the mid '80s but that's about it. I rarely find a thorough concert review like the one Whit Perry authored in September 1978.
Hello again...and in this blog entry I'm embedding a video clip of Ray Stevens performing his breakthrough hit from 1962, "Ahab the Arab". In this black and white clip you're going to see legendary Nashville broadcaster Jud Collins speak about Ray and quoting from a reviewer that said Ray was a combination of Victor Borge, Steve Allen, and Abe Burrows all rolled into one.
Ray has always performed this song differently depending upon which era he's singing it as well as the time constraints of a television show or a concert. Sometimes he'll perform the entire song but often he'll sing the edited version that Mercury issued. There's an ending to the song that features the Sultan returning to the tent and discovering Ahab and Fatima in the heat of the moment and there's a chase that ensues. You can hear this unedited "Ahab the Arab" on the 1995 music video he did as part of his Get Serious! VHS movie. Ray was inspired by the book, Arabian Nights, as well as the classic silent film, The Sheik, when composing "Ahab the Arab". Ahab's camel, Clyde, became a visual logo for Ray's music company. Ray's publishing company was once called Ahab Music before he created the more professional sounding Ray Stevens Music, Inc. Ray has several other publishing companies...one in particular being Lucky Streak Music, Inc.
You can find an unedited copy of the 1962 recording on several compilation CDs and if you do a thorough search of the internet you're bound to come across it for sale. The edited copy of the song typically runs 2 minutes, 50 seconds (the single release) and that's the one which is widely available whereas the unedited copy can be found on 1,837 Seconds of Humor (Ray's debut album for Mercury Records) and the music video for the unedited version can be seen on Get Serious! and on YouTube, of course; but it can be found elsewhere but like I said you'll have to search around for it.
Ray re-recorded "Ahab the Arab" two times. He re-recorded it in 1995 for his music video but several decades earlier, in 1969, he re-recorded it for his Gitarzan album on Monument Records. In the 1969 recording there's audience noise and it has a lot of additional lyrics and the pacing is slower. The 1969 recording of "Ahab the Arab" appears on a lot of international compilation albums as well as a whole host of compilation albums released in the United States throughout the '70s, '80s, and '90s.
I'm going to pass along a little trick. If you look at album credits, like I do, if an album shows that "Ahab the Arab" appears through courtesy of Barnaby Records or Celebrity Licensing then it's the 1969 re-recording for Monument Records. Barnaby purchased all of Ray's recordings for Monument Records and so, legally, Barnaby owned Ray's Monument recordings which is why you don't see Monument credited on those compilation albums...you'll only see Barnaby or Celebrity Licensing credited. If you look at album credits and it states that "Ahab the Arab" appears through the courtesy of either Polygram or Mercury Records then it's the 1962 recording. Also, if a compilation lists the record producers, the 1962 recording of "Ahab the Arab" was produced by Shelby Singleton whereas the 1969 re-recording was produced by Ray, Fred Foster, and Jim Malloy. So, then, if you look at the album credits those are the various ways you can determine whether or not "Ahab the Arab" is the 1962 or 1969 recording.
I don't typically create blog entries based on whatever digital download that comes along featuring Ray Stevens recordings...the reason I don't is because of the overlapping it creates. However, I was performing images searches of Ray Stevens and I came across a very familiar publicity photo of Ray from the mid 1980s. The thumbnail image also had The Best of Ray Stevens written below it and so I opened the site and discovered that a United Kingdom company has issued a 20 song digital album (Mp3). The collection contains randomly chosen recordings of Ray from the late '50s through the early '60s. A previous United Kingdom release from 2014 titled Ahab, Jeremiah, Sgt. Preston and More: The Early Ray Stevens on the Jasmine label covers a lot of the recordings that you'll find on The Best of Ray Stevens. So, then, why am I creating a blog entry for this latest compilation release? I'm doing so because the very last song in the collection, to my knowledge, has never appeared on any previous compilation on Ray Stevens.
"When You Wish Upon a Star" can be heard on YouTube...an official audio clip of the song was uploaded on Ray's social media sites a couple of months ago and the audio had been available prior to that, as well, through an upload by a YouTube user in 2014. In spite of that exposure this 2020 United Kingdom compilation, The Best of Ray Stevens, holds the distinction (as far as I know) as the first compilation on Ray Stevens to include 1961's "When You Wish Upon a Star". The recording originally appeared as the B-side of a novelty titled "Scratch My Back". Whereas "Scratch My Back" and it's predecessor, "Jeremiah Peabody", would go on to appear on Ray's debut album in 1962 (titled 1,837 Seconds of Humor) there wasn't a trace of "When You Wish Upon a Star" to be found. Since 1961 the recording remained out of circulation and to my knowledge wasn't featured on any of the countless compilation albums to surface on Ray Stevens throughout the '70s, '80s, '90s, or the last two decades until now.
I know nothing about this site but I'm sharing a link to it because of it containing Ray Stevens recordings for sale. Here is the LINK. I don't know if you have to become a member of their website in order to purchase music but I'm leaving it up to you all to decide to purchase the songs or not if you don't already have them in your collection as I do. The statistical data shows that the digital download was released on April 22, 2020 by a label called Vintage Jukebox. The site has other Ray Stevens products for sale, too, but I hadn't did a music search yet. It's a United Kingdom web store and so it deals in European pricing and so, obviously, you'll need to use a conversion table and see what 7 pounds, 99 pence is in American dollars. After I post this blog entry I'll explore that web store more thoroughly and in some future blog entry I'll remark on what I found.
You read the title of this blog entry correctly my fellow Ray Stevens fans. This year will mark the Silver Anniversary of Get Serious!, the 1995 direct-to-video movie, starring Ray Stevens in a variety of roles. The supporting cast included Buddy Kalb, Connie Freeman, Michael Airington, and Tim Hubbard. Throughout the movie, 110 minutes long, there were cameo appearances by a collection of Ray's friends within the music industry: Chet Atkins, Johnny Russell, George Lindsey, Charley Chase, Williams and Ree, James Gregory, and in an extensive series of multiple appearances, Jerry Clower. As a member of the once active fan club of Ray Stevens I used to get monthly newsletters in the mail and we were kept up to date on the progress of the movie. The film was referred to by an acronym in the months prior to it receiving it's official title. Those of you that were members of his fan club do you remember that acronym? It was LFSDMCV. What in the world does that mean?? It stood for Long Form Story-Driven Music Comedy Video. The progress of the film went through several delays which pushed back it's projected finish. The production of the film took place for several months in the latter half of 1994. The location used throughout most of the film, as far as outdoors scenes, took place in a town called Burns, Tennessee. Country Weekly magazine did a fabulous multi-page story on the film with screen shots and commentary from Ray. It was published in the December 27, 1994 issue. The VHS was released in the fall of 1995 through a direct market campaign...following in the footsteps of 1993's Ray Stevens Live! and 1992's Comedy Video Classics. The campaign, sometimes also referred to as direct response and mail order, consists of advertising in magazines, newspapers, and on television with the hope that a customer sees the product and mails off their check or money order to an address provided or they call a number and the product is mailed directly to the consumer. Ray was a phenomenal success in the marketing of VHS tapes and Get Serious! was no exception. He sold hundreds of thousands of video tapes through direct marketing and ultimately those products were made available to retail stores. Once there was retail store availability then came their eligibility to appear on the weekly charts published by Billboard magazine. The RIAA, which stands for Recording Industry Association of America, recognizes mail order sales and prior to the release of those three VHS tapes to retail stores he had already reached Multi-Platinum status with all three through mail order alone. Platinum in mail order is more than 100,000 copies sold...Platinum in retail is more than 1,000,000 copies sold.
I graduated high school in the summer of 1995. A year earlier, as a birthday present, my parents mailed in a money order to Ray's fan club so I could become a member of it. I remained a member of the fan club until it shut down in 2002. As a Christmas present in 1995 Get Serious! was one of my gifts. I knew I was going to receive it because I had been asked what I would like for Christmas and I mentioned Ray's movie. I still have the VHS tapes from the 1990s...I've gotten the DVD counterpart for Comedy Video Classics as well as Get Serious!. The Ray Stevens Live! VHS was never released in DVD format nor were any of the other VHS titles.
The movie deals with several story-lines taking place simultaneously...culminating midway through and climaxing toward the end. The main plot deals with a fictional record company Ray records for being taken over by a conglomerate. The new executive (played by Michael Airington) wants Ray Stevens to get serious with recordings rather than make comedy videos and sing novelty songs. Ray refuses, which the executive takes as a breach of contract, and soon the executive and his inner circle hatch a plan to potentially ruin Ray's career by labeling him politically incorrect. The secondary plot deals with people who, by pure coincidence, share the names of characters that have appeared in Ray's novelty songs. There seems to be a real Coy, Bubba, Ethel, Harv Newland, Sister Bertha, and a man named Clyde who objects to being described as a camel in "Ahab the Arab". Bubba and Coy, from "Shriner's Convention", appear throughout the movie as Dudley Dorite and his Deputy. Bubba is portrayed by Buddy Kalb while Coy is portrayed by Tim Hubbard. It's explained that the two work as policemen during the day and are Shriner's in the evenings. Ray had once recorded a song in 1986 titled "Dudley Dorite of the Highway Patrol" and the plot of that song is more or less adapted to Get Serious!. A music video of that song was filmed for the movie. In the "Shriner's Convention" music video Ray plays the roles of Bubba and Coy...but within the context of the movie they're played by Buddy Kalb and Tim Hubbard. The unique aspect of the project is that there are full length music videos inserted seamlessly into the story...Ray remarked at the time that it was a different approach to a musical. The main co-star with Ray is Connie Freeman as Charlene MacKenzie. She comes across as a Betty Boop/Olive Oyl characterization and she deals with deafness.
As you see off to the right hand side of the page it's a print advertisement for Get Serious!. In the 1990s I used to spend the weekends with my grandparent's and they received a newspaper in the mail every week. One of the secondary newspapers that came with the main newspaper was a publication called Parade. In that particular newspaper you'd see print advertisements for a wide variety of products...most of them were advertised on television as well...in which case you'd see the familiar 'As Seen on TV' banner. This banner appears next to Ray's name in the print advertisement. The text you see below his pose as Sickind Fraud (in Napoleon attire) mostly consists of the dialogue heard in the television commercial voice-over. To the right of the text are a couple of screen shots from the film. In the box in the lower left, 'About the Artist', it's a screen shot of Ray as a Calcutta character. This character appears for a few minutes in the beginning of the movie prior to the music video of "The Woogie Boogie". Ray encounters the Calcutta man selling Indian rugs. As I mentioned in the opening paragraph Ray plays various roles in this movie and thanks to the movie editing process he carries on conversations with characters he himself is playing. It's not a groundbreaking concept...Peter Sellers did the same kind of thing in the Pink Panther movies and Benny Hill loved doing those kinds of camera tricks on his comedy shows...but nevertheless it's a unique style with entertainment as the top priority. There is a music video for "I Used To Be Crazy" and there's a scene in which Ray appears next to himself in the same shot...a camera trick, of course, but it perfectly illustrates the effort and energy that was put into this movie. It wasn't something that was just pasted and strung together. There was a lot of technical effort put forth for this movie. The label upon which this VHS was released is Clyde Records. This is the label that Ray started in the late 1980s but it didn't take off until he began releasing video tapes in 1992. The major record labels didn't want to finance/risk the marketing of a home video and so Ray released his VHS tapes through his own label. Ironically, however, once they were proven to be successful through mail order, that's when major record labels came calling. Comedy Video Classics, for example, was released in retail stores in 1993 by Curb Records. The label also handled retail distribution of Ray Stevens Live! in early 1994. Ray signed to MCA Records in the latter half of 1996 and their first project on Ray was the retail distribution of Get Serious!. It hit retail stores late in 1996 and by pure coincidence it debuted on the Billboard Video chart on this day in 1997! If you were look up the Billboard charts for the week ending January 25, 1997 you'll see Get Serious! among the Top-40 VHS tapes in it's debut week. It debuted at number 29 and then the following week jumped up into the Top-20. The highest position it achieved was number 4 in February 1997. It was on the Video chart for 24 non-consecutive weeks from January 25th to July 19th.
In the internet age, collectively social media, Ray has since uploaded several of those Get Serious! music videos onto his YouTube channel. Ray and Connie perform a duet, "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens", in the movie. This is an original song written by Ray but it shares the same title with a Louis Jordan song from the 1940s. Tim Hubbard appears in the music video as eager but easily manipulated/naive, Deputy Coy.
Another music video from Get Serious! is "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?". The song originated in 1986 on his comedy album, Surely You Joust. The song, in spite of it not appearing on the country singles chart, appeared on his 1987 compilation, Greatest Hits, Volume Two, while it's remained a staple of his concerts for decades. The irony being that the single releases from Ray in 1986 which reached the country charts, "Southern Air" (a trio recording with Jerry Clower and Minnie Pearl) and "The People's Court", never appeared on Greatest Hits, Volume Two for whatever reason.
Last September on the late Jerry Clower's birthday (September 28th) Ray uploaded a video of some of Jerry's scenes from Get Serious!. In the finale clip you'll not only see Jerry Clower but Michael Airington as well as Williams and Ree. The main stars of the film, of course, are seen: Ray, Connie Freeman, Buddy Kalb, and Tim Hubbard.
You say you don't have a copy of Get Serious!?? You want a copy? Here's a LINK to place your order.
The tickets for this annual event went on sale back in July but I have not come across any social media posts stating that's it's been officially sold out and so I'm writing this blog post as something of an advertisement for The 8th Annual Jerry Reed Celebration. The event was held at Ray's CabaRay showroom last September and this year it's returning to the CabaRay on September 18th. You can find out the information by clicking this LINK. The link takes you to the Facebook page promoting the September 18th tribute show.
The Ray Stevens Charity Golf Classic, as mentioned in a previous blog entry, will take place over a two, non-consecutive day, time frame. The first day of the event is October 13th and the second day of the event is October 21st. This charity golf event began in 2016 and so this marks the fourth annual golf game at Temple Hills Country Club in Franklin, Tennessee. This is a link to my BLOG entry filled with all the details surrounding the golf event. I'll be working on a couple of blog entries over the course of this weekend...both of them will be part of the Road to the Country Music Hall of Fame mini-blog series I've been putting together since last month...earlier this morning I posted Part Twelve. The upcoming blog entry will highlight the early years of Ray's direction into the world of country comedy.
In the meantime have you seen the vintage commercial starring Ray Stevens for Flav-O-Rich? This is the third commercial for the company that Ray's uploaded onto YouTube. The first commercial he uploaded shown him as a 'little kid' sitting on oversized furniture eating a very large bowl of ice cream. The second commercial had him in the kitchen reaching into the refrigerator for a gallon of milk and getting more than he bargained for. This commercial has clean-shaven Ray Stevens in a decidedly country environment making his way from a bridge to a dairy aisle in the middle of a field.
The company at one time was referred to as Farm Best and then at some point in the late '70s it's name was changed to Flav-O-Rich. I don't know if this was a name change brought about by some marketing team or if Farm Best was at one time a dairy company bought out by an entity known as Flav-O-Rich. I don't know the history of the company, admittedly, but I know through research over the years that Ray Stevens was a spokesman once upon a time and thankfully three of his commercials for the company have made their way to YouTube. Oh I hope there's even more to come!!
Ray Stevens: 1977/1978
As we see in the screen cap above a clean-shaven and casually dressed Ray Stevens is in the process of telling us about Flav-O-Rich. I'm thinking Ray wrote the jingle heard in all of the commercials for Flav-O-Rich and before that, Farm Best.
I usually take screen caps from a lot of the video material that Ray uploads. I'd say 95 percent of the imagery I never post in public forums or in this fan created blog but I send them to several on-line friends that share an appreciation for all things Ray Stevens as I do. I grabbed some screen caps from that commercial. In my way of thinking the commercial was taped at some point in 1977 or mid 1978.
I don't believe Ray ever appeared in public, either on TV or in concerts, clean-shaven after mid 1978. I could be wrong but I think the commercial was taped early in 1978 and aired for a year or more on local television. I say this because of a comment I seen on social media from someone stating that they remember seeing the commercial in 1979. This wouldn't be highly unusual considering that when I was a kid in the 1980s and early 1990s the local television stations were airing commercials shot in the early 1980s featuring Nancy Walker, as Rosie, for Bounty paper towels and Dick Wilson, as Mr. Whipple, for Charmin, etc. etc.
Hello once again!! In this installment of the vintage visuals series I take a look at the mid 1990s era in the career of Ray Stevens. The decade was one of change, experimentation, and major successes. I already spotlighted the early 1990s era of his career several blog entries ago and this one zeroes in on 1994, 1995, and 1996.
The Ray Stevens movie, Get Serious!, came along in the latter half of 1995...late summer/early fall. The direct-to-VHS movie was in a lot of ways the climax of Ray's meteoric rise in the world of VHS and direct marketing which got underway a couple of years earlier in 1992. Ray released four home video projects, in total, during 1992-1993. Two of the projects (Amazing Rolling Revue and More Ray Stevens Live!) were sold through his fan club and in the gift shop at his former venue in Branson, Missouri while the other two (Comedy Video Classics and Ray Stevens Live!) were sold over television and in newspaper advertisements. I made mention of those projects in my blog entry where I focused on the early 1990s era of his career. By 1994 Ray had left Branson, Missouri after three seasons (1991, 1992, and 1993) of concert performances at his former theater. On several of his television appearances in 1994 he mentioned that he was in the process of selling the theater...in his 2014 memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, he wrote about selling the venue to a company who, in turn, staged the 'Country Tonight' revue at the venue for ten consecutive years (1994-2003) but hard times fell upon the organization by 2003 and they asked if Ray would take back the theater and they would pay the remainder of their debt in the form of rent. So, as Ray put it, he took back the theater at the end of the 2003 summer concert season and spent a year and a half on redecoration and refurbishment and then had a grand re-opening in the summer of 2005. Ray headlined his old Branson, Missouri theater during the summer and fall months of 2005 and 2006 before selling the venue, for good, to the executives of RFD-TV. But let's back up a decade...we're suppose to be focusing on the mid 1990s...
As I started off saying...in several of Ray's interviews in 1994 he spoke of his goal of taking a much needed vacation after the Branson experience. In the summer of 1994 he won his 10th consecutive Comedian of the Year award from the fan-voted publication, Music City News. This publication would eventually go out of business after more than 30 years in print...largely overshadowed by a newer publication, Country Weekly, and their reader-voted Country Pick awards. Country Weekly, however, benefited from it's availability at the checkout stands in nearly every retail/grocery store in America whereas Music City News remained heavily subscription based and was rarely, if ever, widely distributed.
Ray was named Favorite Comedian by the readers of Country Weekly and received a Golden Pick award during the awards gala in 1995. While Ray appeared on the cover of Music City News a couple of times and his name shown up on the cover of many issues as a form of advertisement for a featured article within it's pages, strangely enough, he never appeared on the cover of any issue of Country Weekly during it's 24 years of print publication (1994-2016). His name appeared on the cover a few times and he had his share of appearances/interviews within the pages of Country Weekly but for the most part much of the attention given by Country Weekly, as far as country comedy, went to performers who were stand-up comedians in the traditional sense whose material catered largely to a southern audience (specifically the audience advertisers crave: 18-39 year olds).
The filming of Get Serious!, as mentioned, took place in the winter months of 1994 and early 1995. I was a member of his fan club from 1995 until it closed down in 2002 and in some of the earliest newsletters I have there were updates on the movie's progress and film schedule. The staff of his fan club referred to the film by an acronym. If memory serves me correct the film was referred to as LFSDMCV. The letters stood for: Long Form Story Driven Music Comedy Video. Now, I might have a couple of the letters in the wrong place. It could be LFSDCMV: Long Form Story Driven Comedy Music Video...but I think the first acronym is correct because Ray's emphasis was on the music and the overall execution of the film rather than emphasizing the comedy aspects...so I think LFSDMCV is the correct acronym. I'd have to literally dig through piles of archived papers in a storage bin to find those mid 1990s fan club newsletters...let's just stick to LFSDMCV. An article in Billboard magazine from November 1994, as far as I know, was the first news release concerning Ray in the process of filming a movie.
Ray's movie was sold through direct marketing throughout the fall of 1995 and into mid 1996. The television commercials for the movie aired on many television stations...most of the time the commercials were airing on cable television stations rather than broadcast television. In the world of television communications the term broadcast networks are used to describe local channels which originate from a local television studio in a viewer's market but carry a daytime and prime-time line-up mandated by a broadcast network whereas cable television networks originate from anywhere, air whatever content they choose, and, usually, are part of every television channel line-up all over the country. CBS is a broadcast network and they have local affiliates all over the country whereas TBS is a cable network, for example, and is provided to cable television providers. If you did not have cable television but still wanted to watch television you were only going to get the basic broadcast networks (FOX, CBS, ABC, and NBC plus whatever the local PBS affiliate happens to be) and the reception would not be that great. In an episode of Crook and Chase's former interview program, Music City Tonight, Ray made mention of Get Serious! having reached Platinum status through direct marketing. The program had earlier presented a Get Serious! night after the VHS had become available. That particular episode featured not only Ray but several of the people who had cameo appearances in the movie: Chet Atkins, Johnny Russell, Williams and Ree, James Gregory, and George Lindsey. Jerry Clower also appeared in the movie but not in a cameo role. He was more or less a supporting player given that he had several appearances scattered throughout the film playing the part of Ray's manager. He, too, also appeared on Get Serious! night. The VHS was released to retail stores in the latter half of 1996 by MCA Records. In the case of two of the early '90s VHS tapes the retail distribution was handled by Curb Records (in 1993 and 1994) but after Ray signed with MCA in 1996 the retail distribution was handled by that label. It was their first product on Ray Stevens since 1989. He recorded for the label during a five year period, 1984-1989, prior to his signing to the Curb label in 1990. In an appearance on Primetime Country in 1996, originally hosted by Tom Wopat, Ray mentioned that Get Serious! was Double-Platinum. Gary Chapman later took over hosting the show for the remainder of it's time in production.
A companion VHS, which you see above, was made available to fan club members in 1995. It's a documentary/behind-the-scenes of the movie's production with a lot of footage that didn't make the final cut and of course numerous bloopers are featured. The 1995 movie marked the music video debuts of "Ahab the Arab" as well as "Gitarzan", "Shriner's Convention", "The Dooright Family", "The Woogie Boogie", and several more. Ray appeared in costume as "Gitarzan" during his performance of the song on Get Serious! night in 1995 on Music City Tonight. After the performance, still in the costume, he went over to the interview couch and conducted the first segment of the show in his costume and spoke about the movie and the fact that during the opening performance of "Gitarzan" Jane had a beard. Ray joked that it was due to Jane abusing hormone injections but, of course, it was Buddy Kalb in drag...miming the words of Jane as Ray was singing them. The camera panned out into the audience where Buddy, as Jane, was positioned and as we heard Ray singing the lines Buddy/Jane was lip-syncing. In keeping with the spirit of the jungle motif and as a visual tie-in with caveman, "Alley Oop", Buddy/Jane 'sang' into a replica of a large leg bone rather than a microphone. It was a fun-filled episode and a great kick-off for the movie.
After a commercial break (one of those commercials being an ad for the VHS) Ray was in regular clothes and seated on the couch. Charlie Chase, one half of the Crook and Chase duo, provided the voice-over for the television commercial. One of the commercials, which aired on cable channel TNT, was uploaded onto YouTube...
The free cassette tape offer wasn't part of the direct mail advertisements during the course of the entire ad campaign. When I became a member of his fan club I purchased his products directly from their catalog and therefore the free cassette offer wasn't part of the sale. I eventually purchased the cassette tape being spoken of in the commercial for an incredibly low discounted price from his on-line store in the early 2000s. They only had a handful left. The cassette features a full performance of the song, "We Don't Take Nothin' Off Nobody", whereas the movie features the opening verse and chorus. Now, as a result of Ray's phenomenal success with direct marketing his VHS tapes, a compilation was inevitably on the horizon. Latest and Greatest was issued in 1996 on VHS and it featured 10 music videos. It was comprised of 4 music videos from 1992's Comedy Video Classics and 6 music videos from Get Serious!.
A couple of months ago Ray uploaded the music video, "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens", onto YouTube. This isn't to be confused with another song with the same title from the 1940s by Louis Jordan. The song featured in Ray's 1995 movie is an entirely different song. Ray wrote this same-titled song for the Get Serious! movie and it's a duet with his co-star, Connie Freeman...she played the role of Charlene MacKenzie. You'll see another co-star, Tim Hubbard, in the role of Coy. The movie is available on DVD for those that may be wondering. It isn't on Blu-Ray, though. I don't even own a Blu-Ray player, believe it or not, so I'm still a customer of DVD. You can get your copy of the movie by clicking HERE.
Hello once more...a podcast featuring Ray Stevens became available yesterday and it's part of a series called Voices in the Hall. I had seen the title of this series mentioned a couple of times on-line but without reading too much about it I thought it was a program that focused on members of the Country Music Hall of Fame. So, once I came across the podcast of the series with Ray as a guest I erroneously thought it was going to be an interview with Ray on being elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame as well as it being a look back on his career. Ray's interview is Episode Eight in the recently launched series.
Anyway, having not read much about the series, I listened to Ray's interview and also read the manuscript version. It never dawned on me that Ray's interview had taken place weeks or probably months before the March 18th announcement of his election to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
It's a great interview and Ray gets the opportunity to talk about his experiences in the recording studios over the last several decades and his successes with video material (collectively VHS, DVD, and On-line releases) in addition to his years in Branson, Missouri and the recent opening of the CabaRay showroom. The host asks him several questions about several of his recordings and he tells of their origin. "Gitarzan", for example, as well as "The Streak" and "Everything is Beautiful" among others. It really isn't until near the end of the interview that we (the listeners) realize that the conversation took place prior to Ray's election to the Hall of Fame based on some parting words from the host.
It turns out that the title of the series, Voices in the Hall, is meant to be taken literally. It's a conversation/interview series which takes place inside the Hall of Fame facility...it doesn't mean the artists being interviewed happen to be members of the Hall of Fame (which is what I initially thought the series would be about). The irony, of course, is Ray's interview for this series was uploaded weeks after the March 18th announcement that he would be one of the newly elected Country Music Hall of Fame members...but episodes for Voices in the Hall had been recorded weeks prior to that announcement...and so it's eerie to hear the interviewer, Peter Cooper, mention that he hopes Ray will become a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame one day. Once I heard him say that to Ray it dawned on me that the interview had taken place at some point prior to March 18th of this year.
It's a great interview, as I mentioned, regardless of it taking place before the Hall of Fame announcement. Over on the podcast website I commented that I hope a further interview takes place in which Ray can reflect on his career from his newly acquired status as a Hall of Fame member. The medallion ceremony later this year marks the official induction where the members receive their plaque and medallion which is why in the months leading up to the medallion ceremony the newly elected members are sometimes referred as member-elect, much like in a Presidential election. Once a candidate wins the election he's referred as the President-elect until the official Oath of Office takes place. Ray and the other newly elected Hall of Fame members go through a similar process. It's only after the medallion ceremony takes place (equivalent to Inauguration Day for a President) that the newly elected become official inductees.
As of this writing Ray hasn't given any interviews, well, any lengthy remarks about the Hall of Fame election beyond the speech he gave on March 18th which is embedded below the podcast link.
You can listen to the Voices in the Hall podcast by clicking HERE.
His speech at the Hall of Fame from March 18, 2019...
Hello to all the Ray Stevens fans out there...and to those that stop by just to find out some information about the legend. Today is a pretty big day...a milestone birthday in the life of Ray Stevens as he reaches 80 (born January 24, 1939 in Clarkdale, Georgia). It may have been the late Chet Atkins that described Ray as the energizer bunny...I know that Chet is often quoted with calling Ray a genius...and I think it may have been Chet that also nicknamed Ray the energizer bunny. It's long been a pretty accurate nickname...whether or not it was Chet or somebody else that decided to bestow that title upon Ray Stevens.
Given the descriptive nickname of 'energizer bunny' it's accuracy can be backed up by the simple fact that Ray continues to perform and record to this day...and on this day he reaches 80. Last year his showroom in West Nashville, CabaRay, had it's grand opening. The showroom opened it's doors to the public in January of 2018 and so it's been in operation for a year. Ray began hosting a television series called Ray Stevens' Nashville in November of 2015 which was later rebranded as CabaRay Nashville in June of 2017. The series mixes performances and conversation...with Ray's red piano serving as a substitute for a desk. It's a fast moving half hour series that's had a quirky broadcast schedule. It originally aired on RFD-TV for a season (26 episodes) and then it moved into local PBS syndication in January 2017. The series continues to air in local PBS syndication but last month it marked a return to the RFD-TV airwaves. The cable channel is catching up on episodes that have been airing in local PBS syndication and I'm sure production on additional episodes will get underway as we move deeper into 2019. In March the CabaRay will begin the 2019 season of concerts. Now then...every career begins somewhere and if you're a long time fan of Ray Stevens (as I happen to be) then you should already be well aware of "Silver Bracelet" from 1957. The single was issued on the Prep label, a subsidiary of Capitol Records, and it's the first single released on Ray Stevens...and at the time he happened to be 18 years old...and as his age at that time clearly shows he literally grew up in the music industry. He had single releases on Capitol and NRC over the next several years (1959-1960) and then he joined the Mercury label in 1961. It is at Mercury that the legend of Ray Stevens truly starts to form...establishing himself midway through the decade as one of the top session musicians, music arrangers, and writers on Music Row.
The 1962 hit, "Ahab the Arab", made Ray Stevens a star overnight...and it was followed by a series of novelty and love ballad releases on Mercury throughout 1962-1963 and into 1964. A unique contract arrangement allowed him to record and release music on the Mercury label while working as a session musician/producer/arranger for Monument Records. This is why his single releases for Mercury lasted into 1965, even though his name appears on countless single releases as writer or producer or arranger on Monument releases by other artists during the same time period. Ray's first Monument recording didn't hit the market until late in 1965. Although statistics show that his biggest hit for Monument was the million selling hit, "Gitarzan", in 1969...chart statistics belie Ray's true popularity. It's always seemed as if Ray pays more attention to the song, it's arrangement, the production in general...and he pays less attention to current trends or sure-fire radio material. You can argue that's the mark of a true artist when you do not allow popular trends, consumer whims, or radio consultants to influence everything you release.
Throughout the career of Ray Stevens there have been many single releases and album releases...and later on VHS and DVD releases...and even more later on the explosion of on-line music video content and the immediate reaction on social media sites. His music's been witness to practically every media imaginable. He won two Grammy awards: Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 1970 for "Everything is Beautiful" and Best Musical Arrangement in 1975 for "Misty". The readers of Music City News magazine named Ray their Comedian of the Year for 9 consecutive years (1986-1994) in the annual fan voted awards ceremony.
Ray lent his time and talents to the various awards shows presented by Music City News magazine throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. There was a time when Ray often hosted or co-hosted those very awards telecasts...usually he could be seen hosting or co-hosting the secondary awards program, Music City News Songwriters Awards. In that series of programs the focus was, of course, on the songwriters of the top country hits of a given year. In some cases where the artist happened to be the writer they'd attend the gala but most of the time the lead writer of a song (if it happened to be a collaborative effort) would perform the song on the telecast or the hosts would perform the songs up for nomination. In rare moments the recording artist that had a hit with a nominated song would appear and perform it...and my guess is this was done because either the writer or writers didn't want to perform their song on national television (stage fright) or the writer felt their voice wasn't good enough as the professional singer. One of Ray's recordings received a Top Comedy award at the Music City News Songwriters Awards in 1986...the 1984 recording of "Mississippi Squirrel Revival". The song's writers (Buddy Kalb and his wife, Carlene) received the plaque but Ray performed it on the telecast. The reason it picked up an honor in 1986 is because the single's release happened late in 1984 but it didn't become an immediate hit. It finally began to hit early in 1985 and by the time it reached it's Top-20 peak position on the Billboard Country chart it wasn't eligible, as far as I know, for nomination in the 1985 Songwriters Awards and so to the best of my knowledge that's why a song appearing on a 1984 album, which became a hit single in 1985, received an award in 1986.
I remember one such awards telecast in 1991 where Ray performed the George Strait number one hit, "You Know Me Better Than That". On that particular broadcast Ray was co-host with Jimmy Dean and Kathy Baillie. The trio made the cover of Music City News in 1991.
What is the only Ray Stevens studio album on Barnaby Records that has not been issued on CD or Mp3 format? Consider that a pop quiz question. The answer? 1973's studio album, Losin' Streak. That album, ironically enough, was released several months before a certain single in the spring of 1974 which captured a national fad at the peak of it's popularity. "The Streak" (a novelty song dealing with running around in the nude) streaked up the Hot 100 pop chart and much like a streaker in a mad dash "The Streak" hit the top of the Hot 100 in less than a month's time. The single reportedly sold in excess of five million copies worldwide. It was a massively popular song in the spring and early summer of 1974 all over the world pretty much. It hit the top spot on the pop chart for four weeks and in other charts internationally it hit the Top-10...on the country music chart it reached the Top-5. A novelty single in the truest sense of the word but in spite of all of it's success it was shut out come awards time regardless of it easily being the top selling single of the year. It was such a strong selling single in the United Kingdom that by the time the 1970's were coming to an end the music press over there named it the best selling novelty song of the decade.
A couple of days ago an interview of Ray Stevens conducted by Music Row magazine appeared on-line. I've not been having my computer on too much this week because of the unpredictable weather system that's passing through this area and usually I keep my computer shut down until storms pass or the weather generally gets better. Anyway...when I got onto the internet this morning and I discovered an interview posted January 22nd. You can read that article and interview by clicking HERE. Along the way you'll find out some breaking news concerning new music...but there isn't a time-line on when anything is to emerge. Ray specifically points out that he isn't going to space the projects out and that they'll all be released at the same time. I won't go into any further details here...you all will need to click the link and read more. I'm excited knowing that there is to be new music on the way...and if you're like me then you can't wait to hear everything once it becomes available!! If we venture back to the 'energizer bunny' description once more did you all see the photo of Ray seated at a table, with drink in hand, in front of the green screen? He's working on a music video for an upcoming comedy song...the song's title is referenced to in the link I provided above.
I've been a fan of Ray Stevens ever since the mid 1980s. As some of you that have stopped by this fan created blog over the last 10 years should probably know by now the very first recording from Ray that I heard was "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" on a jukebox in a pizza place in a nearby town. I have long since obtained practically everything that's been released commercially on Ray Stevens in a variety of formats (vinyl, cassette, CD, and Mp3). When I discovered Ray's music I was not quite yet a teenager...but being a fan of comedy it just seemed like a natural progression of mine to gravitate toward Ray's music. I grew up listening to country music and so I'm very familiar with country comedy and Hee Haw and so when I heard somebody singing and being comical all at the same time that's what drove me to become a fan of Ray's. Later on I became much more detailed and had something of an uncontrollable appetite for seeking out everything I could find from Ray Stevens. I was fortunate enough to have a grandfather that didn't mind parting with some of his money anytime I spotted something by Ray Stevens sitting in the music section of K-Mart just begging for my ears to hear. After I grew up and got a job I made up for lost time and searched out his entire back catalog of vinyl albums.
I posted the collage seen above recently. When my brother and I went to Nashville last year, in addition to going to Ray's CabaRay showroom, we also visited the Country Music Hall of Fame. I had my brother take a photo of me in front of an exhibit of Ray Stevens items on display. Ray isn't a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame but he's a member of other Halls of Fame (Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame; Georgia Music Hall of Fame; Atlanta Music Hall of Fame; and the Christian Music Hall of Fame). Anyway...I had my brother take that photo...and then I remembered the photo of Ray standing in front of the exhibit and so I decided to create a collage featuring the exhibit. Late last year Ray Stevens received a Star on Nashville's Walk of Fame. I wrote several blog entries leading up to the event as well as on the day of the event. I feel it appropriate to close out this Ray Stevens 80th birthday blog entry with a photo from that special day in his career...
