Ray Stevens: Cass Elliot summer 1970 performance...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! A video upload surfaced on Ray's social media earlier today...a performance of Cass Elliot singing "New World Coming". This performance comes from the summer 1970 television show that Ray hosted for Andy Williams on NBC. The show opened with a line from Ray's "Everything is Beautiful"...the show always closed with an instrumental of the song as the credits rolled. It was this summer show that inspired the need for a theme song...and Ray come up with "Everything is Beautiful". Cass Elliot, of the disbanded The Mamas and the Papas super-group, was a cast member of Ray's 1970 summer show. As a result of being a regular cast member and the fact that she had a lengthy history as a vocalist meant that she would likely get recurring singing spots on the show...as did another cast member of the show, British performer, Lulu. 

Ray has uploaded video of Cass Elliot on previous occasions...video of her from the 1970 summer show singing "One Way Ticket" emerged last year and prior to that a compilation of sketches and performances by her on Ray's 1970 summer show hit the internet. That compilation video clip, more than 9 minutes long, has racked up more than 58,000 unique views. "One Way Ticket" has more than 22,000 unique views. This time Ray's uploaded Cass Elliot singing "New World Coming"... 

Ray Stevens: June 20, 1970...

Hello all of you Ray Stevens fans!! On this date in 1970 NBC-TV debuted Andy Williams Presents the Ray Stevens Show???. The summer television show aired in place of a vacationing Andy Williams...although he appears on the first episode of the season. A running joke, as you can see with the three question marks, was built around the fact that someone who wasn't a television star was suddenly the host of a summer show for a television star like Andy Williams. A lot of the publicity from the time period pointed out that while Ray may not be a household name with television viewers he was one of the top recording artists of the day and his name was very much familiar to music consumers. Ray's 1970 summer show featured an extensive cast...among them were Mama Cass, Steve Martin, Billy Van, and Lulu.  

In the embed below you'll see a complete episode of the summer show. Ray Stevens back then, much like today, is a consummate entertainer...he'll do practically anything that comes to his mind. The show was taped in Toronto, Canada and aired from June 20, 1970 until August 8, 1970. The show's theme song, "Everything is Beautiful", was reaching it's peak when the summer show made it's debut. The song's weekly exposure on the national television show no doubt helped it reach even more people than it perhaps otherwise would have...more people watch television than listen to the radio...and the single of "Everything is Beautiful" sold more than 3,000,000 copies and the song won two Grammy awards. One award went to Ray in the category of Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and a second went to gospel artist Jake Hess in the category of Best Sacred Performance.  

Ray Stevens sings about the "Hit Record"...

Well, here we are in February and I'm once again writing another fan created blog entry about Ray Stevens!! Earlier today there was a video clip posted on-line of Ray singing a song called "Hit Record" from his summer 1970 television series. The summer show was on the air while Andy Williams was on vacation. Ray had become a recurring guest on Andy's television show starting in 1969 and based upon viewer mail Ray was the one that received the most correspondence of all the guest stars. So, the producers of Andy's television show decided to ask Ray to fill-in for Andy during the summer months of 1970. Incredible timing and planning came together when Ray's single, "Everything is Beautiful", flew up the Hot 100 pop chart in 1970 with added exposure of the song coming from the summer 1970 television show...Ray was using it as the television show's theme song. 

The summer show was taped in Canada and it aired, nationally, on NBC television each Saturday night for a month and a half. Ray sang a lot of songs on the summer show...some of them were songs that appeared on his albums while some songs he performed were his versions of other artist's songs. In addition to this he also sang songs that he'd written that weren't on any previous album and didn't appear on any future album. "Catchy Little Tune" happened to be one of those and I've embedded that performance in a previous blog entry. This "Hit Record" song I am guessing is from the pen of Ray Stevens because at various moments in the song he slips in lyrics from his previous hits: "Gitarzan", "Along Came Jones", "Mr. Businessman", and "Everything is Beautiful". The song explains, in simplest terms, all that it takes to have a "Hit Record". I decided to leave the video embed in it's original size. I usually shrink the video screen smaller so that it doesn't take up so much space in the body of the text but this time I'm going to leave the video's size right where it is...

As of this date episodes of the Ray Stevens summer show haven't been made available on DVD. They used to be available in a subscription service Ray operated several years ago but the company that was hosting the site, according to information I found, decided to do other things and so Ray's subscription site went off-line as a result. The site had video content of a large number of television appearances Ray had done in his career up to that point in time. All episodes of the summer 1970 show were available to watch. The same held true for the episodes of an on-line sitcom he produced and starred in, We Ain't Dead Yet; also, it was a place to go and watch episodes of Rayality TV and his current series, CabaRay Nashville, before that series began airing on local PBS stations. Throughout his career he's dabbled in video and television productions. I'm sure you're going to love his performance of "Hit Record"!!

Ray Stevens: Andy Williams performs on The Ray Stevens Summer Show...

I didn't know exactly if I should title this blog entry Andy Williams Sings on the Ray Stevens Show or Andy Williams performs on the 1970 Ray Stevens Summer Show, etc. I knew that whatever title I'd come up with would be wordy and so I settled on the title that I came up with. Andy Williams was a very important figure in the career of Ray Stevens. Andy allowed Ray to appear on several occasions on his NBC television series during the 1969-1970 season. The networks, by and large, didn't want to air repeats of variety shows during the summer months and so when the star of a show took off for the summer break there was the need for a replacement host. Andy and associates chose Ray Stevens to host the 1970 summer show. Ray had recently signed to Andy's record label, Barnaby, after a lengthy run on Monument Records, and Ray wanted his debut for the company to be a hit and something that could be used as a theme song for the upcoming summer show. In the video clip you'll hear Ray refer to Andy as "my daddy and the sweetheart of the south" and he says that about Andy out of respect. I say that because someone asked on one of Ray's social media accounts if Andy was Ray's father. The answer to that would be, no! Ray's father happened to be a man by the name of Willis. The show having Andy on as a guest lent itself to a lot of comedy because it was actually Andy's show that Ray was guest hosting during the summer break. The appearance gave Andy some jokes to level toward Ray...asking him how he's been doing since taking over the show, and as they begin to chit chat, music starts playing and the announcer tells us that the reason they're drowning out the conversation is because, frankly, they feel their chit chat is boring, which draws a lot of laughs but then, after the music stops, the scene ends with Andy asking Ray a question that had become a running joke throughout the 1970 summer series. Andy sings "One Day of Your Life" which was a huge hit for for him on the Adult-Contemporary chart...peaking in the runner-up position. It's more adult oriented and that's why it had it's greatest impact on radio formats that played pop music that adults preferred to listen to and purchase. Andy croons out the song in his typical delivery. The song is from the pen of Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield and it was issued as a single in June of 1970. The release came between Andy's version of "Can't Help Falling in Love" and "It's So Easy".  

Ray Stevens: a 1970 summer show sketch...

Earlier this afternoon Ray Stevens uploaded a sketch from his 1970 summer show featuring the recurring joke of Who Is Ray Stevens?. The summer 1970 show that Ray hosted was, if you're not aware, titled: Andy Williams Presents The Ray Stevens Show???. The show's title was a reference to Ray's lack of exposure on television and so, among television viewers, Ray was virtually an unknown and yet there he was the host of the summer show for Andy Williams. In truth, however, Ray had been in the music business since 1957 and by the time the summer of 1970 rolled around he had sold millions of records and had become a jack-of-all-trades in the recording studios (singer/songwriter/musician/producer/arranger/music publisher). In fact, when he was hosting the summer show in 1970 his current single, "Everything is Beautiful", was quickly becoming another million selling hit. Ray was selected to host Andy's summer show because the producer's of the show took notice of Ray's popularity with Andy's audience. Ray had been a recurring cast member on Andy's show since 1969 and, after Andy, next in line with the most fan mail happened to be Ray.

In a series of sketches Ray would be seated at the piano, beginning to sing a song, when the scene would freeze. An announcer would then ask who is Ray Stevens?. After asking this question we'd have a series of well known actors and actresses portraying 'real people' who would offer comical answers as to who Ray Stevens happened to be. After usually the funniest response the scene would return to Ray, seated at the piano, and he'd finish the song "already in progress"...which often meant the song was coming to an end. Simple, amusing, cute, whimsical humor...



After the summer 1970 show concluded Ray continued making frequent guest appearances on Andy's variety show until it ended production in 1971.

Ray Stevens: June 20, 1970...

Hello all fans of Ray Stevens!! Today is a milestone anniversary...it was on June 20, 1970 that the summer replacement television show for Andy Williams made it's debut on NBC-TV. The night of June 20, 1970...50 years ago...along came Andy Williams Presents...The Ray Stevens Show???. Ray had been a national recording artist for more than 10 years when he was selected to host the 1970 summer show but his presence on television was limited to local appearances as well as occasional guest appearances on Andy's television program beginning in 1969.

1970 summer show title card

Ray's guest appearances, according to Andy and the producers, were the most popular and so Ray was given the opportunity to host the nationally televised summer show in 1970. Some of the cast members on Ray's summer show were British entertainer Lulu, Mama Cass Elliot, Dick Curtis, Carol Robinson, and Steve Martin. The summer show's theme song was "Everything is Beautiful" which had recently hit number one for Ray on the Hot 100 pop chart and the Easy-Listening chart and it happened to be a million seller.

Earlier today a video clip surfaced on YouTube of the first six minutes of the debut episode of Ray's summer 1970 show. Ray has uploaded other clips from the 1970 series on YouTube throughout the last couple of years but given today marks a special anniversary it makes sense to upload a clip from the debut episode and so that's what they did. Ray performs "Everything is Beautiful" and appears in a brief comical sketch afterward.

Ray Stevens: 1970 comedy sketch...

Hello all...uploaded onto the Ray Stevens social media sites this afternoon happened to be a comedy sketch from the 1970 summer television show that Ray hosted for Andy Williams. The sketch is part of a running joke surrounding Ray's anonymity when it came to television...specifically as a host of a nationally aired program. The 1970 summer television show was officially titled Andy Williams Presents: The Ray Stevens Show??? and the running joke was referred to in the show as 'Who is Ray Stevens?'. In this upload you'll see Ray seated at the piano and several seconds after he begins singing the tape stops as it launches into the question that's on everyone's minds: 'Who is Ray Stevens?'. Well-known celebrities appear in cameo form playing fictional characters and attempt to answer the question. Among the celebrities are Jonathan Winters, Bill Dana, Jo Anne Worley...and there's a brief appearance near the end of the sketch from cast regular, Lulu, who gets in a joke at Ray's expense, too. The upload is called Who Is Ray Stevens, Part One...



I've been hoping that DVD releases of the 1970 summer show would become available. A couple of years ago there used to be a subscription based service, RayStevens.TV, and it contained all the episodes of the 1970 series in their entirety...among other exclusive content. I do not know if Ray was given access to those full length episodes for exclusive use for that on-line site or if he happens to own those episodes. All of the uploaded footage on YouTube from the 1970 summer show carries something of a watermark in the upper left, the initials AW, which I assume mean Andy Williams. To make a long story short the company providing Ray's subscription site abruptly broke off the arrangement and so, naturally, that caused the site to go offline. I was given a refund because I was in the middle of a subscription. Anyway, if Ray actually owns the rights to the 1970 summer show, I hope he one day issues those full length episodes onto DVD. My reasoning is if they're on DVD there's not going to be an uncertainty that one day they'll become unavailable to watch...which is what happened when RayStevens.TV abruptly went offline. Only time will tell if the summer 1970 series ever gets released on DVD...but it's something I'll continue to hope for in the back of my mind.

Ray Stevens: Monkey See, Monkey Do...

One of the recent social media posts from Ray Stevens featured one of his 1970 recordings from the Unreal album. The album's official title has three exclamation marks included but I've never included them whenever I'd mention the album in this fan-created blog page. The official reading of the album should be Unreal!!! but, as mentioned, I don't feel the need to use those three exclamation marks...we all know the name of the album regardless. This album came along in the latter half of 1970 following on the heels of his Everything is Beautiful album and the 1970 summer television show he hosted for Andy Williams. Ray was one of the show's recurring guests prior to and after hosting the 1970 summer show and if you turn this 1970 album over you'll see a photo of Ray seated at the piano on the set of his summer television series. I'll post an image of the back photo a little bit later. The album contains a majority of songs from the pen of Ray Stevens but there are a couple on here from other writers. "Talking" comes from pen of Ray's brother, John Ragsdale, who recently passed away. That particular song is in the topical category in that it deals with the Vietnam War...but it never actually explicitly states Vietnam...but nevertheless there was a war going on overseas and it fit the mood of the time. The main single release from that album also fit the mood of the times: "America, Communicate With Me", from the pen of Ray Stevens. Ray's popularity was and still is all encompassing...he really isn't exclusive to teenagers, young adults, middle aged adults, or older adults...the same as his music isn't exclusively pop, country, comedy, etc. The Unreal album contains 11 songs...Ray wrote 9 of the 11. The writer of "Come Around" is credited to B. Smith. "Loving You on Paper" ties into the war and the topical theme found in "Talking". There are several social-commentary songs starting with the obvious, "America, Communicate With Me", and then there's "Monkey See, Monkey Do", "Come Around", and "Can We Get to That".

1. Sunset Strip (Hot 100 entry; Top-20 Easy-Listening)
2. Can We Get to That
3. Imitation of Life
4. Night People
5. America, Communicate With Me (Top-50 pop; Top-20 Easy-Listening)
6. Come Around**
7. Loving You On Paper
8. Dream Girl
9. Monkey See, Monkey Do
10. Talking**
11. Islands

The image off to the right is the back cover of Unreal. Ray, as you can see, is seated at the piano on the set of the television show. Earlier I mentioned that the photo is from Ray's 1970 summer show but it could be a photo of Ray from any number of his guest appearances on The Andy Williams Show. The album itself was released in November 1970. The back photo is credited to the network airing the television show...so it's probably a photo from one of his various guest appearances on Andy's show. Ray performed a lot of these songs on a television special broadcast in 1971 on the BBC. There are clips from that television show on YouTube...it's called BBC In Concert. Oddly enough there isn't a performance of "Monkey See, Monkey Do" from that BBC television show. I wish there were! I've posted about that 1971 television appearance in the archives. Coincidentally that BBC appearance aired on May 10, 1971...nearly 49 years ago to the day....this being May 8th!! You all are probably wondering why in the world has this blog entry turned into an album review instead of my just embedding the YouTube audio clip of "Monkey See, Monkey Do"?!? The answer is I can't help myself...Ray's Unreal album is great!! So, then, here's the YouTube audio that Ray Stevens uploaded onto his social media sites back on May 4th...

Ray Stevens: 45 at 50...

I came across an alert on a social media site earlier today that April 4, 1970 is the date that "Everything is Beautiful" by Ray Stevens made it's debut on Billboard's Hot 100 pop chart. I usually don't have the actual release dates memorized...I'm pretty okay when it comes to the year that a Ray Stevens song was released...but not necessarily the exact month and day. The single marks it's Golden anniversary this year...it was 50 years ago today that it debuted on the charts.

Ray Stevens; 1970

I came across this sheet music on-line a number of years ago and so naturally I saved it. I don't know where I found it...probably an on-line store. The photo looks similar to one that appeared in an issue of TV Guide in 1970. In that issue there was a multi-page story revolving around Ray, his career to that point, and the decision to have him host a nationally televised variety show on NBC. The article mentioned how Ray is a virtual unknown to television viewers (except those watching Andy's show) but the author pointed out that Ray's no stranger to the music business. "Everything is Beautiful" made it's Hot 100 debut on April 4, 1970 and it took off like a rocket, well, almost. It spent a couple of weeks outside the Top-40 during the week ending April 4, 1970 and April 11, 1970. It entered the Top-40 the week ending April 18, 1970. I find it interesting because my brother was born on April 18th but 12 years later in 1982. Once it entered the Top-40 then it took off like a rocket. Ray Stevens had been frequently appearing on the Andy Williams variety show on NBC since 1969. In 1970 Ray signed a recording contract with Andy's record company, Barnaby. In addition to Ray wanting his debut single for the label to be a hit he had been asked to be the summer host for Andy Williams. So, then, Ray not only wanted to write a song that would be a hit for Barnaby Records but also could be a theme song for the upcoming summer television show. The summer 1970 show was taped in television studios in Toronto, Canada during the time "Everything is Beautiful" was climbing the chart. The single, as mentioned, took off like a rocket once it hit the Top-40 portion of the Hot 100. In it's 5th week on the Hot 100 it was already among the Top-20 hit songs...in it's 9th week on the Hot 100 it was sitting at number one on May 30th. It spent a second week, June 6th, at number one before beginning it's slide back down the chart. The single became one of Ray's biggest hits and largest selling singles. It was certified Gold for a million copies sold. It was an international hit song and crossed over to the country music format and made an appearance, briefly, on the Top-40 chart in that format. It was his first Top-40 country single and his second appearance on the Top 100 country chart. His first ever appearance on the country chart happened in 1969 with his version of "Sunday Morning Coming Down".

"Everything is Beautiful" reached it's peak in late May/early June 1970. The summer replacement show for Andy Williams that Ray hosted hit the air June 20, 1970 on NBC. The music heard as the theme song was "Everything is Beautiful". Ray performed the song in it's entirety on one episode but would open each episode singing the chorus of the song. It was an hour long show airing on Saturday nights. The cast included Lulu, Mama Cass, Steve Martin, Billy Van, Carol Robinson, Solari and Carr, and Dick Curtis. The eighth and final episode of the summer show aired on August 8, 1970.

The song was recorded by other artists throughout the decades. The Grammy Awards held early in 1971 presented two Grammy Awards for "Everything is Beautiful". Ray won a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance while gospel artist, Jake Hess, won a Grammy that same year in the category of Best Sacred Performance.

Ray Stevens and Company sing "Along Came Jones"...

One of the recent YouTube videos from Ray Stevens is a 1969 clip of "Along Came Jones". The performance is done against a backdrop of a refined, classical music performance showing Ray Stevens, Andy Williams, and Danny Thomas standing side by side and looking like a performance of "Along Came Jones" is the farthest thing from their minds.

Ray Stevens, Andy Williams, and Danny Thomas; 1969

Note the studious look of all three legendary entertainers. We see Andy Williams and Danny Thomas, in character, intently looking over their notes while Ray appears eager and ready to get things started. The trio walk out on stage and take their places behind the pedestals. After several seconds of fumbling with their "music sheets" and clearing their throats in a comical fashion there's a fanfare where the trio stand still and then Ray launches into a performance of "Along Came Jones". If you hadn't seen this video clip yet try and guess which one plays Sweet Sue and which one plays Salty Sam. Jimmy Osmond is also part of this video clip, too.

Ray Stevens, Andy Williams, and Danny Thomas; 1969

Ray Stevens sings "Misty"...1976...

Hello to all the fans of Ray Stevens! I'm sure those of you in the Myrtle Beach area attended the Ray Stevens concert at The Alabama Theater last night (Saturday March 4th). Hopefully those that attended will make commentary on social media sites at some point so there can be some documentation about it.

I'm anxiously awaiting the debut of Ray Stevens' CabaRay Nashville on a local PBS affiliate in my area. I've been aware of this upcoming debut for several months. Ray's series once aired on RFD but it moved to scattered PBS affiliates across the country this past January. A lot of stations in the South and Southeastern half of the country, perhaps predictably, immediately added the program to their line-ups but surprisingly, the state I live in, hasn't added it...but a neighboring state whose local PBS station is carried by our cable provider is set to start airing it on March 25th.

A couple of days ago I came across a vintage performance by Ray Stevens from 1976. In the clip he performs "Misty"...and is introduced by Andy Williams. It hasn't been promoted much, if at all, and therefore it's only received less than 30 (!) unique views.

Update: I originally had a video embed posted here from YouTube but it's been removed from their site and the embed no longer worked and so I removed that portion of this blog entry. I'm replacing the video embed with an image of Ray from that performance, though...

It may be one of Ray's last televised performances as a Barnaby Records artist. The performance took place on February 28, 1976. I know that the label released a couple of singles on Ray very early in 1976. One of those, "Young Love", happened to crash into the charts for a couple of weeks in late January. It debuted on the pop chart on Ray's birthday of all days, January 24, but not long after that Barnaby issued "Mockingbird Hill" as the fourth single off of the 1975 Misty album but I don't know off the top of my head if the single happened to be an impact release or just something the label issued to fill out a contractual obligation.

Sometimes an artist, I assume, may have a specific amount of single releases and album releases for whatever label they're recording for but if an artist and label are in their "lame-duck" period, to borrow a political phrase, and are in the process of parting company the label usually will issue one last single release to fill out the quota but not promote it much, if at all, and afterward the label and artist part ways on friendly terms. Sometimes, though, a label may issue an additional single or even an album that isn't part of the contracted total to be released. Some artists shrug it off but some fight against it on the grounds of contract violations...but getting back to the label Ray recorded for...

Barnaby was founded by and owned by Andy Williams; and Ray signed on in 1970. Andy's brother, Don, became Ray's manager (an association that lasted for more than 20 years). Not coincidentally Ray hosted the summer program that aired in Andy's time-slot on NBC in 1970 (Ray had been a recurring music guest on Andy's television series since 1969 and continued in that capacity during the 1970-1971 season). After the release of "Mockingbird Hill", which didn't make the pop or country singles charts, Ray left for Warner Brothers records and a different chapter of his career began.

Ray Stevens and the Moon River Concert...

Hello once again! Here's a reminder that Ray Stevens has a concert coming up...this coming Saturday night at the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri. You can read about it and purchase tickets HERE. I've mentioned this concert in previous blog posts but considering it's now a couple of days away I thought to make mention of it once more. It's his first concert of the month...he has 2 more concerts planned for later in the month in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Beginning today you can purchase 2 of Ray's DVD collections in a special offer ($15.00). Each of the DVD collections regularly sell at his web-store for $10.95 each but starting today both are being sold together. The DVDs are the Cartoon Carnival releases. Each release (Volume One and Volume Two) features 10 music videos...most of them featuring animated characters on screen (including Ray himself) but there are some that feature live-action Ray interacting with animated backgrounds.

You can purchase the special offer HERE.

In one of the summer 1970 video clips found on Ray's YouTube channel there's a clip titled "Swamp Girl". In addition to the comedy sketch there's also the recurring segment called "Who is Ray Stevens?". In that segment you'll be treated to cameo appearances by Don Knotts, Andy Williams, and Jonathan Winters giving their response as to who they think Ray Stevens happens to be. The routine came about due to Ray's low-key nature and the idea/belief that a television audience is different than a music audience.

Ray had made periodic appearances on Andy's television program in 1969 and into early 1970 and according to producers of Andy's program Ray happened to be the most popular/talked about guest and so they approached him with the offer to host Andy's summer program. Ray, up until that point, had been a fixture on the pop music scene for nearly 10 years and he had several recordings and albums to his credit (some of those songs became million sellers).

The exposure on the summer television program launched him into pop superstar stratosphere. Ironically his summer series began on June 20, 1970...a couple of weeks after "Everything is Beautiful" had reached it's #1 finish on both the pop and the Easy-Listening charts...but the further exposure the song received on Ray's summer series enabled it to remain a top seller. Given the fact that it remained #1 pop for 2 weeks and #1 Easy-Listening for 3 and the fact that it hit the Top-40 internationally (reaching #1 in Australia and Canada and the Top-10 in Ireland and England) it's not a surprise to learn that it became the #12 song for the entire year of 1970. A massively popular recording.

The final episode of the summer series aired on August 8, 1970. During the production of the series he was promoting some other songs, too, which came to light on the Unreal album (released after the summer series ended). "America, Communicate with Me", for example, became the big single from that album but "Sunset Strip" is a masterful recording, too. Each single became a hit on the adult oriented Easy-Listening radio format (music that still appealed to a broad audience...but typically appealing to people aged 35 and older instead of 30 and younger).

Here is one of the clips from Ray's 1970 summer series...

Ray Stevens: The Nashville Memoir...

Oh yes it's me...I've been busy on a certain social media site during the latest happenings involving Ray Stevens. This past Sunday (June 22) Ray appeared at the Nashville Public Library for an interview with Ralph Emery and a book signing. I've come across one blog detailing the event and the blogger included an image of Ray and Ralph. In addition, the blogger posted an image of himself and Ray at the autograph table. So far, that's the only re-cap I've come across.

I had contacted the library several days before the event and asked if the program would be streamed/podcast, etc. etc. for those that couldn't be there in person. The reply I got is that it'll be available on the internet at a later date.

The library has a YouTube channel and they've uploaded several videos that have been taped at the facility...and so my guess is a video of Ray and Ralph should surface on the library's YouTube channel at some point in the future. Once I see a video posted at the library's YouTube channel or perhaps elsewhere, I'll share it in a future blog post.

Today is another eventful day in the career of Ray Stevens. Actually, though, it's tonight. Ray is going to make an appearance at the Tuesday Night Opry during the program's final segment. The last half hour of the Opry begins at 8:45pm Central and runs until 9:15pm. Those in the Eastern time zone that's 9:45pm-10:15pm. He'll be sharing the half hour segment with Charlie Daniels. I assume Ray, being the guest artist, will go first. I also assume this because right after Ray's performance he'll be whisked away to The Opry Shop to sign copies of his Nashville memoir. The shop is separate from the Opry and is open to the public...but the book signing's are exclusive to those that attended that evening's Opry performance...

In order to have your book signed by Ray, you'll have to show the store's staff your Opry ticket stub. The book signing is exclusive to those that attended the Tuesday Night Opry.

That disclaimer's been part of the Opry's event site for awhile and so if you've read their page in the days leading up to tonight's appearance you should be well aware of the book signing's exclusiveness. If you attend the Opry tonight and purchase Ray's book simply show the ticket stub to the Opry shop employee's and be in line for an autograph.

To listen to the Tuesday Night Opry, click their listen live button on 650 WSM's webpage.

The publicity for the book's arrival began late last week on June 18th. The Tennessean paper published a story about the book's upcoming release and you can see it HERE.

The Vintage Vinyl News site published this ARTICLE. A site called Broadway World posted this 2-page ARTICLE on June 18th. Country Weekly has an article on their SITE dated June 18th. Their article is going to be part of an upcoming issue of the magazine. The cover date for that issue is July 14, 2014. I'll be on the lookout for that issue of course!!

From June 19th here's a promo piece for the book from a site called The Boot.

The book's official release date happened to be this past Sunday June 22, 2014. It had been available for purchase since March. I purchased my copy on Amazon in April (as soon as I learned of the book's existence) and after reading it I posted a review of it here on my blog and then I posted a review over on Amazon. Feel free to comment or rate my review. If you hadn't purchased Ray's Nashville book, click HERE to do so. So far I'm the only one to have reviewed it...hopefully others will add their thoughts now that the book's officially been released and the publicity campaign is underway (this also means that a whole lot more people now know it's available for purchase!!).

Even more Ray Stevens Show Clips...

Well, hello fans of Ray Stevens! I've been enjoying all of the clips that have been surfacing on You Tube over the last month from the 1970 summer program that Ray hosted for Andy Williams. I noticed, by way of my frequent look-in's, that quite a few have visited Ray's You Tube channel (I posted a link to it in my previous blog nearly 1 month ago) and so I'm sure many of you have seen most of the uploads by now. Ray's 1970 summer program lasted a brief 8 episodes. Like many that have seen the clips and are fans of Ray Stevens we've all basically formed the same opinion that the show was way too brief in it's episode count. I looked up the show's air dates months ago and refreshing my memory I looked them up again and it debuted in late June and stayed on the air through early August: June 20, 1970 through August 8, 1970. Strategic air-dates is how the network was able to stretch 8 episodes into a summer season.

Here's Ray Stevens performing his version of "Proud Mary". I assume it's labeled 'Rolling on a River' after the repeated use of that phrase and the fact that many people may think the song's called that...



The summer of 1970 also meant that the Vietnam War was raging and protest music, from all sides, filled the airwaves. I'm a self-described nostalgia nut and generally write positively about the music and entertainment from a bygone time period and that's how any nostalgic minded person should be. I don't necessarily believe that a person HAD to have lived through an era to have 'nostalgia' feelings for it. A 35 year old can easily read a reference book or a history book, for example, and wish they lived 20 or 30 years earlier to experience or enjoy something that had happened in history. War is something that no sane person should ever feel nostalgia for...but there DOES happen to be some great feel-good music to come out of that era that shouldn't be lost to time.

There's a perception today, as there happened to be then, that only those of a liberal point of view can enjoy feel-good songs. I reject that perception. There's another perception that conservatives are war mongers and that liberals are pacifists. There's still yet another common belief that a pacifist is the most desirable role than the one that chooses to use military action. The facts remain that no matter the political philosophy, there's a time and a place for diplomacy and military action, no matter which political affiliation a President aligns himself with.

An extreme hawk or an extreme dove is just one of those kinds of things that Ray Stevens wrote and sang about in this stunning clip from 1970. The clip begins with Ray and company performing "Save the Country", a protest-era song originally released by The 5th Dimension in 1970. This is followed by Ray's take on the extremists of both political parties in "America, Communicate with Me". He cites a couple of bumper stickers as the main inspiration for the song. It's a great performance all around.



The single cut through on the adult-oriented Middle of the Road/Easy-Listening charts in 1970. It nearly made the Top-10 in that format after just a few weeks in the stores. The format, now known as Adult-Contemporary, at that point in time was the stomping ground for many, MANY pop singers that were enormously popular but they didn't have a lot of rock and roll in their music to fit the dominated rock and roll playlists. In other words, artists that had a significant following and sold a steady stream of singles but didn't fit Top-40 pop radio were usually pushed into the Easy-Listening formats. These artists, because their singles were selling, still managed to make appearances in the lower portions of Billboard's Hot 100 which had quickly been taken over by rock music by 1960.

"America, Communicate with Me", while being a major Easy-Listening hit for Ray Stevens in 1970, wasn't able to crack into the Top-40 of the Hot 100 as easily. It came close...but I suspect that the middle of the road, Independent stance on social issues heard throughout the song created such a dilemma with Top-40 radio stations that DJ's perhaps thought that there could be a negative reaction, of some kind, from ardent supporters of liberal politics and those in the anti-war crowd...perhaps a major listening base...that Top-40 stations were too scared to play it. As mentioned, Easy-Listening radio formats played the song...

A lot of the artists in Easy-Listening format had seen their Top-40 airplay reduced or stopped altogether after the advent of rock music in the mid '50s. The artists that still sold concert tickets and singles, but happened to be over a certain age and declared 'uncool' and not hip by teenagers, were now able to continue to make a decent living as recording stars for an additional 10-15 years after rock and roll came along thanks to the creation of an Easy-Listening/Adult-Contemporary radio market. Ray was unique in that he happened to have been born in 1939 and so in January 1970 he had turned 31. Image wise he wasn't seen as some sort of a culture threat or bad influence on kids while his youthful appearance and socially aware demeanor, as you clearly see in these 1970 clips, appealed to younger audiences and that's a big reason why, in my opinion, he was able to straddle both the younger and older audiences simultaneously.

Cast members of Ray's summer show included Mama Cass from The Mamas and the Papas, English singer Lulu, comedian/writer Steve Martin, Billy Van, Tom Solari, and Clark Carr. In the clip below enjoy "Ahab the Arab" followed by Ray and the cast singing "Let it Be"!

More 1970 Ray Stevens Show clips...

Hello once again!! In my previous blog entry I supplied news about some 1970 Ray Stevens Show clips that had surfaced on You Tube. In the days since, Ray has uploaded a whole lot more from his summer 1970 program. When I  wrote the previous blog entry there were five uploads from the 1970 show...it has increased by 11 as of August 26th. So, then, there's a grand total at the moment of 16 clips from his 1970 television program. Available on his You Tube Video Channel are the clips. Keep that link saved so that you can check back and see if new clips have become available in the days ahead. At the moment the latest upload is a 1970 performance of "Freddie Feelgood". There's also a clip of Ray singing "I Got a Woman", a cover of a Ray Charles song, and it's probably one of the most surprising/revealing performances if you're not too familiar with Ray Stevens' vocal versatility and just how much of an influence early rock, R&B, jazz, and classic pop music played a part in his earlier recordings before adding country-flavored styles later on in the '70s. In a message on a social media site, Ray gave some information about a possible DVD becoming available featuring clips from the 1970 summer show. Since it's late August, it probably won't become available for a few months...hopefully a DVD arrives sooner than that but my guess is, if there's a DVD on the way, it'll be here a month from now or probably in October. 

Ray Stevens: Nostalgia Valley, Part 46...

A couple of new, vintage clips featuring Ray Stevens surfaced on You Tube just recently. Each of the clips comes from 1969 and they also feature Andy Williams as well as The Osmonds. The performances are from Andy's weekly show.

The first clip shows the performers in fringe decor singing a medley of rock and roll songs. The performers are not usually associated with rock music and there's a lot of humorous situations that revolve around Andy's performances. Ray is a natural, though, and could perform in that style when he chose to. The Osmonds round out the performance as the background vocalists but they're also part of the visual performance, too. Donny Osmond has several solo's in this clip.



In the second clip, which should be familiar to some, we have Dusty Springfield joining the performance. I say it should be familiar because a few months ago this clip was uploaded on You Tube in a grainy, black and white, hard to really see performance but now it's offered in it's colorized appearance. The original upload has more than 6,000 views and I made mention of the video's existence back then. Jimmy Osmond, at the age of 5 or 6 depending on when this performance was taped, has a few solo offerings...

Ray Stevens: Golden LP Series, Part Six...

The sixth studio album from Ray Stevens, Everything Is Beautiful, came along in 1970. The album marked Ray's debut on Barnaby Records, a label owned by Andy Williams, which was distributed by CBS domestically and MGM internationally during the first few years of Ray's involvement with the label. Ray's debut single for the label became the biggest hit of his career to that point. "Everything Is Beautiful" is a wonderful song from start to finish which tells of an ideal world and creates escapism and optimism in the process. The song was issued at a time when the Vietnam War protests were still raging as the war became a daily headline in local and national newscasts. The pop music of this time period was most often centered around the news of the day and topical events in general. Television comedies and dramas, and even cartoon programming, were slipping social and political commentary in an indirect way into the scripts. The look and presentation of most variety shows on TV mirrored the youth-oriented/psychedelic/hippie culture. The Andy Williams Show had a youth-oriented backdrop during it's final years on the air and it showcased quite a few musical acts from that youth culture even though the star of the show and many of the regulars appeared more conservative in their appearances.

Ray remained a long-time friend of Andy's and was credited with being the one that inspired Andy to open up his own Branson, Missouri theater in 1992. Ray will be performing at the Andy Williams Moon River Theater in Branson, Missouri beginning tonight, October 15, 2012 and lasting through October 20. Ray will perform a total of 6 concerts during the on-going series saluting Andy's life and career. The appearance from Ray had been scheduled long in advance and was originally designed to be part of a celebration series of Andy's career, with Andy himself in attendance, but since his recent death in late September the concert series is understandably taking on more of a memorial celebration.

The Everything Is Beautiful album hit the market in June of 1970, mere weeks after the title track had hit #1 on both the American pop chart and the Easy-Listening chart. The single hit #1 during late May of 1970...remaining at the top for 3 weeks on the Easy-Listening chart and 2 weeks at #1 on the Hot 100. The song would reach #1 in other countries, too, and also crossover and become a Top-40 country music hit. The album's release and the single's achievement of hitting #1 and staying there into early June wasn't the only great news for Ray Stevens...later that month he became the host of the Andy Williams Summer Show on NBC-TV. In those days it wasn't uncommon for variety show hosts to take the summer off and have a substitute fill-in, rather than show reruns, and it was that scenario that led Ray into being picked as the host of the fill-in program for Andy Williams. The show was on the air every week from June 20, 1970 through August 8, 1970. "Everything Is Beautiful" was the show's theme song which no doubt continued to help the sales of the single soar even higher. The single reportedly sold more than 3,000,000 copies altogether from both domestic and international releases and it was certified Gold by the RIAA. The album reached the Top-40 on the pop album chart. On the back of the album cover it shows a picture of Ray and Andy side by side.

Cast members of Ray's TV show included Mama Cass, Lulu, and Steve Martin, just to name a few.

The b-side of "Everything Is Beautiful" was "A Brighter Day" which carries a similar message as "Have a Little Talk With Myself" did. Aside from the title track and "A Brighter Day" the remainder of the album feature his versions of other artist's hits. In the picture above, I'm holding the CD re-release which features the sixth and seventh studio albums from Ray Stevens. Some of the songs covered on Everything Is Beautiful are: "Walk a Mile In My Shoes", "Get Together", "Leaving on a Jet Plane", "Something", and "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head". Interestingly, Ray was offered the chance of recording "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" first...but had to turn it down. He had just completed "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" and didn't want to postpone it's release. The Raindrops song found it's way to B.J. Thomas, who ended up having a massively popular recording of it. The film that featured the song was Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman. One of the most majestic recordings on the album is "A Time for Us", referred to as the Romeo and Juliet Love Theme. In this song Ray goes all out vocally...easily the best performance of that particular recording that you'll ever hear.

All of this success for Ray Stevens in 1970, critically and commercially, may have seemed to come from out of nowhere to a general audience who may have only known of Ray for a few sporadic novelty songs. In fact, the official name of the summer fill-in show for Andy Williams was titled Andy Williams Presents...The Ray Stevens Show???. The reality was Ray had been a long-time fixture in recording studios as a session musician, arranger, and producer for other artists as well as on his own recordings. To some critics and maybe to Ray himself, all of this meteoric success in 1970 was something unreal...which coincidentally is the name of Ray's seventh studio album...

Coming up next in this series we'll take a really good look at Unreal, the seventh studio album from Ray Stevens.

Ray Stevens: Golden LP Series, Part Five...

On this crisp Monday morning we take a look at the fifth studio album from Ray Stevens...a wonderful album from 1969 titled Have a Little Talk With Myself. As many readers that stop by here are well aware of I happen to like/love something about every Ray Stevens album. Some albums I really, really like and some I simply like for whatever reason. This 1969 album falls into the really, really like category.

This album was something new for Ray, at the time, as he mostly offered his versions of contemporary pop songs by other artists and groups. The album contains 12 songs and it was produced by Ray and Jim Malloy. There were only three songs on here exclusive to the album at the time and those were "The Little Woman" and the title track, "Have a Little Talk With Myself", which were both written by Ray, and then the first single release from the album, "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", written by Kris Kristofferson.

Ray was the very first artist to ever record "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" and the first artist to release it as a single. Ray marked his debut on the country music singles chart with this song as it peaked in the country Top-60 in America. It reached the Top-50 on Canada's country music chart, the Top-60 on Canada's pop chart, and it crawled into the lower regions of America's Hot 100 pop chart. The song was covered a year later by Johnny Cash and it is his version that the public is much more familiar with as it not only reached #1 on the country chart in 1970 but it ultimately won a coveted award from the CMA, too.

The title track, "Have a Little Talk With Myself", is one of those inspirational kind of songs that deals with the human ego and all the pressures and enticements one's ego endures throughout life and how to address those human frailties of egotism and selfishness. It is one of my favorite Ray Stevens songs...it became one of my favorites upon the first time I heard it. It became a country music chart hit, his second overall, but ironically it never appeared at any position on the Hot 100. It would be covered a few years later by Sammy Davis, Jr.

The third single release, in early 1970, turned out to be the album's opening number, "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight", from the pen of Bob Dylan. The single, however, didn't reach the Hot 100 but bubbled under instead. Ray's take on the song is quite excellent and it includes verbal instrumentation and heavy production work. In fact, this album showcased a certain talent of Ray's that had long been a part of his own recordings and that is the art/science of multi-tracking and overdubbing. Although he didn't invent these practices, Ray was among the few recording artists, at the time, to embrace the concept and use it to it's full potential long before it became commonplace and accepted as a vital ingredient for practically every recorded performance during the last 40+ years by artists of every music genre imaginable. Given that Ray's a skilled music arranger, producer, musician, and all around studio whiz perhaps lent a lot to his embrace of multi-tracking and overdubbing, a technique that has long been a source of disdain for music purists who prefer songs to be recorded in their entirety with a full band in the studio rather than a song recorded in bits and pieces and then digitally mixed into one single performance.

This multi-tracking/overdubbing skill was put to even greater use on a few more songs found on this 1969 album. "Help" is known worldwide as a Beatles hit...it's one of several songs on here with a Beatles connection...Ray overdubs his voice in various harmonies and the full effect shows up about half way through the recording. In addition to this, his incredible take on "Hey Jude" in my opinion is mind blowing...uncannily capturing the spirit that was heard on the original recording by the Beatles. If those two songs, in particular, don't blow you away then we have his version of "Hair" and this, too, is a wonderful showcase of not only Ray's production talents but also his mimicry skills as he sings the song in various vocalization pitches for the choir of background singers generated by the overdub process. Jim Malloy co-produced this album and he appears on the back of the album cover, next to Ray, in a picture taken in the studio. The two are laughing about something...what they're laughing at is never revealed. A second picture of Ray, at the piano, also appears on the back of the album.

The other covers on this album are "Spinning Wheel", "But You Know I Love You", "Aquarius", "The Fool on the Hill", and "The Games People Play".

It was during this point in time that Ray became associated with Andy Williams. Ray became one of the most popular guests on Andy's weekly television program in 1969 and he made numerous appearances...almost becoming something of a semi-regular. Have a Little Talk With Myself turned out to be Ray's final album for Monument Records. The album's final couple of singles, mentioned earlier, had hit and left the charts in early 1970. This chain of events of exiting Monument Records enabled Ray to move to a new record label, owned by Andy Williams, as the next several years were to become the biggest of his career up to that point.

Coming up next in this series is Ray's sixth studio album, Everything Is Beautiful, and the chain of events that shaped 1970 as a banner year in his career. 

Ray Stevens: Nostalgia Valley, Part 44...

In this installments of the Nostalgia Valley we take a look at the connection between Ray Stevens and the late Andy Williams. As many people familiar with this blog are aware, Andy played a pivotal role in the ultimate success of Ray Stevens. A lot of media stories report on the fact that Ray hosted a summer 1970 series for Andy on NBC-TV...I've written about this as well. Prior to the deal being made, Ray joined Barnaby Records. If it weren't for this event in Ray's professional life who knows how the rest of the decade would've played out.

Barnaby was owned by Andy Williams and it was a label that was home to Ray for six years, 1970-1976. His last single releases for the label occurred early in 1976...later on that year Ray moved to the Warner Brothers label. Barnaby went through a series of distribution entities, for domestic and international releases, during the time Ray was on the label: CBS, MGM, Janus, GRT. Another Ray Stevens connection to Andy Williams the general public is most certainly not aware of is the fact that Ray's manager for the longest of time was Andy's brother, Don.

The facts are simple: You simply can't write about Ray Stevens or talk about Ray's career at any great detail and not include Andy's involvement somewhere.  



In the video embed above, a clip from 1969, you'll see Ray, Andy, Danny Thomas, Jimmy and Olive Osmond perform "Along Came Jones". The single was Ray's current hit at the time.

Ray Stevens and Television...

In an article I found a few minutes ago via Twitter that was published yesterday, a writer at Examiner put together an article recounting her visit to the offices of Ray Stevens Music in Nashville, TN this past Thursday. The article can be read by clicking the following Ray Stevens article link. The writer of the piece is Donna Nolan-Wilson. In it, she mentions the recent death of George Lindsey, and that the visit took place this past Thursday, the day before the funeral. The article doesn't offer any direct quotes from Ray or any interview-style Q&A's but all in all it's a positive article that promotes Ray's You Tube activity and his 9-CD Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The article offers a new photo of Ray...decked out in a plaid shirt standing inside his recording studio. The article states that Ray is working on some new political songs...and I for one can't wait to hear them!!

The other day, on Facebook, it was announced that a sketch taped during the early '90s that was cut from the Amazing Rolling Revue television pilot will surface at some point on You Tube. The Amazing Rolling Revue, which I mentioned in a previous blog entry, was released on home video in 1992. The program was meant to be a pilot for a television series but there were no takers.

Ray is no stranger to the visual medium. Sure, today, he's known for his music videos and You Tube but not many people realize, if you've not paid too much attention to his interviews from the past, that there was a time when he pursued appearances on the big screen and the small screen. There was a time when you'd be able to catch him in a cameo role in various television productions...including the daytime drama, Texas, in 1981 where he performed his single at the time, "One More Last Chance". He appeared on The Fall Guy as Webb Covington and a couple of movies in the late '70s featured Ray in cameo appearances: Concrete Cowboys and Murder in Music City. These two films were released in 1979...and both have a country music backdrop...and both feature a cameo role from Ray Stevens. Claude Akins co-starred in both movies which causes confusion for those not aware that there were two separate movies that took place in Tennessee. Jerry Reed and Tom Selleck starred in Concrete Cowboys. Ray performed "Sunshine" in that film, a song from his Misty album from 1975. In the Music City film Ray performed a short song, with Ronnie Milsap, called "It's Only Temporary". Ray wrote the song according to the credits.

There was once a series called Nashville 99 and Ray made an appearance on this program. The show lasted a few episodes and it starred Jerry Reed and...drum roll...Claude Akins! Concrete Cowboys would become a television series. Jerry Reed returned for the series but Selleck's role was took over by Geoffrey Lewis. Akins had been a star in the series, Movin' On, which had a theme song performed by Merle Haggard. Notice all the ties between country music of the late '70s and both the small and big screen? The ultimate marriage between country music and the big screen would happen in 1980...with Urban Cowboy. Marty Robbins once hosted a television program and Ray made an appearance...

Did Ray Stevens ever appear on the television show, Dukes of Hazzard? The answer would be No...but he appeared on a wide variety of television offerings in the meantime.

Now, this sort of thing fits a pattern that was consistent in Ray's career for awhile during that point in time.  He made many appearances on Nashville-based programs...including Pop! Goes the Country and Hee-Haw. The latter appearances started to come in bunches during the 1980's...by the end of the '80s he had also became a frequent guest co-host on Hee-Haw. He taped so many segments that it wasn't uncommon for an episode to air featuring his performances and then several weeks later an entirely different set of performances could be seen. There were some episodes in which Ray wasn't the headlining guest but that didn't take away from his performances.

In Pop! Goes the Country I think a major reason for his numerous appearances had to do with his friendship with it's host, Ralph Emery. He also made appearances after Tom T. Hall took over as host in 1979...but for the longest time Ralph's television programs were certain to feature Ray Stevens at some point or another. While Hee-Haw became the show that Ray appeared on the most in the 1980's...with a close second being the Ralph Emery hosted Nashville Now...the program that Ray appeared on the most in the '70s was without question Pop! Goes the Country with a close second being his appearances in the early '70s on Andy Williams' program. When Jerry Reed was asked to host a country music special in 1979 Ray Stevens was among the guests. Ray performed an abbreviated version of "Freddy Feelgood" before launching into his current single at the time, "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow". In the famed Chet Atkins television special from 1980 Ray performed "Night Games" and "Frog Kissing". The latter was actually a Chet Atkins vocal hit...the recording had been produced by Ray in 1976. The song itself had been written by Buddy Kalb. Ray performed the background harmony in the recording, too.

As early as 1970 Ray was working on the legendary story of Johnny Appleseed...from the few news articles I've come across, apparently, it was suppose to be a stage production of some kind...a lot like the Mark Twain adaptation musicals of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

Here is a news archive from June 24, 1970 reprinted by Google detailing Ray's career at that point in time: June 24, 1970 news article. It's from a newspaper called The Bryan Times. The story was written by one named Mel Heimer and it briefly mentions the Johnny Appleseed project.