Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" surpasses 300,000 unique views

Hello fans of Ray Stevens! Well, I write a blog entry a couple of days ago spotlighting the comedy video "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nearing the 300,000 unique view plateau and here we are less than 2 days later and it's vaulted past the 300,000 mark. I was thinking it would only be a matter of time but wasn't sure that it would move into the 300,000 level as quickly as it did considering that it isn't being heavily promoted on social media as it once was. The video hit in October 2021 and so it's been available online for a little more than a year. The specific view count is 300,174...a pickup of 256 unique views since January 29th. I'll go out on a limb and say it was my blog entry a couple of days ago that helped push the video past 300,000 sooner rather than later. 

Something funny happened when I went to share the January 29th blog on social media. I included a link to the blog entry plus I included the video link as well. I get a message almost instantly declaring that the video I shared may contain sensitive/offensive material (?) and that it was blocked.

Now, of course, we all know the music video is harmless but it dawned on me that the video's link must've been coded to automatically set off a warning whenever anyone goes to share it. It was then that I come to the conclusion that the video's inability to be shared is what caused it to disappear from social media platforms seemingly overnight. It's something I noticed but never made mention of in any blog entry until now. In the days/weeks/months after the video made it's debut it was being shared all over the place but then it vanished. I never did accept the possibility that the video simply stopped being shared/re-posted by people on social media. I didn't accept it because it made no sense...a video doesn't just stop being shared by a mass audience all at once...and so a lot of the potential exposure the comedy video could've been getting was directly impacted. 

If I had not attempted to post a link to the "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" video the other day I wouldn't have known the video was kept from being shared. The unique views that the video continues to get is truly organic...people are finding it when they search for Ray Stevens music videos since posting a direct link to the video on a certain social media platform is a no-no. My guess is those who made the decision to keep the comedy video from being shared assume it's raunchy or lewd given the video's thumbnail image of Ray standing next to the dancer. It's harmless, comical...some may say absurd...but it's certainly not offensive, raunchy, or lewd in any way. See for yourselves...   

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" 8 month check-up...

"She's a Hoo-ooo-ooo-chie Coochie Dancer..." croons legendary entertainer, Ray Stevens, in his novelty single/music video, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". The release had it's debut early in October of 2021 as the lead-off, and to date, only single release from his recent comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. A belly dancer some may say...in the music video we also see a gypsy who plays matchmaker...leading Ray into the clutches of the dancer. We're at the 8 month period. The YouTube video reached the 100,000 unique views plateau by the end of October 2021. It reached the 200,000 unique views plateau by January 2022...and today the music video sits with 239,004 unique views and climbing. The mass online sharing of the video decreased, which is natural for most newly released online video content after a few hours or a few days, and so it's now down to discovery by chance on YouTube...in other words, discovery by those who weren't seeking the video out, initially, but decide to watch the video after seeing it show up in a search engine result. A lot of Ray's online audio tracks and online music videos fall into that 'by chance' category once the initial mass publicity wave dies down. 

I've never been to a large scale carnival or a circus. I've seen small carnivals and small scale circuses that passed through town...and the big top as it's popularly known, on a large field near the local school; but I never attended a carnival or a circus...just observed them from a distance...but I've been to several local county fairs.          

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nears 200,000 unique views...

Hello all...we're kind of in limbo as we near the end of 2021 and anticipate 2022...two days since Christmas and I've still got some left-overs from the Christmas feast. In a few minutes I'll be heating up some of those left-overs. On Christmas we have ham instead of turkey. The Christmas menu is just slightly different than Thanksgiving but there's one thing both have in common in our house and it's the feeling of over-eating and eagerness to sleep that occurs several hours later. I was looking at the "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" unique views and they're nearing 200,000! The total as of now is 199,530! If you're a fan of Ray Stevens and you haven't yet seen this music video...which, to me, sounds surprising considering that it made it's debut early in October. Nevertheless, if you hadn't seen the music video or heard the audio track yet it's a song about a guy and some of his friends who go to a carnival. The guy comes across a belly dancer and upon a session with a fortune teller he has it made up in his mind that the belly dancer and he are made for one another. The naïve nature of the guy is the hook of the song...as we hear how he has no idea that he's being used and we're told that he was ultimately taken advantage of by the belly dancer...we're told this bit of news near the end of the song when a policeman shows up. The song is from his current comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore.

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" reaches 190,000 unique views...

Hello once more all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! Some of you probably won't be able to see the fine print in the image off to the right. I had to make the image small so it wouldn't take up too much text space. It's the most recent Amazon placement for Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, the current comedy album from Ray Stevens. The CD is ranked at number 88 this hour on Amazon's list of Top-100 New Releases in CD/Vinyl in the Country music format. I often check this Top-100 list to see where Amazon's placed the CD...sometimes when I check it's up near, or among, the Top-50 and sometimes it's in the bottom 20 of the Top-100 like it currently is. There are days when the CD isn't even in the Top-100 but then it shows up for multiple week appearances. The first single release from the album happened to arrive in June...a novelty song called "Gas". It has never been made into a music video but it was released as an audio track by Curb Records...and that particular audio track received more than 12,000 plays on YouTube. When the comedy album was released in October, "Gas" was issued as an audio track on YouTube for a second time. The audio track released in June features, as a promo photo, a fictional gas station with a line of cars waiting to fill up. The audio track of "Gas" that was released in October features the cover art from Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore as a promo. The October audio track has a little over 2,000 YouTube plays compared to the more than 12,000 plays of the June audio track. They're the same recording. I say that just in case anyone was wondering if there's a difference between the audio track that shown up in June and the audio featured on the album. 

When the comedy album was released in October several online music sites promoted a couple of songs. One of the online sites promoted the audio track, "Coco Cabana Band". Elsewhere on the internet were music sites promoting the music video of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". Now, it shouldn't come as a surprise, but a music video or any type of visual content is going to gain a whole lot more attention and it's potentially going to lead to a lot more online sharing than an audio track will. The "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" music video has 192,140 unique views. In the song Ray and a few of his friends are at a carnival where he meets up with a belly dancer. The two visit a fortune teller/gypsy who, predictably, tells Ray that he's found his soul mate. He proposes marriage...even going so far as to give her his high school ring. As the song progresses we're told that one day behind a tent spelled the end of Ray's one-sided romance as he tells us that he can't recall much of what went on except that he woke up and saw a policeman returning him his billfold and high school ring.   

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nears 190,000 unique views...

We've made it to December!! Hello the last month of the year...and as I looked upon the unique view totals of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" I seen that it's nearing 190,000 unique views. The specific number is 187,687. In a couple of previous blog entries I made mention of the music video having peaked...but it isn't a word meant to be taken literally. An online music video will continue to obtain unique views as long as it's online and attached to a popular recording artist which Ray Stevens happens to be. However, as far as pulling in tens of thousands of unique views per day as it was doing in the days and weeks after October 8th, I don't believe the video will see those kinds of numbers on a daily basis again and so when this phase of a video happens I tend to say that it's peaked. 

During a 7 day period from November 22 to November 29 the video had gained 3,531 unique views. Compare this to the amount of unique views racked up between November 14 and November 18. In that four day span the video had gotten 11,521 unique views. Now, from November 18 to November 22 the video had gotten 6,441 unique views. Prior to today the last time I looked in to see the YouTube numbers for the video was November 29 and it was sitting at 186,973...and two days later, December 1st, it's sitting at 187,687. I could've held off looking at the video's numbers for another day or two but I wanted to have a blog entry published on the first day of the month and it's still too early to starting embedding Christmas music video content. Those will begin to appear mid-December and lead into Christmas Day. The song comes from his current comedy album, Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore.

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" surpasses 30,000 unique views...

Hello all once more!! Yesterday I wrote a blog entry about "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nearing 25,000 unique views on YouTube. Throughout the rest of the day and into the overnight hours this latest Ray Stevens music video continued to obtain unique views...so much so that when I wrote the previous blog entry the video had gotten 23,105 unique views at the time. Today it's increased by more than 10,400 unique views! The total number of unique views for the music video, as of this writing, is 33,557! I'll check back on the numbers later this evening and during the overnight hours. 

Ray is going to make a guest appearance on the Tuesday Night Opry tomorrow night...I made mention of this in my previous blog entries. I'm sure there will be several reminders of this guest appearance tomorrow on various social media platforms. Earlier today a contest was unveiled for two free tickets to the CabaRay showroom!! All you have to do is go to Ray's official Facebook PAGE. Once there all you have to do is Like and Share the Facebook post which contains details about the contest. That post appeared this morning at 9am. So, for those of you who read this blog entry in the coming hours and days, you'll have to visit his Facebook page and search for the October 11th 9am post and simply Like and Share it for your chance to win 2 CabaRay tickets. As of this writing there are 104 Likes and 27 Shares. The contest ends October 16th so it's six days long. The winner of the 2 CabaRay concert tickets will be randomly chosen and the winner can choose any concert on the 2021 CabaRay calendar (except New Year's Eve). I'm assuming the winner will be announced early this coming Saturday...just in case that evening's concert is the one that the contest winner chooses to attend. 

I'll add that since this is a contest for concert tickets I'm sure they're going to want serious participants. If you know you're not going to be able to attend the concert don't participate. I know I won't be able to make my way down to Nashville and so I only Liked the Facebook post and I didn't Share the post. If you know you're going to be able to attend the concert then by all means Like and Share the post once you visit Ray's Facebook page. 

Judging by the reaction to the contest post I take it a lot of people are aware that you should only participate if you know you're going to be able to attend. 104 Likes and 27 Shares...it means there's 27 people who have Liked and Shared the post, so far, indicating 27 people know they'll be able to attend a concert if they win the contest. This is the text of the Facebook post pertaining to the contest. When you're over on Ray's Facebook page look for this October 11th 9am post to Like and Share if you're wanting to win 2 CabaRay concert tickets...

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nearing 20,000 unique views...

Hello all of you fans of Ray Stevens!! "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" continues to rack up the unique views on YouTube. The total just before I began writing this blog entry was 16,362!! I have periodically kept up to date throughout Saturday when it comes to this music video and it's reaching all kinds of people...consider that it was sitting with 8,502 unique views a couple of blog entries ago and now it's nearly doubled that total with 16,362. The speed with which the video is accumulating unique views means that by the time I finish writing this blog entry the total number of unique views could be near 17,000. 

Did you DVR the Huckabee television show Saturday night? I ask that because a lot of you may have went to Ray's Saturday night concert at the CabaRay...and seen Ray in person. On Friday he was in Hendersonville, Tennessee taping the Huckabee show. Ray was the guest announcer...filling in for Keith Bilbrey. The taped show aired nationally on the Trinity Broadcasting Network last night at 8pm Eastern. It was one of those super rare instances in which Ray was competing with himself. First, he was in person at the CabaRay putting on a concert which began at 7:30pm Central. Second, in this geographic area, repeats of his CabaRay Nashville television series was airing at 8pm Eastern. Third, his appearance as a guest announcer on Huckabee was airing nationally at 8pm Eastern. Ray acted as guest announcer only. He didn't perform any songs nor did he engage in any discussions with Mike Huckabee. Ray was on camera numerous times, though, standing at the announcer podium leading into commercials and coming out of commercials. Huckabee acknowledged Ray's legendary status and thanked him for filling in for Keith Bilbrey. It was nearly 45 minutes into the show when Huckabee promoted Ray's new comedy album. I hope Ray goes back on the show soon and performs a song or two from the new comedy album. "Dis-Connected" or "Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore" would fit in nicely.     

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" nearing 10,000 unique views...

Well, it's me once again!! If you're a fan of Ray Stevens then you're probably already familiar with his new music video, "Hoochie Coochie Dancer". I wrote a blog or two previously about the new comedy album and the music video...and in one of my blog entries I reported that the unique views of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" were 1,641. When I woke up this afternoon and looked at the totals the video had risen by more than 5,000 unique views! At one point early this morning the video had gone from 1,641 to 1,779 and then it rose to 2,435 before I went to bed. Upon waking up the unique views had dramatically increased to 7,700!! A pickup of 5,265! Since this afternoon the totals have continued to rise and it's moved from 7,700 to 8,502. As I'm writing this blog entry I'm guessing that more and more people are finding the music video and so that 8,502 number may be closer to or over 9,000 by the time I publish this blog entry. Since "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" is climbing in unique views at such a rapid rate that's why I've titled this blog entry the way I did. It's very possible that 10,000 or more people will have seen this music video by later tonight. If and when it crosses that total I'll make note of it in a blog. I'm proud to say that some of my commentary on this music video's YouTube page has received some agreement. You're going to be singing to yourself "she's a Hoochie Coochie Dancer in this carnival show...". The way he sings 'hooo-oooo-chie' is something I look forward to hearing when I listen to the song.

My review of the comedy album containing "Hoochie Coochie Dancer", Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore, isn't on Amazon yet. I always write my reviews on this blog and then I copy/paste them over on Amazon. Once it appears on Amazon I'll also make note of that in a future blog entry. The blog entry that contains my review of his new comedy album can be seen HERE. 

In a somewhat related connection I wasn't aware of my blog count for this year having gone beyond 300. When I was looking at the statistics for this particular blog I discovered that this is the 302nd blog entry about Ray Stevens that I've written during 2021. The 300th blog entry of the year happened to be my blog entry promoting the exclusive premiere of the "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" music video on People magazine's website yesterday. I didn't realize I had written nearly 300 blog entries this year but then again it's been a very busy year, music wise, for Ray. He put out the 4-CD box set...but prior to that he had released all 4 of the albums individually...and I was blogging about all of those releases and the eventual release of the box set. Then I wrote extensively about the novelty single, "Gas", and the audio plays it was attracting on YouTube...and on top of that he began performing at the CabaRay showroom again in early September...and now he's released a comedy album. So, yeah, when I stop and think about it I realize how easily 300 or more blog entries can emerge during the kind of busy year Ray has had. 

Ray will be in concert tonight at the CabaRay beginning at 7:30pm Central. The doors open at 5pm Central (an hour from now). If you're attending a concert be sure to set your DVR. Ray will be the guest announcer on the Huckabee television show tonight on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Here in the Eastern time zone it airs at 8pm. He is suppose to announce the show and not do any singing...but since it's Ray, and it's an unusual situation where he's selected as a guest announcer on a national television show, in my back of my mind, I think Ray might contribute to the show musically rather than be an announcer only; but we'll see what happens. In the meantime enjoy the "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" music video!  

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" arrives on YouTube...

Hello all!! I spent most of Friday writing about the new Ray Stevens comedy album on several online sites. I mean that I was writing commentary and replying to people on various social media sites concerning Ray's album and his songs, etc. I left some comments on Ray's Facebook page. His page over there and this blog page is where the bulk of my commentary about Ray is posted. Now, for most of Friday, the music video of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" was kept available through an embed on People magazine's webpage. It wasn't posted on YouTube for a general audience to see until several hours ago...and once it became available to a general audience the unique views began to add up. As of this writing the unique views of the new music video is already over 1,000. The specific unique view total is 1,171 and I suspect the majority of those unique views were accumulated within the last couple of hours once the video became publicly visible on YouTube rather than as an exclusive on the People magazine webpage. In the video you'll see a fortune teller and her crystal ball...she also reads special cards. Ray's carnival buddies are with him throughout most of the video. Someone on Facebook identified one of the men as Ben Surrat, Ray's album engineer and production assistant of Ray's CabaRay Nashville television series. In addition to all of those people there's the dancer herself and later on a policeman shows up. 

The thumbnail image that they chose to use for the YouTube cover tells just one part of the story and the fun of the video. The point of the video isn't to hammer any sort of opinion or require deep, emotional reflection. It's simply an escapist music video filled with silliness and deliberate hamming for the camera. The album has it's share of gentle comedy like what you see and hear in the music video but there's also pointed social commentary and other forms of comedy sprinkled throughout the album. "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" is escapist, gentle comedy.  

Ray Stevens: "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" video premiere...

Hello all once again!! A little more than an hour ago the music video premiere of "Hoochie Coochie Dancer" made it's way onto the internet. It isn't publicly listed on YouTube, yet, but the video embed can be accessed in an exclusive promo from People magazine's online site. The video itself had been on the shelf for several months...and by that I mean it was put together in bits and pieces and formed into a full length music video. Ray uses the reliable green screen where backgrounds are projected behind him as he and his co-stars in music videos perform the song. This time around Ray brings in the song's writer, Buddy Kalb, to play the role of the policeman. I do not know the names of the other guys in the video. I'll guess and say one of them might be Larry McCoy, Randy Cullers, or possibly Doug Gilmore...but I'd have to contact Ray's staff to know for certain. The storyline is light-hearted and the music video production is what you'd expect to see in a Ray Stevens comedy video...lots of bright colors, tight close-up's, and general absurdist humor...in other words the video or the story isn't meant to be viewed in the same lens one would view Ben-Hur or Spartacus. 

In the screen cap off to the right we find Ray in a familiar looking pose. He's all decked out in red shirt and yellow CAT hat...playing the role of a naïve country boy who goes to the carnival and thinks he's found himself the love of his life...a belly dancer. He has his fortune read via a gypsy's crystal ball...which shows him and the dancer standing side by side ready for marriage. As things are prone to happen the country boy has mistaken the dancer's smiles and alluring moves as reciprocation and thinks she loves him in return when all she's wanting are the gifts he's either bought or has given to her. In character Ray tells us that he found himself walking around the carnival and feeling something strike him in the head...the next thing he remembers was waking up with his money and a ring he'd bought for the dancer missing. There's a backbeat of Arabian-style music throughout the song. The music video isn't publicly listed on YouTube yet. If you search for the video the results will only show the audio clip of the song from Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore. I'm thinking once People's website exclusivity has ended then the music video will be able to be searched for on YouTube. You can read the People article and watch the music video by clicking HERE. Once the music video is publicly listed/searchable on YouTube I'll embed it in a future blog entry.