Ray Stevens W-I-L-D alter-ego Returns...

Throughout the run of the Ray Stevens 2009 sitcom, We Ain't Dead Yet, there were periodic sketches involving a resident at the retirement home who acted as the disc jockey for the other residents. Ray portrayed this character, Rooster Reagan, and the name of the radio station was W-I-L-D. The vocal delivery is patterned after Wolfman Jack. In February of this year I posted a blog entry spotlighting one of Rooster's sketches. Buddy Kalb always portrayed the guy on the other end of the phone.

In the February upload Buddy portrays a man who lives in a condo and doesn't appreciate Rooster's generous offer of delivering 500 baby chicks to the residence. Rooster insists but the upset stranger on the phone says that if 500 baby chicks show up he'll be waiting outside with a shotgun. You can find the blog entry containing that sketch if you search my February archives off to the right.

In this newly uploaded sketch Rooster calls up an unsuspecting victim to confirm that 500 baby chicks will be delivered to the fried chicken restaurant. The guy on the other end has no idea what Rooster is talking about...but that doesn't matter...Rooster insists that the 500 baby chicks are on their way...

Ray Stevens: Feathered Fanfare...

It's been a scorching hot couple of days here!! I'd been awaiting my roof repair for a couple of days and today the workers shown up and replaced the shingles. The shingles had been on the roof since we bought the house 20 years ago. Well, enough of the personal discussion...it's time to discuss the reason you're reading this and the reason why I'm writing this fan created blog...time to discuss Country Music Hall of Fame member, Ray Stevens!!

Several days ago Ray's social media sites put up an audio of his 1985 recording, "Thus Cacked Henrietta". The title of this blog entry is in reference to the music often referred to as a fanfare in a longer piece of music from Richard Strauss in the late 1800s. If you've ever seen the movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, then you'll immediately recognize the music. It's closely associated with Elvis, too.

The music was released as "Also sprach Zarathustra" and while Ray keeps the arrangement of the fanfare intact he comically performs as a choir of chickens...much in the same way he did "In the Mood" and it's B-side, "Classical Cluck", late in 1976. On that vinyl single the performance was credited as the Henhouse Five Plus Too. "Sunrise" is the official title of the fanfare in "Thus sprach Zarathustra". Ray's "Thus Cacked Henrietta" was his final recording from the choir of chickens and additional farm animals. He would go on to incorporate chickens in later recordings but this was his third and, to date, final chicken clucking performance.

Ray Stevens: Me and the Cartoon Carnival...

As a kind of follow-up to a Ray Stevens blog entry I wrote 7 or 8 blog entries ago I'm here to spotlight a couple of DVD releases from 2008.

This is titled Cartoon Carnival, Volume One. The material is a retrospective of music videos from Ray Stevens that had animated elements in their production. Each volume contains 10 music videos. Ray had experimented with the production of live-action mixed with animation music videos in the early 2000s. The first experiment happened to be "Osama Yo' Mama" and then it's sequel, "Hello Mama". There were other music videos produced in that time frame and issued on a VHS called Cartoon Video Collection. A fully animated music video of "Power Tools" emerged and was placed on some editions of a DVD release titled Complete Comedy Video Collection along with the previously available "Hello Mama". Later on a pair of DVDs were released titled Gourmet Restaurant and Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens. There were five animated music videos contained on each release. The ten animated music videos from those two DVDs combined with five music videos from Cartoon Video Collection, "Power Tools" from Complete Comedy Video Collection, plus four previously unreleased animated music videos add up to the 20 music videos spread out through each volume of Cartoon Carnival. If you break it down even further it means that each volume features 8 previously released music videos and 2 previously unreleased music videos for a total of 10 per volume (20 total). In Volume One, shown above, it contains the following music videos: "The Moonlight Special" (2008), "Gone For Good" (2003), "Along Came Jones" (2005), "Barbeque" (2005), "Smokey Mountain Rattlesnake Retreat" (2008), "The Ballad of Cactus Pete and Lefty" (2005), "Power Tools" (2004), "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?" (2005), "Deerslayer" (2003), and "Gourmet Restaurant" (2005).

In Cartoon Carnival, Volume Two we have 10 music videos and just like in volume one there's eight previously released and two previously unreleased. This particular volume consists of several music videos of some of his more widely known recordings. Also, keep in mind, that the year I'm supplying after the title of each music video is the year it was released as a music video...not the year it was originally produced and recorded in the studio. "Hugo the Human Cannonball" (2008), "Hang Up and Drive" (2003), "This Ain't Exactly What I Had In Mind" (2005), "Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens" (2005), "Bridget the Midget the Queen of the Blues" (2003), "The Camping Trip" (2008), "Harry the Hairy Ape" (2005), "Erik the Awful" (2003), "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills" (2005), and "Misty" (2005). The Cartoon Carnival releases came along in 2008 and I purchased these just a couple of weeks ago. The Ray Stevens official on-line STORE is having a 20 percent off discount sale until May 31st and since these two DVD releases were the only things I didn't have in my personal collection (as far as DVD releases are concerned) I decided to buy them...even though the videos can be seen on YouTube. It's the collector in me that drove me to add them to my collection. The only items I still don't have are the T-shirts that you'll see advertised when you open the link I provided. Some people purchase T-shirts as souvenirs or purchase them just to have them. I can be an example of this kind of person given my collector instincts. The shirt size cuts off at XXL and, in my case, attempting to wear something in that size would provide a perfect visual in demonstrating what it means to 'cut off your circulation'. I've often debated whether to just buy an XXL just to have it, though. The shirt colors are blue and red...the imagery is identical. They both feature the photo of Ray from 1992's Comedy Video Classics with "Don't look, Ethel" written below his image in all caps. I have a couple of his T-shirts from several years ago...so it isn't like I don't have any Ray Stevens apparel in my collection.

Ray Stevens: In the Mood for Chicken...

As I write this fan created blog entry the clock sits at 11:59pm on a Wednesday night. As I glance down I see that we're now into Thursday morning, January 30th. On the social media posts of Ray Stevens yesterday there happened to be a YouTube video upload of the audio track of "In the Mood". This recording goes back to 1976 in the career of Ray Stevens. It was his third single release for Warner Brothers. The novelty was released as the Henhouse Five Plus Too and it became a Top-40 single early in 1977. In the liner notes of a CD released by Rhino Records in 1997 titled The Very Best of Ray Stevens the notes author, Dr. Demento, quotes Ray on the inspiration for "In the Mood" performed as a choir of chickens. I'll paraphrase the quote by saying that Ray had the idea to cluck the song, which also includes vocal accompaniment from a vocally mimicked cow and a goat, just to see how it would come off. The instrumentation is sparse. Ray insists that he didn't want to issue it as a single but Warner Brothers loved the concept and it was issued as the Henhouse Five Plus Too in December 1976.

The single hit the Hot 100 pop chart on January 8, 1977 and by it's 4th week on, January 29, 1977, it was knocking on the door of the Top-40 half of the Hot 100. On the country chart it had a similar brisk climb up the chart and was actually in the country Top-40 on January 29th. It spent several weeks at number 39 on the country chart. On the Easy-Listening chart, believe it or not, it reached the Top-40 in that format as well. In it's fifth week on the Hot 100 it pushed it's way into the Top-40, anchoring the chart for one week...for the week ending February 5, 1977. In it's sixth week on the country singles chart, February 12th, it fell ten notches. The same week, on the Hot 100, "In the Mood" fell out of the Top-40 by a single position and into pop music history as the very next week it was outside the Top-50 and on it's way off the Hot 100. Ray's pseudonym, Henhouse Five Plus Too, is officially credited as the performers of "In the Mood" and they're often cited as One Hit Wonders. Last year I wrote a blog entry titled Symphonic Chickens which goes into detail about Ray's various novelty songs featuring the chicken as the subject matter. This blog entry, as one could tell, was put together as a response to the YouTube audio track upload of "In the Mood"... 

Ray Stevens: Symphonic Chickens...

Good early Sunday morning...being a night-owl on the weekends due to my third shift work schedule through the week it's long been a habit of mine of being awake at night. So, technically, I'm not up with the roosters. I don't think they start to make their noise for another half an hour anyway. Poultry has long been a side dish in the career of Ray Stevens...now, to be specific, it's not something that's a constant but poultry nevertheless has a place in his career.

I guess it all goes back to late 1976...Ray had joined the Warner Brothers label in the latter half of 1975 and his debut album for the label, Just For the Record, arrived early in 1976. The album included a couple of Top-40 country singles in the form of "You Are So Beautiful" and "Honky Tonk Waltz". Ray had been on a serious, non-comedic streak ever since the early period of 1975, a period which followed his massive worldwide success of "The Streak" a year earlier. He closed out 1974 with a non-comedic Top-40 country hit single, "Everybody Needs a Rainbow". He had released a mostly covers album in 1975 titled Misty and named after one of his hit singles that year. The success of "Misty" led to an album filled with, mostly, his versions of pop music standards of the '30s and '40s. "Misty", "Indian Love Call", and "Young Love" were released as singles during 1975 with "Mockingbird Hill" issued early in 1976, I suppose to fill out some kind of contractual agreement with Barnaby Records, considering that Ray had by that time joined Warner Brothers. Later on Barnaby also issued "Lady of Spain" as a single and it Bubbled Under the Hot 100 in the summer of 1976 well after Ray had joined Warner Brothers. So, in essence, you had Barnaby Records issuing five commercial singles from the Misty album altogether. Anyway...in late 1976 Warner Brothers released "In the Mood"...a chicken-clucking performance by Ray and issued as The Hen House Five Plus Too. Ray, in interviews, often remarked that the song was only meant to be an inside joke among him and the band but somehow along the way executives at Warner Brothers heard the 'joke' and insisted that it be released as a single and that's exactly what happened.

Ray phonetically clucked "In the Mood" (previously a gigantic instrumental hit for Glen Miller in 1939) with the smallest of music accompaniment. I think Ray only used a piano, bass guitar, and a saxophone. The B-side of the single was "Classical Cluck", another chicken clucking recital, this time staged in a classical music presentation rather than a small, jazzy combo. The photo above, by the way, accompanied the single release in the Netherlands. The photo off to the right is the single release in America. In some parts of the world the single release of "In the Mood" was issued under Ray's name while a majority of the releases featured the fictional Hen House Five Plus Too credit. The single became a Top-40 country and Top-40 pop hit early in 1977...and it became a Top-40 hit in the United Kingdom as well. "In the Mood" marked quite a departure for Ray as you could guess. The idea of clucking an entire song like a chicken was too irresistible for music consumers to pass up...so it became a hit...quite a feather in his cap...and, of course, Ray's reputation as a 'singer of novelty songs' continued to grow with each successive novelty song success. The single wasn't placed on any forthcoming studio albums by Ray for Warner Brothers. I don't know if that was by design or if they simply wanted the song to remain a single-only release. Ray would visit the chicken theme several more times in his career. "Thus Cacked Henrietta", from 1985, was a brief clucking interpretation of the first minute and a half of an instrumental (referred to as a fanfare) called "Also Sprach Zarathustra" which can be heard in the opening credits of the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. The half hour long instrumental originates from 1896 from the pen of Richard Strauss. Henrietta's interpretation is superb...and she receives background accompaniment from a sheep and a cow...a rooster brings the curtain down over the barn when he lets loose a mighty crow signaling the climax of the performance. "Thus Cacked Henrietta" can be found on Ray's 1985 album, I Have Returned. You can also find an audio track of it on YouTube. It's a very funny track...and you'll recognize the melody right away.

Since I don't live in the state of Tennessee or in the southern region of the United States I was never exposed to the television commercials that Ray Stevens appeared in. I've known of his involvement in commercials (particularly for Flav-o-Rich) and of course I knew of the nationally aired commercials for his home videos in the 1990s but that was it...and until a couple of weeks ago I had never seen one of his Flav-o-Rich commercials. Ray recently uploaded a video clip of one of his Flav-o-Rich commercials from the 1980s. I didn't know he did a regional commercial for McDonald's until this clip appeared on YouTube...the commercial is from 1989 and it was uploaded onto YouTube back in January of this year. I'm embedding it because of it's subject matter...Ray's singing about the franchise's latest item, the country style McChicken... 



In 1991 the chickens mounted a comeback in "Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens", inspired by the ninja superhero turtles of Saturday morning television. In 2015 Ray recorded "Pickin' on the Chicken", a song from a chicken's point of view and the negative slang expressions derived from the chicken, and you can hear it on his Here We Go Again! comedy album.

A recording in 1995, however, is the featured attraction of this blog entry. The recording originated in his direct-to-VHS movie, Get Serious!, and it's a duet (a rare occurrence in his career). "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" is performed as an elaborate song-and-dance between Ray and co-star Connie Freeman. The performance takes place on the farm of the Three Legged Chicken ranch owned by Charlene's family (Connie was portraying the role of Charlene MacKenzie in the movie). Ray and Charlene are on the run from patrolman Dudley Dorite and Deputy Coy among others and they hide out, in this part of the movie, at the ranch. Deputy Coy (Tim Hubbard) thinks he sees some prowling in the chicken coop and so he goes to investigate. The small chicken coop comically houses a sprawling performance area for a lot of singing and dancing not only from Ray and Charlene but a chorus of dancing girls that appear from behind the row of chicken nests. All of the performers, as you'll see in the music video, wear chicken outfits. Coy is wearing a chicken themed hat he found hanging inside the coop.



Also something to keep in mind is the song's title. "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" was actually a catchphrase and it was eventually turned into a song and it became a hit in the 1940s for the recording artist, Louis Jordan. The hit song helped re-introduce the phrase and it became a slang expression all over again. Ray's song uses the same title but it contains entirely different melody and lyrics than the Louis Jordan recording. I say that because in the comment section for Ray's video someone erroneously stated that the song had been recorded earlier by Louis Jordan. The person making the comment apparently based his opinion entirely on the song's title and making the assumption that Ray was doing a cover version of Louis Jordan's hit...which obviously means that the person hadn't even heard Louis Jordan's recording or else he/she would've known they're two different songs with the same title. Oh well, a couple of days ago I left a comment over there anyhow and pointed out the small error.

The video was uploaded onto YouTube back on May 14th but I hadn't embedded it into a blog entry until now. It's gotten over 9,000 unique views as of this writing. Also, as of this writing, one of the menu items at Ray's CabaRay showroom in West Nashville is Airline Chicken Breast.

When you purchase CabaRay tickets you'll have the option of selecting a dinner from their menu if you choose floor seating. The balcony seats do not offer a dinner, obviously, but you can receive beverages. The presentation is based upon fine dining/casual dining...so you're not going to get a smorgasbord of entree's to choose from or have the opportunity to purchase pounds of fast food style of food and indulge in movie theater kinds of snacks. It's the kind of cuisine carrying the same kind of detailed visuals you might see in an upscale restaurant but without the snooty atmosphere that Ray sings about in 1987's "Gourmet Restaurant". When you click the link you'll notice for the month of May there's only three more concerts left: May 24, 25, and 31. The Wednesday tickets are for the taping of Larry's Country Diner, a television series on RFD-TV. The month of June consists of 10 concerts from Ray: June 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 27, 28, and 29. So, like most months, there are plenty of days to see Ray in concert at the CabaRay. June is traditionally referred to as Country Music month and with a lot of fans and tourists flocking to the area to take in a lot of exhibits and music performances I'll also suggest the travelers and tourists to take in a concert at the CabaRay when you're in Nashville in early June. The showroom is on 5724 River Road off of Charlotte Pike which you access from I-40. If you have a GPS device, great, but if you don't then obviously MapQuest the address from your starting point for a series of directions to take. Aside from the main performance area there's a piano bar and a gift shop. The showroom is in the Bellevue suburb of Nashville and yesterday the CabaRay had a presence in the Bellevue Community Picnic...a booth promoting the showroom was on display and the CabaRay served as one of the sponsors of the event. Those that stopped by the CabaRay booth were given chances to win tickets to an upcoming concert. I don't think Ray personally appeared at the booth given that Friday night he was busy performing at the CabaRay and on Saturday night he performed there...and so I don't think he was able to squeeze in an appearance at the picnic at any time on Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon. Again, if he did make an appearance at the CabaRay booth, I'd like to see some photos uploaded on-line. His concerts get underway at 7:30pm but the venue opens it's doors at 5pm.

My largest Ray Stevens Collage...

Hello all once again!! A very early Sunday morning here as I write another fan created Ray Stevens blog entry. There hasn't been any updates over on WSM's website in their Opry archive section and so, as of this writing, I don't have any audio link to provide of Ray's July 3rd guest appearance. In my previous blog post I made mention that I already had the idea of what this blog entry would be about and so I'm unveiling what could possibly be my largest Ray Stevens collage. I make collage's for pure enjoyment and to spotlight albums, single releases, or photo's of Ray over the years...often I add photo's of myself showing off whatever I might be writing about.

After I finished writing a recent blog entry about some of the compilation albums that have been issued on Ray Stevens I got the idea to try and put together a collage of nothing but Ray Stevens on Warner Brothers Records. This would cover the years 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979 in his career timeline. What I did was I gathered up images of his vinyl studio albums from those years and I gathered up images of his single releases from those years on the label and I put them all together in a collage. I didn't concern myself with whether or not the single release I chose to place on the collage was from the U.S. or the international market but I did attempt to arrange everything in chronological order.

If you're long time readers of this fan created blog page then you should be very aware of how much I champion Ray's music and career, in general, but then I often give heightened coverage to his Warner Brothers recordings. A lot of it has to do with my personal feelings given my enjoyment of the songs he recorded but also what drives my focus is how under-rated that era of his career generally is and so after I began this fan created blog nearly 10 years ago I took it upon myself to spotlight his late '70s material at any opportunity. In a lot of the compilation albums that were issued on Ray Stevens over the decades (from the mid '80s onward) and then in the ones that appeared later in the 1980s and especially the 1990s there tended to be a pattern of covering an abundance of his Monument and Barnaby recordings (specifically the years 1968 through 1975) while more or less skipping over Warner Brothers (1976-1979) and RCA (1980-1982) except for a couple of novelty recordings for each of the two labels. I may do one of these collage projects spotlighting his RCA recordings but for now here's the one I did spotlighting his Warner Brothers era:

Now, I know this is way too small for anyone to actually see the writing on the albums and the single releases but you can click the image for a somewhat larger view. Anyway...this is probably...well, actually, it is the largest Ray Stevens collage I've created. In his three years with Warner Brothers he recorded four studio albums and one compilation album. The compilation album arrived in 1979 to cover the years 1976, 1977, and 1978 but it also featured his hit, "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow", from earlier in the year which up to that point was only available as a vinyl single. The 1979 album is the fifth one in the collage off to the left (the first panel in row two). If you are familiar with Barry Manilow then you should see the comical connection in art work. Barry's 1975 album had a similar cover design and letter font and the name of his album that year was Trying to Get the Feeling whereas Ray's album in 1979 is titled The Feeling's Not Right Again (named after a song on Ray's previous studio album in 1978). I also added a comparison image of the single release of Ray's recording next to the cover design of Barry Manilow's second studio album. I have almost all of Ray's studio albums on vinyl and I have a vinyl copy of the "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow" single but my copy doesn't feature the picture sleeve. My copy, which I bought on-line, arrived in a plain paper sleeve. I've seen auctions on eBay for the single and it's picture sleeve but those, obviously, were always out of my price range and so I opted for the cheaper alternative. I wanted the vinyl single anyway...not having the picture sleeve didn't change my feelings concerning the actual song. As you see in the collage there are five images of vinyl albums, 2 comparable cover art depictions, and eight single recordings. Here is the breakdown of everything you see...starting with the vinyl albums:

Just for the Record (1976); Feel the Music (1977); There is Something on Your Mind (1978); Be Your Own Best Friend (1978); and The Feeling's Not Right Again (1979).

The single releases, the month and year of release, and their catalog numbers:

"You Are So Beautiful" (April 1976; WBS 8198)
"Honky Tonk Waltz" (August 1976; WBS 8237)
"In the Mood" (December 1976; WBS 8301)
"Get Crazy With Me" (January 1977; WBS 8318)
"Dixie Hummingbird" (May 1977; WBS 8393)
"Be Your Own Best Friend" (July 1978; WBS 8603)
"I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow" (March 1979; WBS 8785)
"Get Crazy With Me" (June 1979; WBS 8849)

The comparable cover art depiction is of the picture sleeve of "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow" and Barry's second studio album, Barry Manilow II. If you look at the chronological listing of single releases you'll notice a couple of things...at least I took notice right away. The first is the lapse of time between the release of "Dixie Hummingbird" and "Be Your Own Best Friend". There's more than a year separating the two. Then there is no further single releases throughout the rest of 1978 even though the Be Your Own Best Friend album had plenty of single worthy recordings such as "Comeback", "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right", or the re-recorded "You've Got the Music Inside" which had originally been recorded in 1973 by Ray. Another thing you should notice is the re-issue of "Get Crazy With Me".

Warner Brothers originally issued the single in January 1977...right on the heels of Ray's surprise novelty hit with his chicken clucking rendition of "In the Mood". In the original release of "Get Crazy with Me" in January 1977 the B-side happened to be "Dixie Hummingbird". Ray's "Get Crazy with Me" isn't a novelty song but it's title would suggest otherwise and it's my guess Warner Brothers felt the title could serve as a follow-up and therefore become an immediate hit. Later on Warner Brothers re-issued it upon the strength of Ray's novelty hit, "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow".

The re-issue of "Get Crazy With Me" in 1979 featured "The Feeling's Not Right Again" as it's B-side. Let's add more to this vinyl sea of confusion by pointing out "Dixie Hummingbird", the original B-side of "Get Crazy with Me" from January of 1977, when it was issued as an A-side single in May of 1977, it's B-side happened to be "Feel the Music". The funny thing is Ray performed "Feel the Music" on television several times in the mid '70s and once in the early '90s but I don't think he ever performed "Dixie Hummingbird", the actual A-side, on television...ever!

In the last couple of paragraphs I had some fun relating the single release pattern of Ray's Warner Brothers recordings but let that not scare you from seeking out those recordings. You are likely to find Mp3 copies of select recordings at Amazon. If you look up the 1995 compilation albums: Cornball, Do You Wanna Dance?, and The Serious Side of Ray Stevens then you'll find a lot of his Warner Brothers recordings. They're, to date, the only definitive look at his late '70s recordings. The only thing that could top those releases were to be if Warner Brothers were to re-issue Ray's actual studio albums in a series of CD's or Mp3's but there's been no indication such a thing will ever happen so those 1995 releases are your only hope in hearing those obscure recordings.

Ray Stevens new CD available for Pre-Order...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens! Earlier today I learned that the upcoming CD from Ray Stevens, Here We Go Again, is available for pre-order at Amazon. As of this writing there is no image of the actual CD on the product page. I assume this is going to change the more closer it gets to release day.

In several of the articles that I've shared here the information has recently given a mid-February release time for the CD but Amazon lists the CD's release date as March 24th. In the interview he did last month on Bill Cody's radio program a March release date had been mentioned so it's hard to tell the reason some of the articles I've shared have stated a vague mid-February release date.

The Amazon product page can be accessed by clicking HERE.

Interestingly the label listed is something called Mri Associated. I looked them up and they're affiliated with Sony, the company that's distributing Ray's CD. In the articles I previously shared it mentioned an imprint called Player Records and it was described as a label that Ray owns...and so more than likely the CD's going to have multiple representation much like his previous gospel CD did. That particular gospel CD featured the logo's of Ray's Clyde Records and of Bill Gaither's company on prominent display.

To date I'm still only aware of two songs that are to be on the CD: "Pickin' on the Chicken" and "The Baptism of Stumpy Brown". There's not been any publicity surrounding the CDs eventual release or any leaks making their way to any social media site.

I know it's just February 5th but I'm often anxious, which may be taken as impatience, when it comes to something new from Ray Stevens. I don't know if other fans are like this but once I get a new CD from Ray Stevens and glance over the song titles I wonder to myself, based on the song titles, how the song is going to be performed and what the story's going to be about. Some of Ray's fans in my social media circle have speculated that perhaps some of Ray's previous recordings that haven't appeared on CD yet may be included in this upcoming release...that's certainly possible. "Red Hot Chili Cook-Off", for example, came along in 2013 as a YouTube music video but it's never been available on a CD. It's gotten over 200,000 unique views so far.

The seasonal "Merry Christmas", I doubt, is going to make an appearance on the upcoming CD but one never can tell. There are a couple of political music videos that surfaced during the 2014 election cycle that I doubt make an appearance on the upcoming CD...at least I can't imagine the recordings making an appearance. I assume he'll include "If You Like Your Plan" and "Nero Fiddled" on some politically oriented project later this year or in 2016...or the songs may remain as YouTube videos only and never make it to CD.

If you're wanting to pre-order the upcoming comedy CD from Amazon don't forget to click the link near the top of this blog entry. Maybe if the CD gets sufficient enough pre-orders it's release date will be moved up. If I come across more information about the CD I'll of course make mention of it during a future blog post. In a couple of days Ray is to appear at a book signing in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I mentioned it in my previous blog post but I'll leave a link to the upcoming appearance HERE considering the book signing is to take place this coming Saturday, February 7th.

Ray Stevens to release brand new novelty song CD...

Has it really been a couple of weeks since I last posted here? My previous blog entry about Ray Stevens happened to be on December 31, 2014...but since there hadn't been any major announcements released in the interim I didn't compose any blog entries but that's all changed...

Ray made an appearance on Bill Cody's morning radio program in Nashville a couple of days ago (January 21st). I found out about the appearance by hearing a commercial for Tuesday morning's program that aired on Eddie Stubbs show. I was on my way to work Monday night and so hearing that commercial made the night go fast. The interview hasn't been archived and so it's one of those kinds of appearances that you either had to be aware of by viewing Bill Cody's page prior to January 21st or luck out and be listening to the station, as I happened to be, and hear a commercial promoting the appearance. The appearance on Bill's radio program served a couple of purposes, actually. 

First of all, Ray appeared at a book signing later that day. He's on an unofficial book tour...by unofficial I mean he doesn't have an itinerary of book signings lined up. Every so often they'll make an announcement of an upcoming book store appearance and he'll sign copies of the book. Ray's memoir, titled Ray Stevens' Nashville, has long since sold out in paperback form. The January 21st book signing took place at a store called Parnassus Books. 

If you missed the Parnassus book signing, don't fret, because there's another book signing that was announced yesterday. The upcoming book signing is to take place in Chattanooga, Tennessee at a shopping mall called Hamilton Place. The actual signing is at the Barnes and Noble book store located at the shopping mall. The date and time for the Ray Stevens book signing is February 7th at 1pm.   

You can read about the February 7th book signing HERE.

Secondly, in addition to promoting the book signing on January 21st, the Bill Cody interview also promoted the book, obviously! 

Lastly, near the end of the interview segment, Ray made the announcement of an upcoming novelty CD to be released this coming March!!! He gave the title as Here We Go Again and he even described the CD's album cover. Bill played a song that's to be on the CD...a song called "Pickin' on the Chicken" (from the pen of Ray's longtime friend/collaborator, Buddy Kalb). It's a song about a chicken...it has lyrics...so it's not a return to an all chicken-clucking performance like "In the Mood", for example. You'll hear cackling and clucking of chickens in the background, every so often, adding to the chicken's personal fowl mood.

Once it gets closer to March there should be more announcements made about it's release date. Bill mentioned March 12th as the release date but I could've misheard it...so be on the lookout for any statements from Ray surrounding this upcoming CD. My guess is the CD is going to be available at his on-line store, first, and then it'll be released all over the internet at a later date. 

I can't wait to add it to my collection!!

Ray Stevens has a birthday coming up on January 24th...this coming Saturday.

Ray Stevens and the Kung Fu Chickens...

Hello all...I'm back and have the latest Throback Thursday clip from Ray Stevens! It's from a television special that aired on April 3, 1991 called An All-Star Salute to Our Troops. Then-President George H.W. Bush (referred to now as Bush 41) and the First Lady, Barbara Bush, are in attendance as are hundreds of Persian Gulf veterans. The 1991 special was conceived as a homecoming...a welcome home gala/concert for those returning home from the Gulf region. In the clip you'll see the servicemen and women in attendance. Ray's song of choice, after being brought out by Barbara Mandrell, is "Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens". This particular song, a spoof of the cartoon series titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, appears on his 1991 album, #1 With a Bullet. The album wouldn't be released until June 1991 and so this performance took place several months before the public at large had the chance to purchase that hilarious CD. The song carries a sort of heroic, super-hero vibe and fits the military festivities of the evening...albeit on a much more lighter note, of course...

Have your volume up...

Ray Stevens: Rayality TV webisode 3...

It's that time once again...time to embed the latest webisode from Ray Stevens. Today's upload if you're keeping track is Webisode 3. It keeps the chicken theme from the previous week but spotlights several beloved scenes from the early-mid '90s. If you're familiar with Ray's direct-to-video movie from 1995, Get Serious!, then you're in for a treat as a certain performance from that movie is inserted into this week's webisode. The memories that is brings back!!! I have the movie, yes, but it's fun to see performances from the movie inserted into a different setting.



Don't forget about the 9-CD box set sale...you all have 16 more days to get your order placed to ensure a price of $39.99! The regular price for the box set is $79.95 but you'll be getting it for $40.00 less until April 20th. As I pointed out in my previous blog entry this is perhaps going to be your only chance to get this incredible collection at such a low price.

Ray recorded more than 60 songs exclusively for the box set...his versions of classic novelty songs ranging from the 1930s through the 1980s and he even did a cover of Toby Keith's song, "I Wanna Talk About Me". The only place to find it is on the 9-CD box set. Some of the other songs that Ray recorded include a couple of Roger Miller classics "Chug a Lug", "Kansas City Star", and "Dang Me" plus his renditions on Spike Jones classics...he does additional recordings of many of The Coasters songs, too, and even tackles the funky half-sung, half-spoken classics of Phil Harris ("The Preacher and the Bear", "That's What I Like about the South", and several more).

A lot of the novelty songs predate the mid '50s and a lot of the time 'novelty song' simply meant 'unusual' or 'offbeat' rather than exclusively 'humorous' or 'laugh out loud hysterical'. Over the course of the last 30+ years, 'novelty songs' have come to be synonymous with any recording meant to entice laughter and so the original concept of the 'novelty song' has become murky and muddled over time.

Here's a link to the 9-CD novelty song extravaganza once more...

Ray Stevens 9-CD box set Sale

Ray Stevens: Rayality TV webisode 2...

Here's the second installment of Ray's weekly sketch series. It hit You Tube around 1pm Eastern this afternoon but I was not at the computer at the time to post it when it became available...this particular webisode focuses exclusively on chickens. In the opening sketch you'll see Ray and the nurse (Sabrina Blanton) catch a resident at The Encore sitting with his back to the camera (the vocalization is provided by Ray, impersonating Wolfman Jack). The 'DJ' is pulling pranks on people...



If you didn't see episode 1, check my previous blog entry or visit Ray's You Tube channel.

There's hasn't been any news whatsoever about any upcoming CD releases. Around the latter half of 2013 there had been several announcements made about a couple of CD's being on the not too distant horizon for 2014 (he even appeared on several interview programs to spotlight an upcoming gospel project) but it's been almost 4 months into 2014 and there hasn't been any talk of any upcoming release dates...yet. Of course, once I learn of any information about a CD release I'll make a blog post about it.

I came across an internet site earlier this morning and there happened to be a small blurb that stated that Ray was going to take part in a television taping, as part of a religious program, in early April. There wasn't any information on when this as yet to be recorded footage would air on TV, though.

If this information is legitimate and nothing happens from now until then to cancel his involvement or postpone his involvement, I suspect that this future appearance may...may...indicate that the gospel CD he'd been talking about for a couple of years is at long last going to become available with a release date sooner rather than later...but that's just my theory. For those out of the loop, Ray is at some point going to issue a couple of diverse CD's. He spoke about them in the latter half of 2013. One is a gospel project called Onward Christian Soldiers. The second project is going to be titled Melancholy Fescue (a bluegrass oriented CD).

Ray Stevens and those Animals...

In a departure from my usual in-depth analysis of Ray Stevens here's a whimsical blog entry discussing the animals that appear in various Ray Stevens songs. We can't start off this entry without mentioning the camel. The camel not only appears in a couple of songs but it's one of Ray's trademarks. The camel's name, Clyde, doubles as the name of Ray's record company. Clyde appears in a couple of songs...but camel's also are referenced in a couple more songs. "Ahab the Arab", from 1962, introduced Clyde the camel.

The story goes that the camel got it's name when Ray spotted Clyde McPhatter walking around at Mercury Records. After "Ahab the Arab", Clyde the camel made a guest appearance in the original recording of "Santa Claus Is Watching You". Clyde was called in as a last minute replacement for Rudolph who, curiously, injured himself while doing The Twist. When you have the reindeer visually planted in your mind...replace Rudolph with a camel...and see how hilarious the image looks now.

The camel and Arabian scenery was re-visited nearly 30 years later in 1991 when Ray recorded "The Sheik of R&B". The title, of course, is a spoof of the movie, Sheik of Araby. In 2010 Ray mentions camels in the song "Come to the USA" and there's footage of him in Arabian attire in the music video. Also from 2010 we have "Caribou Barbie" which is a song all about Sarah Palin and her nick-name that the critics came up with. Each of those 2010 recordings come from his We The People collection. "Deerslayer", from 2000's Ear Candy and 2002's Osama Yo' Mama, is about a hunter who captures a deer (it's laying in the road!). The hunter puts the deer in his car and that's when all the fun begins.

In 1963 Ray sang about another particular animal: The ape! "Harry the Hairy Ape" was Ray's satirical look at rock music and the shaggy long-hair a lot of them were beginning to appear with. In Ray's song, of course, it's a real ape who becomes a singing sensation. In the same animal family is the monkey...and of course "Gitarzan" immediately comes to mind. In that 1969 song Ray sings about a jungle band consisting of Gitarzan, Jane, and the Monkey. A year later, "Monkey See, Monkey Do" appeared on a 1970 album from Ray Stevens titled Unreal. The song has nothing do with monkeys...it's based upon the phrase that refers to people who copy others...mostly for social acceptance. In 1984 Ray did a wild version of the theme song of the rock group, The Monkees. In Ray's recording we hear two Austrian singers perform "The Monkees" theme song but ultimately the duo dissolve into arguing with one another over everything from singing off-key to goat management.

Ray's sang about dogs on several of his albums, too. "Fred" springs to mind...it's from 1984. In another song from 1984, "Joggin'", Ray gets chased by a dog and the song closes with dog howls. In 1960's "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon" we hear about the dog, King, as Ray does some chilling dog howls. In 1963's "Butch Babarian" we get to hear Ray do more dog howls when Butch's dog, Houston, makes an appearance. In 1991 Ray recorded "Back in the Doghouse Again" and while we don't hear any dog howls we get to hear some dog growls toward the end of the song. In "The Dog Song", from 2000, Ray sings from a dog's point of view about a woman who claims to have been treated like a dog but yet the dog recalls all the attention he actually receives...and if a man really treated the woman like a dog she would have never left. In 1993 Ray told the story of "The Higher Education of Ol' Blue" which was based on a story about a boy, his father, and a dog who goes to college. The boy is running a scam against his father in an attempt to get more spending money...so he tells his dad that he needs more money because there's a college course that'll teach dogs to read. It's available on Classic Ray Stevens.

Fish have only made their way onto two Ray Stevens recordings. "Fish Eat Sleep" appeared on a 1973 album, Nashville. 24 years later in 1997 "Too Drunk To Fish" came along...as did a comical music video. In 1975 Ray recorded "Cow Cow Boogie" which was originally conceived in the early 1940's as a satire of the singing cowboy. 1970's music listeners, when hearing it on Ray's album, may have viewed it as a groovy cowboy-type song. It happens more than you think...humor and satire often get lost in time and each successive generation will interpret lyrics to mean entirely different things than originally intended. When Ray recorded the song in 1975 it was more than 30 years old. It's on his Misty album.

The fearsome snake took center stage on 1986's "Smokey Mountain Rattlesnake Retreat" and 1987's "Ballad of Cactus Pete and Lefty". In 2005 Ray recorded "Kitty Cat's Revenge" which dealt with the misadventures of trying to rescue a cat from a drainage pipe. The same year he also recorded "The Cat Song" which deals with a husband's jealousy over a wife's affections toward the family cat...Ray does baby talk at various spots in the song in an effort to explain the way the wife treats the cat. Each of those songs are on the Box Set collection. Famously in 1984 Ray recorded "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" about a squirrel that gets loose in a southern church...and all the while the church goers think all the commotion and disturbance is created by the Lord and they start confessing their sins and asking for forgiveness. A year later Ray recorded "Kiss a Pig"...a cute story about a man who finds a pig and takes him home and treats him like a member of the family.

In 1976 Ray hatched upon an idea to release a chicken clucking version of "In the Mood". Ray remarked that he had the idea and recorded it for private use to share with friends and family...but then his label at the time, Warner Brothers, wanted him to put it out as a single! So, in late 1976, Ray Stevens issued "In the Mood" under the pseudonym Henhouse Five Plus Too. It's b-side was the culturally aware "Classical Cluck". Amazingly, the 2 minute 40 second chicken clucking extravaganza known as "In the Mood" reached the country and pop Top-40 charts in America and the Top-40 in the United Kingdom. In 1985 he revisited the chicken coop again with "Thus Cacked Henrietta", based on Also Sprach Zarathustra...in the recording we also hear cows and a goat much like we did in "In the Mood". In fact the 1985 recording kicks off with a cow mooing.

Listen with Me to Ray Stevens on WB...

Never mind the title of this blog. I was attempting to create something that would rhyme as I write about Ray Stevens' Warner Brothers material of the late 1970's. Well, part of the blog title is a wish of mine...I do hope people out there seek out the Ray Stevens music that I write about. This blog is no different...in the picture I'm holding the 1995 collections that Warner Brothers issued giving long overdue spotlight to the material he recorded for them. The 1995 collections were not widely distributed, ironically enough...they were available in cassette and CD format originally. Cornball, Do You Wanna Dance, and The Serious Side of Ray Stevens are the names of the collections. Two of the collections feature ten recordings while one of them features nine. All of the songs were compiled by someone named Paige Levy...meaning that she was responsible for the material that made or didn't make the collections. All in all it's a great overview of his Warner Brothers material and, of course, there's quite a few recordings not found on the collections. As of now the vinyl albums are the only places to get what's not included on these three compilations.

The material on these three collections are picked from the following late '70s Ray Stevens albums: 1976's Just For the Record; 1977's Feel the Music; 1978's Be Your Own Best Friend; and 1978's There Is Something On Your Mind. Ray's 1979 album, The Feeling's Not Right Again, was a compilation album built around his only single that year, "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow".

As I've mentioned in other blogs the material Ray recorded for Warner Brothers would be categorized today as smooth pop or easy-listening...even though at the time several of the singles were hitting the country music charts. The sound of the majority of singles marketed to country radio at this time were heavy on pop instrumentation. This pop flavor inspired the creation of the television show, Pop! Goes the Country.

Cornball was the first collection issued. It's catalog number is 9 45890-4. In spite of the CD's title, there are only three recordings on here that could be classified as comedy songs...the other seven songs are love ballads. It featured the following songs:

1. In the Mood; 1976
2. I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow; 1979
3. You Are So Beautiful; 1976
4. Money Honey; 1978
5. Cornball; 1976
6. Dixie Hummingbird; 1977
7. One Mint Julep; 1978
8. Your Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash; 1978
9. Save Me From Myself; 1977
10. Classical Cluck; 1976

The Serious Side of Ray Stevens came along second. It's catalog number is 9 45891-4 and it featured the following songs:

1. One and Only You; 1976
2. Talk To Me; 1978
3. Alone With You; 1977
4. Daydream Romance; 1977
5. Once in a While; 1976
6. Set The Children Free; 1977
7. The Feeling's Not Right Again; 1978
8. Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right; 1978
9. L'amour; 1978
10. Be Your Own Best Friend; 1978

Do You Wanna Dance was the third collection to be released in 1995. It's catalog number is 9 45892-4 and it features the following nine songs:

1. Feel the Music; 1977
2. Dance Trilogy; 1978
3. Blues Love Affair; 1977
4. Country Licks; 1976
5. Honky Tonk Waltz; 1976
6. One Man Band; 1976
7. Can't Stop Dancin; 1976
8. Old Faithful Trilogy; 1978
9. You've Got the Music Inside; 1978

In the credits for the material contained on all three collections the compiler indicates that quite a few of the songs are "previously unreleased". She makes note of this on all of the songs from Ray's There Is Something On Your Mind album. For whatever reason she didn't give credit to that particular album...she credited the other albums but not that one. I've never found out why.

In contemporary news...the latest Ray Stevens video hit, "God Save Arizona", is available for digital download at Amazon. The availability of the Mp3 began on August 12...yes...12 days ago!! Why didn't I know about this? The answer is simple...Amazon doesn't have the song listed among Ray's Mp3 singles which is where I'd been checking daily. Instead, Amazon has the digital single listed as an Mp3 album...even though it's a single!! So...to reiterate...the "God Save Arizona" song is also available at Amazon and at Ray Stevens' web-site store. The music video has gotten 120,604 hits on You Tube so far.