Ray Stevens: The Encyclopedia on YouTube...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!! I may have mentioned this earlier this year but 2022, hard to believe, marks the 10th anniversary of the Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. Ray released this 9-CD box set in 2012 and it's chock full of his versions of novelty songs of the last 60+ years. He also re-recorded some of his own comedy songs but the majority of the recordings on here are Ray's take on other novelty songs like "Mother-in-Law", "King Tut", "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport", "Little Brown Jug", "Huggin' and Chalkin'", and many, many, more. I don't know if it's because 2022 is the 10th anniversary but Curb Records has uploaded dozens of songs from the Encyclopedia onto YouTube. This is a big deal because, until now, the only way to hear a large amount of Ray's phenomenal recordings of classic novelty songs was to have the 9-CD box set. In 2012 Ray promoted the collection in a series of TV appearances and he made a few online advertisements. I wrote numerous blog entries in 2012 promoting the box set, too. The collection remains a masterpiece and a salute to the novelty song. If you have this box set then you're already familiar with the songs and the booklet. In the booklet you'll read Ray's commentary on all of the songs he recorded for the Encyclopedia plus a lot of facts surrounding the times and places each song made it's impact. Don Cusic was also one of Ray's collaborators. When you watch some episodes of Ray's CabaRay Nashville television show you'll see segments featuring Don Cusic introducing facts surrounding the box set. On the show Don is wearing a graduate uniform and is known as Professor Cusic. Here are a few of the songs Curb Records uploaded from the Encyclopedia onto YouTube...

"Searchin'" is just one of several recordings originated or popularized by The Coasters. I'm excited to finally promote individual audio tracks from the Encyclopedia so you all can hear how great they are. In "Searchin'", Ray is at his Coasters best...several times inserting throaty vocalizations which were like a hallmark of their overall sound. Here we go...

Now, wasn't that fabulous??? It's like Ray is in another world whenever he's covering songs originated by The Coasters or any other rhythm and blues vocal group. If you're familiar with the song, "Cigareets and Whuskey and Wild, Wild Women", then you'll love Ray's rendition of it. It was popularized, originally, by Red Ingle and I've also heard a recording of it by Buck Owens. Now, speaking of Buck, this Ray Stevens rendition will have you thinking of Hee Haw...

 Now, this one is just plain fun...his take on "Mother-in-Law"... 

Most remember Nervous Norvous from the many plays he got on the novelty song broadcasts of Doctor Demento...a song by the name of "Transfusion". A novelty song about a guy that can't get enough blood transfusions and we're left to wonder if the guy gets into car wrecks on purpose just to get another shot of the red stuff. I hope you love hearing these audio tracks from Ray's 2012 Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. There is so much more to hear over on YouTube. Do a search for Ray Stevens + Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music on YouTube and the results will showcase what Curb Records uploaded. Here's Ray's version of "Transfusion"...

Ray Stevens audio clip: "Poison Ivy"...

Hello all Ray Stevens fans!! In this blog entry I'm embedding one of the recent uploads on Ray's YouTube channel. The upload is an audio track of his recording of "Poison Ivy"...Ray recorded the song during sessions for his Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. This box set was released in February of 2012 and so the recording could have taken place anywhere during the latter half of 2009 on into the midway point of 2011. In a lot of Ray's interviews in the first half of 2012 he mentioned that he worked on the box set for two years and so I'd say he began recording the songs at some point late 2009 and all through 2010 and 2011...which if I'm accurate on the time line it obviously means that the box set was being put together simultaneously while he was being discovered by a whole host of people on-line through his politically charged YouTube music videos. In 2010 and 2011 he issued two politically themed CDs: We The People and Spirit of '76. When you see Ray speaking in interviews or read any of the interviews and he makes mention that he's constantly working...it isn't an exaggeration...he's ALWAYS working/recording even if the music won't be publicly heard for several years time. In more recent interviews he's remarked that he has an entire backlog of recordings just waiting to get released...and he'll be in charge of the timing and planning of what music gets unleashed first...and we can't wait. 

The Coasters are one of Ray's all-time favorite music groups...read any professional biography in an assortment of CD liner notes or inside magazines and you're likely to see The Coasters listed as one of his primary influences. Ray had already shown his love of the group in 1969 when he recorded "Along Came Jones", "Little Egypt", and "Yakety Yak". The Coasters were contemporaries of Ray Stevens...they weren't a group that he grew up hearing on the radio...but Ray nevertheless loved their music and it's interesting to point out that when Ray issued his first single in 1957, "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon", he was doing his vocal impression of Coasters lead singer, Billy Guy, but that's just my opinion. Ray has never officially stated that he was doing an impression...but I happen to think he was. "Poison Ivy", for The Coasters, was a gigantic hit for them in 1959. It was their third hit...following "Charlie Brown" and "Along Came Jones". By the way, Ray recorded a version of "Charlie Brown", "Searchin'", and other Coasters songs for 2012's Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. Historians say that while The Coasters were huge with rhythm and blues fans and their music was all over rhythm and blues radio stations, "Poison Ivy" put them into what historians call 'the mainstream' which I take it was their way of saying until "Poison Ivy" came along The Coasters weren't known outside of the rhythm and blues audience. 

Ray overdubs his own voice to make it sound like it's a group singing "Poison Ivy". It's a great rendition in my biased opinion. Here is Ray's audio recording of that song...

Ray Stevens and the "William Tell Overture"...

It's me once again!! As most of you long time fans of Ray Stevens are aware one of his musical influences was Spike Jones and the City Slickers. This band released numerous novelty songs throughout the 1940s and 1950s. The music was often played straight but comedy was layered over top of the music. Eventually the group began using household objects as well as instruments that were created for comical effect. Spike was actually the figure head of the group...the vocalists heard on his recordings were members of his band. Spike had several network radio programs throughout the '40s and he had a presence on television throughout the '50s, too. Some of Spike's vocalists were George Rock, Red Ingle, Doodles Weaver, Mickey Katz...for one recording Paul Frees did an impression of Peter Lorre on a recording titled "My Old Flame". Spike's comedy recordings featured heavy use of cowbells, gun shots, whistles, sirens, and other sound effects. Some of his recordings featured a vocalist singing a ballad, straight, but comical sound effects would be added at just the wrong time throughout.

In 2012 Ray issued his amazing box set, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. Ray recorded his versions of novelty songs that dated back to the early 1900s and running through the successive decades. Ray did versions of several Spike Jones classics for the 2012 box set. He tackled "My Old Flame", for example, and included a rendition of "All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth", "Cocktails for Two", "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", and "I Went To Your Wedding". In addition to those he also did his rendition of "William Tell Overture", a Spike Jones release which featured vocals by Doodles Weaver. The recording satirized a horse race and broadcaster Clem McCarthy. Ray uploaded his rendition of the "William Tell Overture" on YouTube not too long ago. I'd also like to add that Ray remained faithful to the original arrangements of the novelty songs he covered in the 2012 box set. Here now is Ray's rendition of the Spike Jones classic...



Ray's Spike Jones influence played a big role in his 1990 rendition of "Help Me Make It Through the Night". Ray begins the song as a ballad before being 'interrupted' and told the performance isn't up-tempo enough. Afterward we hear gun shots and the song starts over as an up-tempo sing-a-long with comical sound effects mixed in throughout the recording. Ray made a wildly popular music video of the song as I'm sure all of you are very familiar with...but the execution of the song's performance was a tribute to Spike Jones.

Ray Stevens and Friend sing "Tim-Tay-Shun"...

Me and the 9-CD Box Set; 2012

Hello all...a couple of months ago I wrote a blog entry centering on the Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music and how February 2020 marked the 8th anniversary since it's release. Ray usually, but not always, but usually releases new music exclusively through his webpage before it gets a wider release on other on-line stores. The promotional effort that took place for this 9-CD box set back in 2012 was impressive. In addition to releasing several on-line commercials for the box set he appeared in a documentary style video showing him inside the recording studio working on this project. Ray also appeared on local morning television news programs which were uploaded on-line for a national audience to see. In addition to the video content the project also received a lot of publicity through blog sites and interviews from Ray discussing his reason for wanting to do his versions of the greatest comedy and novelty songs of all time. There's a wealth of recordings on the 9-CD box set and eventually there was a sampler CD released containing 12 of the recordings from the box set. Among the 12 songs on the sampler were Ray's versions of two classic novelty hits from the 1940s: "Cigareetes, Whuskey, and Wild, Wild, Women" and "Tim-Tay-Shun". In the case of the former it was originally recorded by Red Ingle in the aftermath of the massive success of 1947's "Tim-Tay-Shun". Red's single became a word of mouth hit but was banned from radio stations. Red, a comical performer with a professional association with Spike Jones, had previously released a parody of the pop song, "Temptation", and asked Jo Stafford to perform it as a duet. She is credited as Cinderella G. Stump on the recording. The song dates back to the early '30s with Bing Crosby being the first recording artist to release it to the public. Perry Como had a hit with it in 1945. Red's comical parody hit number one in 1947 and more hits followed, including the non-charting "Cigarettes, Whuskey, and Wild, Wild Women". His singles were credited as Red Ingle and the Natural Seven. Ray Stevens and Lori Stegner recorded it as a duet for the Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The pair performed it only once on an episode of CabaRay Nashville. Lori, as you can see, is in character as Cinderella G. Stump. Ray gives a lot of facial expressions throughout his performance...the screen cap for the YouTube video clip provides us one of those expressions. Lori is the lead vocalist in the duet.

Me and the Sampler; 2019

I've had the Encyclopedia Sampler CD for a number of years but I never took a photo of myself promoting it until last year. I've never taken a recent photo of myself with the 9-CD box set because of the difficulty in attempting to get an adequate photo. The images that emerge from the web camera on this lap top is a bit more fuzzy/blurry...not like the web camera I used to have which sat perched atop my computer monitor back when I had a desktop model computer. A lot of the songs on this sampler CD were songs that Ray was performing when he made his guest appearances on local news programs and elsewhere. For example he performed "Get a Job" and "The Preacher and the Bear" on an episode of Larry's Country Diner. Although not on the sampler, Ray was performing "Dry Bones" a lot. That song and "The Preacher and the Bear" would later appear on a couple of Ray's gospel CDs. The box set gave Ray the opportunity to speak of his love for the music of The Coasters. He often singles the group out whenever he speaks of his musical influences and he's recorded songs in the past that were originally recorded by The Coasters...but he got to expand on his love of their music on the 9-CD box set with his recordings of "Poison Ivy", "Searchin'", "Western Movies"...also included on the 9-CD collection is Ray's version of "Love Potion Number Nine" which The Coasters recorded in the early '70s but the biggest hit version arrived a decade earlier when The Searchers hit the Top-10 with it in 1964...and prior to that The Clovers, a Rhythm and Blues group that Ray cites as an influence, had a hit with it in 1959.

Ray Stevens and Lori Stegner, "Tim-Tay-Shun"

Ray Stevens: The Encyclopedia...Eight Years Later...

It was right around this time eight years ago that Ray Stevens released his mammoth 9-CD collection, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The official release date happened to be February 28, 2012. As you can see in the photo on the left I purchased my copy of the collection. In various interviews leading up to the release and in follow-up interviews after it became available Ray remarked that he worked on the project for two years. The box set contains Ray's versions of the most memorable novelty and comedy songs of all-time...each song appears in alphabetical order on 8 compact discs. A 9th CD is referred to as a bonus collection featuring songs pulled from Ray's contemporary projects. Now, given that Ray Stevens is himself a legendary performer of novelty songs, it makes sense that throughout the first 8 discs there are selections that Ray previously recorded for himself along side his versions of other artist's novelty songs. There are 12 songs on each disc. On Disc Two, for example, the song titles cover letters C through G. As you can see I noted which recording artist originally did the song...however, I should be more specific...it's a notation on the recording artist that made the song popular...and not necessarily a reflection on who originally recorded it. I should have used the phrase 'made popular by' instead of 'originally recorded by'...but anyway, here's the track list on disc two:

1. Chug a Lug (originally recorded by Roger Miller)
2. Cigareetes, Whusky, and Wild, Wild Women (originally recorded by Sons of the Pioneers)
3. Cocktails for Two (originally recorded by Spike Jones)
4. Convoy (originally recorded by C.W. McCall)
5. Dang Me (originally recorded by Roger Miller)
6. Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavor (originally recorded by Lonnie Donegan)
7. The Dooright Family (originally recorded by Ray Stevens, 1980)
8. Downtown Poker Club (originally recorded by Phil Harris)
9. Dropkick Me, Jesus (originally recorded by Bobby Bare)
10. Dry Bones (origins date back to 1928)
11. Freddie Feelgood (originally recorded by Ray Stevens, 1966)
12. Get a Job (originally recorded by The Silhouettes)

When the project was released there was a lot of confusion surrounding the content...on-line commentary on social media sites of the time period wondered if this was a collection of recordings that Ray gathered up of other performers and was spotlighting the original hit songs. A remark made on a CD review site 'warned' consumers that this is a collection of Ray Stevens recordings and not the originals made popular by the likes of Spike Jones, Roger Miller, The Big Bopper, etc. That reviewer was unhappy that Ray didn't feature the actual recordings of those songs but instead sang his own versions. Yes, as you can tell, that reviewer completely missed the point of this project altogether. That sort of confusion was short-lived thanks to the advertising of the project on social media outlets. One of the several video clips advertising the box set goes into detail about the making of the project and there's heavy emphasis placed on the fact that the songs on the box set are recordings by Ray Stevens and were done as a tribute to the greatest novelty songs of all time.

The video hosting site, YouTube, was the avenue upon which Ray uploaded the advertising for the 9-CD Encyclopedia. The video hosting site had been very beneficial to Ray and so when it came time to begin promoting the collection there were a series of commercials uploaded onto YouTube and then shared throughout the internet. The longest commercial ran 4 minutes and the shortest at 45 seconds. The shortest commercial was designed, specifically, to air on television stations even though there's a video clip that runs 1 minute, 33 seconds meant for television airing, too. Here's that particular video clip, with voice over by Charlie Chase, advertising the collection:



One thing you have to keep in mind is that the above advertisement is from 2012 and it features the original sales price which I found incredibly reasonable with everything you'll be getting: 9 CDs and a thick booklet filled with all kinds of information and personal commentary from Ray on the songs he decided to record for the project. The longer commercial, at 4 minutes, is also from 2012 and it features Ray's longtime songwriting associate, Buddy Kalb, acting as host/emcee:



In this video clip from February 27, 2012 it shows footage of Ray inside the studio, at the piano, as he gives a brief synopsis of why he decided to take on the task of recording his versions of classic novelty songs:



Now, then...fast forward eight years later and we're here on February 23, 2020. The price of this 9-CD novelty fest has dropped...but something like that is to have been expected...the older something becomes the lesser the sales price (unless the item offered has become a rarity then it gets more expensive as time passes). Although I think the original sales price was reasonable it's being sold for a lot less nowadays. On December 7, 2019 the video clip featuring Charlie Chase's voice-over from 2012 was re-uploaded onto YouTube but with a reflection on the new sales price. In addition to the lower sales price it also includes free shipping and handling, a rarity for practically anything in mail order. If you don't have this collection then you should definitely think about purchasing it. In my opinion I feel all fans of Ray Stevens should own this but that's just my opinion.

Ray Stevens: Aba Daba Honeymoon...

Hello all...a brief blog entry as we welcome in the month of December! Also, as I was not on-line much yesterday, I didn't know until I checked social media sites that Ray quietly released a brand new music video...well, not brand new...it's from 2013 but it's brand new to the internet. A music video I had no idea existed...a video for his recording of "Aba Daba Honeymoon". The song was recorded by Ray for his 2012 project, the 9-CD Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music, and there happened to be an on-line commercial for it in which a snippet of the song is performed and there's a couple of gorilla's on the scene. Well, this is a full-length music video! The song itself dates back to 1914 and not many people can accurately recite the lyrics because they're deliberately performed at such a fever pitch. Ray, of course, can sing practically anything and he does a great job on the song...a whimsical video as we usher in the month of December...

Ray Stevens 9-CD box set Discount Sale...

Hello all the Ray Stevens fans!! It's April Fool's Day 2014 and starting today and running through April 20th is an amazing sale/discount on the 9-CD box set from 2012. I'm sure you all remember the Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music project that Ray issued in February 2012?? Some of us purchased the project within days or weeks of it's original release but some waited until later...some still haven't purchased it yet. If you're signed up to receive e-mail alerts or have visited his Facebook page then you probably already seen this special discount ahead of time. I received an e-mail about it yesterday. The selling price for the box set had long been in the $80.00 price range and rarely did the sales price receive a mark down...if it did it must have been a brief one...but this is the first time I can recall a mark down price for this 9-CD project lasting 19 days. Yes, you read that correctly. From now until April 20th you can purchase this 9-CD project for a little more than $40.00 rather than the over $80.00 regular price. The consistent selling price for the project is $79.95 plus shipping and handling. For a 9-CD box set, even that price is extremely cheap...compared to other box set projects that have as much music as this one. But for much of this month the sales price is going to be $39.99 plus shipping and handling. A full $40.00 reduction in total price!!!!

Here is a link to the store... 9-CD box set DISCOUNT Sale

As a long time Ray Stevens fan I've learned to say 'never say never' because he's constantly surprising us or doing things that we least expect but this insanely low selling price for this 9-CD project is, I believe, the lowest that it's EVER going to be. For those that are waiting for it to be sold for pennies or under $20...that isn't going to happen. The fans that really, really want this project but have been putting it off solely because of the usual $79.95 price then this is your chance to purchase it $40.00 cheaper.

**Disclaimer: If you come across this blog entry after April 20th and click the above link then chances are the discount sale will no longer be active and you'll be taken to the order page with the 9-CD project's regular selling price.

Ray Stevens: 9-CD Box Set...1 Year Later...

Good Saturday morning Ray Stevens fans! We're quickly coming up on the 1 year mark for The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The 9-CD box set was released on February 28, 2012 as an exclusive at Ray's web-store. I don't know if it'll become available on Amazon or any other on-line store as 2013 plays out. I'd be surprised if anyone who stops by this blog fairly frequently is unaware of this project. I wrote about it extensively in the late winter/early spring of 2012 and dedicated 21 blog entries to this 9-CD project and so it should be very familiar to those who visit this blog page as well as those who visit Ray's official web-site. There are still those on the outside of the fan box that more than likely aren't aware that this exists because it's only available at Ray's web-store. By the way, the above image isn't a link. If you click the image it'll only take you to another page where it shows the image by itself. Those who want see the songs that Ray's recorded for the collection and plan on purchasing it you can click this Encyclopedia Link. If you can't afford the collection but really, really want it for your own, save a little money bit by bit and then make the purchase. As I've said several times over the last year, any fan of Ray Stevens should have this in their collection at some point. The songs that Ray recorded are all compiled in alphabetical order which you'll notice right away. The box set also comes with a booklet which features a lot of material about the songs, Ray's commentary on why he picked the material, and statistical data about the original artist's. Some of the classic novelty songs that Ray's recorded specifically for this project are: "Mother-in-Law", "Get a Job", "The King is Gone and So Are You", "The Thing", "May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose", "Kansas City Star", "That's What I Like About the South", "The Preacher and the Bear", "Splish Splash", "Love Potion Number Nine", "Witch Doctor", "The Too Fat Polka", "King Tut", and what he considers a modern-day novelty song, the Toby Keith single from a few years ago, "I Wanna Talk About Me". As you can see, some of the novelty classics come from the rhythm and blues genre. Although perhaps not thought of in their original releases as a 'novelty song', the sing-a-long R&B ditties of the '40s and '50s fit well on a collection like this.

Ray Stevens promotes the 9-CD Encyclopedia...

Hello once again! After posting the previous blog entry spotlighting the Christmas medley that Ray performed yesterday morning I discovered, literally a few minutes ago, that several more video clips are available from the same appearance where he promotes the 9-CD Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. Those who still haven't made a purchase you're missing out on a lot of great recordings from Ray Stevens.

Since discovering that there were two more video clips available of new Ray Stevens footage, in addition to the Christmas medley I posted earlier, I've decided to post all three clips in this blog entry. In the previous blog entry when you click the station's web-page link it shown that there were two other clips with Ray Stevens available for viewing but since they were about the Encyclopedia project I assumed I'd already watched them a few months ago because he'd appeared on a local TV channel in Nashville to talk about the project's upcoming release. I came across the first two clips on You Tube, by the way, and seen that the Christmas medley is also on You Tube and so I've embedded all three videos for your viewing pleasure rather than posting URL links.

The 9-CD project has had it's share of publicity but it hadn't gotten the kind of publicity that a massive project such as this commands. Hopefully more and more publicity will surface in 2013 for this box set. Some music video publicity is a great way to expose the Encyclopedia's availability to an audience that might only visit You Tube or social media sites rather than the traditional, information-based web-sites.

Ray performs an Encyclopedia medley featuring lyrics from "White Lightnin'" as well as a few lines from "Charlie Brown", "Chug-a-Lug", and "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?"...



This is the interview segment...



Here is the Christmas medley which features the comical version of "Blue Christmas"...

Ray Stevens: Golden LP Series, Part 41...

We have made it to the final installment of the Golden LP Series and let me remind those of you who read these fan created commentaries that I'll continue to write about and spread the word around about Ray's music for as long as I choose to. Although this particular blog series is coming to an end it doesn't mean it's the end of this blog. I wanted to spotlight all of Ray's studio albums from 1962 through 2012 as well as spotlight a few of the notable compilation releases during this particular calendar year as it's the Golden Anniversary of the debut of "Ahab the Arab", the single that inarguably turned Ray from being a relatively unknown singer/songwriter/musician on the national music scene into a nationally known recording artist.

As you can see from the picture in my Blogger profile, the 41st studio album from Ray Stevens is quite a project. It's a 9-CD project titled The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music that Ray had been working on for several years. In early interviews Ray referred to this project by various working titles including one that I often quoted, "Ray Stevens Sings the Greatest Comedy Songs of All-Time". This title obviously wasn't used in the final decision and in late February 2012 this 9-CD masterpiece hit the marketplace. The project features 108 recordings altogether: 96 recordings, 12 per disc, are featured on discs 1 through 8 with 12 more on disc 9. The first 8 CD's feature a hefty dose of classic novelty songs that were made famous by other artists and were recorded by Ray Stevens for this project. 

There are several songs from Ray's own time-line that are included among the first 8 CD's as to omit his own big hits would seem bizarre on a collection saluting comedy music from the '40s through the present. The 9th CD, also featuring 12 songs, is Ray Stevens material exclusively. It's billed as a collection of modern day novelty songs that certainly would have been big hits had they been released in an earlier time period. 

Along with the 9-CD's you also get a wonderful booklet with information about each of the songs and Ray's comments about each of them. In addition to that you'll also get a summarized history of the novelty song and just how popular and commonplace it was to hear 2 to 3 novelty songs per hour along side the love ballads and other recordings that made up a typical pop radio playlist. The perception that novelty songs do not sell or that they are not remembered too long after their original release has become an accepted viewpoint by many music insiders and perhaps it's the main reason why major record labels do not issue novelty songs at all anymore. It's a viewpoint that Ray felt the need to disprove when he unleashed this project earlier this year. His belief that novelty songs have a much longer commercial and social shelf life and have the ability to stay on a person's mind long after they've vanished from radio playlists was proven correct time and time again when people began leaving feedback and comments about the project at various web-sites and recalling the times when they first heard these songs. Even those who weren't born when a lot of these songs were radio hits, it's safe to say, are aware of the existence of these songs from other forms of entertainment. 

One of the songs that has stood the test of time, "Chantilly Lace", was a major hit recording by an artist known as The Big Bopper. It was equally famous by Jerry Lee Lewis. While some can argue that a few of the songs included are early R&B flavored ditties that come off as 'novelty songs' today, these recordings will nevertheless bring a smile to your face and in many cases the lyrics will cause you to laugh...a true ingredient of any comedy recording. In a project that contains 108 recordings there's no way I'm going to go through all of them, one by one, and so I suggest that you search the archives off to the right side of the page and look up my review of the Encyclopedia. It'll either be in the February 2012 or March 2012 archives. I'll name quite a few of the songs that Ray covers for this project: "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer", "Witch Doctor", "Abba Dabba Honeymoon", "Little Brown Jug", "Haunted House", "Three Little Fishes", "Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back", "No Help Wanted", "The Too Fat Polka", "Cigareets, Whuskey, and Wild, Wild Women", "Temptation", "I Still Write Your Name in the Snow", "Dang Me", "Chug-a-Lug", "The Thing", "The Downtown Poker Club", "Too Old to Cut the Mustard", "That's What I Like About the South", "The Preacher and the Bear", "Get a Job", "Western Movies", and many, many more! 

The collection still remains an exclusive offer at Ray's web-store although there have been people who have intentionally purchased the project for the sole purpose of selling it for a much higher asking price on eBay and other on-line auction sites. Some feel Ray's asking price is too steep but it's actually a bargain for a project containing 9-CD's and an extensive booklet. Many other projects containing just as many CD's have asking prices in the hundreds of dollars and that isn't even factoring in sales taxes and shipping/handling fees. Ray's 9-CD project, with shipping and handling included, totals somewhere in the neighborhood of $86.00 estimate (that adds up to something like $10.00 per CD with the 9th disc and the booklet essentially free of charge). 

Since the project hasn't been issued in wider distribution to other on-line stores I imagine that there are still quite a few consumers who don't frequent Ray's web-page that are unaware of this collection's existence and you fall into that category I urge you to become familiar with this massive collection of comedy music from the master himself. If you order a copy of the Encyclopedia by December 17th of this year you'll receive it in the mail gift-wrapped and signed by Ray. Details about this can be found HERE. 

The link will show you the insides of the box set and how the CD's sit in the foldout section. An image of Ray in all black appears on the back of the box set's cover photo which you'll see when you click the above link. This picture's become a publicity photo of late.

Now, then, we've come to the end of the Golden LP Series and it's been wonderful, as I said, spotlighting Ray's studio albums of the last 50 years. Naturally, whenever Ray puts out a new CD or a new music video or makes an appearance I'll be here commenting about the projects and helping spread the word of their availability. In the meantime check out this Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music if you haven't done so already. Also, don't forget that Ray's current music video is available for viewing, the seasonal "White Christmas". I'll return with a more conventional blog entry next time as this LP series has officially wrapped up. 

Ray Stevens 9-CD Box Set, Part 21...

In the midst of all the political goings-on between the two candidates for President and the political comedy songs that Ray Stevens has contributed the last several years let's not forget that at the same time there's a 9-CD box set available featuring 108 comedy recordings from Ray Stevens. The title of the project is The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music and it's the focal point of a video found HERE. The interview comes from a site called Y'all Wire, and the interview is great!! Once you click that link you'll then need to click the area that reads 'Ray Stevens Interview'. If, in the future, the link doesn't work you can simply do a Google search for the web-site and 'Ray Stevens' and it should be one of the first results to show up.

I've name dropped quite a bit of the songs included in the collection and there's, of course, the product page at Ray's web-store which provides a detailed list of what's on all 9 of the CD's.

Some of the songs Ray recorded for the Encyclopedia are: "Mother-in-Law", "King Tut", "Little Brown Jug", "The Too Fat Polka", "Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back", "Chug a Lug", and a trio of holiday songs including "Monster Mash", "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", and "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer". The latter is a song that had long been erroneously credited as a Ray Stevens recording with many web-sites offering the Elmo and Patsy song for digital download but mistakenly attaching Ray's name to it as if he were the artist. Ray comments about this within the pages of the accompanying booklet and sets the record straight that until now he had never recorded the song. Ray does a couple more Roger Miller songs, too, in addition to "Chug a Lug" and those are "Dang Me" and "Kansas City Star".

Although the box set/Encyclopedia is a loving tribute to novelty songs from all musical formats, concentrating mostly on work originating from the '40s through the '60s with a couple having pre-1940 origins, there is one song on here with a fairly recent origin and it's Ray's take on "I Wanna Talk About Me", a huge hit by Toby Keith.

Ray Stevens 9-CD box set, Part 20...

This is the most recent commercial for the Ray Stevens 9-CD box set, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. I saw some responses for this commercial at a social network site...it seems a few people have seen the commercial on their local television channels. I hadn't seen it on my television yet...if I do I'll make note of it in a future blog entry.

I say it's the most recent commercial because there have been a couple of commercials uploaded on Ray's You Tube channel of various run time but this is the extended length version that features a voice over by Charlie Chase, a legendary fixture in country music radio and TV. The first commercial ran 4 minutes and featured Ray's songwriter friend, Buddy Kalb, detailing the encyclopedia's contents. Since the first upload ran 4 minutes, way too long for a TV commercial, a trimmed down and updated commercial was put together featuring Charlie Chase doing the voice over. The extended commercial runs 1 minute, 34 seconds and then there's an even more trimmed down version running just 45 seconds featuring the same voice over by Charlie Chase.

The ad that runs 45 seconds features a visual for "Cigareets, Whiskey, and Wild, Wild Women". The ad that runs more than 1 minute lacks that visual addition. The first ad that was uploaded to You Tube, the one that runs 4 minutes, has gotten more than 6,000 views. The 4 minute ad is described and presented as an infomercial...which is why it has a longer run time. Ray offers extended commentary in this ad which you won't see in the shorter commercials.

The 4 minute infomercial is below...



The ordering information isn't shown in those uploads...that sort of thing is tacked on separately whenever they air on TV. Those who are becoming aware of the Encyclopedia can seek it out at Ray's on-line store. A link to the collection is located Here. Once there you'll see a track list for all 9 CD's and an Add to Cart option. Ray also has quite a few newer releases that I'll be purchasing in the near future...so while there you can browse the CD and DVD area for the other new releases, too.

Ray Stevens 9-CD box set, Part 19...

Good Wednesday morning all the Ray Stevens fans!! A few hours ago an article about Ray became available on the Taste of Country web-site. The article promotes Ray's 9-CD box set, The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. You can read the article by clicking the following: Taste of Country. The page includes a music video of "Shriner's Convention" that Ray did in 1995 for his Get Serious! movie.

A few weeks back Ray had mentioned that the long out of print movie will probably see a DVD release by the end of the year. I hope it becomes available on DVD, as I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, for the simple fact that the VCR that I still have isn't getting any younger and you just can't walk into a shopping store nowadays and find VCR's readily available. I have a DVD player as well but a lot of my older products are in VHS format...and thankfully, for the most part, the VHS titles have been re-released in DVD format...but there are just some things that were issued on VHS that have not made it to DVD...and Get Serious! is one of them.

Next month, July, marks the Golden Anniversary of "Ahab the Arab" reaching the Top-10 on the Hot 100. It would reach it's Top-5 peak position the first week of August 1962. The song debuted on the Hot 100 in May 1962. I wrote a blog entry a few weeks back detailing the song reaching it's 50th anniversary. I'll write some more in the coming months about the song and list a few of the other songs that were in the Top-10 on the Hot 100 that week, too. 

Ray Stevens 9-CD box set, Part 18...

Hello Ray Stevens fans!!  I noticed that my previous blog entry, Ray Stevens and the Drunk Preacher, was picked up and shared by a couple of web-sites. This was probably due to the title being eye-catching. Today's blog utilizes a familiar title...the 18th installment of my series creating awareness for Ray's 9-CD box set entitled The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. In that previous blog entry I provided a news clip featuring Ray discussing the collection and his quest to save the comedy song from extinction. Ray, for many years, has remained one of the biggest advocates for comedy music. It's gotten more and more difficult for the novelty song to find a sizable audience on what's called terrestrial radio...but those hardcore novelty song aficionados can access internet and satellite radio stations and find the material rather quickly. The only difference being that internet and satellite stations require a subscription or some sort of fee in order for a listener to hear the programming.    

Having been available since February 28th I thought it would be neat to list several of the news items from the internet that have surfaced since late February promoting this 9-CD project. Ray's gotten quite a few promo pieces about this release and I feel that more is on the way as we move into the summer months...

Vintage Vinyl News did a lengthy promo piece the day the 9-CD collection went on sale on February 28th. The article offers no author credit but it has detailed information about the collection and it provides a track-list of all 108 songs on all 9 discs. There are a couple of typo's contained in the furnished track list. The word "In" follows the title "Chantilly Lace", the letter "n" is missing on "White Lightnin'" and it reads 'Lightin' instead, and the letter "e" in the word 'come' is missing from a song title on CD 9. Those typo's are only found on the on-line track list that's been passed around since late February. Now, elsewhere in the promo, they've embedded a video clip showing Ray in the studio and discussing the Encyclopedia. I made a brief comment at this site indicating how excited I was about the collection and that I had put in my order for it on the day it was released.

In this Mention by Jan Duke from the Nashville.About.com web-site, published on March 8th 2012, the writer promotes the collection which at that time had only been available for about a week or so. She supplied a link to Ray's web-page. For whatever reason there's an apostrophe between the the last two letters in Ray's last name. I don't know if the writer wrote his last name that way or if a technical glitch automatically inserted an apostrophe between the S and N in his last name. You'll see what I mean when you click the link. I also made a comment at the site...kind of lengthy...but when it comes to Ray I couldn't help it. I also, as you'll see, defended Ray's contemporary music even though I think the comment that I took issue with was a deliberately inflammatory and I fell for it.

Also on March 8th comes this promo featured on Billboard The 615. The article was written by Chuck Dauphin and it features a picture of Ray that was taken during an appearance at a book store. This article is as lengthy as the one from Vintage Vinyl News and it features quotes from Ray about the 9-CD's. This particular article became widely distributed by a lot of blogs and other outlets throughout March and into April.

An article in Country Weekly written by Steve Morley appeared on May 9th. In the review he gives the Encyclopedia 4 stars and goes in detail about the project's mission and why Ray is so uniquely qualified to be the one that took on such a task.

In addition to those written accounts of the Encyclopedia, Ray made appearances on radio and television programs both local and national throughout February and March. He appeared on the GAC series, On the Streets, on February 21st. He was interviewed by Kix Brooks for American Country Countdown in a segment titled The Back Forty. In an episode of Larry's Country Diner taped in the fall of 2011 and first broadcast in March 2012 on RFD-TV, Ray performed several songs from the Encyclopedia and spoke at length about the project and some of the artists that he covered for the collection. At the time of the episode's taping Ray was planning on releasing the Encyclopedia around Christmas time 2011 but it's release was pushed back a couple of months. This reference wasn't edited out of the broadcast and for a few days in March 2012 the viewers of Larry's show assumed that the episode was taped this year and that they'd have to wait until this coming December before they could purchase the collection. Luckily things were straightened out and those who were confused about the release time learned the 9-CD collection was already available.

On April 10th Ray appeared on Fox and Friends on the Fox News Channel and later that evening he appeared on a program titled Fox Across America, hosted by Spencer Hughes, on Fox News Radio. That wasn't all...in between the two Fox affiliated programs Ray was interviewed on two satellite radio programs: Freewheelin' with Meredith Ochs and Chris T. and Mark Says Hi. The two programs aired on channels 106 and 99, respectively, between the hours of 1 and 3pm Eastern.

An appearance on the Crook and Chase series happened on April 15th on RFD-TV but the segment had previously aired in February as part of the syndicated version of their show. His most recent appearances included Opry Country Classics on May 24th and an interview on Mike Huckabee's radio program on May 25th. 

Ray Stevens and the Drunk Preacher...

It's going to be a super hot Memorial Day weekend...already it's 84 outside. The high will be 92. Starting off this latest blog entry with a mini weather report is something I rarely do but it's not uncommon. I came across a video clip of Ray Stevens from a Nashville, TN television station. In the clip Ray speaks a little about the Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music and the narrator of the news piece gives some detail about the 9-CD box set. You can watch the video clip below...



When I was driving home from work this morning I saw a sign in the yard of a church that stated Vacation Bible School and it gave the dates. This immediately had me thinking of the hilarious Ray Stevens song from 1985 titled "Vacation Bible School"...among other things the song is about bible camp. Ray tells the story of a preacher who becomes intoxicated while sermonizing. As a consequence of being drunk, the preacher launches into a one-man comedy show and we're told that he delivered some pretty rough language for the people gathered in the church. In the song the bible school is in Tallapoosa, Georgia.

The song is from his #1 Country album, I Have Returned, which was certified Gold by the RIAA. 

There are many people who discovered Ray through You Tube...embedding his music videos and sharing them on social sites. A lot of people who never heard of Ray before 2009 had obviously no idea of his legend. 2009, for example, was the 40th anniversary of "Gitarzan", a million selling Top-10 pop hit for Ray in 1969. Those who found Ray Stevens through You Tube have hopefully explored his varied catalog of songs. His music dates back to 1957...he's currently in his 55th year as a recording artist.

You can find his music on eBay, Amazon, and at his web-site store. The music he recorded in the late '50s is his most obscure but it can be purchased if you look hard enough.

Ray Stevens recorded a lot of songs during the late '50s that weren't heavily promoted. He recorded for the following labels during the late '50s: Prep, Capitol, and NRC. He was with NRC in 1960, the year he released "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon", a novelty song that gained a lot of attention for the wrong reasons: the owners of the character threatened a lawsuit if the song wasn't pulled off the market! Ray didn't get their permission to use the character in his song.

After NRC, Ray would join the Mercury label in 1961 and it is with this label that Ray Stevens found national fame at last. The taste of national fame started with "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills" which reached the pop Top-40 in 1961. "Ahab the Arab" hit in 1962 and this is the song that made Ray Stevens an 'overnight superstar'. Once this song hit, everyone who listened to Top-40 radio suddenly knew who Ray Stevens was...the song sold more than a million copies and reached the pop Top-5 and the R&B Top-10 in 1962.

Ray had a few more Top-40 pop and R&B hits through 1963 with Mercury Records and couple that charted on the Hot 100 but below the #40 slot. One of the recordings that Ray participated in was "Speedy Gonzales". The hit recording from 1962 was by Pat Boone and Mel Blanc. The cartoon character, Speedy Gonzales, was voiced by Mel Blanc in numerous Warner Brothers cartoons and so he played the character in the song, too. A singer named Tom Walls recorded a version of the song, also in 1962. Instead of Mel Blanc reprising his role as Speedy, we have the one and only Ray Stevens stepping into the Gonzales role.  You can't find the song in it's single release...it's way too hard to find...but you can hear it on You Tube. The recording was made for a company known as HIT Records. I was not familiar with this recording prior to finding it on You Tube at some point last year.



There is a channel on You Tube that specializes in uploading rare/obscure singles from the '60s from smaller record labels. I've embedded video clips from their channel numerous times in the past and have commented on their Ray Stevens-related uploads. Thanks to them I was able to hear songs that Ray Stevens was involved in that I otherwise either would never have known about or would never have heard because of how rare and unavailable those songs happen to be. Ray did numerous sessions in the '60s for a lot of artists...both on small labels and major labels. He arranged and wrote a lot of songs for groups who typically had an R&B flair. Ray either arranged, produced, co-produced, or played on hundreds of recording sessions in the '60s. It was neat to hear a lot of those recordings...and hear that Ray Stevens imprint all over the songs.

Ray joined with Monument Records as a session artist, arranger, producer, and songwriter in 1963...and would release his own recordings for the label in 1966. He used a lot of the sounds in these single-only '60s recordings that he first used on other artists in the early '60s. If you own or have heard any of Ray's singles from that mid '60s period or own his 1968 album, Even Stevens, then you'll instantly know what I mean when I bring up that 'sound' that can be heard on a string of recordings by Ray or associated with Ray.

After Monument, Ray went over to the Barnaby label in 1970. He remained with this label through early 1976. He then signed with Warner Brothers records...a brief 3 year stay (1976-1979)...but such wonderful recordings were made in spite of the short run with the label. This was followed by a 4 year association with RCA (1979-1983). A super brief return to Mercury Records followed (1983-1984) and later in 1984 he joined MCA for a commercially successful 5 year stay (1984-1989) that saw him selling roughly 3,000,000 comedy albums by 1990. Curb Records kicked off the '90s as Ray's next label. Their first project on him, His All-Time Greatest Comic Hits, would become a certified Gold album by the RIAA. He recorded three albums for them while they released 4 compilation projects of his material through 1996. Those compilations were the previously mentioned His All-Time Greatest Comic Hits in 1990, a Greatest Hits release in 1991 that featured a majority of ballads rather than comedy, a CD-only release titled 20 Comedy Hits in 1995, and Great Gospel Songs in 1996.

He was with Curb until early-mid 1996...and then he signed with MCA for a second time and the first project that MCA released on Ray in the late winter of '96 was the retail distribution of his 1995 mail-order home video, Get Serious!. Two albums for the label surfaced in 1997: Hum It and Christmas Through a Different Window. Ray was then on his own label, Clyde, from 1998 through 2001. Curb Records distributed some more releases for Ray in the early 2000's...notably the Osama Yo' Mama single and album in 2001 and 2002 respectively; the 2005 CD single "The New Battle of New Orleans" was released through Curb, and some animated music video DVD's in 2006 were distributed by Curb Records also. Other than those specific releases in the 2000's by Curb Records, Ray's released all of his latter-day music through his own label, Clyde Records.

For those new to the career of Ray Stevens take a look back at his accomplishments and marvel at the varied music styles he incorporated into his career. For those new to his career also take a minute or two to listen to those recordings. There's 55 years worth of music to dive into! For those new to his career familiarize yourself with everything there is to know about him...this blog examines all era's of his career and it's a good place to start. His own web-site offers a lot of music and video products. All of the music videos on You Tube are also featured at his web-site in a section called Ray TV.

Now, for those new to his career...after looking up all the great Ray Stevens music you've missed don't forget to pick up where you left off and champion his contemporary recordings and enjoy those entertaining You Tube music videos.

Ray Stevens 9 CD box set, Part 17...

Good Thursday morning!!! Well, it's almost Memorial Day weekend...I don't have a 3-day weekend where I work but nevertheless it's still a 3-day weekend for millions of people.

Ray Stevens will give an interview this Friday on Mike Huckabee's radio program. The segment is scheduled to air 2:30pm Eastern tomorrow afternoon. Most AM stations have a bottom of the hour news break and so it'll probably get underway around 2:35pm but don't take my word for it...check the internet for radio station affiliates that carry his program and if you happen to be in the area simply tune your car or truck radio to the station and of course if you're near a computer tomorrow you can probably listen on-line to one of the various radio station affiliates.

Here's a detailed report about the upcoming interview. Huckabee's radio program airs on 200 radio stations and I assume at some point, for those who can't hear it live, there will be an archive podcast or something along those lines for those who'll miss the interview!?! The interview will be about The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music, which is currently in it's third month of availability (this coming May 28th will mark 3 months exactly).

There are no details on how long the interview will last but the media story that I linked to has the vital information. The details originated from the company that handles Ray's publicity, called Absolute Publicity. Their article was picked up by other web-sites and the link I provided comes from a site called Nashville Country Club.

Here is the Pacific, Central and Eastern time-zones to eliminate any confusion out there...

9am-12pm Pacific

11am-2pm Central

12pm-3pm Eastern

KSFO radio is in the Pacific time zone in Sacramento, California. You can listen to Huckabee's radio program via the following KSFO link.

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.

Ray Stevens and Political Music...

I wrote about this a few blogs ago but I never wrote any follow-up blog entries due to the fact that The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music was brand new and that took up a lot of my blog entries the last several months. The 9-CD box set will reach 3 months old this coming May 28th. It has yet to appear for sale on Amazon but I have a feeling that it won't become available for purchase there anytime soon but then again it may show up for sale there sooner rather than later.

Anyway, the Ray Stevens Book that I wrote about a few blogs ago is titled Let's Get Political. The link will take you to the product page at Ray's web-site. He's advertising what he's calling a Tea Party Special which includes We The  People, The Spirit of '76, and the Let's Get Political book. However, you can still purchase the items separately...and since I already have the CD's that are being offered I obviously purchased the book by itself. I highly recommend the book for those who already have the CD's. I also highly recommend the book for those who discovered Ray Stevens on You Tube and had no idea of who he was beforehand. The book will introduce you to the essays of Ray Stevens and Buddy Kalb as they offer commentary on the songs found on We The People and The Spirit of '76.

The CD's feature an abundance of political and patriotic songs. Before anyone can ask...Ray does realize that there are people who have not been too happy or supportive of his decision to incorporate political feelings into his music but those are the opinions of a minority. In fact, since December 2009, the response has actually been 90% positive. There's a small amount of criticism and flack that comes from a vocal 10% but the fact remains that a majority of Ray's fan-base either share similar feelings or have the exact same feelings about the issues of the day as he does. If anyone thought that Ray was a far-left liberal progressive at any point in time then you were mistaken and it's easy to see why.

You can be a conservative and still want peace, love, and prosperity...but the means in which to achieve it are vastly different based upon political ideology.

A song like "Everything Is Beautiful", released by Ray in 1970, has long been described as a song championing a liberal cause while a more recent song, such as "Thank You", honors the soldiers in the military who voluntarily join the Armed Forces without knowing if they will be sent overseas or not. Extremists on the left side of the political spectrum can say that the 1970 song fits their agenda while extremists on the right can latch onto the sentiments in "Thank You".

However, a general audience should be able to enjoy both songs for what they are...without having to apply a political undertone or overtone in their decisions to like or not like either song. I love a lot of the well-done protest songs of the late '60s but that doesn't make me some sort of anti-war zealot...I like a lot of military songs, too, but that doesn't make me some sort of military zealot. I like several styles of music but Ray Stevens is the one I'm the biggest fan of. Music critics and radio programmers, especially, love to pigeonhole radio listeners into only being tolerable of specific sounds or certain artists, which is why critics labeled Ray's "Everything Is Beautiful" as a sentiment for the liberal point of view...never realizing that anyone, of all political points of view, may enjoy the song as well.

Anyway, that sort of assumption by critics, for example, paved the way for the splintering of the Top-40 format in the 1980's as every musical style under the sun seemingly got it's own special popularity chart and radio frequency but that's an entirely different discussion!

Are you one of the more than half a million or so that have watched Ray's hilarious "Mr. President - Mr. President" music video? A recently updated total shows that 563,459 people have viewed the video. Multiple views aren't counted and so it's safe to say that the video's been watched over a million times because it's only natural that a music video that people like will be watched multiple times. Even if people only watch a video twice you can multiply the video's current unique view total by 2 and get an estimated total of real-time views. If all 563,459 people were to watch the video just 1 additional time the total would technically be 1.1 million real-time views. If all those people watch the video 6 times throughout the course of a week the total of real-time views would be 3.3 million, etc. etc.

So, yes, while You Tube prevents the tallying of multiple views when they report on a video's view count, in an effort to stop skewed numbers ratcheted up by rabid fan bases, the fact remains that a lot of times, especially for music-related video content, people watch a video more than once so the real-time numbers will never come to light since multiple views aren't counted. Enjoy this clever song and video...it speaks volumes...

Ray Stevens: Nostalgia Valley, Part 34...

On Monday, Ray Stevens released a statement about George Lindsey, who had passed away on Sunday at the age of 83. You can read Ray's message here at Music News Nashville. The statement's been picked up by quite a few news outlets as well as other blog sites and spread around the internet. I found out about Lindsey's death while surfing the internet...when I wrote my early Sunday morning blog publicizing Ray's upcoming appearance that night on a 1972 episode of Hee-Haw I was unaware of Lindsey's death and therefore I made no mention of it in the blog. I don't think the news had really broke when I was putting the Sunday morning blog together. Once I found out about his death I wrote a blog entry about Lindsey in my Animation blog, which doubles as my off-topic blog, where I comment about a lot of other topics not associated with Ray Stevens. You can find that blog address on my profile or you can click This Link and be taken right to the blog.

Ray posted a link to a short review of the Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. That review is Here. Within the write-up there's a link to Amazon...a product page for the Encyclopedia...it's from the Amazon marketplace, though, so it's not been officially released to Amazon as of now. The marketplace, for those unaware, is a seller generated sub-site where people can purchase things from Amazon members and deal directly with the Amazon member rather than the store itself. The seller's asking $150.00 for their copy of the collection.

Did anyone catch Ray Stevens on Hee-Haw this past Sunday? As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, this 1972 episode first aired on RFD-TV in early November of 2011 and so this was your last opportunity to see it. Ray's first performance was "Isn't It Lonely Together?". In the performance he's seated on a stool in casual attire...a red shirt and blue jeans. He's got a beard and the show's resident dog, Beauregard, was shown laying on the floor during the performance. The production was top-notch...several times in the performance they used split-screen camera effects. Later, during the performance of "Gitarzan", the mood is much more festive and upbeat as you can imagine...complete with several Hee-Haw Honeys prancing around behind Ray as he performed the song. He was in the same attire but this time he had the electric guitar with him. Instead of re-writing what I already wrote in a previous blog entry in November 2011 let me just say that it was a great performance!!!

I think I speak for all fans when I say we want to see more Ray Stevens...LOTS more vintage Ray from the '60s, '70s, and '80s especially. I say this because there's not been too much footage of him from those decades. I still look for the day to come where somebody or some company in Nashville or wherever gets copyright clearances or gets the permission of the various copyright holders of his many television appearances and then puts them out on a DVD collection for all the fans to see. I can say, without doing much research, that there are quite a few out there who'd love to see a DVD like that come available. The same holds true, obviously, for his summer TV show from 1970. I've seen performances of Andy Williams from his 1969-1971 variety program...the same exact years that Ray Stevens was a recurring cast-member...but yet any songs or sketches that Ray participated in don't show up. I don't know if that's a decision from Ray or whoever to keep those appearances out of DVD circulation...but all his fans would love to see those performances...especially those fans in my age bracket and younger who weren't even born when the summer TV show was on the air. All we have are a few clips from The Life and Times of Ray Stevens that The Nashville Network aired in the late '90s. The two clips that were shown come from the same 1970 episode...he sang snippets of "Mr. Businessman" and "Everything Is Beautiful". I was born in 1976 and became aware of Ray Stevens in the mid 1980's...but as time went on I researched his music and television appearances and am perhaps one of the MANY who want to see all of his television appearances. But of course, I know that can never be accomplished because a lot of his earliest appearances, I'd say, are lost to time...either taped over or destroyed when it was common practice for television stations and networks to tape over episodes or wipe their tapes for cost cutting reasons...but there were just as many appearances, I assume, that are still on tape and available for re-mastering for the DVD age. I won't hold my breath, of course, but it's something in the back of my mind that someday I'd like to see happen.

Ray Stevens 9-CD box set, Part 15...

It's an early Monday morning...and the main focus of this blog entry is on Ray's appearance on Crook and Chase's television program over the weekend. The two hosts have been a duo since 1983...hosting by now thousands of hours of interviews from mostly country music artists and sometimes celebrities from movies and television shows. They hosted This Week In Country Music for several years in syndication but their biggest impact came with Crook and Chase, a daily program on The Nashville Network for seven years, 1986-1993. From there the two hosted the nightly Music City Tonight, 1993-1996, and then they went into daily syndication for a season and returned to The Nashville Network in 1997 and remained on the air through the channel's demise in 1999. Since 2000 the duo remained active on various special programs aired on CMT and, or, GAC in addition to hosting their weekly 4-hour radio countdown program. The duo often became the most visible during the summer months, especially in June during the Fan-Fair week, which is now called the CMA Music Fest. The duo have also appeared as interviewers of nominees and winners during various country music awards programs. In 2008 the duo began appearing regularly on television again through RFD-TV with a weekly series instead of a daily program. The program continues to air on RFD but in 2010 a syndicated series started airing concurrent with the RFD program. The two series are actually the same show...the difference being episode air-dates. The syndicated program may air an episode on Saturday that features more recent information while the Sunday telecast on RFD may feature an entirely different episode from a month earlier...leaving one to assume that the Saturday episodes are current while RFD's telecasts are several weeks behind.

The Ray Stevens interview that aired Sunday evening took place a few months ago. There are pictures of the interview in one of Ray's photo albums at his Facebook page. The interview aired for the first time on March 4th of this year...this was the date that it didn't air on RFD-TV...but this time around, April 15th, the interview aired as scheduled. If you don't want to navigate through the main Facebook page you can click the following Ray Stevens Images  link and it takes you to the photo album named Crook and Chase. As mentioned, the interview took place late in 2011 around the time of his taping of Larry's Country Diner. It was during this time that Ray was planning on releasing the box set late in 2011 but then the release was pushed back to January 2012 and then it was pushed back to February 2012. In fact, in the episode of Larry's program that aired a month ago, Ray mentions that the Encyclopedia should be available in time for Christmas. Those who saw the show last month, based upon their Facebook comments on Larry's page, mistakenly thought that the episode had been taped this year and that they'd have to wait until the fall of 2012 to purchase the box set...but luckily Ray's appeared on many other TV and radio programs over the last month and it's become crystal clear for those that were mistaken earlier that The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music is available right here in all it's wonderful glory!!

In the interview with Crook and Chase, Ray spoke about the inspiration behind the box set and asked the hosts if they're more likely to remember "Purple People Eater" or a popular love ballad from the same time period. Ray, looking serious, proclaimed that Crook and Chase were to blame for comedy songs not being heard on the radio anymore but then said he was joking. Ray started telling them that he'd gotten resistance from radio (both pop and country) for so many years about programming comedy songs and being given the same excuse over and over as to why a 'comedy song' couldn't be added to playlists. Lorianne commented that she loves Ray's voice and was curious why he didn't become a full-time crooner. This led Ray into discussing how he attempted to be a serious pop singer but wasn't able to get a lot of attention until he put out a comedy song...which paved the way for additional comedy songs...and ultimately led to his career long typecasting as a novelty singer in spite of the serious recordings he was releasing...and having hits with...which, when you think about it, is ironic considering the heavy typecasting his career took being labeled as a novelty singer.

Along the way "The Streak" became the focus of the conversation and the interview dissolved into a hilarious several minutes where Ray, Lorianne, and Charlie talked about nudity, streaking, the impact the fad still has in Ray's career, and the accounts of female fans streaking during his concerts in the mid 1970's. At this point Ray jokingly begged for streaking to return at his concerts.

It was a very funny few minutes. The interview ended while the three were laughing...indicating to me that there's much more footage that didn't air. If that's the case I'd love to see the full interview!