Well, hello all of you Ray Stevens fans!! It's the start of a brand new month...yes, it being April 1st usually means that some radio stations spotlight comedy/novelty songs. However, in this blog entry I'm spotlighting a love ballad, of sorts, from Ray Stevens titled "Get Crazy With Me". I have written about this song before as you could've probably guessed and I've written about the 1977 album it appears on, Feel the Music. That album is the one that featured Ray as the songwriter on 9 of the 10 tracks. The lone track that Ray didn't write, "Set The Children Free", is from the pen of Buddy Kalb.
In the video upload you'll see Ralph Emery and Donna Fargo introduce Ray.. the performance is from an episode of Pop! Goes the Country. As a tie-in with Ray's song he appeared on the cover of Country Song Roundup magazine with an accompanying article/interview titled Get Crazy With Ray Stevens. I have a copy of that magazine but I don't have a photo of me showing it off. One day I'll probably get around to photographing it. In the meantime... Ray insists "Get Crazy With Me"... and so let's take a few minutes and listen to this obscure gem of a song.
Well, hello Ray Stevens fans!! As longtime readers of this fan created blog should be aware of by now I love the recordings Ray did for the Warner Brothers label in the mid to late 1970s. I like all of his songs...but I have a particular love for that era in his recording career. I've often wondered the reason for this...maybe it's because as a child growing up I wasn't as familiar with Ray's songs from that particular record label. It could also stem from, as I've discussed often, the sound of his recordings in this time period. There's a specific sound that you hear on the Ray Stevens Warner Brothers songs that you don't hear before and after he was on the label. Then again it could just be my own ear hearing things unique to that specific time period in his recording career (1976-1979). Well, in 2022, his 1977 album, Feel the Music, reaches 45. The gem stone that represents a 45th anniversary is Sapphire. This gem can come in different colors...I prefer blue. I had thought about typing out this blog entry in blue color but I decided I'd just use that color a few times. The album contains 10 songs...9 of the songs were written by Ray Stevens. There are several music styles heard on this album, too. A bluesy flavor dominates songs like "Blues Love Affair", "Junkie For You", and the title track, "Feel the Music". However, the title track starts out as if it's going to be a bluesy ballad but lyrically it's a motivational number...and the tempo picks up dramatically as the song reaches it's conclusion. All of the songs on the album are sensational, in my opinion. One thing to keep in mind, though, is the sound may be, to some, indicative of 1970s country music. I don't have a strong opinion, either way, with how the sounds in country music have changed throughout the decades but from beginning to end on this album you'll hear certain moments, if you're a student of country music of the late 1970s, where you'll know it's from that time period.
The Warner Brothers label is the first to market Ray Stevens as a country music artist. If you were look up album reviews or write-up's in music magazines about Ray Stevens from the early to mid 1970s chances were he was being covered by Pop music and Easy-Listening music journalists and critics. When he'd cross-over to country music, frequently, beginning in the early 1970s, the country music section of weekly music magazines would feature reports on his albums and singles, too. As a legitimate cross-over artist he went decidedly country once he joined Warner Brothers in 1976. His second album for the company, Feel the Music, featured a couple of single releases. One of those releases was "Dixie Hummingbird" which reached the Country Top-40 in Record World magazine. In a 12 week run on the Country singles chart in Record World, beginning on June 11, 1977 the single reached it's peak on August 6, 1977 in it's 9th week. Ray Stevens reached the Top-40 with several single releases on the pages of Record World and Cashbox magazine which missed the Top-40 in Billboard magazine. "Dixie Hummingbird" is one of those examples of Ray having a Top-40 hit single in a publication other than Billboard. Another single release from the 1977 album arrived earlier in the year in the form of "Get Crazy With Me". This single reached the various music charts...achieving it's highest chart ranking in Record World where it peaked below the Top-40 on March 26, 1977. It was a single that had a funky sound to it.
As mentioned the album reaches 45 this year...and in case you're wondering the front of the album is an illustration of a stereo speaker. Ray wants you to quite literally, "Feel the Music". The back of the album features an illustration of the back of a stereo speaker...and a photo of Ray Stevens is placed in a position where you'd normally find the manufacturer's warrantee taped. The illustration is so detailed you'll think you're looking at the back of a real stereo speaker. There's a gospel flavored sing-a-long on here titled "Save Me From Myself" and a slow love ballad called "Daydream Romance". The album reached the Top-50 Country Albums on Billboard and the Top-40 Country Albums on Record World...reaching it's highest peak in Record World in April 1977. If you are interested in hearing some of the songs on this 1977 album you can always look them up on YouTube. Ray has the audio of "Feel the Music" on his YouTube channel and there's also a performance of the song from the Marty Robbins television show on YouTube. If you love "Get Crazy With Me" as much as I do then you're going to love the entire Feel the Music album!!
The ten songs on this album, not in chronological order, are: Feel the Music; Daydream Romance; Alone With You; Blues Love Affair; Dixie Hummingbird; Set The Children Free; Junkie For You; Road Widow; Get Crazy With Me; and Save Me From Myself.
Hello all!! Earlier today Ray Stevens uploaded an audio clip of his fantastic song, "Get Crazy With Me". The song is from his 1977 album, Feel the Music. If you know much about Ray's tenure with Warner Brothers then you'll know that it was a very busy period in his career...but he continues to remain active and busy...but in 1977 the record label he recorded for must have had fallen under new management because in hindsight the label issued his singles in a sort of haphazard fashion that year. The label was promoting two Ray Stevens singles concurrently as 1977 kicked off. A release by Ray in December 1976 under the alias of Henhouse Five Plus Too, "In the Mood", had become popular and therefore was hitting the charts as we entered 1977.
In the meantime Warner Brothers, the same month the chicken clucking "In the Mood" was hitting, they issued a new single from Ray, "Get Crazy With Me". As you'll hear in the video clip below Ray is singing as a human instead of clucking like a chicken. The B-side of the January 1977 single is "Dixie Hummingbird".
Some time later in 1977 Warner Brothers issued "Dixie Hummingbird" as the B-side of "Feel the Music". The label also issued "Dixie Hummingbird" as a promo...which means a single with the same song on both the A and B sides. "Dixie Hummingbird" got more notice than "Feel the Music" and received what's known as unsolicited airplay...significant enough to enable "Dixie Hummingbird" to reach the country chart and get inside the Top-50. In June 1979 Warner Brothers re-issued "Get Crazy With Me" and backed it with "Dixie Hummingbird"...perhaps adding even more confusion for the fans that collect Ray Stevens records.
Hello all...as the COVID-19 pandemic continues and with the announcement yesterday that the Federal guidelines for combating the virus will remain intact for the month of April (no large gatherings; dine-in restaurants closed; limited retail purchases; etc.) it's obviously caused a chain reaction of events throughout the economy. Some may think it cynical or crass to even think of the economy when human lives are at risk but at some point those economical concerns will have to be addressed. The passage of the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill is a giant first step but we'll see if even that jaw dropping amount is enough. I don't know if any State Governor is going to be defiant and "re-open" their State in April and go against the Federal guidelines. Also, on the flip-side, if the Federal Government would decide to "re-open" the country I don't know if any State Governor would take the chance of COVID-19 cases skyrocketing without a vaccine at people's fingertips. Either way, without a definitive vaccine available, it's a no-win situation for either a State Government or the Federal Government.
To offer an escape, though, I came across a recently uploaded 1977 episode of Dolly, the variety show hosted by Dolly Parton in 1977, guest starring Ray Stevens. There had been a video of Ray and Dolly uploaded from this episode in the past...a clip of the two of them performing "Happy, Happy Birthday Baby" and "Searchin'". Ray's other footage from that episode had never been uploaded, to my knowledge, until recently. The video statistics show it was uploaded on March 28th but yet this is the first time I'd seen it posted on YouTube. I don't know why videos are slow to appear in YouTube search results nowadays. I've come across other video clips that are new to me but the stats for the video show that the video clips were uploaded days earlier.
The quality of the tape isn't top notch but that's to be expected...it's from 1977...and it isn't the master copy of the episode; but, in general, the episodes haven't been well preserved. The reason being is that the owners/distributors of these kind of television shows never had the slightest idea that there would be appreciation or an audience for 'retro' programming as they call it now. Back then I suspect the feeling was "who in the world would want to watch reruns?!?". In spite of the visual quality it's still fun to hear and watch...particularly Ray and Dolly performing "Sir Thanks-a-Lot". Ray performs one of his singles at the time, "Get Crazy With Me". Ironically there's an issue of Country Song Roundup from 1977 in which Dolly is on the cover. One of the articles in that issue is about Ray Stevens...and it's headline is Get Crazy with Ray Stevens.
The album from Ray Stevens in 1977 was a marvelous collection called Feel the Music. In a previous blog entry I wrote about Ray's 1976 appearance on Hee Haw. In that episode he sang "Honky Tonk Waltz" and "You Are So Beautiful", both songs from his 1976 album, Just for the Record. His performance was taped in the summer of 1976 during one of the marathon recording sessions for Hee Haw. The series taped their episodes twice per year: 13 episodes were taped in the summer and 13 episodes were taped in the fall. Ray's summer 1976 taping session appeared on an episode that aired on October 23, 1976.
As if it needed to be said...we're all crazy for Ray Stevens!! I'm one of the hundreds of thousands of people who wishes to be in Branson, Missouri seeing his acclaimed performance at the Welk Resort Theatre. Obviously with it being so far away I'm living the experience through the write-up's and pictures that have popped up...and I'm especially going to get my order in right away as soon as a DVD goes on sale of his concert. The news broke a few days ago that Ray will be taping some performances at the Welk Theatre and earlier today the news broke that the taping would take place during the October 8th and 9th performances. This means that those who are in attendance during those days will have a good chance of being caught on tape whenever the camera pans over the audience. The story that broke the news that Ray would be taping portions of his concerts is located here...
The last time concert footage of Ray in Branson surfaced in video form was back in 2005 when he participated in a fundraiser/telethon for Hurricane Katrina victims. The program was officially titled Branson Cares Telethon for Hurricane Katrina Victims and it aired regionally on September 18, 2005 but it also had satellite coverage as well and so millions of people saw the telethon. He performed "Everything Is Beautiful" after delivering commentary about the devastation of hurricane's to the geographic locale that he considered part of his youth and upbringing. The video clip of his introduction and his performance of the song is available on You Tube but it wasn't uploaded by Ray's people.
Prior to this you'd have to go back to 1993 when Ray Stevens Live! and More Ray Stevens Live! were brand new. Those two home videos are part of that home video boom that was happening for Ray in the early and mid 1990's. Ray Stevens Live! would eventually sell a million copies and remain on the Billboard Video Chart for months on end.
