Ray Stevens music journey: lady of spain

Showing posts with label lady of spain. Show all posts

March 21, 2020

Ray Stevens: The Ralph Emery Show Interviews, June 1975...

Hello all!! Earlier today the remaining episodes of the Ralph Emery Show from June 1975 featuring Ray Stevens were uploaded onto YouTube. In a couple of previous blog entries I mentioned that once all the episodes make it on-line I'd put together a blog entry containing all five episodes.

June 23, 1975

June 24, 1975

June 25, 1975

June 26, 1975

June 27, 1975

I've listened to the June 25th episode and as soon as I publish this post I'll be listening to the June 26th and June 27th episodes. In the June 25th episode Ray speaks about the Misty album and throughout the hour Ralph plays Ray's recordings of "Young Love", "Indian Love Call", and "Lady of Spain". The first song of the hour is Donna Fargo's recording, "Hello Little Bluebird". Ralph mentions that the song was recorded at Ray's studio. Ralph and Ray get into a comical argument regarding the year Sonny James recorded "Young Love". Ralph says it's 1955 and Ray says 1957. The answer is in the middle...the song originated in 1956 and was first recorded by one of it's writers, Ric Cartey. Sonny James recorded his version in the latter half of 1956 and it became a hit in 1957 followed by the Tab Hunter version. Throughout the hour show from June 25th you'll hear recordings by the likes of Charley Pride, Connie Smith, Billy Walker, Johnny Carver, and even an instrumental by Sonny James. The final song of the June 25th episode is Ray's version of "Lady of Spain". Ray mentions the instrumentation used for the recording and how he excitedly hollers out the name of the saxophone player, Norman Ray, in the recording...

International single release, 1975

July 14, 2019

Ray Stevens is One of a Kind...

One of the things that I've enjoyed over the last 10+ years of writing this fan-created blog is the variety of music styles and time periods that can be written about from one blog entry to the next given the fact that the career of Ray Stevens is lengthy and encompasses a lot of territory within the music landscape. In the last blog entry I spotlighted a video clip of Ray giving the spotlight to Loretta Lynn at his CabaRay showroom in a concert from July 5th of this year...and in this blog entry I'm stepping back 44 years to 1975.

I'm sure the most devoted of fans out there have heard his rendition of the pop music standard, "Lady of Spain". The recording made it's debut on Ray's 1975 album, Misty. This album featured mostly cover songs from Ray of pop music standards featuring different arrangements...a concept that resurfaced on a couple of future albums from Ray. It isn't a new concept or something unique to the career of Ray Stevens, though. Prior to Misty in 1975 he issued the album, Have a Little Talk with Myself, in 1969. In that album he performed his versions of contemporary pop songs...some with new arrangements and some retaining the original arrangements...but each were clearly transformed into the Ray Stevens style. In the case of both albums each featured a couple of original recordings. The 1969 album, among the cover songs, were originals such as "The Little Woman", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and the title track "Have a Little Talk with Myself". Oh, yes, if you caught my previous blog entry or have been a longtime fan of Ray Stevens you'll know that he recorded "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" before anyone else...so when it appeared on the 1969 album it was considered an original song.

This is the photo that accompanied the single's release in Germany in early 1976. The irony being that Ray had already left the Barnaby Records roster for Warner Brothers when this single was released. It's rare now but at that time in was commonplace for a record label to release further singles on an artist even after the artist left the label...the most common reason is for contractual reasons. An artist may have signed a contract giving the label the option to release a set amount of recordings, either in the form of albums or singles, after the completion of the contract. In this case the presence of a newly released recording from a previous label finds itself in competition with the artist's newly recorded material for his/her current label but almost always the recordings released from an artist's former record label rarely achieve heavy media publicity. I've read reports down through the years that some record labels issue singles on a previously signed artist, strategically, in an effort to coincide with the artist's current release on a competing label...and although, contractually, it is legal, it nevertheless may be a sign of bitterness on the part of the artist's former record label to possibly diminish whatever media attention/hype the artist may receive from the next record label. In Ray's memoir, Ray Stevens' Nashville, he explains that during the course of his career he's recorded for a lot of record labels and he mentions that some have asked why he's recorded for numerous labels and what causes an artist to go from one label to another. He explained that in most cases an artist leaves one label for another because a contract has expired and either the label doesn't want to re-sign the artist or the artist wants to shop around for another 'home', as they call it. He made mention of never burning bridges...which is a valuable piece of advice...because a record label that you were once signed to may, down the road, show an interest in having you on their roster again or the label may have gone through a major executive shake-up and have a whole new team in charge and they may want to do business with you or you may want to work for them.

The recording of "Lady of Spain" features a completely different arrangement and tempo than the pop music standard from the 1930s. The song is most commonly played as an instrumental...most often on the accordion...but the vocal versions of the song were performed in a slow, ballad presentation. Ray transformed the song into a rollicking, up-tempo festive presentation and his vocal styling on this recording is comparable to Fats Waller, Jim Croce, and Dr. John rolled into one. Ray Stevens is definitely one of a kind...with the B-side being "Mockingbird Hill"...a pop standard from 1951. A couple of years after Ray recorded "Mockingbird Hill" it became a hit single for country singer, Donna Fargo, in 1977. The photo used on the single release in Germany is from Ray's 1973 studio album, Nashville. There are other releases of "Lady of Spain" / "Mockingbird Hill" which features the photo from the Misty album.

The Misty album features the following Ray Stevens recordings:

1. Misty
2. Indian Love Call
3. Over the Rainbow
4. Oh, Lonesome Me
5. Sunshine**
6. Cow-Cow Boogie
7. Young Love
8. Deep Purple
9. Mockingbird Hill
10. Take Care of Business**
11. Lady of Spain

The titles with the two asterisks ** indicate original songs...the rest of the recordings were songs previously recorded by other artists. "Sunshine" was written by Ray Stevens whereas Layng Martine, Jr. wrote "Take Care of Business". "Sunshine" is a bouncy, happy, up-tempo sing-a-long utilizing pretty much the same instrumentation heard on "Misty". Ray once remarked in an interview that not only does he want lyrics to tell a story but also the music to tell a story...and you'll certainly feel happy and be all smiles when listening to the music accompanying "Sunshine". The latter song's title was inspired by a line in Ray's 1968 recording, "Mr. Businessman", but that's where the similarities end. "Take Care of Business" is a slow ballad of mounting lust and desire that a man has for his wife and how his job keeps the two apart...but he's determined not to allow his job to interfere with his relationship any longer...and he emphatically states that he and his wife are going to "Take Care of Business" later that night when he goes home. As you see "Lady of Spain" is the album's closing performance and a perfect way to close out the album.

The musicians featured on the album should be familiar to those that have examined his studio albums over the years. "Misty" and "Sunshine" were recorded during the same session and because of this the credits specify which musicians are heard on those two recordings as well as "Indian Love Call" and "Deep Purple". In today's music industry you may have a different group of musicians for every recording found on an album...and with music being purchased digitally there's a lack of traditional elements found in the physical copy of a CD. On a digital album's product page you're likely going to see a photo of the artist or the cover of the album if it's also available on CD and you'll see the song titles...but rarely will you see musician credits, songwriter credits, publisher credits, or where the songs were recorded. I like seeing those things...so I continue to purchase a CD if one is available...rather than purchasing a digital/Mp3 copy.

August 2, 2015

Ray Stevens: Lady of Spain at 40...

Hello one and all...a certain Spanish lady that Ray Stevens sang about in 1975 is 40 this year. Originating on the Misty album comes "Lady of Spain"...a pop music standard that up until 1975 had been performed mostly as a love ballad and in some performances as an instrumental on guitar and or accordion. In fact, in the performances that feature a vocalist (recordings from the likes of Bing Crosby, Eddie Fisher, Dennis Day, and dating back to 1931's recording by Al Bowlly and Ray Noble's orchestra) the singer is usually singing the song at a slower tempo against the up-tempo musical backdrop.

Although the instrumental performances carried an up-tempo flair in comparison to some of the vocal performances none could compare to the raucous, up-tempo lively performance by Ray Stevens. In the Ray Stevens recording his vocal matches the musical tempo...and on top of that he does a swell vocal impression of the legendary Fats Domino during the first half of the record before it explodes even further into a frenzy prior to Ray calling out the name of the saxophonist at the session, Norman Ray, who goes into a saxophone solo. The image off to the left is from the German release early in 1976. The recording itself took place in 1975 but commercially seen a single release in the summer of 1976...one final single release on the Barnaby Records label several months after Ray had joined and already released his debut album for Warner Brothers. Given that "Lady of Spain" seen it's release after he left Barnaby meant that all of the media hype that could've been used for the single had instead gone to his current single release for Warner Brothers, "You Are So Beautiful"...but longtime fans of Ray are well aware of his cover of "Lady of Spain". It's one of my all-time favorites.

The image of Ray that the record distributors overseas used on the single release of "Lady of Spain" comes from his 1973 album, Nashville. Once upon a time international publicity of American artists utilized previously released publicity photo's or images from previously released albums instead of issuing an exclusive photo for each country...in fact I came across an article on Ray dated from 1976 but it clearly used a photo of Ray from 1970 as a visual. This kind of thing continues to go on today but to a lesser extent. If you visit any number of sites that feature information or articles about Ray Stevens chances are you're going to see a publicity photo of Ray from the latter half of the 2000s or the familiar photo of Ray from his 1992 Comedy Video Classics home video...that release occurred 23 years ago (!) as hard as it is for me to believe...but sites use that photo of him to this very day.

One of the strange facts about the single release of Ray's cover of "Lady of Spain" is that it credits a writer by the name of H.B. Tilsley alongside Tolchard Evans, Stanley Damerell, and Robert Hargreaves. On almost all other single releases of the song by other artists the writers are credited as Tolchard Evans and Erell Reaves (a pseudonym for the lyricists). I'll post an image of the single release from Ray a little bit later. In the meantime "Lady of Spain", as the title of this blog entry points out, turns 40 and so does all of the recordings on the Misty album. Yes, the big hit from the album is the Grammy inning title track but the entire album is Grammy worthy. Even though Ray's performance of "Misty" is incredible, in hindsight, it's massive success over shadowed the remaining performances from the album with "Lady of Spain" being one of those over-looked gems. Another under-rated performance from that album is this single's B-side, "Mockingbird Hill"...oh, and then there's the splendor of "Indian Love Call" and the memorable vocals on "Deep Purple". Here's something to amaze your friends with...Ray Stevens, in 1975, visited The Great American Songbook decades before it became commonplace as a commercial endeavor. As mentioned, the image used on this picture sleeve comes from Ray's Nashville album. In some of my earlier blog entries I've posted other picture sleeves of "Lady of Spain"...one happened to be the image of Ray from the Misty album.

I came across an interesting item on eBay several hours ago...an album called Puzzle credited to Ray Stevens and the release year being 1978 and the country of release being Spain. I can't read foreign languages but common sense would lead one to assume that it's a double album (2 vinyl albums) based on the sticker that appears on the album's cover. The year of release being 1978 and the fact it contains 2 vinyl records has me thinking it's an earlier version of a United Kingdom double album project that surfaced a year later in 1979 called The Greatest Hits Collection or a re-release of a 1977 double album project called The Many Sides of Ray Stevens. The bizarre fact surrounding this Puzzle double LP is there's no picture of Ray on the album's cover but a familiar font of his name appears. The font comes from the 1975 Greatest Hits compilation with the rather large copy of the "S" letter. Any information about this Puzzle LP is appreciated. The back of the LP isn't on display and perhaps a picture of him and the list of songs on the album appear on that side of the cover but as you can see all that's on the front is the title, the number of vinyl discs, and the artist name.

Here's that image of the single release I made mention of earlier. The writers are credited as R. Hargreaves, T. Evans, S. Damerell, and H.B. Tilsley. I did some research in the past and Tilsley happened to be a composer often credited as Henry B. Tilsley...and his name appears on other works featuring the other credited writers. Further research at some future point in time may provide me with answers as to the reason Tilsley is credited as a writer in some pressings of "Lady of Spain" but yet he's uncredited as a writer in other pressings. If you're familiar with the long running program hosted by Lawrence Welk (1951-1982) then you'll immediately be familiar with "Lady of Spain" as the theme song for Myron Floren, an accordionist and right hand man on the program for pretty much it's entire run (both locally, nationally, and in syndication).

October 25, 2012

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

Studio album 12 in the career of Ray Stevens arrived in 1975 in the form of Misty. The LP contains 11 songs with 9 of them covers of mostly pop standards dating back well before 1955...with a few latter day pop songs thrown into the equation. The LP spawned four single releases...three of those releases became chart hits.

As mentioned, issued in 1975, "Misty" was the first single release. The single displayed Ray's arranging talents as he changed the slow, love ballad associated with Johnny Mathis into an uptempo, Bluegrass-infected arrangement. The main instrumentation on "Misty" was the banjo, fiddle, and the steel guitar accompanied by the piano and other instruments but by and large the banjo and steel guitar were the most prominent. The single features a lengthy, famous steel guitar solo in the middle of the song. The piano makes it's way into the solo but it's the steel guitar that dominates. As a single, "Misty" would reach the Top-5 on the Country chart and the Top-20 on the Hot 100. It's success was soon followed with the Misty album...which features a rather peculiar photo shoot of Ray decked out in a flashy white suit with a dark backdrop. I've often remarked that it looks as if he's taking in the applause from some concert or television appearance. I wish I knew the story behind this unique cover shot but I don't. There are two original songs on here to break up the flow of cover songs. "Sunshine", written by Ray and arranged in a Bluegrass flavor, is a catchy love song. Layng Martine supplies "Take Care of Business", a love ballad with heavy emphasis on love...it's one of the few songs in Ray's long career that you could describe as sultry or 'hot'. The title was probably inspired by a recurring line in Ray's 1968 hit "Mr. Businessman". Elsewhere on the album we have covers a plenty...one of the greatest is his take on "Deep Purple" which, near the end, features one of the highest notes he's ever delivered.

High notes and desire flood his version of "Indian Love Call" where instead of giving it an uptempo feeling, associated with Slim Whitman, he slows the delivery way down and turns it into a drawn out love ballad complete with doo-wop background vocals. He took his version to the Country Top-40 in the middle of 1975 and it reached the Top-70 on the Hot 100. If you order one of the DVD volumes of Pop! Goes the Country that I've written about in a few blog entries you'll be able to see Ray perform the song from the time period it was a hit. Ralph Emery, the show's host, comments that the song had been a hit for Slim Whitman as well as Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald but it had never been performed quite like the way Ray Stevens does it. The single became a fixture on several compilation albums through the latter half of the '70s and into the early '80s but then it became obscure. The thing that I've often found annoying by that practice is it prevents successive audiences of hearing certain songs from his career that were actual chart hits and with reduced availability the song(s) become less and less familiar...even though the familiarity should never go away within an artist's fan base. A Ray Stevens audience in 1989, for example, should have been as familiar with his current recordings as his older recordings. A fan of Ray's in 2012 should have some sort of basic knowledge about where Ray came from as well as his music path and various other things pertaining to him. Songs he recorded in 1975, for example, are as familiar to me as songs he did in 1968 or 1988 or 1973 or 1993 or 2002, etc., etc. However, this all-encompassing point of view obviously isn't shared with many record companies and so a lot of compilation albums released on Ray Stevens seemed to cater to specific time frames and it's perhaps decided that someone in 2012 may not care to hear something Ray recorded in 1970 or 1983 or 1991. "Indian Love Call" made a re-appearance in an early '90s compilation release and it appeared on later Mp3 digital releases but it's definitely one of those hit songs from Ray that's obscure now.

"Young Love", originally a huge hit for Sonny James and later, Tab Hunter, received the Ray Stevens treatment for the Misty album. "Young Love" became the third single release from the album in the latter half of 1975. Ray's version reached the Country Top-50 and on the Hot 100 pop chart it managed to crawl up several spaces where it peaked...one of his lowest charting Hot 100 finishes since the mid 1960's. Some of the other cover songs, not released as singles, but still just as great are "Over the Rainbow", "Cow Cow Boogie", and "Oh, Lonesome Me". The latter is the only cover song originating in country music from the pen of Don Gibson.

Depending in what country you lived in at the time, Barnaby Records often issued singles seemingly at random...pushing songs that may have been album tracks or B-sides in America but issuing them overseas as A-sides. Judging by the picture sleeve, "Lady of Spain" is the A-side and "Mockingbird Hill" is the B-side. The picture of Ray comes from his 1973 Nashville album. "Mockingbird Hill" had been pushed as an A-side early in 1976. It was around this point in time that Ray and Barnaby Records parted ways. This was by far his longest-lasting home...having released his first singles for the label early in 1970. Several months after Ray's departure from the label, "Lady of Spain" Bubbled Under the Hot 100. Ray's departure from Barnaby in the early part of 1976 ended on a high note, actually. He won a Grammy in 1976 for Best Arrangement of the Year for his version of "Misty". There was no lengthy gap between single releases, though, and his debut single for the much larger Warner Brothers Records arrived soon after "Mockingbird Hill" had failed to reach the charts.

September 2, 2012

Ray Stevens: Nostalgia Valley, 39...

In this particular trip into Nostalgia Valley we visit primarily the final years that Ray Stevens was on the Barnaby Records label. Ray joined the label in 1970 and remained on their roster on into early 1976. The label went through a series of distributors, both nationally and internationally, in the form of CBS, MGM, Janus, and GRT to name a few. Ray had become the top artist for Barnaby Records and in 1975 he recorded his last studio album for the label, Misty. On this particular album Ray does his versions of several pop standards with a few newly written songs added in. The new songs, referred to as original songs since they appear on a covers project, are "Take Care of Business" and "Sunshine". The former was written by Layng Martine, Jr. and is said that the title may have been inspired by a phrase in Ray's 1968 hit, "Mr. Businessman". The two songs are extremely different, though, in terms of storyline. "Sunshine" was written by Ray...and it features an uptempo arrangement similarly heard on the album's title, "Misty". The rest of the album contains Ray's versions of pop standards.

"Misty", one of Ray's biggest airplay hits, became a single in 1975 and it reached the Top-10 on the country chart. It would also reach the Top-20 on the pop chart and in early 1976 it won a Grammy in the Best Arrangement of the Year category. It's become what is known as a signature song and is performed in his concerts to this day. Although the album's award winning Top-10 title track easily became the biggest hit of the project that isn't to say the other recordings weren't as great. The second single from the album was his fancy, doo-wop take on "Indian Love Call" and it's unlike anything you'll ever hear. It reached the country Top-40 but it didn't have the staying power of "Misty" and it's become what is known as an obscure hit. Barnaby released two more singles from this album as 1975 came to a close and 1976 opened up. "Young Love", a former smash hit from Sonny James as well as Tab Hunter, became the third single release from Misty. It featured a dramatically different arrangement from the light and bouncy sing-a-long that the general public was accustomed to. Ray turned the song into a slow love ballad. Although the single missed the radio-friendly Top-40 it nevertheless charted a section below, in the country Top-50. As you can see from the single's picture sleeve, the b-side is Ray's version of "Deep Purple". For me, "Deep Purple" is one of the masterpieces of the album...not taking anything away from the vocal acrobatics of "Indian Love Call" or any of the other recordings on the album. Try singing any number of these songs the way Ray Stevens did...it's nearly impossible. "Deep Purple" is one of those songs that I think would be nearly impossible to replicate by others. When the song begins I often think of Rudy Valle for some reason...but then the arrangement shifts and the vocalization from Ray leaps into a different range and it's become a full-on, upbeat pop song. Those who've heard Ray's version no doubt are aware of the glorious note that he puts onto the performance toward the end of the recording...and as an avid listener and as a fan you can't wait to hear it. Do you want to know another song from the album that you can't wait to hear? "Lady of Spain"!! Ray puts a lot into this recording, too. Traditionally performed as a love ballad, Ray changes things with the arrangement and urgent vocal delivery...singing like a man possessed for the Spanish woman he craves...and the Fats Domino vocalization that Ray uses is another treat you can't wait to hear again and again. "Mockingbird Hill" found it's way onto a single release in 1976. Ray used a lot of tra-la's and tweedle-de's during the song's chorus and it sounds nothing like the original recording from years earlier. The single didn't reach the charts but several compilation albums from the late '70s and early '80s from independent labels featured the song on their releases.

Fans can see Ray perform "Misty", "Indian Love Call" and several other songs by purchasing a Pop! Goes the Country DVD from an on-line store that I've written about in previous blog entries. The DVD features a 1975 episode and he performs "Misty", "Indian Love Call", and "Twilight Time". The latter song is not featured on the Misty album. You can purchase the DVD at This Web Page. That's the product page for the Volume Four DVD...it includes a video embed of Ray and other artists featured in that volume. Now, for those new to that site, several other DVD volumes feature appearances from Ray Stevens. Volume Four, as mentioned, features a 1975 episode. Volume Nine features a Ray Stevens episode from 1977. Volume Fifteen features a Ray Stevens episode from 1979...he debuts "Shriner's Convention" on this episode...months before it was released as a single in early 1980. Volume Seventeen features a Ray Stevens episode from 1982. On that episode, hosted by Tom T. Hall, Ray opens up the show with an alternate version of "You've Got the Music Inside" but the remainder of his performances are in medley form, trading off with Tom T. Hall, as the two sing bits and pieces of their songs at the request of the audience. The two close the show singing a duet, "It's Hard To Be Humble". In the just released Volume Twenty-Four, it features a Ray Stevens episode from 1978. The item description states that Ray performs "Gitarzan", "Everything is Beautiful", and "Sweet Dreams". Since I don't own that DVD, yet, I obviously don't know whether or not the songs are performed in full length or in medley form. Once you see any of the episodes starring Ray Stevens you'll notice a lot of the memorable moments come not only from his performances but also from the interview segments with Ralph Emery and later, Tom T. Hall.

The songs listed below are on the 1975 Misty album:

1. Misty
2. Indian Love Call
3. Over the Rainbow
4. Oh Lonesome Me
5. Mockingbird Hill
6. Cow-Cow Boogie
7. Young Love
8. Take Care of Business
9. Sunshine
10. Deep Purple
11. Lady of Spain

May 26, 2010

Ray Stevens: 45 at 35...

Well, here's some discussion about a couple of 45's from 35 years ago...back in 1975 Ray Stevens was amidst a streak of hit singles that had started in 1968. In 1975 he was on the pop and country charts with "Misty" and later that year, "Indian Love Call". A lot of ink is given to "Misty" and rightfully so...it was a Grammy winner for Ray. However, not much attention is given to the other songs that populated the Misty album that year. "Indian Love Call" is a wonderful vocal performance...the melody is changed from what one may be accustomed to and there's some high tenor love calls heard throughout. The calls are not as high or shrilly as Slim Whitman's worldwide hit version but the vocal dynamics from Ray more than make up for it. The arrangement is jazzy, almost doo-wop like. The recording became a country hit and it crossed over to the pop chart as well. It didn't get much pop radio airplay but the strength of it's sales enabled it to rank among the Top-70.

This single's catalog number is Barnaby-619 and it's b-side is "Mockingbird Hill". The single didn't enter the country or pop music charts but nevertheless it's from the 1975 Misty album. This was a follow-up to Ray's version of "Young Love", which hit the country Top-50 in late 1975. Ray's version of "Lady of Spain" is quite a departure, vocally. In the song Ray comes across sounding a lot like Fats Waller in some places. The original version of the song was a crooning love ballad performed by a host of pop music artists but in the hands of Ray Stevens it was turned into an uptempo party song. The Spanish music introduction in Ray's version soon fades away to an urgent early rock and roll arrangement. Ray seems to be completely wrapped up in the free for all performance that he excitedly hollers out "blow it, Norman!!" to the album's saxophonist, Norman Ray, prior to the instrumental solo. I would've loved to see him perform the song, in this arrangement, in concert. Heck, I would've loved to have been in the studio while he was recording this song! It's one of my favorites from the Misty album. The Mp3 digital album of Misty is available at Amazon but their sound clip doesn't necessarily convey the mood of "Lady of Spain" because it's, after all, a sound clip...it doesn't represent the song as a whole. It cuts off right before the rocker instrumentation kicks in.

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1955

This pictorial time-line for more than 10 years I've tried to keep focused on the professional career of Ray Stevens; The time-line will show images of Ray; photos of single releases and album releases; and screen-caps from select television appearances; However, I've decided to add this photo to the time-line; It's a photo of Ray, excited as one could be, during his years in high school as a Saturday afternoon disc jockey on local radio station, WGPC; The radio station was located in Albany, Georgia; Ray went to school at Druid Hills and later, Albany High; Ray co-hosted this Saturday afternoon radio show, called 'The Record Hop', with Mary Dale Vansant; Ray was involved with music from an early age...he was the leader of his own band, The Barons, while in high school; He used the name Ray Ragsdale until 1957 when Ken Nelson, a record producer at Capitol Records, suggested a different last name and 'Ray Stevens' became Harold Ray Ragsdale's stage name; Milt George hired Ray for the weekend disc jockey job.

1958

This is an image of the promo single Capitol Records sent to radio stations of the era; The song, "Chickie-Chickie Wah Wah", has more to do with the song's harmony vocals and it's overall sound; When listening to the record you'll hear a sort of teenage high school love story play out of how the guy feels his girlfriend is such a doll...the background vocalists consistently sing "chickie chickie chick, chickie-chickie wah wah"; Ray was 19 years old when he recorded it...it's credited to him as songwriter, too.

1961

This novelty was the first Top-40 hit in the career of Ray Stevens; It's been said that the title is the big reason it got so much attention and once people heard it they liked what they heard and Ray finally had his first Top-40 hit; In the music industry a Top-40 hit, at that point in time, carried a lot of weight; In some circles a Top-40 hit was referred to as a 'radio hit' to differentiate it from a chart hit...which is a hit single based largely on sales and regional popularity but hasn't broken into the national spotlight; I call the song "Jeremiah Peabody" but it's full title is "Jeremiah Peabody's Polyunsaturated Quick Dissolving Fast Acting Pleasant Tasting Green and Purple Pills"; The song went on to appear on Ray's first album the following year.

1962

This was the breakthrough single for Ray Stevens; "Ahab the Arab" took Ray into the Top-10 of both the Pop and Rhythm and Blues charts in the summer of 1962; The single sold more than a million copies, earning a Gold Record, and it enabled Ray to get the much needed national exposure he'd been working for; The song inspired the name of one of his earlier publishing companies, 'Ahab Music, Co.', and the camel became one of his longest lasting visual logo's; The camel's name, Clyde, also became the name of his record company in the late 1980s and it's imprint is seen on a wide variety of VHS and DVD releases decades after this novelty song sprang to life in 1962.

1962

The first long playing album from Ray Stevens happens to be this one; Titled "1,837 Seconds of Humor" each and every song adds up to 1,837 seconds of listening time; The back of the album features an essay about Ray's early years and how he's no stranger to the music industry; The album features novelty songs and a quirky love ballad with, as you could tell, the biggest song featured on the release is "Ahab the Arab"; A whimsical illustration is seen on the album cover; The album also features his first single release for Mercury Records, "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills" and "Scratch My Back" which was released as a follow-up to Jeremiah Peabody but was over-shadowed by "Ahab the Arab"; Ray parodies rock and roll music a couple of times on here with "PFC Rhythm and Blues Jones", "The Rockin' Boppin' Waltz", and "The Rock and Roll Show"; Specifically, though, "PFC Rhythm and Blues Jones" tells a comical story of a hipster who isn't too keen on being in the military all of the sudden; "Rockin' Boppin' Waltz" is a wacky performance blending the refinement of a waltz with the jumpy pace of rock and roll; "The Rock and Roll Show" spoofs pop music shows in general.

1963

The second album in Ray's career, the Mercury released 'This is Ray Stevens' contained a mixture of novelty songs and love ballads; The album's main single, "Harry the Hairy Ape", kicks things off; "Funny Man" makes it's debut here...a dramatic ballad that hit the Top-40 in Canada; "Speed Ball" was inspired by a comical routine from Brother Dave Gardner; In fact, if you're familiar with Gardner's work then you'll notice the influence he had on Ray's early novelty recordings; "The Weekend" is Ray's take on country music and he sings the song in a style resembling Buck Owens; A couple of sheer nutty novelty recordings are also on this album: "The Deodorant Song" and the hysterical "Soap Opera"; The ballads, like the previously mentioned "Funny Man" are wonderful as are "It's Been So Long", "Little Stone Statue", and the original version of "Just One of Life's Little Tragedies".

1964

Some may consider this quite the daring composition; Ray sings about the happenings at a hip nightclub where the entertainment comes in the form of a bubble dancer named Bubble Gum; Although it's locale isn't mentioned you get the sense that it's somewhere deep within the city on some dimly lit street inside a building with no windows; The single being released in 1964 it pre-dates what music historians cite as the beginning of the Bubble Gum era in pop music; Mercury Records included this song in a 1970 compilation they released on Ray called 'The Best of Ray Stevens'; A couple of years earlier they issued the single on a compilation album with an illustration of the dancer on the album's cover; The single's B-side was released as an Mp3 several years ago when it appeared on a various artists collection of songs that fit the Halloween spirit.

1965

Mercury Records issued "The Rockin' Teenage Mummies", a novelty from Ray which tells of the adventures and experiences of a wildly popular music group who wear flesh colored band-aids; The oddity of the group is a direct parody of pop music, in general; Ray explains that in concert the screaming teenagers try to rip-off the band's band-aids; The single was produced by Shelby Singleton and Jerry Kennedy; The B-side is the dramatic ballad, "It Only Hurts When I Laugh", co-written with Bob Tubert.

1966

When Ray began releasing music for Monument Records in 1966 this was the first single to be released; "A-B-C" was unlike anything Ray had previously released...the sound, for one thing, was dramatically different from the last couple of releases Mercury Records had issued in 1965; "A-B-C" is a love song in which Ray sings about declaring to never fall for anyone again after being hurt in the previous relationship and yet he finds himself falling in love all over again with somebody new; The singles B-side, "Party People", comes from the pen of Joe South; If you can see the fine print, Ray wrote "A-B-C".

1967

"Mary, My Secretary" is the B-side of "Answer Me, My Love"; I like the A-side but I decided to spotlight it's B-side; Almost all of the single releases Ray recorded for Mercury Records and then, Monument Records, during a roughly three and a half year time span (1964-1968) were rarely placed on any future albums and it wasn't until CD's became the preferred choice of music consumers that obscurities that were previously only available on vinyl singles started to pop up on CD re-issues; In the Mp3 digital download age we're in now obscurities are becoming more and more readily available; I like "Mary, My Secretary"...I like the piano and hand-clapping accompaniment as well as the overall production; If you're only familiar with specific recordings from Ray Stevens and aren't aware of his diverse recordings you need to find songs like "Mary, My Secretary" and you'll be introduced to a sound that Ray used for a brief period of time in mid 1960's; When Ray was producing and arranging songs for other recording artists in this time period if you've got a really good ear you'll be able to detect that 'sound' unique to Ray Stevens in this time period.

1968

Ray Stevens joined Monument Records in 1963 as a session musician, producer, and music arranger as well as a member of the studio's A & R department; Ray didn't release any music on Monument Records for nearly three years (1963-1966) give or take a month; Mercury Records continued to have control over Ray's recordings and they continued releasing singles on Ray through 1965; It was in 1966 that Monument began issuing singles on Ray and "Unwind" was the fifth single release on Ray by Monument; It hit the Hot 100...peaking near the midway point; Historically "Unwind" is often cited as Ray's first non-comedy chart hit even though he'd charted with ballads earlier in the decade, namely "Funny Man"; Nevertheless, "Unwind" set the stage for even more 'serious' recordings and the follow-up, "Mr. Businessman", hit the Top-30 of the Hot 100; "Unwind" is a fascinating song...Ray, through the use of tempo changes in both the music and his vocal, literally unwinds while singing the song's chorus...going from frenetic singing to lethargic to create a sense of unwinding and relaxing.

1968

This particular single was the sixth release on Ray Stevens by Monument Records; Ray, for a number of years, had been involved in the recording sessions of many artists and was part of the production and writing staff on other artist's recordings; All of this behind the scenes involvement led to him going on a self-imposed singing exile; He returned to recording in 1966, on Monument, but it wouldn't be until 1968's "Mr. Businessman" came along that Ray found himself in the Top-40 portion of the Hot 100 pop chart again; The song, a social commentary on big business, was written out of personal frustration according to all interviews I've read; Ray was on the wrong end of a bad business deal and so he took out his anger in this song; It struck a chord...reaching the Top-40 in America and it made the charts in several international markets as well.

1968

A remarkable album from Ray Stevens and the first LP released on him by Monument Records; It is also the first LP of all serious recordings...there's no comedy/novelty on here; The album was produced by Fred Foster, Ray Stevens, and assistant production by Jim Malloy; This is the album that, for a lot of people, opened up their ears to a more serious Ray Stevens thanks in large part to the album's main single, "Mr. Businessman"; The remainder of the album runs the gamut between topical, social commentary songs to love songs; Here are some of the song titles from the album: "The Earl of Stilton Square", "Face the Music", "The Minority", "The Great Escape", and "Isn't It Lonely Together"; This LP was re-issued on CD in 1996.

1969

In between the release of "Ahab the Arab" and "Gitarzan" Ray released dozens of singles for Mercury Records (until 1965) and then for Monument Records (beginning in the latter half of 1965); Ray's single releases ran the gamut from bizarre, novelty songs to highly dramatic pop ballads; "Gitarzan", however, returned Ray to the Top-10 and this novelty also became a million seller; Ray, the previous year, hit the Top-30 on the pop chart with "Mr. Businessman" and it's since been referenced as his first 'serious' hit song; "Gitarzan" and the album of the same name returned Ray to comedy.

1969

After several years of releasing serious ballads and on the heels of the social commentary hit, "Mr. Businessman", Ray returned to comedy with the single, "Gitarzan"; Ray wrote the song with a title given to him by Bill Justis; The novelty single eventually became a million seller and international hit; Monument issued this comedy album not only does it feature "Gitarzan" it also includes the follow-up single, "Along Came Jones"; Ray hit the Top-10 with "Gitarzan" and the Top-20 with "Along Came Jones"; The album contains mostly cover songs by Ray of previously recorded songs by The Coasters and and several other acts in pop music history; "Mr. Custer" was a novelty hit for Larry Verne while "Alley Oop" had been a hit for a group called The Hollywood Argyles; Ray re-recorded "Ahab the Arab" and "Harry the Hairy Ape" for this album; The one song that's all new is "Sir-Thanks-a-Lot", Ray's parody of chivalry, fairy tales, and Sir Lancelot.

1969

This was Ray's third album for Monument Records and it's a very under-rated release; Ray does his versions of contemporary songs with a few brand new songs added in; The new songs are "The Little Woman", the title track, "Have a Little Talk With Myself", and "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down"; The remaining tracks are his renditions of contemporary songs like "But You Know I Love You"; "Spinning Wheel", "Aquarius"; "Hair"; and several songs associated with The Beatles: "Help!" and "Hey Jude"; Monument issued Ray's version of "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" early in 1970 as the final single release from the album; Ray was the first artist to record "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" and he issued it as a single in 1969...it hit the Hot 100 and crossed over to the Country music chart making that his first appearance on the country chart; Ray had modest success with "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" but the following year it was recorded by Johnny Cash and it became a number one hit for him.

1970

This particular song is considered one of Ray's signature hits; "Everything is Beautiful" came along in 1970 and it struck a chord with audiences nearly all over the world; Although the fans of Ray Stevens knew how serious he could be with his recordings this particular single broke through and a general audience was suddenly aware of how serious he could be when he chose to; The single went to sell over three million copies and spent two weeks at number one on the pop chart; The song's creation was as a result of Ray wanting to write a song that could be used for an upcoming television show he was selected to host for Andy Williams the following summer; As the song was climbing the Hot 100 it was now being heard weekly on Ray's 1970 summer television show; The song won Ray a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance; a version by gospel singer, Jake Hess, won a Grammy for Best Sacred Performance.

1970

Barnaby Records issued this album due to the high demand of the single, "Everything is Beautiful"; The single would eventually reach the number one spot on the Hot 100 for two weeks and spend three weeks at number one on the Easy-Listening chart; Single sales in excess of three million worldwide and the single made the charts internationally; Ray won a Grammy for 'Best Male Pop Vocal Performance'; The album contains cover songs, mostly, since the reason behind the release was to fulfill requests for a long playing vinyl album; Ray covers a number of songs made popular by The Beatles and other pop acts of that time period; "Something", "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window", "Early in the Morning (a/k/a She Lets Her Hair Down)", and his version of John Denver's "Leaving On a Jet Plane" are all on here.

1970

In the summer months of 1970 Ray Stevens hosted a television show when regular host, Andy Williams, went on vacation; The official title of the summer show jokingly pointed out that a virtual unknown in the world of television was headlining the summer show for one of pop music's biggest recording stars; The 3 question marks in the show's title emphasized the joke; Ray had been appearing frequently on Andy's variety show since 1969 and he'd received the most viewer mail and so Andy chose Ray to take over the variety show over the summer; Ray's opening theme was "Everything is Beautiful" which had become a major hit single by the time the television series debuted; The exposure of the song each week on national television increased it's sales and eventually Ray found himself with another million selling single...with a serious song; Some of Ray's cast included pop singer Lulu, up and coming comedian Steve Martin, Dick Curtis, and Mama Cass; The show had a lively feel to it...there was also a lot of sight-gags, blackouts, and general mayhem; Ray could play the serious straight man or he could play the comic; Ray performed several songs exclusively for the show; "Hit Record" and "Catchy Little Tune" have never appeared on any of Ray's albums.

1970

This wonderful song from Ray Stevens came along at a turbulent time in America; "America, Communicate With Me" was something of a plea for the various factions and social upheaval to meet in the middle somewhere because rule from one extreme or the other will only bring about more division and civil disorder; The song hit the Top-20 on the adult-oriented Easy Listening chart and it almost made it into the Top-40 on the Hot 100 pop chart; Ray, decades later, considered it his first political song; When Ray made that observation he was in the midst of political entertainment during the 2010-2013 time frame; Ray wrote the song and it appears on his second album from 1970, 'Unreal'.

1970

Barnaby Records issued this album in the latter half of 1970 and it contains two hit singles; "America, Communicate With Me", the first single release, found a lot of success with the adult music consumers and as a result the single hit with the older Easy-Listening radio formats...landing in the national Top-20 in that radio format; The album's second single, "Sunset Strip", is a gorgeous release and a kind of salute to the West Coast sounds of The Beach Boys; The song also hit with adult audiences and reached the Top-20 in the Easy-Listening radio format; This radio format throughout it's history was called Middle-of-the-Road, Easy-Listening, and more commonly Adult-Contemporary; Ray wrote most of the songs on this album; This album also features "Dream Girl", "Can We Get To That?", "Talking", and "Night People" among others.

1970

"Bridget the Midget the Queen of the Blues" was released in December 1970 but the single's impact arrived early in 1971; The novelty song is a parody of the dance club culture at the time; The fact that the headliner is two feet tall is irrelevant given how much she can control the room along side her backing group, Strawberry and the Shortcakes; The single peaked midway through the Hot 100 but overseas it climbed into the Top-10 chart of several countries...in the United Kingdom it peaked in the runner-up position for several weeks.

1971

The second gospel single from Ray Stevens arrived with "All My Trials"; The single release clocks in at a little under 3 minutes while the album rendition is well over 4 minutes; Ray shows off his music arranging skills and his mastery of the production console with multiple over-dubs; The publicity surrounding the single pointed out how Ray over-dubbed his voice at least 26 times to create all of the harmony vocals you'll hear on the recording; The song hit the Top-10 of the Adult-Contemporary chart in the fall.

1971

This single came along as a follow-up to "A Mama and a Papa" and "All My Trials"; Ray's take on "Turn Your Radio On" included a bouncy sing-a-long with a country music overtone, like southern gospel; As a result it reached the Top-20 on the country music chart; Ray's music was still appearing on the Hot 100 and Adult-Contemporary but the country music aspect of his career was starting to take shape in the early part of the 1970s; In early 1972 Barnaby Records issued Ray's gospel album, also called 'Turn Your Radio On'.

1972

Ray's first gospel album boasts three major hits and an international hit single; There were three single releases before this album was even released in 1972; "A Mama and a Papa", "All My Trials", and "Turn Your Radio On" had all hit the singles charts in 1971; The first two singles hit the Top-10 of the Adult-Contemporary chart while the title track hit the Top-20 on the Country chart; The fourth single came in 1972 and it was the rock-inflected "Love Lifted Me" and it reached the charts in Bangkok for several weeks; The rendition of "All My Trials" on the album is over 4 minutes long...the single featured an edit which cut the length to just under 3 minutes.

1973

I've always loved this album cover...all of those stars lined around the collar and sleeves; The album was, at the time, promoted as a country music album and during that point in time much of the songs on here were arranged and produced like any other song heard on country radio stations in 1973; The title track, "Nashville", reached the Country Top-40; Some of the other songs on here are "Golden Age", "Nobody's Fool", "Love Me Longer", an instrumental called "Float", and a rousing rendition of "Never Ending Song of Love".

1973

This awesome Ray Stevens album features a bearded Ray on the album cover; The album itself was recorded at recording studio that Ray had just opened and he was experimenting with the sounds and there's a lot of quirky sounds accompanying some of the songs on here...including a loud cracking sound effect during the emotional "This Is Your Life"; Ray, as you see on the album cover, belts out a lot of songs on here; The type of songs found here are a mix of ballads and mid-tempo...the title track, "Losin' Streak", features all kinds of instrumentation and tempo changes; "Laid Back" is an instrumental; "Bye Bye Love" is arranged as a very slow love ballad and he changes the arrangement and tempo on "Just One of Life's Little Tragedies", a song he'd recorded as a bouncy sing-a-long in 1963.

1974

"The Streak" is the biggest hit in the career of Ray Stevens; The sales of the single reportedly topped five million internationally; The novelty song is all about the fad of running around in public with no clothes on; In addition to it's massive sales it hit number one here in America and several other countries; It flew up to number one on the U.S. pop chart in a little more than a month's time and stayed at number one for three weeks; The single should have been the Number One Single of the Year, in my opinion, but it lost out to another recording that had gotten numerous award recognition to go along with it's sales.

1974

The comedy album, 'Boogity Boogity', arrived in 1974 and as you can see from the album's cover the LP was released as a tie-in with Ray's million selling novelty single, "The Streak"; Elsewhere on this album we have future single, "The Moonlight Special"; Several other comedy songs on here are: "Heart Transplant" and "Smith and Jones"; "Bagpipes, That's My Bag" was placed on here; "Just So Proud To Be Here" is something of a love song and then we have the piano pounding "Don't Boogie Woogie".

1975

The 'Misty' album from Ray Stevens not only contains "Misty" but it also features his take on a wide variety of pop songs over the years; Ray later released "Indian Love Call" as a single followed by "Young Love"; The record company would also release a single on "Mockingbird Hill"; There were a couple of original songs on this album...one of those happened to be "Sunshine", a sing-a-long from the pen of Ray Stevens; Layng Martine, Jr. supplied the aching love ballad "Take Care of Business"; Some other highlights on this album are his versions of "Lady of Spain", "Cow-Cow Boogie", and "Oh, Lonesome Me".

1976

Ray Stevens signed to Warner Brothers Records in 1976 and his first studio album for the label, 'Just For the Record', emerged toward the end of the year; The image above is an extremely rare cassette copy of Ray's 1976 album; The album features a couple of single releases: "You Are So Beautiful" and "Honky Tonk Waltz"; Elsewhere on the album is Ray's rendition of "Can't Stop Dancin'", which he co-wrote, but would become a pop hit for the duo, The Captain and Tennille, in 1977; Ray's Warner Brothers recordings haven't been properly spotlighted and what's available for purchase on-line are select recordings from his studio albums; To date none of his studio albums for the label have been re-issued in Mp3 format.

1976

In December 1976 a chicken clucking rendition of "In the Mood" hit the market; Warner Brothers released the novelty single under the alias Henhouse Five Plus Too; The picture sleeve above is from an overseas release and they spelled Too as the number, Two, but on the actual recording it was intentionally spelled wrong; Henhouse Five Plus Too was, of course, Ray Stevens; "In the Mood" reached the Top-40 pop chart in America, Canada, and in the United Kingdom; The single's B-side, "Classical Cluck", was an instrumental Ray composed and it, too, is clucked like a chicken.

1977

Ray recorded a whole lot of fun and unique songs during his years at Warner Brothers (1976-1979); This album features 10 songs...all but one was written by Ray Stevens; The title track, "Feel the Music", is inspiring/motivational and the production is lovely; Ray's production soars with the gospel-flavored "Save Me From Myself" and he gleefully sings about his "Dixie Hummingbird", a pet name for his love interest; "Junkie For You" is a bluesy, thumping song with a clever twist...a woman's love is like a drug and he's like a junkie for her; "Alone With You", based on it's title, you'd think would be a full-on love song but it isn't; Buddy Kalb supplies "Set The Children Free", a song that says it's okay to let your inner child loose and to not be so uptight in life; The album contains the marvelous "Road Widow", a song I wish Ray had put into his concert set-list or at least issued as an A-side single; "Dixie Hummingbird" was a minor hit single.

1978

Ray's 1978 album, "There is Something On Your Mind", is an extremely rare album; It's a covers album...Ray provides his renditions of classic rhythm and blues songs of the '50s and some early rock and roll songs, too; Ray gives his thoughts on all the songs he recorded and he provided a written essay, above the album photo, as to why he decided to make the album; The instrumentation is sparse and there's eight performances...but don't let that fool you, though; The performances are lengthy...several of them are medley's that run more than 4 minutes; So, by the time you finish listening to the album it'll feel like a standard 10-11 song album; Some internet sites credit this album as a 1977 release...but on the back of the album it shows 1977, 1978; It was released on Warner Brothers...no single releases were pulled from the album.

1978

The second Ray Stevens album of 1978 is the complete opposite of his previous album; This one features a majority of smooth, almost sedated, love songs; The title track became a Top-40 country hit; Ray wrote nearly the entire album; One of the songs, "L'amour", had previously been a French-language hit and Ray wrote English-language lyrics to it...the French writer, Gilbert Becaud, receives co-writer credit; Whispery, soft vocalization can be heard on "You're Magic" and then there's "With a Smile"; This album also features "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right", "The Feeling's Not Right Again"...the only song with a sort of mid-tempo delivery is the ballad, "Comeback".

1979

I have all of Ray's vinyl studio albums from 1963 until 1989 in my personal collection; This vinyl album, from 1979, is a compilation album that Warner Brothers issued; The only new recording happened to be "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow"; The novelty was originally released as a single-only but after it became a hit Warner Brothers decided to issue it on an album; The album's design is a visual parody of a 1975 Barry Manilow album with a similar title; The remaining songs on this 1979 album are from his 1976, 1977, and 1978 studio albums for the label.

1980

Ray Stevens kicked off this decade with "Shriner's Convention"; The novelty recording was his debut single for RCA Records following a three year stay at Warner Brothers (1976-1979); "Shriner's Convention" became a Top-10 country hit early in 1980 and it was followed by a comedy album of the same name which also made the Top-10 of the country album chart; Ray had been steadily recording love ballads throughout most of the 1970s and this would continue into the 1980s but this represents a brief return to comedy; Ray would release three more studio albums full of love ballads and serious material before joining MCA Records in 1984; After he joined MCA he decided to market himself exclusively as a comic/country comedian.

1981

If you know your country music history you'll know the early 1980s was nicknamed the Urban Cowboy era; The movie, Urban Cowboy, had a massive impact on all things country music for nearly half of the 1980s but it was at it's most dominant during 1980-1983; This wonderful album, chock full of love ballads, hit in 1981; A single release late in 1980, "Night Games", appeared as the album closer, a story about a couple who meet at a single's bar; The single became a Top-20 country hit in the latter half of 1980; The album's title track hit the country Top-40...it's a soaring love ballad featuring a blend of electric guitars and steel guitars as the most prominent instruments; Ray appeared on the television soap opera, "Texas", and sang the album's title track.

1982

The third studio album on RCA from Ray is this wonderful collection; Ray balances the album with up-tempo songs and ballads; The album's opening track, "Such a Night", has become a frequent concert opener for Ray; It's my belief that the rock and roll, neon type graphics on the album cover is in reference to "Such a Night"; The album's single releases were "Written Down In My Heart" and the amusing "Where The Sun Don't Shine"; Ray shares production credit with Bob Montgomery and there are three songs on here that were arranged by Ron Oates; Ray's name is also absent from the list of studio musicians; I think that may be a first for any Ray Stevens album; Ray was still the co-producer and he arranged seven of the ten songs and he poured his heart and soul into all the recordings.

1983

Ray Stevens gives us a grin during a performance on March 7, 1983 during the launch of cable television channel, The Nashville Network; Up until this channel made it's debut country music was showcased in weekend syndicated programs like "That Nashville Music", "Pop! Goes the Country", "Nashville On the Road", and of course, "Hee Haw"; The Nashville Network indirectly caused a lot of those long running weekend programs to end production, with the exception of "Hee Haw"; Ralph Emery hosted the nightly series, 'Nashville Now' during the first 10 years of the network's existence; TNN, as it was also known, ended country music programming by the early 2000's.

1984

This Platinum selling album became a landmark in the career of Ray Stevens; He had recently joined the MCA label after having spent the last several years on RCA (1980-1983) and Mercury (1983-1984); The release of this album kickstarted a phenomenal run of album sales and all kinds of high profile media publicity; The album also marked a turning point in his career...from that point forward he would dedicate the bulk of his career to recording comedy/novelty songs; Ray had been reluctant to market himself exclusively as a comedy or novelty act and if you search through his single and album discographies you'll notice that serious songs and ballads far out number his novelty and comedy contributions prior to 1984; However, Ray decided to market himself as a country comic and the rest is history; "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" and "It's Me Again, Margaret" made their debuts on this comedy album.

1985

When Ray Stevens signed with MCA Records in 1984 he did so as a country comedian; This meant that his studio albums would exclusively focus on comedy/novelty songs; Ray had long been known for his comedy and lighthearted approach to music and entertaining but his albums had mostly been filled with love ballads and non-comical songs; I've often remarked that Ray's serious recordings far outnumbered his novelty songs but it's been the novelty songs that broke through and became more widely known; So, in 1984, Ray decided to focus more on comedy; His 1984 album would peak inside the Top-10 of the Country Album chart and eventually be certified Gold (500,000 copies sold) and later, Platinum (1,000,000 copies sold); The 1985 follow-up, 'I Have Returned', hit in the latter half of 1985 and slowly climbed up the Country Album chart...peaking at number one in the spring of 1986; The album was also certified Gold (500,000 copies sold); This comedy album contains several more signature hits for Ray: "The Haircut Song", "The Pirate Song", "The Blue Cyclone", and a re-recording of "Santa Claus is Watching You" which became his first ever music video.

1985

This collection was part of a series of albums released by RCA on artists that were currently or formerly on the roster; In Ray's case he was formerly on RCA but each collection featured 8 recordings; The biggest single Ray had for RCA happened to be "Shriner's Convention" and then he had several more Top-40 singles during his years at RCA: "One More Last Chance" hit the charts in 1981 and then "Where The Sun Don't Shine" reached the charts; The other songs on this collection are album tracks from his three RCA studio albums; The ironic thing about this 8 song collection is the omission of two of his hits, 1980's Top-20 "Night Games" and 1982's Top-40 "Written Down In My Heart"; I've never found out the reason those two songs were left off in favor of album tracks that weren't released as A-side singles; RCA re-issued this collection a few years later with a slight change in song selection.

1986

The third comedy album Ray Stevens released on MCA Records, 'Surely You Joust', followed the success of his previous two comedy albums; Although this one didn't reach the Top-10 on the Billboard Country Album chart as the previous two did it managed to make it into the Top-20; The single releases from the album were "The People's Court" and a trio, "Southern Air", which featured Jerry Clower and Minnie Pearl as guest vocalists; The ballad "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?" was later issued as a single and it became the most performed song by Ray from this particular album...it's part of his concerts to this day; Some of the other comedy songs on here: "Smoky Mountain Rattlesnake Retreat", "Fat", "Dudley Dorite of the Highway Patrol", and "Bionie and the Robotics".

1986

Ray Stevens, in 1986, was nominated by Music City News as 'Comedian of the Year'; He made the cover of Music City News that year and performed on the annual awards ceremony; Ray won 'Comedian of the Year' for the first time, in 1986, and he would continue to win this award every year through 1994; The readers of Music City News and, eventually, viewers of The Nashville Network voted on the winners by either mailing in a ballot or calling a national 1-800 number; As mentioned, Ray won the Music City News 'Comedian of the Year' trophy for 9 consecutive years (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994); Ray had, for most of his career, strived to have recognition for his serious works and while a lot of his serious recordings were critically acclaimed and loved by his fan base it's always been the comedy/novelty songs that a general audience came to expect from Ray and so, by 1984, he decided to market himself as a country comedian and the image has remained ever since...in spite of the fact he's recorded a lot of non-comical songs in more recent years..

1987

This is a re-issue of a project RCA originally released in 1985; The only difference, beside the light blue color design, is the love ballad "One More Last Chance" isn't on here but the novelty "Put It In Your Ear" appears as the final track; When this collection was re-issued Ray was in the midst of a gigantic wave of album and single sales on MCA Records and had decided to focus entirely on comedy/novelty songs; The end results were two back to back Top-10 albums which eventually were certified Platinum and Gold and an album sold over television was also heavily popular; The removal of "One More Last Chance" and the addition of "Put It In Your Ear" was merely a reflection on how dramatically different Ray's music had shifted over the last couple of years...he went from being an artist that for the most part released non-comical songs with an occasional funny song here and there to a full-blown comedy act; The readers of Music City News magazine voted him Comedian of the Year in 1986 and 1987 and he'd go on to win that award through 1994 (nine consecutive years).

1987

Ray's fourth consecutive comedy album for MCA Records arrived in the form of "Crackin' Up"; The album contains 10 comedy songs with the highlight being track one, "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?"; I'm not saying that it's the only 'good' song on the album...I'm simply saying that's the song that generated much of the publicity for this comedy album; "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" was a satire on televangelists from the pen of Chet Atkins and Margaret Archer; The song was nominated for a Grammy in early 1988; Some of the other hilarious songs on the comedy album are "Sex Symbols", "The Day That Clancy Drowned", "Cool Down, Willard", and "Gourmet Restaurant"; The entire album, actually, is funny from beginning to end.

1988

In this comedy album Ray changes gears, a little, and offers a different kind of comedy than what dominated some of his previous releases; The sense of absurdity and silliness has made way for satire, parody, and social comment; "Surfin' U.S.S.R." was made into a music video (his second of his career) as a parody of the Beach Boys sound and social commentary surrounding the real-world relations between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union; Elsewhere on the album we find "Language, Nudity, Violence, and Sex", "The Booger Man", "Old Hippie Class Reunion", a country version of Michael Jackson's, "Bad", plus "The Day I Tried To Teach Charlene MacKenzie How To Drive"; That song as well as "The Booger Man" do offer a sense of the silliness but the other songs are more dark with their comedy like "Mama's In The Sky With Elvis" and "Blood and Suede".

1989

Ray's sixth studio album for MCA Records was his last for the company for a number of years; The album, as the title suggests, presents the serious and funny side of Ray Stevens in one album; The first five songs are ballads and the second five songs are comedy; The album leads off with the appropriately titled, "Your Bozo's Back Again"; There's a marvelous salute to John Wayne on here called "Marion Michael Morrison"; "There's a Star Spangled Banner" is a topical song about a prisoner in Beirut who longs for freedom; On the comical side of things we have the debut of "I Saw Elvis in a U.F.O.", a song that went on to become a very popular song in concert with a hovering U.F.O. and pink aliens running all over the place; "I Used To Be Crazy" was later turned into a music video and it became popular through YouTube.

1990

History repeated itself the last couple of decades; In 1970 and 1980 not only was it the start of a new decade but, for Ray Stevens, it was the debut on a different record label; In 1970 he debuted on Barnaby Records and in 1980 on RCA Records (although he signed late in 1979); In 1990 Ray Stevens made his debut on Curb Records; This decade marked a major shift in his career, too; The bulk of this decade would be taken up with music video releases and a three season run in Branson, Missouri at his own theater; This comedy album features "Sittin' Up With the Dead", "Help Me Make It Through the Night", "Barbeque", and several more comedy songs; There's an amusing love song on here called "Bwana and the Jungle Girl"...not necessarily a laugh out loud comedy song but not entirely a love ballad; The album title is based on the Shakespeare play, Julius Caesar.

1991

This is another one of the Ray Stevens comedy albums filled with silly, absurdist situations that had been lacking in some of the previous comedy albums he'd released; 9 of the 10 songs on here were written or co-written by Buddy Kalb; The only song on here that didn't involve Buddy's involvement is the final track, "Working for the Japanese", which come from the pen of Ron DeLacy; A number of songs on here have gone to become music videos: "Power Tools", "Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens", and "Juanita and the Kids"; Ray brought back "The Pirate Song" for this album...he had previously recorded it in 1985...and eventually the song would become a music video, too; "You Gotta Have a Hat" is a humorous song about the trend in country music at the time; "The Sheik of R and B" is a funky sing-a-long telling the story of a blues loving sheik who'd rather be a king of music instead of a ruler in Arabia somewhere; "Tabloid News" is on here which, as you could possibly tell from the title, is a song poking fun at tabloids.

1993

This VHS was the follow-up to 'Comedy Video Classics'; It nearly repeated the same phenomenal success as it's predecessor by selling millions of copies; The only difference being that the 1992 VHS would eventually receive "Video of the Year" honors from Billboard Magazine; This 1993 VHS was released to retail stores in 1994 and distributed by Curb Records; Curb handled retail distribution of the 1992 VHS when it was released to shopping stores in 1993; This 'Ray Stevens Live!' VHS would be followed, later in 1993, with a sequel, 'More Ray Stevens Live!', but that VHS was sold only through Ray's fan club and at the gift shop at Ray's former theater in Branson, Missouri.

1993

This is a studio album from Ray Stevens on Curb Records; The album's title, for decades, has caused many people on the internet to assume it's a compilation album of previously released recordings; The album's title has to do with artwork on the album cover; The bust is of Ray Stevens if you look close enough; The music sheet at the piano is called 'Concerto for Cornball'; This album includes some of the songs Ray incorporated into his stage shows in Branson, Missouri and in concerts throughout the 1990s; The lead-off track is "If Ten Percent is Good Enough for Jesus", is the song Ray promoted and performed a lot during the original publicity for the album; Some of the other songs on here are "Super Cop", "The Motel Song", his rendition of "The Bricklayer's Song", "Little League"; There's a ballad on here, "Meanwhile", from the pens of Devon O'Day, Gerry House, and Billy Dean; Ray wrote a cute song called "If You and Yo' Folks Like Me and My Folks"; At the time this was his final album for Curb Records; He would return to the label several times in the coming years/decades.

1995

This VHS is a 1 hour, 50 minute comedy movie; 110 minutes if we're going to convert hours to minutes; 'Get Serious!' was the next logical step for Ray Stevens during his VHS popularity; He had issued four VHS tapes prior to 1995: 'Amazing Rolling Revue', 'Comedy Video Classics', 'Ray Stevens Live!', and 'More Ray Stevens Live!'; Two of those VHS tapes were sold through television and magazine ads and each would eventually see release in retail stores; 'Get Serious!' was sold over the television airwaves, referred to as direct-marketing, and it was distributed to retail stores late in 1996 by MCA Records; The sales of the VHS enabled it to make a run on the Top Video Sales chart and receive Gold certification; Top Video Sales was also the chart that 'Comedy Video Classics' and 'Ray Stevens Live!' had charted on; This movie features Ray as himself but he also appears as various characters; The concept of the movie was something new...it would feature 10 full length music videos interwoven into the storyline...Ray referred to it as a Long-Form Story Driven Music Comedy Video; A new twist on the movie musical; There were cameo appearances by several country music artists; The overall plot of the movie dealt with a power hungry record executive out to destroy Ray's career in revenge after Ray refused to stop singing comedy songs and to "get serious" with his music; An underlying theme in the movie is a much needed attack on political correctness.

1997

This 10-song comedy album was issued on MCA Records; Ray, during the 1990's, had become very popular for comedy music videos and so, along with the release of this CD, he would turn two of the songs into music videos; "Virgil and the Moonshot" was issued first...a spoof of the Apollo-13 movie that Ron Howard directed; the second release, "Too Drunk To Fish", was made into a music video as well; When Ray promoted this album on an episode of the TNN series, Music City Tonight, he performed "My Neighbor" as well as a wild parody called "Mama Sang Bass" which features J.D. Sumner in the role of Mama; There's a fabulous mid-tempo Dixieland style song on here, "I'll Be in Atlanta", which name drops characters and terminology associated with the classic movie, 'Gone With the Wind'.

1998

Record label Varese Sarabande released this neat collection of Ray Stevens recordings and at the time of it's release it marked the first time a lot of these songs were available in CD format; Ray's studio albums have never been properly reissued, much, and during this point in time you'd jump for joy if a CD came along with songs on it that were only available, up to then, on vinyl; This collection gathers, at random, a few single releases to start things off but the majority of the collection are deep album tracks that weren't readily available at the time; The Mp3 digital download market wasn't all the rage, yet, and so you couldn't simply go to an online store and click purchase and have music on your computer in seconds; Ray's studio albums for Barnaby Records were released on CD format a decade later, well, all but one...the 1973 album, Losin' Streak, wasn't among the albums re-issued on CD; This CD comes with a fold-out cover with liner notes; Some of the tracks on here are "Easy Loving", "Losin' Streak", "She Belongs To Me", "Deep Purple", "Destroyed", "Take Care of Business", "Undivided Attention", and more; The photo is the same one used on his 1973 album, Nashville.

2000

This particular VHS was released in 2000 and featured 7 music videos...technically there's 8 music videos if you count the two part music video of "The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone"; That song had been requested to be turned into a music video for so many years that it finally arrived in 2000, which was 15 years after it had been recorded; Ray hadn't made too many music videos throughout his career that when he issued 'Comedy Video Classics' in 1992 it sort of set a trend for him...issuing music videos of older songs from his catalog of recordings; "The Haircut Song" and "Freddie Feelgood" appeared on this collection as did "Juanita and the Kids" and other music videos of more recent songs, "Virgil and the Moonshot" and "Too Drunk To Fish"; As you can see, the Blue Cyclone has Ray in a headlock in the photo.

2002

Following the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001 there was a massive wave of patriotism that swept over the country; Country music artists, more than any other format, recorded patriotic songs and held all kinds of military fundraisers and benefit concerts for the victim's families; There was also an increase in American flag purchases; The patriotic music out at the time ranged from traditional patriotic, pro-America songs to songs condemning the attacks and then there was a segment of the music industry where novelty songs began to pop up; Ray Stevens, being the master, released a pointed novelty single titled "Osama Yo' Mama"; He and Buddy Kalb wrote it and there was an accompanying music video as well; The single became a hit...landing on the Country Single Sales chart and ultimately receiving Gold certification; The album, released early in 2002, reached the Top-30 on the Country album chart; Curb Records handled the distribution of the album; He followed it up with a humorous music video and CD single, "Hello Mama".

2004

In the immediate years following the 9/11 terror attacks there was a wave of renewed interest in patriotic music and purchases of bibles and American flags; Ray released "Thank You" in 2004 in both an audio recording and music video; The timeless salute to the U.S. Military is a highly emotional recording, especially when he performs it on stage; Several of the other songs on this 'Thank You' album are "Let's Roll", "Come on Home to Baseball", "When I Get Over You", "Pledging My Love", and an updated version of "Be Your Own Best Friend".

2006

In 2003 Ray introduced limited animation, animated backgrounds into some of his music videos; In 2006 he released 10 limited animation music videos on DVD through Curb Records; The 10 music videos were split between two separate DVD releases; 'Gourmet Restaurant' features 5 animated videos: "This Ain't Exactly What I Had In Mind", "Barbeque", "Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills", "Gourmet Restaurant", and "The Ballad of Cactus Pete and Lefty"; The two DVD releases were part of the 'Animated Video Series'; The other DVD release of 5 animated music videos was titled 'Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens'; The two DVD collections were both issued in 2006.

2007

In the following years of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 there was a national outreach and charity drives for the people impacted from the horrific hurricane; Ray performed on a charity concert called 'Branson Cares'...at the time he had returned to his theater in Branson, Missouri and so he was one of the many recording artists helping raise money for the hurricane and flood victims; Ray's efforts culminated in this 2007 salute to the music of New Orleans; Ray co-wrote the title track with Chuck Redden; The rest of the album are Ray's versions of classic songs about the region...some of the songs Ray recorded for this album are: "Louisiana", "New Orleans", "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans", and "Basin Street Blues"..

2008

This 12 song comedy album is split between brand new, never before heard songs and re-recordings of some of his older songs; The title track, "Hurricane", is patterned after "The Streak" in that there's a hurricane going on and throughout the song Ray plays the part of news host (Wolf Spitzer) and several reporters; In each report the same by-stander offers his comments on all the chaos happening during the storm with a recurring joke about pigs flying through the air; Some of the other new songs on this were: "Down Home Beach", "Hey Bubba, Watch This", "Bubba the Wine Connoisseur", "Sucking Sound"; Some of the re-recordings included "Hugo the Human Cannonball", "Makin' the Best of a Bad Situation"; Ray recorded his version of "Rub It In" for this album...he had previously published a recording of it by Billy 'Crash' Craddock, from the pen of Layng Martine, Jr.

2009

Advertised as a truck driver's album this collection features both comedy and serious songs with most of them carrying a traveling theme; Ray updates several of his older songs such as "Jack Daniels, You Lied To Me Again" (originally recorded in 1990); "Oh, Lonesome Me" (originally recorded in 1975); but there's several brand new songs: "Cooter Brown", "Right-Reverend Roadhog McGraw", his rendition of "Concrete Sailor", and the eerie story-song, "Hangin' Around"; Ray does his version of "Convoy" on this album.

2010

Following the online video success of "We The People" Ray decided to put together an entire politically-themed comedy CD; The results shown up in 2010, 'We The People'; The first release was in a long DVD sized plastic case and it included a bonus disc with four music videos; The project itself contains 20 songs including 2 considered 'Bonus songs', for an overall total of 22 songs; The version of "Mr. Businessman", track 21, is a live performance of the song; The last song, "Midnight in Baghdad", is from the pen of Chuck Redden; There are so many funny songs on here...most of them made into YouTube music videos over the years; There is one, "We Are the Government", that rings even more true today (in 2021); "Fly Over Country", "Dear Andy Griffith", and "Safe at Home" are songs with lyrics that yearn for simpler times.

2011

If you were following the career of Ray Stevens for more than 10 years in 2011 then you'll probably recall the surprise that come over you in 2009 when he released a song/music video called "We The People"; Personally I was thrilled to hear my all-time favorite entertainer calling out such things as duplicity in Congress and Federal Government over-reach; Ray's video of "We The People" reached 1,000,000 unique views in a matter of weeks...nearly 3,000,000 in a month's time; This, of course, sent Ray's career into an entirely different direction; Throughout 2010 and 2011 Ray found himself appearing in political events associated with local Tea Party groups and he performed at C-PAC; A political comedy album surfaced in 2010 and 2011 followed by this DVD. "Internet Video Hits" gathers politically oriented music videos that Ray released on YouTube between 2009 and 2011; As you see on the DVD cover these music videos collectively garnered more than 13,000,000 unique views at the time of the DVD's release in 2011.

2014

2015

This album, when released, was promoted as Ray's first all new comedy album in more than 6 years; Specifically it was a return to silly, absurdist, and sometimes exaggerated comedy after several years performing social commentary and political comedy (2009-2012); Although this was released in 2015 it included several songs that were previously released...2010's "Come to the U.S.A." is on here because it fits with the art work which shows Ray in front of a Limo at an airport and the chauffeur is a gorilla; A song that was previously only available as a music video makes it's CD debut here: "You Didn't Build That"; The album's opening track was the main single release, "Taylor Swift is Stalking Me", which was released as a video single on YouTube; Elsewhere on the album is a salute to the late southern comedian, Jerry Clower, called "Knock Him Out, John"; "There Must Be a Pill For This", "Pickin' on the Chicken", and "A Handshake Will Do" are some of the songs on here; Ray does a wonderful rendition of the old rhythm and blues hit, "Hearts Made of Stone"; The above photo is the CD artwork...the Mp3 digital download used a slightly different publicity photo with the title written above Ray while the gorilla is holding a brown cardboard sign with 'Ray Stevens' written on it.

2015

In November 2015 Ray Stevens debuted a weekly television series called "Ray Stevens' Nashville" on RFD-TV; The half hour show featured Ray and a different special guest; Ray would open and close the show with a song while the middle part of the show featured performances from the special guest and an interview segment; In the earlier episodes there were additional segments spotlighting some of Ray's previous music videos as well as a segment with Don Cusic, dressed in a graduation gown, acting as a professor of music; In 2017 the series left RFD-TV and was retitled "Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville" and it moved to local PBS syndication; Altogether there have been 78 half hour episodes produced; The series is syndicated on local PBS television stations to this day; Ray's red piano takes the place of a desk and he conducts his interviews at the piano while the guest star is seated on a stool nearby; The first two seasons of the show (26 episodes) have been released on DVD.

2019

On March 18, 2019 it was announced by Nashville radio personality Bill Cody that Ray Stevens was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame; The Class of 2019 inductee's also include Jerry Bradley as well as Brooks and Dunn; Ray's election to the CMHOF, as far as I'm concerned, was long overdue but finally it has happened; Ray Stevens has a unique career in that he's a singer-songwriter but he's also a musician, a producer, an arranger, a music publisher, and music video mogul; I, in my own way, have long championed the election of Ray Stevens into the Country Music Hall of Fame and to say I was thrilled when the announcement arrived on March 18th is an understatment...I was ecstatic, thrilled, shocked, and anyother kind of positive emotion you can think of; Ray's formal induction will take place in a couple of months at the Medallion Ceremony.

2021

Ray Stevens will release 4 albums this year...each album will feature 12 songs; The albums will be released as digital downloads beginning February 26th; There will be 1 digital download album per month (February, March, April, and May); The first release is titled "Great Country Ballads" and it's going to feature Ray's versions of country music classics such as "City Lights", "Please Help Me I'm Falling", "Your Cheatin' Heart", "Room Full of Roses", and more; These projects will be released on Curb Records.

2021

The long-awaited 'Melancholy Fescue' saw it's release March 26th; The album's been in the planning and production stages for a number of years and finally it's gotten a release; Ray issued a promo audio of "Goin' Out of My Head" a day before this digital album was released; Ray applies Bluegrass sounds to a 12 song collection of pop hits that span decades; The album is largely up-tempo given it's a Bluegrass album and see if you don't find yourself grinning while listening to a lot of these happy sing-a-long productions; Some of the highlights are his versions of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", "Goin' Out of My Head", "Oh, Pretty Woman", "MacArthur Park", and "Unchained Melody"; This is the second of four digital albums Ray is scheduled to release this year; In the summer there will be a box set released containing all four albums in CD format; This release, as well as the previous, and the next two are only going to be available as digital downloads; CD copies will become available in the summer.

2021

This is such a great album...as I knew it would be; I'm listening to it a second time through as I type; The album features 12 pop music standards with updated music arrangements by Ray Stevens; Ray croons through some iconic songs such as "Stardust"; "Unforgettable"; "Only You"; and "Slow Dancing" just to name a few; This album was digitally released today (April 23rd) and as mentioned I'm typing as I have my second listen to the album; The album closer is a real treat, "What a Wonderful World".

2021

The fourth digital album release from Ray Stevens has become available for purchase (May 21st) and I just finished listening to it; It is a good collection of songs Ray selected to bring back with some of my favorites, so far, being his renditions of "Mountain of Love", "April in Paris", "You Don't Know Me", and pretty much the rest of the songs, too; This is the fourth in a series of four digital albums; This digital album and the previous three will be released next month in CD format and packaged in a box set; When the cover art for the box set is revealed I'll add it here to the pictorial time-line.

2021

On June 4th Ray Stevens, out of the blue, released a novelty single, "Gas"; I got a head's up on this release back on June 1st as it was mentioned in the newsletter sent to people on the mailing list at Ray's official website; "Gas", from the pen of Barry Smith, cleverly mixes Biden's desire to decrease fuel production with a pun-laced story of flatulence; It's a novelty song you'll have to hear for yourselves; The song will be on an upcoming comedy album from Ray to be released in October titled "Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore" on Curb Records.

2021

The fifth studio album from Ray Stevens of 2021 is this comedy album, "Ain't Nothin' Funny Anymore"; The album contains 14 songs with such eye catching titles like "The Gambler and The Octopus", "Soap Sally", "Disorder Down on the Border", "Dis-Connected", and more! The album is also the home of previously released songs like "Red Hot Chili Cook Off", "The Quarantine Song", and "Gas"; I am writing this caption on September 25th during the album's Pre-order time line; The album will be released on October 8th in CD format and as a digital download.