The Grammy Awards were aired tonight (representing 2022) and so I felt it was time to revisit the accolades and honors racked up by legendary Ray Stevens over the decades. As most of you know, if you've read some of my blog entries, I'm something of a perfectionist when it comes to lists and a pet peeve of mine is inaccuracy. In my blog introduction I mention that one of the main inspirations of mine for creating this blog page was my frustration with the lack of accurate information circling around on the internet about Ray Stevens. So, one of my goals is to have accuracy. There are several online sites that omit a large number of accolades and awards received by Ray throughout his career and in my blunt opinion it's laziness on the part of website operators to focus only on a select few organizations and then call the award list complete and accurate. The list that I provide always includes a disclaimer that the list is accurate to the best of my knowledge. There are many, many music publisher awards that Ray Stevens has been the recipient of...I've seen them hanging on his walls in photographs...but I've not seen every one of them to accurately state which recording received a publisher award from the BMI organization. I know, from research, some of the recordings but I've never seen a complete list. I wish one day to find out all of the Ray Stevens songs that BMI has recognized with a publisher certificate. In addition to the publisher accolades, he's also received a lot of nominations for various awards...and let's not forget the Gold and Platinum songs, albums, home videos, and multi-million social media videos. The latter of which has never been formally recognized with any award but for pure aesthetics I wish a series of plaques would emerge with the YouTube logo, a thumbnail image from the video, and a commemoration of a video's unique views. The threshold to receive such an award would be 100,000 unique views or more. If such an award existed Ray Stevens could line another wall at his CabaRay showroom with those awards. There wasn't such a thing as a Platinum sales certification prior to 1976. Anything that sold one million copies or more was certified as a Gold Record. When the Platinum award was created the sales thresholds were more defined. A Gold Record would indicate a song or album that sold between 500,000 copies and just under 1,000,000. The Platinum would be awarded to music selling 1,000,000 copies or more. Also, keep in mind, the RIAA certification year isn't when the sales reached their requirement. Record companies and, or, the artist themselves have to put in an audit request to formally begin the sales certification process. The RIAA doesn't automatically certify music sales. When you see Ray's 1985 comedy album receiving a Gold certification in 1989 that's merely the year the audit was conducted...not necessarily the year it achieved half a million in sales. It's long been my suspicion that several more of his comedy albums from the 1980's are Gold or Platinum in sales but there's not been any audit done.
The list will also include nominations in additions to wins.
*** I interrupt the awards and honors list to include the following: Ray Stevens has enjoyed a lengthy string of highly visible music videos throughout social media beginning around 2009/2010. There are currently 30 music video uploads by Ray Stevens that have been seen by at least 1,000,000 people (this number doesn't reflect the amount of repeat viewings). There is a video upload on Ray's channel of Bobby Goldsboro on an episode of Ray's CabaRay Nashville show singing "Honey" and that video's gotten more than 1,000,000 unique views, too, bringing the total on Ray's YouTube channel to 31 video uploads of 1,000,000 unique views or more. Overall, more than 168 million have accessed Ray's channel/watched his video uploads since 2009. Now, back to the awards and honors list. ***
2022: Cecil Scaife Visionary Award (co-recipient with Brenda Lee)
Throughout various points in time I have come across information stating that Ray is also a member of an Atlanta Music Hall of Fame (election year, 2001) and a Christian Music Hall of Fame (election year, 2012) but I can't find any verification online of either of those Halls of Fame but I remember reading about them online and I remember Ray Stevens mentioned as a member of each. In a goal to be accurate that's why I left out those two organizations in awards and honors list. I also didn't include any of the publisher awards he has received...because it would be an incomplete list if I only listed a few that I know about. The 2019 Midsouth Regional Emmy nomination I'm quite sure was for the PBS television special that aired during pledge breaks in 2018. If you sent in a donation to the local PBS channel airing the show you'd receive, as a gift, a DVD copy of the exclusive Ray Stevens Special. I have a copy of that special in my collection. I made a donation to a local PBS station airing CabaRay Nashville at the time. They've since removed the series from their line-up but I'm glad I made the donation because that special has never, ever become available anywhere. It's an obscurity. Well, I hope you enjoyed taking a look at the various awards and honors that have come Ray Stevens way over the decades and enjoyed my commentary/composition...and that you continue enjoying the music of Ray Stevens!
Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! This video I'm embedding in this blog entry is something that many of you have probably seen but it's officially been uploaded onto Ray's YouTube channel and so I'm going to officially feature it in this blog entry even though I may have featured it years ago when it first became available online. In 1982 the Music City News organization chose Ray Stevens and Tammy Wynette to host the year-in-review program, Top Hits of the Year. The star-studded television special promoted the hit songs and the music, in general, from 1982. Some of the recording artists appeared and sang their songs but some chose not to appear...and in those instances Ray or Tammy performed the song.
The two opened the show with a duet called "We've Got the Music Here Tonight". The song is officially titled that on Ray's social media pages even though, for more than 10 years, I thought the song was called "We've Got the Music In Music City". This 1983 television special, taped in 1982, aired in local syndication. The Nashville Network didn't go on air until March 1983 and the Top Hits of the Year special began airing in January. I mention that for those that may wonder if this premiered on The Nashville Network. The show may have aired later in the year after the cable channel was firmly established but then again it probably wouldn't have made much sense for a television special to air in the summer or fall of 1983 spotlighting songs from 1982...so it probably never aired on TNN.
I have the television special on DVD. I don't know if Ray wrote or co-wrote the song that he and Tammy sing. If I ever find out I'll make a note of it. Here's Ray Stevens and Tammy Wynette singing "We've Got the Music Here Tonight" and then there's some bonus footage of some of their banter. It looked like it caught Tammy off guard when Ray blew the whistle during the referee joke...she was visibly rattled...or it could have been a planned reaction.
Hello all...it's me once again!! Several months ago I had featured a duet between Ray Stevens and Sylvia, "Close Enough to Perfect", and I included some screen-caps and a link to where you could watch the video. The video had been uploaded previously and I shared it with all of you in a blog entry. Now I'm going to share it all with you once again because it's become part of the official Ray Stevens YouTube channel. The Music City News Top Hits of the Year happened to be a syndicated program that honored the songwriters who wrote the previous year's biggest songs. Ray used to host, co-host, or frequently perform on the various awards programs presented by Music City News. It's the Music City News organization that held a fan-voted awards event every year in Nashville and typically centered around Fan Fair week when a lot of the performers and the fans were in Nashville...fans sent in their choice of 'Best Male Artist', 'Best Female Artist', 'Favorite Duo', 'Favorite Group', etc. etc through the mail. In the early years it was done through the mail by subscribers of the magazine but later on the awards became a major event on television and soon the voting opened up to subscribers and non-subscribers through a national 1-800 number advertised on television.
Ray won 'Comedian of the Year' from the Music City News for 9 consecutive years. His first award arrived in 1986 and he continued winning in this category through 1994. The hold on this category by Ray Stevens came to an abrupt end in June 1995 when a well established stand-up comedian tickled the funny bones of those who voted in the annual awards program. The comic brought his nearly decade long schtick to the country music marketplace in the early '90s and the fans responded with their votes in 1995. Even though Ray didn't win 'Comedian of the Year' in 1995 from the Music City News he was voted 'Best Comedian' by a new publication, Country Weekly. This magazine created a fan-voted Golden Pick Award and Ray was named 'Best Comedian' by the Country Weekly organization in 1995...but let's back up to 1983! Ray Stevens and Sylvia performed "Close Enough to Perfect" on the telecast...a song written by Carl Chambers which had become a massive hit for the band, Alabama. The historic version of Music City News magazine went out of print in 2000. It was co-founded by country singer Faron Young in 1963 who sold his interests in the publication in the 1970s. The awards began in 1967 but a televised awards show never began until 1978. Country Weekly magazine was in publication from 1994 until 2016.
Hello one and all...welcome to the last day of February...and I'm sure all the Ray Stevens fans are glad to see March right around the corner. The month of March will be something of a busy month for Ray...for it's the month that Season Three of CabaRay concerts gets underway. The first concert of the season is March 12th...so we still have a couple of weeks left before the showroom re-opens. The bulk of activity will be the CabaRay concerts, of course, but let's not forget that later in the month Ray will appear in Cookeville, Tennessee at the Leslie Town Centre at the annual WCTE dinner. The event will be held on March 24th. WCTE is the PBS affiliate handling national distribution of Ray's locally syndicated television series, CabaRay Nashville. I don't know how many local PBS stations air his television series but I know it airs here, regionally, on KET2 each Saturday night at 8pm.
There have been a couple of YouTube video clips uploaded featuring vintage Ray Stevens performances from the early 1980s. The two video's are uploaded by Ron Newcomer. One of the video clips, uploaded on February 26th, is from a Music City News program taped early in 1983 called Music City News Top Hits of the Year...co-hosting with Ray Stevens is Tammy Wynette. The two perform a duet, "We've Got the Music in Music City". This television special, specific performances I should clarify, had been released on DVD quite a number of years ago and I own a copy of it...but Ron's upload omits Ray's solo performance of "Country Boy, Country Club Girl" from that special. Ray's performance is on the DVD copy that I have. I don't know if Ron deliberately edited it out prior to his uploading the footage onto the internet or if he didn't tape that performance when he was recording the show in 1983. I left a question over on the video's YouTube page asking about Ray's performance not being part of the footage. Whatever the case you can watch performances from that 1983 television special when you click HERE. The upload also features the tribute to Marty Robbins and you'll see footage of Marty and see Ray and Tammy serve as hosts of the tribute segment. However, the DVD that I have, doesn't include the Marty Robbins tribute segment.
Ray Stevens and Sylvia
On February 27th performances from 1984's edition of Top Hits of the Year were uploaded onto YouTube. In this edition Ray and Sylvia perform "Close Enough to Perfect", a hit for Alabama a year earlier. Ray performs "My Dad"...a rarity...but the performance features some lyrical and musical omissions that I believe must have been dictated due to time constraints. The Top Hits of the Year series from Music City News focused on the hit songs of the previous year. The show was locally syndicated and typically aired within the first couple of months of the new year. Ray had recorded his Me album for Mercury Records in 1983 but publicity/promotion was practically non-existent until the first half of 1984. "My Dad" is from that 1983 album...issued as a single in 1984...and performed by Ray on the 1984 telecast.
In the photo to the left Ray Stevens is singing his heart out on his Mercury Records single from mid 1984, "My Dad". You can watch Ray and Sylvia perform "Close Enough to Perfect" and watch him perform "My Dad" when you click this LINK. The screen cap is from his performance of "My Dad". I could have captured more but I chose that image...it demonstrates the emotion and feeling he packed into the performance...and made it look effortless. It's long been said that a trait of the truly gifted and talented is the art of making hard work look effortless. Ray continues to make it look effortless...and on March 12th his CabaRay showroom opens it's third season of concert performances. You can find out all the information when you click HERE. The website, TripAdvisor, awarded the CabaRay a Certificate of Excellence in 2019 based upon the positive feedback from travelers. As of this writing there have been 158 reviews of the venue. This number is broken up into various categories: Excellent, Very Good, Average, Poor, and Terrible. The response, so far, has Excellent leading the pack with 136 while 15 rate it Very Good. This leaves 7 more traveler ratings. 3 people rated their experience Average, 1 person rated it Poor, and 3 people gave their experience a Terrible rating. I don't have the time to go through the pages and pages of reviews to find the negative commentary...I wish I could...maybe later I'll sift through all the pages and see exactly why someone would come away with a negative experience; but with 158 reviews total on TripAdvisor and 151 of them either being Excellent or Very Good I don't necessarily think the negative experience of 7 people needs dissecting...that feedback opinion is definitely in the minority.
As we make our way down the road to the Country Music Hall of Fame in the career of Ray Stevens we've arrived in the summer/fall period of 1986. In Part Thirteen I mentioned how the Music City News organization often asked Ray to appear on their annual awards programs. His involvement goes back to the late 1970's. In fact he was one of the co-hosts of the 1980 awards and in the years that followed he often appeared on television specials centering around Music City News. One of their annual programs was a presentation of The Music City News Top Hits of the Year. In this special program the hosts and the recording artists would highlight the biggest hit songs of the year. It wasn't an awards program but it nevertheless singled out specific songs to highlight. This kind of show went hand-in-hand with the Music City News Songwriters Awards. This secondary awards program featured a couple of hosts that presented awards to the songwriters. Now, of course, to create some sort of a viewership incentive there were performances by recording artists, too, so it wasn't exclusively a night for the writers to perform the songs they wrote. A lot of the recording artists were songwriters themselves and so it was always an opportunity for the artists to perform whatever nominated song they'd written or co-written. I'd decided to start off Part Fourteen with a brief re-cap of Ray's involvement with the various televised events from Music City News because I didn't make mention of them in the previous chapters of this mini-blog series. In the aftermath of the 1986 edition of the awards where Ray was named Comedian of the Year coupled with the publicity that went along with it he lent his talents in further television appearances on the syndicated Hee Haw series. Ray had made sporadic appearances on this series in the past...a couple of appearances in 1972 followed by appearances in 1975, 1980, 1982, and 1985. The appearances continued steadily, too. In some of his appearances he was billed as a special guest co-host (following the departure of previous co-host, Buck Owens). "The People's Court" became Ray's first single release of 1986...and it arrived in August....entering the Country singles chart in September. The novelty release is a parody/spoof of the television series of the same name and it is very funny and uses Ray's mimicry of southern accents when he vocally portrays a feuding couple, Arlow and Myrna-Louise, who decide to file for divorce but are eager to sacrifice their personal dignity by appearing on a television show to air their domestic problems for an entire country to see. In keeping with the overall theme of the Deep South represented in this particular comedy album Arlow runs a 24 hour convenient store that he proudly advertises during his phone call to Judge Wapner...not only that but Arlow feels it necessary to list most of the items his store offers (beer, ice, bread, video tape rentals, etc.). The novelty is meant to be a parody...a satirical look at the phenomena of the courtroom television niche...but it's endearing at the same time because it's not far off from the kind of complaints from plaintiff's and defendant's heard on any number of episodes of the original run of the series.
Ray's third album for MCA arrived right around the time "The People's Court" was on the charts. Surely You Joust continues the cover art theme of depicting historical figures. This time around Ray is suited in Armor depicting any member seated at the Knights of the Round Table...King Arthur or Sir Lancelot come to mind. Ray's logo, Clyde the Camel, appears prominently on the shield. The album's title is based on the expression 'surely you jest'. This album, as the previous two, is heavy on comedy and it came oh so close to entering the Top-10 on the Country Album chart. Ray's follow-up single arrived near the end of the year in the form of "Southern Air". This novelty single featured two of Ray's comical peers and friends as special guests: Jerry Clower played the role of the pilot referred to as The Captain while Minnie Pearl played the role of the flirtatious stewardess. The song blended a lot of characters and catchphrases from Jerry Clower comedy stories along with the fictional image of Minnie Pearl as a hopeless romantic/spinster...with Ray playing the role of a nervous passenger observing everything taking place. The rickety airplane, as described in the song, came complete with a screen door and the plane flew so close to the ground that en route from Hahira, Georgia to Yazoo City, Mississippi you could literally see the Boll Weevil monument in Enterprise, Alabama. This single was also a hit on the Country singles chart and there's something interesting about the catalog numbers for these two 1986 hits. "The People's Court", released in the fall of 1986, has a catalog number of MCA-52924 while it's follow-up in the winter of 1986, "Southern Air", has a catalog number of MCA-52906. It's my guess that MCA was going to release "Southern Air" as a single first but then held off and released "The People's Court". Ray, Jerry, and Minnie performed "Southern Air" on an episode of Nashville Now...to date I have never seen this episode but based on a TV Guide listing I came across the program description from an episode of that series states that the three appeared and performed the song. Considering the massive amount of talent contained on that particular recording it looks like it would've been preserved on video, too, but so far nothing has emerged from the archives. The B-side of "The People's Court" is a comical tale of an over-zealous highway patrolman...specifically "Dudley Dorite of the Highway Patrol". The song doubles as a tribute to Ray's career...it's from the pen of Buddy Kalb. As if it's an episode from The Twilight Zone Ray finds himself getting pulled over for speeding (going 57 in a 55 zone) and throughout the course of the song Dudley reveals to Ray that the small town he's speeding through consists of actual people named Clyde, Harv Newland, Sister Bertha, Ethel, Coy...and Dudley himself is revealed to be a man named Bubba. The B-side of "Southern Air" is "The Camping Trip". Ray taped material for Hee Haw during the fall production period of the series. In the meantime, a third single release arrived in December 1986...a funny love song titled "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?". This single didn't appear on the Country charts, though, but it's B-side happened to also be "Dudley Dorite of the Highway Patrol".
The footage that Ray taped for Hee Haw in the fall of 1986 turned up in March 1987. In two episodes that aired during the month of March he was seen as a special guest co-host. A month earlier MCA released a compilation on Ray titled Greatest Hits. This collection shows Ray and an unidentified woman on the album cover as Bonnie and Clyde. It became a top selling album throughout 1987 and would eventually be certified Platinum a couple of years later. Ray and MCA then put together something of an ambitious project. The concept of direct marketing wasn't new but there weren't too many active recording artists willing to sell their music over television airwaves by way of commercials. A stigma existed and probably still exists that only those unable to sell in retail stores or get their songs on radio turned to the television airwaves to promote their songs...as if it's there's something of professional pride at play if you sell in retail stores instead of through direct mail. Stigma or not the bottom line is getting your music to the people and whether it's through radio or television is irrelevant. Anyway...a marketing plan was dreamed up and a television commercial was taped...advertising the 20 song collection titled Get The Best of Ray Stevens. I don't know the sales statistics of this album but I do know that it was an obvious hit because the commercials for it aired for a number of years on cable television as well as in print advertisements for the remainder of the decade. I'd say that it sold nearly half a million copies...at least...and for a direct mail release the sales thresholds are a bit lower than retail requirements. Direct mail requires 50,000 for Gold and 100,000 for Platinum certification. Retail requires 500,000 for Gold and 1,000,000 for Platinum certification.
When you watch the commercial you'll hear the voice-over announcer identify "Can He Love You Half as Much as I?" as Ray's latest hit. The song never achieved a chart placement during it's original release in late 1986/early 1987 but Ray performed the song on several television shows and it became part of his concert set-list for decades...eventually becoming a music video...but it was never a chart single. As seen in the commercial the cover art for the compilation double album shows Ray with a black eye, holding a rigged dynamite stuffed microphone, wearing a Kick Me sign, as two boisterous clowns are definitely in a playful mood. One is squirting water from his oversized flower and ready to throw a pie in Ray's face and the other is attempting to trip Ray in the back of the knees in the hopes of Ray landing on a whoopee cushion while displaying a prop gun with a Bang sign emerging from it. Also of note is the classic bucket of water located at the top of Ray's fictional dressing room door. In short it's one of the more wilder album photo's from Ray...
In the meantime Ray next turned his focus onto his fourth album for MCA...the first single from this forthcoming album arrived in the form of "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?". This satirical, social commentary on the televangelist scandals from the pens of Chet Atkins and Margaret Archer struck a nerve with people inside and outside the religious community and those in both the country and pop music worlds...becoming a high profile single during the summer of 1987 which took on a life of it's own. It was such a biting song and crossed over into the national mainstream that it even made it's way to the attention of the people behind The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson and legendary commentator Paul Harvey made mention of the song on his radio broadcasts and print columns. The single should have peaked higher than it did...falling one notch short of a Top-40 Country appearance...but given the chart's reliance on not only sales but airplay, too, it wasn't surprising that one of the most talked-about country music releases of the year wasn't ranking high on many radio programmer's playlists and I say it's due to the satirical and comical overtones heard throughout. MCA issued Ray's fourth album for the label, Crackin' Up, during the flurry of media activity surrounding "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?". The cover art for this album was less historical...it shows Ray dressed up as Humpty Dumpty in the process of falling from the wall.
While the previous 1986 album was decidedly rooted in comical songs conveying a deep South overtone this Crackin' Up album was more broad and featured a mix of comedy styles similar to what was found on his 1984 and 1985 albums. The album hit the Top-30 on the Country Album chart during the summer of 1987 at which time Ray won his second Comedian of the Year trophy from Music City News. Curious as to the B-side of "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?"...it was a novelty song centered around Willard Scott...a comical look at the popularity of the weatherman from The Today Show and his grip on the ladies. In the song Willard's popularity is greatly exaggerated as he's depicted as a heartthrob and has become the talk of the neighborhood and the desire of women in all age groups. Appropriately titled "Cool Down Willard" it's hilarious to put it bluntly. The next single release from Ray emerged in the fall of 1987...the wacky tale of the "Three Legged Man". The single's absurdist humor stood in sharp contrast to the satirical bite of "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" but nevertheless it represented one of the styles of comedy heard on Crackin' Up. The B-side of the non-charting "Three Legged Man" happened to be a return to satirical humor, "Doctor, Doctor Have Mercy on Me".
MCA released Greatest Hits, Volume Two on Ray later in 1987...the cover art for this compilation was rather simple...it shows Ray dressed as a baseball player swinging the bat. The looks of the ball boy and umpire (producer/songwriter Norro Wilson) as well as the catcher it appears Ray hit a home run. This collection gathers eight songs from Get The Best of Ray Stevens while adding two songs not found on that direct mail album. The Volume Two exclusives are "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" from the summer of 1987 and a brand new song, "Mama's in the Sky With Elvis". This Volume Two would receive a Gold sales certification as well. In October of 1987 Ray did a week long guest appearance on the television game show, Hollywood Squares, hosted by John Davidson. Ray's week long appearance in 1987 aired from October 5th through October 9th. Ray closed out the year with a new single release...a duet between himself and a singer named Julio. The song, "Sex Symbols", was an obvious parody of the unlikely duet successes of Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias. In Ray's single he deliberately pronounces the letter, J, in the duet partner's name...referring to him as Julie-O. The duo sing about their sex appeal and their luck with the ladies. Ray does a broad vocal impression of the Latin singer, Julio, for this recording. The duo name off their idea of "Sex Symbols", too. Julio, or should it appear, Julie-O, makes mention of legitimate candidates like Fernando Lamas, Valentino, etc. whereas Ray comically counters with Grandpa Jones, George "Goober" Lindsey, etc. In concert Ray performed this song with the aid of multi-tracking during the chorus as he couldn't possibly sing in two voices at the same time. He used a Ventriloquist dummy to portray Julio. I seen him perform this song for the first time on an episode of Hee Haw...and among the cast of that show was George "Goober" Lindsey...one of the people Ray makes mention of in "Sex Symbols". Unfortunately the single didn't reach the charts for Ray in spite of it's excellent production and craftsmanship. The single's B-side was "The Ballad of Cactus Pete and Lefty".
News surfaced that "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?" had been nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Comedy Recording at the upcoming 30th Annual Grammy Awards. The ceremony took place on March 2, 1988. This was Ray's 11th and, to date, final Grammy nomination. He won twice in eleven nominations. He won in 1971 and 1976. His 10th nomination was in 1980 in the Best Comedy Recording category with "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow". The Grammy Awards reflect the prior year's music which is why his wins in 1971 and 1976 are for recordings released the previous year: "Everything is Beautiful" (1970) and "Misty" (1975). When we reach Part Fifteen I'll discuss 1988, 1989, and the excitement that a new decade seems to bring as we step into the 1990s in the career of Ray Stevens.
Unfortunately my scanner couldn't get the entire image scanned...the magazine title, Cashbox, disappears at the letter, X. This is a chart publication, a competitor of Billboard, and this is the June 15, 1974 issue. The picture of Ray is the same one used on the commercial single of "The Moonlight Special". However, that particular single hadn't been issued when this magazine was released. In spite of the cover shot there's only a short column about Ray and it deals with "The Streak" which was sitting in the Pop Top-5, having already reached it's peak position. The column ends with a reference to Ray's follow-up, the aforementioned "The Moonlight Special". I had purchased this on eBay several years ago and was hoping for a much more in-depth write-up and so I was slightly disappointed that the write-up was basically the size of a newspaper column. I got lucky, though, because not long after this purchase I came across the July 4, 1970 issue of TV Guide...this is the issue which features a write-up about Ray.
This write-up came about thanks in large part to Ray being the host of Andy Williams' television show during the summer months. The name of the article is "Who Is Ray Stevens?". The article ties in with the inside joke about Ray's low-key demeanor and how in spite of having several million selling hits that the public at large still had no idea who Ray Stevens was. The cast of The Courtship of Eddie's Father was on the cover that week...the mailing label of who previously owned the issue is still on the magazine and so I blotted out the address and the name. I purchased this TV Guide, as I mentioned, on eBay. Ray's show aired Saturday night on NBC at 7:30. Looking at the program content it shows that Ray performed "Freddie Feelgood", "Games People Play", and a couple of songs I'd never heard of: "I Got a Woman" and "Hi-Heel Sneakers". The cast sing "Reach Out in the Darkness".
Country Song Roundup with Ray on the cover. The issue was released in 1977 and it ties in with his single at the time: "Get Crazy With Me". In the interview the author writes about Ray's past and present. This was during the era of his career where he concentrated on having success with non-comical recordings and in interviews he'd often downplay the comedic aspect of his career in favor of the serious, thought-provoking artist he wanted to be known as. Ironically, though, 1977 kicked off with his chicken clucking version of "In the Mood" which had been released late in 1976. If one examines Ray's career you'll realize just how many non-comical songs he recorded...during the entire decade of the '70s, for example, he released just one album devoted to all-comedy: 1974's Boogity-Boogity. This means that all of his other studio album releases were of a serious nature. Late in 1970 and into 1971 he had some success with the novelty song, "Bridget the Midget", which originally was available as a single-only.
This is a souvenir booklet that was issued in 1977. Included are pictures of Ray from the early '70s as well as the mid '70s. It also includes a promo section for pop singer, Del Shannon. One of the pictures shows Ray seated on a carousel...while another shows him decked out in the white jump suit that he wore on the Misty album. I'd written about this booklet before...I've written about pretty much all of these magazines already but never in one all-encompassing blog. I actually don't have that many magazines with Ray Stevens coverage but I'm showing images of some of the magazines that I've got in my collection. I've got some Country Weekly issues with write-up's about Ray...but would you believe that he's never appeared on the cover of any Country Weekly issue?
In this April 1979 issue of Country Music Magazine the article about Ray is the third promoted item on the cover. Johnny Cash, of course, is the cover subject. Charlie Rich is spotlighted in an article by Bob Allen. Ray's write-up is written by John Pugh...on the magazine's cover it refers to Ray as The Mad Genius of Music Row. The write-up doesn't necessarily spotlight any current recordings or promote any albums but instead spotlights a career over-view and goes into detail about his recording studio talents and he gives his philosophy on recording songs and how emotionally attached he is to life in the recording studio. The author compares and contrasts Ray's over-joyous attitude toward Nashville and the music industry with the attitudes expressed by other artists who don't come away with the same enthusiasm toward Nashville. Some writers/critics through the years have said that Ray is like a kid in a candy shop when he's inside his recording studio. Ray, of course, produces and arranges his own songs and at one time wrote a majority of his own material. When you have an artist that approaches things as a producer would then it's very easy to see the contrasts between Ray and other artists in country music...or music in general. I think if singers double as their own producer or have some sort of impact on the creative and technical side of their careers, instead of just showing up at a studio and singing, it enables the singer to develop this same sort of affection toward making music as Ray has always demonstrated in his interviews through the decades.
In this 1980 issue of Country Song Roundup the big news was centered around Ray's hit single, "Shriner's Convention". The cover story, More Than Meets the Ear, deals with Ray's often over-shadowed talents due to the enormous popularity of his comical recordings. An entire music audience laughing at Ray's comical songs are typically unaware of just how serious of an artist Ray is...even fewer know of his behind-the-scenes talents as a musician, producer, arranger, and writer. This write-up, much like the write-up's in 1979 and 1977, tried gallantly to give exposure to the many styles of music that show up on a typical Ray Stevens album. The most telling aspect of the write-up came mid-way through the article where Ray let it be known that while he's having success with the comical song that he has no intentions of abandoning serious material. He certainly kept his word because the albums he issued in 1981, 1982, and 1983 were all non-comical.
In this particular October 1979 issue, as you can see, Dolly Parton is on the cover. There's a write-up about Ray in here called Help Me, Ray Stevens. This promo/write-up was based on Ray's single on Warner Brothers, "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow", which hit earlier in 1979 but was still being promoted as his current single when this issue was released. The write-up is lengthy, as far as write-up's go, and it offers a lot of quotes from Ray where he gives his opinions on the music industry and how anyone can be successful if they have the right promotion team. He remarks that a lot of songs become 'hits' simply by being promoted a lot and psychologically it causes a consumer to purchase the song through repetitious promotion. He also remarks that there are other kinds of 'hits' that don't sell an incredible amount immediately but strike a chord with consumers and eventually become big sellers over the course of time. Ray comes across neutral in his opinions over the different types of hit songs leaving it up to the reader to come to their own conclusions...in a sense the Ray Stevens belief system of 1979 when it comes to having hit songs is very much similar to modern-day 2010 Ray Stevens. There's also mention of his hectic TV show appearances which included taping episodes of Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, and The Tonight Show. The author of the write-up hints of an upcoming all-comedy album from Ray...referring, perhaps, to the Shriner's Convention album of 1980. If you remember, "Shriner's Convention" was released as a single very early in 1980 and there's always been the possibility that the song was already written and recorded well before the public at large heard it. Obviously there was a change in record labels, though, from Warner Brothers to RCA by the time the Shriner song was released. A performance on a 1979 episode of Pop! Goes the Country showcases "Shriner's Convention" but, ironically, Ray opened the show singing his 1976 hit, "You Are So Beautiful".
In this 1986 issue of Music City News we're a couple of years into Ray's exclusive country comedy approach. Ray, in late 1984, decided to shift gears and go all-comedy upon signing with MCA. His debut album for the label, He Thinks He's Ray Stevens, would eventually reach the Country Top-5 and sell over a million copies [Platinum] in the process. This was followed up late in 1985 with I Have Returned which hit #1 on the Country album chart and would eventually be certified Gold for sales of over 500,000. He was in between comedy albums when this 1986 issue of Music City News was released and the write-up went into detail about his career decisions and the choice of going all-comedy after years of attempting to gain mainstream acceptance as a serious, non-comical performer. In a lot of ways Ray did have his share of success with non-comedy songs but when you compare the overall sales and popularity of the non-comical verses the comical it clearly shows that the comedy has always reigned supreme. The story, There's Something Funny About Ray Stevens, examines that relationship between the non-comical and comical sides of Ray and how the most commercially successful won out. 1986 would be the first year that Ray won the Comedian of the Year award from the Music City News readers. He won this particular fan-voted award in 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994. Also on this cover are two of my other favorite singers: George Jones and Conway Twitty.
This January 1990 issue of Music City News was the magazine's annual New Year's issue. Inside a lot of artists gave their predictions for 1990 and a lot of New Year's resolutions were addressed. This issue also focused on the country comedy acts...with Ray leading the pack. In the write-up it examines the various performers in the country comedy field and each comic gives their opinions of what's funny and what style of humor best suits them and their audience. Ray, by far, was the most commercially successful of the acts and he was also the most legitimately skilled as a singer whereas the other comics spotlighted were traditional stand-up comedians who used country and southern culture as part of their act. By the time this issue was released Ray had been the recipient of the Comedian of the Year award four consecutive times: 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989. The Music City News awards were held each June.
Twenty years ago in 1990 Ray Stevens graced the cover of Music City News, a publication that once featured in-depth and fan-friendly write-up's and articles on practically all the acts in country music. The magazine was founded in the early 1960's by Faron Young who eventually sold his interests in the magazine. Ray was featured a lot of times in the magazine down through the years. He didn't appear on a lot of covers but he'd often receive write-up's of his albums or he'd be featured in an interview within it's pages. This is the magazine which became legendary in Nashville for it's fan-voted awards and if truth be known the Music City News Awards went a long way in cementing the loyal reputation country music fans have toward the singers they enjoy listening to. The awards show would become a much anticipated event every summer as one of the focal points of Fan Fair...which during it's biggest years would have millions of fans flocking to Nashville to meet their favorite singer's one on one and have them sign autographs, etc etc. Fan Fair is now called Music Fest and it's put together by the CMA. It's basically the same kind of event...taking place in June for a four day period...but the publicity and hype is now centered around a carefully selected roster of singers who conveniently all had recent Top-10 hit songs and albums on the charts prior to the festival's opening day. When The Nashville Network was still in operation they'd showcase Fan Fair and they'd not single out certain acts and ignore others. I remember a lot of times where artists that hadn't had any hit songs in years were shown signing autographs for their fans...this is because TNN gave exposure to a wide variety of country music acts...in other words they didn't focus exclusively on the hot new acts of the day.
The cover story, from an issue released in January 1990, focused on country comedy and it gave some insight and spotlight to a genre within country music that seldom gets under-appreciated and over-looked. Hee-Haw was still on the air in 1990 and by all accounts that was the only program still on the air to showcase country comedy in such a prominent and positive way. The comedians selected in the magazine all gave their opinions on what makes a funny joke or story and how timing is important in all forms of comedy...even subtle humor according to them requires a certain level of timing for the punchline to pay off. 1990 marked the fifth consecutive year that Ray won the Music City News Comedian of the Year award...his first win was in 1986...and he continued to win the award every year through 1994. His domination of the award was sadly relinquished in 1995 when Jeff Foxworthy came calling with the redneck routines and he won the award...followed later by Bill Engvall. Ray played a big role in the various Music City News television specials in that sometimes he acted as a host, sometimes an award presenter, and often he'd perform on the show in addition to winning Comedian of the Year (1986-1994). The magazine would also put together secondary awards shows devoted to songwriter's and the top country music hits of the year. Ray co-hosted several of those specials in the early to mid '80s.
Ray made the cover in April 1991 along side Jimmy Dean and Kathie Baillie. The three of them were the hosts of the Songwriters Awards that year. Baillie was a member of a sometimes duo, sometimes trio called Baillie and the Boys. Their peak year on the charts came in 1991 and so this was at a time when the act was quite popular among country music audiences. Ray would go on to appear on the 1992 edition of the Songwriter Awards and perform the George Strait #1 hit, "You Know Me Better Than That". Strait had a multi-week #1 with that song in 1991. I have several issues of Music City News in my possession and I keep them stored away with my vinyl albums. In the late '90s I would order back issues of the magazine for the specific purpose of nostalgia and to enjoy reading stories and write-up's about the country music artists I grew up listening to by way of my parents and grandparents. Prior to the publication taking the form of a magazine it had appeared originally in newspaper form.
