Ray Stevens: Early '90's "Santa Claus is Watching You" performance...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!!! I don't know if too many of you recall seeing Ray perform "Santa Claus is Watching You" on The Family Channel in the early 1990s or not. I remember watching it on TV the night it aired. It was a television special starring various recording artists synonymous with Branson, Missouri. Ray was very synonymous with Branson in that time period...he was one of the Top-10 attractions during his 3 season stay (1991, 1992, 1993). If you look closely he was probably among the Top-3. Ray performs "Santa Claus is Watching You" with the added assistance of Yakov Smirnoff and Janice Copeland. Ray's Branson concerts featured Janice Copeland as a comical co-star and as a featured vocalist. If you have Ray's VHS titled 'More Ray Stevens Live!' you'll see her as a serious vocalist but then you'll see her as a comical alter ego, Beulah. She was also in the 'Ray Stevens Live!' VHS, too. You're going to love seeing this early 1990's performance and if you remember that era in Ray's career it'll immediately send you into a time warp. Country Road TV uploaded this early 1990's television performance. 

Ray Stevens: YouTube Christmas Playlist...

Hello all Ray Stevens fans!! We're a few days from Christmas 2022 and for a lot of us we're going to be under a sub-arctic deep freeze for several days beginning early Friday morning. Wind chill readings will reach something like -30 and so it's not sure what's to come in the days ahead. Some people are getting blizzard/white-out conditions while others will get light snow (by comparison) aided by the sub-zero wind chills. Earlier this evening Ray Stevens shared his YouTube playlist of Christmas songs. The playlist contains 46 publicly available songs and Christmas-themed performances but there are 14 videos not available. My guess is those particular videos were once part of the playlist but weren't watched/shared as much and therefore become private/hidden. The playlist is a combination of music video productions and live performances from his CabaRay Nashville television series. There are various renditions of "Santa Claus is Watching You" in the playlist...including an audio of the 1962 recording, a live performance from the 1980's on Nashville Now, the 1985 music video, and a performance on CabaRay Nashville. Although Ray recorded an album of comical, funny Christmas songs he also recorded an album of traditional, serious Christmas songs plus an album of both funny and serious Christmas songs. The album titles are Ray Stevens Christmas Through a Different Window; Ray Stevens Christmas; and the third is titled Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me. To view the YouTube playlist click HERE.

This particular Christmas album features 10 recordings. The entire album is great but some of the songs I'm highlighting will be among your best of the best I'm sure. First off there's the title track, "Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me". Ray made this into a playful music video...complete with stuffed animals...and it's one of the few original Christmas songs to come out of Nashville in decades. Jeff Bates and a disc jockey by the name of John Ritter (not to be confused with the late actor) wrote the song. Ray performed it on his CabaRay Nashville television series, actually, before the song was released on CD. Ray follows this serious recording... yes, in spite of the amusing looking video, it's still a serious recording... Ray follows it with 6 consecutive Christmas songs that range from whimsical to hilarious: first off there's the back-to-back recordings of traditional Christmas songs - "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and "Frosty the Snowman". We then have "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" a recording which had previously appeared on Ray's 2012 9-CD box set, Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. We next have Ray and his marvelous cover of "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" which also comes from the 2012 9-CD box set. Track 6 is the original, "Claws (A Cat's Letter to Santa)". It's from the pen of Taylor Craven and Tommy Moore. Track 7 is Ray's outstanding rendition of "All I Want For Christmas is You"... the same song written and popularized by pop singer Mariah Carey. If you're wanting to hear a different rendition of the song... done completely serious but in the Ray Stevens type of style... look for the embed of the audio track at the end of this blog entry!

The final three songs on the 2016 CD are all originals, too. "Merry Christmas" is a statement on political correctness and how it's perfectly fine to publicly say "Merry Christmas" in addition to, or instead of, the generic Happy Holidays or Season's Greetings. The song had become a hit on Ray's YouTube channel prior to it being released on CD. "Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day" is a song from the 1960s that Brenda Lee had previously recorded. She released her recording of it in 1964. Ray's music arrangement compliments the lyrical sorrow. The album's closer is a song Ray had written in the early 1960s and Perry Como, of all people, ended up recording it... the spiritually themed "Christmas Bells in the Steeple". Now, then, are you all ready for Ray's fabulous rendition of "All I Want for Christmas is You"??? Here it is...

Ray Stevens sings "Santa Claus is Watching You"...

Hello once again!! Ten days until Christmas and earlier today Ray Stevens uploaded a performance he gave of "Santa Claus is Watching You" on an episode of Nashville Now. There wasn't a specific year given as to when this was recorded. In the beginning of the video, briefly, you'll see the Nashville Now desk and Ralph Emery and what appears to be his frequent puppet sidekick, Shotgun Red. The set is decorated for Christmas and Ralph's desk is from the late 1980's time period. I've seen this performance before...and it was described as a late 1980's performance at that time as well...but it could also come from Christmas time 1990. I wish I knew specific years of what the set looked like on Nashville Now. I only have vague time frames. The desk is gray as are the couches...and so I'd pinpoint this appearance as being December 1989 or December 1990. I know that it's not from the mid 1980s because Ralph's desk and the chairs during that time period were brown. Here's the performance uploaded today from Nashville Now in the late 1980s.

Ray has several video performances on his YouTube channel of "Santa Claus is Watching You" and he also has an audio track of the song. The song has an interesting history. It was written and recorded by Ray in 1962. Mercury Records released it as a single and it became one of the Christmas hits of 1962. That recording was largely aimed at children...and a lot of the lyrics catered to a younger audience. I'm sure parents of children in 1962 got a kick out of the novelty song and would play it so their kids could hear Ray's warning about Santa's watching so be nice to your parents and classmates. In 1985 Ray re-recorded the song. He kept the basic hook lines and imagery of the original (the list of reindeer expanded greatly in the 1985 recording) but he changed nearly all of the lyrics. The song went from being a cute warning for kids to be on their best behavior because Santa's watching to a hilarious song about a wife who better remain faithful and true to her husband because Santa's watching. 

Ray turned the song into his first ever music video in 1985. It became a Christmas music video standard on The Nashville Network...often making their Top-10 most played Christmas music video lists in the late 1980s and into the early 1990s. 

Another performance by Ray of "Santa Claus is Watching You" on YouTube is from 1989...on a Christmas special hosted by Ralph Emery. In the performance he's joined by hand puppet, JoJo. You may remember JoJo from Ray's television commercial for Get The Best of Ray Stevens. JoJo appears during the snippet of "Gitarzan". JoJo also appears on Ray's 1995 movie, Get Serious!, as a speed zone informant. Whenever in the movie Ray appeared in his yellow car JoJo often popped out from underneath the dashboard to tell him the speed zone. You'll notice when watching that Ray's performance includes the use of a click track...meaning that someone off stage in the sound department dubbed in Ray's falsetto phrase "He's everywhere! He's everywhere!!" during the live performance to make it look as if JoJo is 'speaking' but there are several camera angles that show Ray's mouth closed when JoJo 'speaks'. 

Ray has, for decades, put lots and lots of sound effects and unusual sounds on the many novelty songs he's recorded...and in order to come as close to possible of matching a studio recording in a live setting is to have some of the sound effects and other voices dubbed into the live performance. Ray uses multi-tracking whenever he makes records...the vocal and every instrument is recorded on separate tracks...and during production everything is mixed. He'd use a click track during live performances of "Sex Symbols", for example. His lines for Julio, which were recorded on a separate track, would be played back in concert as Ray sang his lines live while operating the mouth movements of Julio. Some people, because Ray sang the song in concerts and on television with a dummy at his side, have mistakenly thought Ray to be a legitimate ventriloquist. Here's Ray and JoJo from 1989... 

Ray Stevens: "Santa Claus is Watching You" 1962 audio clip...

Hello one and all it's me again with a second fan-created Ray Stevens blog entry on the first day of December! Yes, as was the case in the other blog entry, this one is Christmas oriented too. Ray released two video uploads on his social media platforms today. The first happened to be an audio clip of his 2009 recording of "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow". The second upload happened to be an audio clip of his 1962 recording of "Santa Claus is Watching You"!! I've written in past blog entries about Ray's original recording of that song and how it was lyrically aimed at children...when you listen to the song you'll understand the primary target. The 1962 recording is just as funny as the 1985 updated version that more people are familiar with. The 1985 re-recording includes a completely different storyline but it retains the song's title and some of the hook lines/catch-phrases like "he's everywhere! he's everywhere!" and the lengthy list of reindeer names. The storyline for the 1985 recording shifted to a more adult theme by having the man in the song warn his wife that she best not cheat on him because Santa's watching. The overall melody from the 1962 recording remains the same but, obviously, the 1985 re-recording features a completely updated sound in comparison to 1962. The 1962 recording appeared on the Hot 100 pop chart and due to it being a Christmas-themed novelty single it was among the top selling of it's time period. The 1985 re-recording benefitted from music video exposure in the early years of The Nashville Network and by the fact of it being on one of Ray's Gold albums, I Have Returned. The music video's inclusion in 1992's multi-platinum VHS Comedy Video Classics firmly established the 1985 version of the song a classic in Ray's career. Also, with a channel like The Nashville Network, Ray often found himself performing the 1985 version of "Santa Claus is Watching You" almost annually on Christmas-themed episodes of 'Nashville Now' or 'Crook and Chase'. 

If you've never heard the original 1962 recording of "Santa Claus is Watching You" then you're in for a treat! If you're only familiar with the single release on Mercury Records then you're also in for a treat because this is the unedited copy of "Santa Claus is Watching You". The single release is an edited copy of the song running 2 minutes, 17 seconds. The unedited copy, which you'll hear below, is 3 minutes and 15 seconds.

Ray Stevens: Christmas 2019...

Hello one and all and Merry Christmas!! Ray Stevens wrote this song and taped a video for it in 2012 and it immediately struck a chord with the on-line community...the song, "Merry Christmas". It debuted as a music video and wasn't found on any CD until several years later in 2016 when Ray issued his third Christmas album, Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me. It's a powerful song in a lot of ways...some may find it too strong for the overall season...but it's a song that cuts through a lot of the glib chatter that comes with festive holidays and addresses the decades long verbal assault from varying sectors of society when it comes to using the phrase 'merry Christmas' rather than 'Happy Holidays' or 'Seasons Greetings'.



Now, staying with this same 2016 album, we have an audio upload from Ray of his sensational version of "All I Want For Christmas Is You", previously a massive hit for one of it's writers, Mariah Carey. When Ray's 2016 Christmas CD was released and I heard his version of that song I instantly made it among my all-time favorite Ray Stevens recordings of any season. Ray uploaded this audio clip a couple days ago back on December 23rd.



Wasn't that fabulous?? An upload arrived yesterday in the form of a performance by Ray Stevens on his CabaRay Nashville television series. It comes from one his Christmas episodes (he taped two separate Christmas episodes) and he's singing the title track of his third Christmas album in this video clip...here's Ray singing "Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me"...



As many of you should know there is an official music video of that song, too. In it Ray shares the spotlight with a group of puppets and stuffed animals. It's a cute music video that I've shared in previous Christmas themed blog entries I've written but this is the first time his performance of the song from his television series has become available on-line. If I were to rate the official video and the CabaRay Nashville performance as to which one I preferred I'd rate the television performance first and the official music video second...even though I love both. The television performance doesn't include the donkey braying heard in the studio recording nor does it contain the harmony vocals and over-dubs from Ray. The trio of back-up singers on Ray's television show handle most of the vocals that, in the studio recording, were performed by Ray.

Ray Stevens sings his Christmas Classic...

Hello one and all...in this particular blog entry I'm embedding a recent video upload from Ray Stevens. This time around it's a video of him singing his Christmas classic, "Santa Claus is Watching You". This song, as long time Ray Stevens fans should already know, originated in 1962 and was issued as a single on Mercury Records. In that recording Ray sings about how children across the world better behave and do well in school because Santa's watching...he knows who's naughty and nice. The 1962 recording hit the Hot 100 that Christmas season. Ray wrote the song and in it's original lyrics he came up with the catchphrase "he's everywhere, he's everywhere!" and the inclusion of additional reindeer during the roll call. Aside from those two instances the rest of the song is aimed pretty much at children. Yes, as I've mentioned before, I like the 1962 recording but then Ray, several decades later, reworked the song into a tale of a relationship between two people in which the man warns his wife not to cheat on him because Santa's watching. This rendition hit in 1985...and in a pretty big way, too. It was featured on his MCA album that year, I Have Returned, and not only that it holds the distinction of being his very first music video. The 1985 version retained the "he's everywhere, he's everywhere!" catchphrase but hilariously added even more reindeer to the roll call. In the 1962 recording Rudolph was missing due to a dislocated hip he suffered in a Twist contest...in the 1985 version the missing Rudolph is said to be staking out a house at the order of Santa who's revealed to be working for the C.I.A. and attempting to catch adultery being committed. 

The single release featured a picture sleeve of Ray, as Santa, peaking out from behind a Christmas tree next to a chimney. The 1962 recording also came with a picture sleeve in which Ray is shown with his hand above his eyes as if he's looking into the distance at Santa. An illustration of Santa appears on the picture sleeve, too. Ray re-recorded the song in 1997 for his first ever Christmas album, Christmas Through a Different Window. It was a re-recording of the 1985 version...the rendition containing the most familiar set of lyrics. In the more familiar recording of the song there's a segment that features an extensive display of scat singing. You'll see this in the video clip below. Now, whenever the 1962 recording is made mention of on social media sites, a lot of people have a stunning reaction which, after all, is rather normal given how obscure the 1962 recording had become and how massively popular the 1985 reworked version became. I, too, immediately think of the 1985 version of the song whenever I think of "Santa Claus is Watching You" even though I know the 1962 recording with different lyrics exists. Ray, as far as I know, has never performed the lyrics contained in the 1962 recording on any television show. A performance from Ray on a Christmas episode of his television series, CabaRay Nashville, was uploaded onto YouTube yesterday. This joins another performance of the song that Ray uploaded several days prior from 30 years ago in 1989...but below is a performance of the song by Ray in 2017...to date his most recent video upload...

Ray Stevens: Spotify Statistics 2019

Hello one and all...yes it's still very early in December and I've not even begun to think of what my last blog entry of the year will feature or what day it'll happen but yet that's the beauty of having a fan created blog...you don't write on demand or on a set schedule...at least I don't. I write blog entries whenever the mood strikes...and yes some of those blog entries I've written when the mood strikes come across as if they were hastily slapped together, perhaps? The blog entry I wrote earlier this morning comes across like that...but then again the main focus was to spotlight the latest social media posts which included several video clips. One thing I know for certain about the final blog entry of 2019 is that it'll be centered around the closing of 2019 and of course I'll feature a heavy dose of promoting the New Year's Eve concert/party at the Ray Stevens CabaRay showroom. I'll more than likely begin posting about the December 31st concert several days in advance...but getting to the topic of this blog entry...

On December 6th the year-end statistics for the music site, Spotify, appeared on the Ray Stevens Facebook page. I should clarify by stating the year-end statistics pertaining to Ray Stevens music on the streaming site. Now, given that the statistics have been posted on a public forum like Facebook and on other social media site, I won't hesitate to share the statistics here, too. As far as streaming goes, for the year 2019, Ray's total at the cut-off date was reported to be 3.3 million Streams. The statistic for number of Hours spent listening to Ray Stevens music was 178.1K. The Listeners statistic happened to be 709.7K and 79 Countries were reported to have listened to something from Ray Stevens during the 2019 calendar year. I know a lot of people are into statistics and all things on-line and Spotify isn't a new site but for many, many, MANY years I paid it little attention because I thought it was one of those free music sites where the recording artists/writers/record labels/publishers, etc. etc. didn't receive any sort of compensation but to show that I've still got a whole lot more to learn about internet music I discovered that Spotify greatly promotes the music, which in turns creates publicity for the artist, much in the same manner YouTube does.

Now, having said that, there may be some out there that do not know what 'stream' means. I don't know the origins of that word, as it pertains to digital music, but it's more or less another way of saying 'airplay' or 'plays'. The number of plays, or streams, that a song receives the better...and on the Spotify site you have unlimited access to whatever songs have been loaded. Ray became more visible on social media earlier in the decade. He launched his YouTube channel in 2009 but he'd had his own website for more than a decade prior to that. His music can be found on practically all the major digital music outlets...whether it's a site where you purchase the music or whether it's available for free. His on-line activities continue even as I type. An audio of "Xerox Christmas Letter", a Christmas novelty song from his 1997 Christmas Through a Different Window album, was uploaded onto his social media sites within the last hour.



As mentioned in some previous blog entries Ray Stevens has three Christmas albums available at his on-line store and you can visit the CD area of his store by clicking HERE...and if you're in the Christmas mood look for the following releases once you arrive:

1997- Ray Stevens Christmas: Through a Different Window
2009- Ray Stevens Christmas
2016- Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me

Ray Stevens CabaRay: December Concerts...

Hello once again!! We made it beyond Thanksgiving and we're in the early stages of the Christmas season as well as entering a new month. It's December and I'm going to take a look at the Ray Stevens concerts scheduled at the CabaRay this month. The Christmas series of concerts have been underway since early November but now that we're in the month of December it takes a turn toward a more detailed sampling of the season...at least for me it does.

This month at the CabaRay you'll be able to catch a Christmas themed Ray Stevens concert on December 5th, 6th, 7th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 27th, and 28th. The calendar for the month of December doesn't show any concerts scheduled on the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday prior to Christmas (December 19th, 20th, and 21st). I don't know if Ray is considering December 15th through the 26th as his Christmas break but he returns on December 27th and 28th to officially wrap up the Christmas season. On December 31st, just like last year, the CabaRay will host a New Year's Eve celebration and ring in the New Year.

You can read all about the Christmas concerts and the ticket information HERE. In the meantime did you see the video clip of Ray Stevens performing "Cadillac Style"? It's from one of his episodes of CabaRay Nashville. The series is still missing from the RFD-TV airwaves and here locally it's on a 2 week hiatus as the local PBS stations are on their pledge breaks. Last night and this coming Saturday it'll not air but it will return to the local PBS station the following Saturday. So I've been on a Ray Stevens television withdraw...fortunately there's the internet and we can see his music videos and the video clips he's uploaded from his television series! "Cadillac Style" is a song that was a hit for Sammy Kershaw but it was published by Ray's company. It was the first of two Sammy Kershaw hits that Ray Stevens would publish. The second arrived a couple of years later, "I Can't Reach Her Anymore"...but here is Ray Stevens performing "Cadillac Style" in his own style...

Ray Stevens CabaRay: November Concerts...

Hello one and all...as we wrap up the month of October it's time to take a look at the upcoming month of November at the CabaRay showroom. The concerts scheduled for the month of November are going to take on a festive mood as Christmas season gets underway at the CabaRay beginning November 1st. This will be the second season of holiday-themed concerts and like last season the concerts will take up the final two months of the year. Also, the emphasis on Christmas will get heavier as the days get closer to December, obviously...but the stage will be decorated for Christmas beginning November 1st.

Last year the Christmas concerts were scheduled for November 2 through December 29...this year the Christmas concerts are November 1 through December 28.

Although the advertisement shows the time range for the Christmas series of concerts at the CabaRay it doesn't go into detail about the  actual concert dates. So, below, is a list of Ray's concerts at the CabaRay for the month of November:

November 1st, 2nd, 7th, 8th, 9th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 29th and 30th. All you need to know about purchasing tickets to the CabaRay can be found HERE. If you look at the numerical pattern for the month of November you'll see a series of three dates in a row. This is because Ray will be appearing on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights during the middle half of the month. There is also going to be a taping of Larry's Country Diner on November 13th. Whenever the series does a taping at the CabaRay it's always on a Wednesday. When you're visiting Music City, U.S.A. during the Christmas season be sure to include the CabaRay on your list of destinations. Oh yes...in case you didn't know you can purchase tickets at the showroom during regular business hours...you don't necessarily have to purchase them on-line or order them well in advance even though purchasing them in advance is my preference. If you're an impulse consumer and decide, at the last minute, to attend one of his concerts be sure to have their phone number saved in your list of contacts so you can inquire about tickets. Their number is 615-327-4630. Their box office, as you'll see when you click the link, is open Monday through Wednesday from 9am to 5pm and during Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (concert days) the box office hours are extended to 7:30pm. So, yes, Ray gives people plenty of opportunity to attend a concert and take in all things CabaRay.

Ray Stevens CabaRay Christmas...

Hello all once more!! Here we are on December 15th...ten days until Christmas...and I hadn't even started on attempting to figure out what to get some of my family for Christmas. I purchased the Ray Stevens DVD titled Such a Night: 50 Years of Hits and Hilarity. I purchased it yesterday when it went on sale. It was the final item in the 12 Days of Christmas discount sale that was taking place on Ray's website. I was not on-line during the first day of the sales event and so I missed out on the offer on the CabaRay hat. The discount sale on each of the 12 items lasted one day only. I posted a link to the discount sale in my previous blog entry back on December 9th and so for those that seen that particular blog post then chances are you participated in the discount sales event or at least were aware that it was taking place. Discount sale or not I'll more than likely put in an order for one of those CabaRay hats in a couple of days or perhaps early next year. I'm not too concerned with whether or not the item arrives before or after Christmas which is why I'm not in any hurry to place an order just yet but I definitely want one of them. I could have purchased one of them when I attended a concert at the CabaRay back on March 1st but I ended up purchasing a CabaRay Nashville coffee mug and his Love Lifted Me CD instead. When you visit Ray's official on-line store you'll see an alert posted indicating the cut-off date pertaining to items arriving before Christmas. As of this writing there's an alert giving a reminder that if you place your order by December 18th chances are it'll arrive before Christmas should you be planning on purchasing something as a gift. I purchased my DVD yesterday, as mentioned, and so I look for it to arrive in my mailbox at some point early next week...I'd be surprised if it took longer than that...given my past experiences they ship things in a timely manner.

Recently there was a write-up in The Tennessean on-line newspaper about the CabaRay Christmas and it featured a video clip. Someone at the newspaper has gone ahead and posted the video clip on YouTube for an even larger audience to see and I'm sharing the video clip in this blog entry...



*** Program alert: Tonight at 8:30pm Eastern on RFD-TV... Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville guest starring Michael W. Smith. ***

Ray Stevens: CabaRay Christmas Concert Series...

Hello all once again!! The Christmas at the CabaRay concert series is in full swing...and from things I've come across on social media sites it's been quite a success as I imagined it would be. There is one more concert left on the November calendar...it takes place on November 30th (next Friday) and then the calendar flips to December. It being November 25th it means Christmas Day is exactly one month from now. To those reading this blog entry...have you attended any of the CabaRay Christmas concerts? Have you attended any of the concerts at the facility since it's grand opening back in January of this year? The collage you see off to the left hand side of the page is something I'd posted before...it's a display of the three Christmas albums that Ray recorded during his career along side a recent photo taken of Ray inside the CabaRay. There was once a time where recording artists of all music types issued Christmas albums. Some artists issued them fairly frequently while others would issue them infrequently...but it was the norm every Christmas season to see a flood of new albums or re-issues of older albums filled with Christmas songs. The trend continues on-line to some extent...artists will make available Mp3 digital downloads of Christmas songs and on-line music stores and streaming services will advertise Christmas recordings...and a lot of the time those recordings are exclusive to on-line purchase with no physical copy of a CD available.

As I was mentioning, though...the Christmas at the CabaRay concert series is heading into it's heaviest slate of performances as we head toward December. The remaining concert dates are November 30th and then the following dates for the month of December: 1, 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 28, 29, and 31.



When you watch the video clip you'll be given a phone number to call for ticket purchasing. Meanwhile, the New Year's Eve concert, as mentioned in a previous blog entry, will be a major event and the concert presentation will be slightly different in that there will be two concert performances by Ray which are described on the website as Act I (7:30pm to 8:15pm) and Act II (8:30pm to 9:30pm). In between the acts is a 15 minute intermission. The added attractions to give it a New Year's Eve feel will kick off at 10pm. There will be a balloon drop at midnight to ring in the New Year.

In the meantime the Christmas at the CabaRay concert series is taking place. When he released the most recent Christmas album (Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me) there were several on-line stories promoting a certain recording from that album, "Claws (A Cat's Letter to Santa)". There was never a music video made of it and I don't know if Ray ever performed it on stage so it may have been one of those instances where a song gets some initial hype/publicity but then falls off the radar but it's a clever song dealing with the Christmas wishes of a declawed cat...even the song's title uses word play in that claws and Claus are pronounced the same way. The CD, as you can see in the photo, doesn't feature Ray on the cover...in fact Ray's image doesn't appear anywhere on the CD (neither on the front, back, or inside). The art work is credited to a company called Latocki Team Creative. The title track of the album was performed by Ray on an episode of his CabaRay Nashville television series and eventually a music video of the song was created. The video debuted on YouTube back in November of 2016. The music video comes off whimsical with Ray and several hand puppets which undercuts the subject matter. In fact the 10 song album features just 3 comedy recordings and so the overall approach to this project was serious. The three comical songs are: "All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth", "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer", (both of which come from his 2012 Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music project), and the never before available "Claws (A Cat's Letter to Santa)". That song was written by Tommy Crawford and Taylor Craven. "Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me" was written by Jeff Bates and John Ritter (not to be confused with the late, legendary actor!). The album also features the debut on CD of "Merry Christmas" which had been only available as a YouTube music video.



In closing here's one of the Christmas classics from Ray Stevens that I'm sure he's been performing at the CabaRay...the one and only "Redneck Christmas"...

Ray Stevens: Christmas at the CabaRay...

Hello once again!! A couple of days ago Ray Stevens uploaded an advertisement on YouTube promoting the upcoming Christmas season. The CabaRay is going to be trimmed in Christmas decorations beginning in early November with a Christmas-themed series of concerts throughout the rest of the calendar year. I don't know if the concerts will be wall-to-wall Christmas songs or if there will be 80 percent Christmas songs and 20 percent non-Christmas. The video description uses the phrases 'Christmas at the CabaRay' as well as 'CabaRay Christmas'. Ray himself makes mention of those phrases as well and so my guess is the official name for the series of concerts will either be 'Christmas at the CabaRay' or 'CabaRay Christmas'.



Songs performed during these concerts are likely to come from his three Christmas CDs: 1997's "Ray Stevens Christmas: Through a Different Window", 2009's "Ray Stevens Christmas", and 2016's "Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me". Some of the songs on those CDs are: "Bad Little Boy", "The Little Drummer Boy Next Door", "All I Want For Christmas is You", "Greatest Little Christmas Ever Wuz", "Blue Christmas", "Santa Claus is Watching You", "Jingle Bells", "Let It Snow", "White Christmas", "Deck The Halls With Teardrops", "Christmas Bells in the Steeple", "Merry Christmas", "Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day", "Redneck Christmas", and "Claws (A Cat's Letter to Santa)".

Have a Happy Ray Stevens Christmas...

Hello once more!! As a big fan of Ray Stevens I usually attempt to post a Christmas-themed blog entry every year. Last year had a lot of entries given the fact that he had a brand new Christmas album available plus a music video...



Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me hit last Christmas as did the above music video of the title track. There wasn't a whole lot of publicity surrounding the CD; the music video debuted in November (actual date being November 16, 2016). The song comes from the pen of Jeff Bates and a writer named John Ritter (not to be confused with the late actor). The CD itself contained 10 tracks...some comedy and some spiritual-themed songs...in addition to his versions of Christmas standards ("Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"). In 2012 he released a music video of a song called "Merry Christmas"...

The song only appeared in music video form until it was placed on the 2016 Christmas CD. Ray wrote the song and it deals with the war on Christmas and the politically correct advocates of the world that prefer to say Season's Greetings or Happy Holidays in an effort to not offend non-Christians. It's lunacy is all that it is. Non-Christians shouldn't take offense to the phrase, 'Merry Christmas'. I certainly don't take any offense to the phrase 'Happy Hanukkah'. Some of the other recordings on the CD are the self-penned "Christmas Bells in the Steeple", and then there's a song he didn't write but it's one of the novelty songs on the Christmas CD: "Claws (A Cat's Letter to Santa)"; and then there's his recording of a song his Ahab Music Company published in the '60s that Brenda Lee recorded originally: "Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day". The song's writers are Lee Jackson and Patty Seymour. As I remarked last year one of the treats is his version of "All I Want For Christmas is You"...a song that Mariah Carey originally had a huge pop hit with in the mid 1990s. She co-wrote the song...and it's kind of comical seeing her name listed on a Ray Stevens album. It reminds me of the songwriter credits for his 1988 album...the one that features his version of "Bad", the Michael Jackson song...and given him being the song's writer his name appears in the credits.

In the early '60s while still on the NRC label Ray issued his very first Christmas-themed recordings. Even though he recorded "White Christmas" for his 2009 Christmas CD and issued it as a YouTube music video he had previously recorded the song in 1960. NRC issued it on a single backed with a song he wrote titled "Happy Blue Year". They didn't get much, if any, publicity...but the next Christmas recording did! It happened to be 1962 in which the original recording of "Santa Claus is Watching You" hit the market on Mercury Records. The original reached the pop charts and was later re-written by Ray...in the process of re-writing the song he transformed it from a bouncy performance aimed at children to a tale of suspected adultery with the man warning his wife that Santa's watching. In his career he recorded it three times: there's the 1962 original and then we have the 1985 largely re-written re-recording and then there's the 1997 recording on the Christmas Through a Different Window CD.

Here are some other Ray Stevens Christmas recordings you can search YouTube for are: "Guilt For Christmas", "Nightmare Before Christmas", "Redneck Christmas", "Blue Christmas", "White Christmas", and the all-time classic, "Santa Claus is Watching You". It's on his 2009 Christmas CD that features the Ray Stevens original "Deck the Halls with Teardrops" that I so much wished would have become either a music video or a much more widely known recording. It's a fabulous love ballad. In his career he has released three Christmas albums:

Christmas Through a Different Window (1997)
Ray Stevens Christmas (2009)
Mary and Joseph and the Baby and Me (2016)

Everyone have a safe Christmas and don't forget that Ray's CabaRay venue has it's grand opening January 18th!

Ray Stevens: Santa Claus reaches a Million...

Oh, Merry Christmas to all of the Ray Stevens fans out there and those that visit this fan-created blog either intentionally or by accident through links or general on-line browsing. You can add another Ray Stevens YouTube video to the million-views club...the classic "Santa Claus is Watching You". It's reached 1,012,760 to date. This is an increase of at least 10,000 since my previous blog post. Back on December 17th of this year the video had nearly 980,000 unique views and this being the Christmas season I had a feeling the video would cross into the million stratosphere and it has. A particular social media site has a lot of posts from it's members and they're sharing that particular music video and it's being accessed by all sorts of devices...of course this helps drive up the discovery and each new discovery adds to the view total.

For those that still hadn't purchased any of Ray's Christmas recordings you still can. They're available all year long and if you feel the urge to make a purchase, even on Christmas Day, you can easily visit any number of on-line music stores and add the songs to your listening devices. The titles of the 2 Christmas CD's from Ray Stevens are...

1997: Ray Stevens Christmas: Through a Different Window (comical Christmas recordings) 

2009: Ray Stevens Christmas  (serious Christmas recordings)

Ray Stevens: 'Tis the Stevens to be Merry...

It's nearly that time...Christmas time...here in my part of the country the temperature on Christmas Day is predicted to be 73 degrees and I'm in the Midwest...typically by late December it doesn't get above 45 much at all during the entire months of December through late February. However, since this IS the season...it's time to spotlight the various Christmas music videos from Ray Stevens. 

Let's start this off with the classic "Santa Claus is Watching You" from 1985. This not only is a classic but it's the first music video in the career of Ray Stevens. It became a tradition on The Nashville Network every season to air this video...at one point it became the most popular Christmas music video via viewer feedback/requests. 



The song itself goes back in Ray's career to the early 1960s. The original recording by Ray and it's original presentation played out as a typical Children's novelty record of the time period including warnings from Ray for the kids to behave because Santa's watching. That the song could be completely re-imagined as a clever tale of holiday adultery...and have the victim/suspicious husband warn his wife that she better remain faithful because Santa's watching...well, to put it bluntly, it's one of those rare instances in which a remake/re-recording is a lot better than the original.

Ray re-recorded "Santa Claus is Watching You" for inclusion on his 1985 comedy album for MCA titled I Have Returned. The single's picture sleeve featured Ray, as Santa, peeking around the Christmas tree. The same year MCA issued a various artists collection called Tennessee Christmas. Ray contributed his original composition, "Greatest Little Christmas Ever Wuz", and for many, many, many, MANY years that 1985 compilation was the only place to find the recording. It essentially became one of those lost recordings because of it's lack of redistribution. A local AM radio station played it a lot every year...that's how I learned of it's existence...and for several years I mistakenly believed that Ray had recorded a comedy Christmas album because in my youth and inexperience about record sizes I had seen the picture sleeve of "Santa Claus is Watching You" at a flea market and mistook if for a full-length album. 

How I wish I could go back to that point in time and tell my grandparent's to get that recording...but it happened to be at a time when I had not yet discovered the music of Ray Stevens. This wouldn't happen for another half a year at the least (!!). I've long since estimated that my introduction to his recordings began at some point in the summer of 1986. 

Ray's first ever Christmas project didn't come along, though, until 1997 under the title of Ray Stevens Christmas: Through a Different Window. It has since become a classic in his career and a mainstay nearly every season. It's chock full of Christmas novelty songs that beat up political correctness and dare to send a comical jolt through the traditions of the season...the reason you'll see song titles such as "Bad Little Boy", "Guilt For Christmas", "I Won't Be Home For Christmas", "Nightmare Before Christmas", etc. The hit album helped spawn a hit stage show at the Opryland venue at the Acuff Theater. Strangely enough no music video productions emerged from the collection until more than a decade later...such as "Guilt for Christmas" uploaded onto his YouTube channel on May 1, 2013...



I must point out, though, that Ray re-recorded the song for this music video. In the 1997 original he doesn't sing in the pseudo-Austrian accent. The reason he decided to add the accent touch is a mystery but it's a distinguishing characteristic not found on the original.

Several years earlier on November 3, 2010 Ray uploaded "Nightmare Before Christmas" onto YouTube. This particular video's become the stand-out, the centerpiece, the unofficial national outcry of a world taken hostage by over-the-top politically correct advocates. It's not the only song that targets political correctness on the album as "Guilt For Christmas" certainly demonstrates but "Nightmare Before Christmas" hits more closer to everyone's lives because it takes the all too real situation of being labeled politically incorrect because you may hold a belief, speak in a certain manner, or have an opinion that's ordinarily perfectly harmless but because it can be misconstrued as "offensive" by somebody else then you're accused of being insensitive, inflammatory, racist, sexist, homophobic, or whatever else. The sick part of a lot of it is some people deliberately misconstrue statements made by others just to damage the person's reputation or career (a smear tactic, a smear campaign...).



Not all of the novelty songs on the 1997 Christmas CD are heavy or satiric...some are good old fashioned sing-a-longs. I already mentioned one of those types in "Greatest Little Christmas Ever Wuz". In the song Ray sings of an attempt to make-up with a lover and get back together. He suggests that because she's had to spend several past Christmases alone they'll combine all of the holiday's in a calendar year and celebrate them all at one time. The other bouncy sing-a-long is "Redneck Christmas". Although "Nightmare Before Christmas" is sort of the intellectual big brother of the recordings, "Redneck Christmas" has a lot of appeal, too. The 2 music videos are more or less neck and neck in unique views. "Nightmare Before Christmas" at the moment has 470,097 views and "Redneck Christmas" has 434,837. Keep in mind, too, that "Nightmare Before Christmas" had a 2 year head start...it arrived on YouTube in November of 2010 and "Redneck Christmas" hit YouTube on December 22, 2012.



A day earlier on December 21, 2012 Ray uploaded a cover version of "Blue Christmas" onto YouTube. The rendition that Ray paid homage to come from a stuttering version many falsely credited to the animated character, Porky Pig. The actual recording happened to be credited to the fictional Seymour Swine (Dennis Brownlee)...nevertheless if you visit social media sites you're going to come across comments from people citing the "stuttering version of Blue Christmas by the Porky Pig sound-a-like..." or "that Porky Pig version of Blue Christmas...". The music video has some comical sight gags and Ray's delivery is unforgettable, too...



In 2009 Ray issued an all-new Christmas project. This time around the collection of songs happened to be serious...featuring one original song and his versions of Christmas standards although on some of the recordings he kept the original arrangements intact. His take on "White Christmas" is something to behold. He does an uncanny impression of the recording by The Drifters...



The lone original song on the 2009 Christmas CD is "Deck The Halls with Teardrops". It builds on the traditional telling of Deck The Halls but rather than a festive and jolly fa-la-la sing-a-long it's instead a tale of melancholy and bewilderment. A different recording of "Blue Christmas" is featured on the CD...a straight recording...not the stuttering novelty. This 2009 Christmas CD is sold each season on Ray's web-store. You can also purchase it on Amazon (along with his 1997 comedy Christmas collection). Obviously you can purchase the Mp3's and have them on your computer in a matter of minutes.

This brings us to the rousing "Merry Christmas". This also hit YouTube on December 22, 2012. It revisits the politically correct theme once more and criticizes those that have problems with those that choose to say "Merry Christmas" rather than the generic 'Happy Holidays' or 'Seasons Greetings'. 

   

Ray Stevens Christmas Videos...

Hello one and all to the annual look at the Ray Stevens Christmas Videos. I usually spotlight these particular music videos on Christmas Day or in the days leading up to Christmas. A couple of years ago I dominated December with a lot of Christmas blogs...back then Ray had a brand new Christmas music video that had jumped into the hundred thousand unique view range in a matter of days. That video is located further below. 

One of Ray's earliest Christmas recordings came along in 1962...and in my previous blog post I wrote of this particular song. It's a Christmas comedy classic titled "Santa Claus is Watching You". The song hit in December 1962 and for more than 20 years it was notable for being the only Christmas song in the career of Ray Stevens. The song, aimed at children, deals ith Santa keeping a watchful eye on all children and making sure they're behaving. Lyrically it's your run of the mill sing-a-long Christmas song...but yet it has several detours along the ride. For example...Rudolph can't make the voyage due to being hospitalized after injuring himself doing The Twist. The replacement? None other than Clyde the Camel.

In 1985 Ray re-recorded...actually he re-rote "Santa Claus is Watching You" and changed it from a children's song to a more adult tale. In the 1985 version, aimed at older audiences, Ray sings about infidelity and warns that Santa sees all and is keeping an eye at all times. This particular recording of the song has since become the more familiar and the music video, Ray's first, became a Christmas hit on The Nashville Network during the early years of country music videos. Also, the 1985 recording featured a glorious scat-singing passage. This wasn't the only Christmas recording Ray issued in 1985, though. His services were asked for participation in a various artist project called Tennessee Christmas. Ray's contribution was a Christmas novelty love song titled "Greatest Little Christmas Ever Wuz". The project was released on MCA, the label Ray recorded for during the mid to late 1980s and the album featured exclusively MCA artists.  The 1985 recording of "Santa Claus is Watching You" appeared on his 1985 album, I Have Returned. The only Christmas recording on a non-Christmas project.

The Christmas music in the career of Ray Stevens never really got going in full swing until a project in 1997 came along. At the time Ray was back on MCA Records following a 5-year run on Curb Records (1990-1995). The release of Christmas Through a Different Window in 1997 introduced the music world (and Ray Stevens fans, most importantly) to an entire album of mostly original Christmas novelty songs by the novelty music genre's #1 artist. This project, promoted as Ray's first-ever Christmas album, did manage to make the Country Music album chart in 1997 but it also developed a life of it's own in the years following it's release. Each year since 1997 and running annually until around 2003, this Ray Stevens comedy Christmas album seen an annual re-release and for a couple of years it spawned several series of concerts from Ray in various venues at Opryland (specifically during the late 1990s when the CD was in it's infancy). Often billed as the Ray Stevens Christmas Show, it received a lot of press in and around Nashville and become the most popular attraction in Nashville (outside of the Christmas Lights display). Yes, at the time, commercials for the program ran on The Grand Ole Opry radio show. The concerts weren't entirely Christmas music, neither. His signature classics greeted the crowds, too. Music videos didn't immediately follo the CD's release, though. The music videos to several songs on this 1997 CD didn't start to surface until 2010 (made primarily for YouTube). 

The first music video from the 1997 CD to hit the internet arrived on November 3, 2010 in the form of "Nightmare Before Christmas". The 1997 project, as a whole, skewered political correctness and this song, in particular, hammers the point home in a more direct manner. The other songs are just a little more subtle. "Redneck Christmas" hit the internet on December 22, 2012. The very day it hit the internet another Christmas video from Ray made it's debut...the all new "Merry Christmas" (a song that spotlights the trend of not  saying Merry Christmas and replacing it with Happy Holidays or Season's Greetings). On May 1, 2013 the 1997 CD's opening track, "Guilt For Christmas", emerged as an internet video. 

In 2009, Ray released a brand new Christmas CD. This time around the music included happened to be all-serious. Almost all of the songs are his versions of classic Christmas songs but there's one original, self-penned song entitled "Deck The Halls with Teardrops". The 2009 CD is titled, simply, Ray Stevens Christmas. One song from the 2009 CD has since become a music video...and it arrived on the internet on December 3, 2012...his version of "White Christmas". Ray blended the Elvis, Drifters, and Bing Crosby versions together.  

"Blue Christmas" has a long history...it's famously thought of as an Elvis Presley classic. Most artists that record the song usually keep the arrangement heard on the Elvis recording, too. At some point decades later a comical recording performed by a fictional group going by the name of Seymour Swine and the Squealers became a novelty classic on FM rock radio stations. The singing star is a parody of Porky Pig (complete with stutter). Over time it became part of most radio station's Christmas playlists (on both FM and AM radio). Ray decided to do his take on the stuttering version of "Blue Christmas" in 2012 and it's something to behold...a music video was put together to promote the single-only release. Keep in mind that Ray recorded a serious version of "Blue Christmas" in 2009 for the Ray Stevens Christmas CD and a promo single arrived in 2012 featuring the comical version of "Blue Christmas" backed with the serious version of "Blue Christmas". The music video hit the internet on December 21, 2012...a day before "Redneck Christmas" and "Merry Christmas"...and 18 days after "White Christmas". The Red, White, and Blue Christmas music videos of December 2012 is the big reason Ray's Christmas music dominated my blog posts that month. Since the release of the "Guilt For Christmas" music video in 2013, Ray hasn't posted another Christmas-related video. A couple days ago he re-introduced some of these music videos on his Twitter page. Both 2014 and 2013 have been relatively quiet as far as Christmas music from Ray Stevens is concerned.







Those are just some of the latter-day Christmas productions from Ray from 2012...here is the classic from 1985...



You can purchase the Mp3 digital copies of both of Ray's Christmas projects at Amazon... 

Ray Stevens Comedy Christmas Mp3

Ray Stevens Serious Christmas Mp3

Ray Stevens: Golden LP Series, Part 31...

Studio album 31 in the career of Ray Stevens arrived in the second half of 1997 in the form of a project titled Ray Stevens Christmas: Through a Different Window. This project was the very first Christmas album from Ray Stevens...but it wasn't his first brush with Christmas music. In the early '60s he wrote and recorded the original "Santa Claus Is Watching You". In the mid '80s he re-wrote "Santa Claus Is Watching You" and changed it from a children's novelty song into a more mature novelty with a much more mature plot line. It isn't to say that children wouldn't like the re-written performance once they heard it, since I certainly loved the song and music video as a kid and I still love it. The same year that he issued the re-written and updated "Santa Claus Is Watching You" he also delivered the "Greatest Little Christmas Ever Wuz" for inclusion on a various artists compilation titled Tennessee Christmas. Those two songs obviously made the final cut on Ray's 1997 Christmas comedy album. In the case of "Santa Claus Is Watching You", this marked the third re-recording of that particular classic.


One of the hallmarks of this project when it was released was the intentional stabbing in the heart of political correctness. The societal disease known as political correctness is held up to much needed ridicule within quite a few of the hilarious holiday songs on the CD. The project gets started with "Guilt For Christmas" which quickly establishes the mood and atmosphere of the overall CD. The music is traditionally festive but the lyrics are hilarious and the story-lines are zany. "Guilt For Christmas" tells all about the pressures a person is facing while being told that he has to be politically correct when buying Christmas gifts. Ray gives several examples of toys that advocates have labeled as degrading or sexist if given to certain people and members of certain age groups. Reaching somewhat of a boiling point, shopper Ray decides that he's going to bypass the actual purchase of gifts and instead he'll give people a more longer lasting gift: guilt. It's a perfect opening song. "I Won't Be Home For Christmas" is an uptempo sing-a-long where Ray tells us all about his wild and bad mannered relatives and gleefully sings that he won't be home for Christmas and he'll be in hiding. The third track, "Greatest Little Christmas Ever Wuz", was first recorded by Ray in 1985 but here it's presented as a re-recording. It's another sing-a-long but this time around we're told a sad story about a man who's been on his own ever since the woman in his life left him the previous Christmas Eve. The man comes up with an idea of rolling all of the holidays into one which would create the greatest Christmas of all-time. "Home for the Holidays" describes the upcoming misery that a man goes through as he prepares to visit his hometown and re-establish familiarity with relatives that he'd much rather forget about. Certainly these are sentiments that a lot of people secretly feel but it's not the proper way of behaving during the holiday season and so, in the song, Ray and his family pack up to visit the old hometown for Christmas.
 

"Bad Little Boy" is track 10 and it's in the cute category as Ray plays the part of a little boy who laments the fact of his not getting anything for Christmas due to his bad behavior. It's in the same vein of Spike Jones' "Nuttin' For Christmas" and other similar songs and stories that revolve around little kids and bad behavior during the holidays. I saw Ray perform this just once...it's was quite a memorable performance as Ray performed the song on a giant rocking chair to create the illusion that he was a small kid. If I recall correctly that performance was on The Statler Brothers Show but it could have been on another program that aired on The Nashville Network but I definitely think it was their weekly TV show. I heard "Bad Little Boy" on a local classic country station yesterday morning by the way. The station is on the FM dial and it's call-letters are WNKR. Meanwhile, "The Little Drummer Boy-Next Door" uses some of the frame work of the traditional Christmas song, "The Little Drummer Boy", but spins it in a new and contemporary way as Ray plays the part of an irritated neighbor driven more irritated by a kid's drum lessons. The boy got the drums as a Christmas gift. This particular song, when the CD was brand new, got quite a bit of airplay during the few weeks leading up to Christmas time. Some FM stations program Christmas music all month long from late November through late December. On some country radio stations they play nothing but Christmas music starting late on Christmas Eve and all through Christmas day. I think that practice is still in place. "Redneck Christmas" is exactly what you might think it is. It's comical and satiric and plays on all the stereotypical imagery ever created about rural America. It, too, is a sing-a-long featuring loads of vocal sound effects and a catchy collection of harmony singing. "Nightmare Before Christmas" returns to the politically correct topic as we hear the story of Ray's nightmare where Santa Claus is arrested and charged with being politically incorrect.  

In "The Annual Office Christmas Party" Ray sings about a company party and the happenings that take place by the straight-laced executives during off hours. Societal bragging is the focal point of "Xerox Xmas Letter" where Ray sings about getting a letter from a family who brags about everything they've achieved during the last year.

Ray Stevens Christmas: Through a Different Window would find itself being an annual offering from 1997 onward. The music from the CD led to a series of holiday themed concerts from Ray at the Acuff Theater in Opryland. If you were listening to WSM radio during the holiday seasons, specifically 1998 through 2000, chances are you would've heard promotional spots for Ray's Christmas concert series at some point. The CD reached the Country Album chart in 1997 more or less on the strength of word of mouth and timely national publicity on various programs on The Nashville Network.

The Christmas project features 11 songs rather than the usual 10. Buddy Kalb wrote the majority of the songs in this project...either by himself or in collaboration with other writers. Ray, Buddy, and a writer named Paul Alter wrote "The Little Drummer Boy-Next Door". Ray supplied "Santa Claus Is Watching You" and "Greatest Little Christmas Ever Wuz". Buddy Kalb along with Glenn and Sonny Fortner wrote "I Won't Be Home For Christmas". The remaining seven songs were all written by Buddy Kalb.

The following year Ray parted ways with MCA. He signed himself to his own label, Clyde, for a couple of years, 1999-2001, and issued one studio album in 2000. This studio album would be re-issued on a nationally distributed label in 2002 with a new title and a re-sequencing of it's track list. A few new tracks were added to the 2002 release while some from the 2000 release were omitted. I'll provide details in my next installment of the Golden LP Series.

Ray Stevens and Santa Claus, Part 3...

It's Friday...at long last!! December 16th...yes, 9 more days until Christmas. Those who frequent Ray Stevens web-store already know that items ordered after December 20th will not be shipped out until the first of the year so for those who want to get anything and have it arrive within this calendar year ought to visit the store starting today through December 20th. Here's the store's link.

You Tube at a glance...

Mr. President - Mr. President:
12/13/11: 376,234
12/16/11: 389,507

Obama Budget Plan:
12/13/11: 954,747
12/16/11: 966,505

Nightmare Before Christmas:
12/13/11: 172,224
12/16/11: 177,305

Santa Claus Is Watching You:
12/13/11: 189,234
12/16/11: 198,480

The top two music videos increased more than 10,000 on-line views during the last 3 days. "Santa Claus Is Watching You" obtained little more than 9,000 views during the same time period. "Nightmare Before Christmas" obtained a little more than 5,000 on-line views.

Ray Stevens and Santa Claus...

One of the classic music videos from Ray Stevens is "Santa Claus Is Watching You". The video, Ray's first, dates back to 1985 and at one time was a staple of The Nashville Network's various music video programs during the holiday season. I remember seeing the video multiple times every year in December for a number of years. The song itself dates back to the early '60s when Ray originally released it as a pop single. It reached the Top-50 at the time. That particular recording, though, was aimed at children. Ray recorded the original for Mercury Records and it appears often in various compilation CD's issued around this time of the year.

The version featured in the music video below, as mentioned, comes from 1985 and it features a completely different music arrangement as well as lyrical emphasis. This time around the story is much more in line with a much more older audience as Ray sings about faithfulness and adultery...warning the woman that she better treat him right and be faithful because Santa's watching. The video contains a bit of irony toward the end as the wife ultimately is shown being unfaithful on the most joyous of all holidays.



As mentioned, the music video appeared annually on The Nashville Network for nearly 10 years. It appears on Ray's ground-breaking 1992 home video, Comedy Video Classics, too. In July 2009 the by then 24 year old music video made it's You Tube debut and since that time it's gotten 166,250 on-line views. It being a holiday video it typically only sees action during this time of the year. If you hadn't seen it by all means click the arrow and watch!

The music video below is of a more recent vintage...it was uploaded onto You Tube in November 2010 and has 158,237 on-line views so far. It's titled "Nightmare Before Christmas" and it's a very funny story about political correctness and all it's silliness. The video was recently featured on Internet Video Hits, a collection of Ray's You Tube music videos released on DVD. That particular release contains 9 of Ray's political You Tube music videos (those released since December 2009) plus the Christmas music video below...