Ray Stevens: 1986 performance of "The Streak"

Well, hello out there!!! No, you're not reading any kind of typo or anything.. it's my first fan created Ray Stevens blog post since April 29th of this year. Why such a long hiatus you may be asking yourselves? It was my own self-imposed hiatus from blog writing. I remained active on Ray's social media pages in the meantime leaving commentary and interacting with other people leaving comments on Ray's social media pages, mainly Facebook. If you follow Ray's social media you know that he's kept those pages active, too, with a post or two per day and lots of video attachments. He's continued to perform concerts at his CabaRay showroom and as most of you may know this is his final season of concerts. He broke the news back in January before this upcoming concert season began. 

In this blog post I'm sharing a recent video upload from Ray's YouTube channel. On August 26, 2024 a concert performance of Ray delivering "The Streak" from 1986 made it's debut on social media. If you're a fan of Ray Stevens you're going to love it and if you happen to be a student of Ray Stevens, meaning that you know a lot about his life and career in addition to being a major fan, you're going to know that this 1986 performance comes during his first stint with MCA Records. He was right in the middle of that lengthy series of comedy albums and riding a wave of discovery, or re-discovery, depending on the knowledge of the individual music listener. The performance took place in July 1986 which means it happened a month after Ray won his first Music City News Comedian of the Year award. Ray would win this high profile, fan-voted award every year for 9 consecutive years (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994). 

In this 1986 performance you'll see Ray decked out in sunglasses, dark green clothes, and at various moments wearing a yellow CAT hat. The thumbnail image of the video shows this but just in case you view this blog post in the future and the image is gone due to some sort of glitch I thought I'd let you all know what he appears in ahead of viewing. I love the green clothing. The temperature in St. Clairsville, Ohio must have been in the 80s or low 90s that day. When the performance of "The Streak" is over you'll see Ray jog off-stage carrying a suit. He must have began his set wearing the jacket but then, as he literally got hotter, removed it. The song originally hit in 1974.. there have long been rumors that actual streakers could be seen at his concerts but I've always doubted that kind of thing happening. It's possible that streaking took place near a concert venue, fair, or festival he was performing at or somewhere in the vicinity if it happened to be what they call a college town but within the audience of a concert I don't think such things happened but it's fun to say it did. Boogity Boogity... here's Ray Stevens and "The Streak"...

Ray Stevens: Upcoming June CabaRay concerts...

Hello fans of Ray Stevens!! As we head near the end of May let's turn our attention to the month of June. Specifically, the concert dates at the CabaRay showroom next month. Now, if you know your country music, you'll know that June has always been referred to as Country Music Month for as long as I can remember. I have never looked it up to find out exactly why the month of June has that designation for country music...but I'm guessing that it has something to do with the various events within country music that take place each June. First off it's the month that features the CMA Music Fest...a series of concerts where recording artists (both established and newcomers) interact with their fans. It was originally known as Fan Fair and it was held in June...then decades later it was re-titled CMA Music Fest. The long out of print country music magazine, Music City News, held an annual awards show each June...and for many years it was something of a centerpiece of Fan Fair. Ray won the Music City News Comedian of the Year award every single year from 1986 through 1994 (Nine consecutive years!). The awards were fan-voted. The organization also had a Songwriter Awards gala...and Ray co-hosted the event a couple of times and he performed on that particular program, too. When you visit the CabaRay you'll be able to see his various awards...including the 9 awards as Comedian of the Year (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994). He has his awards housed in several display cases. Almost all of Ray's awards are a direct result of you, the fan...yes, it's worth noting that he has what I call music insider awards from music publishing companies (specifically BMI) and he's been elected to several Halls of Fame...but the bulk of his awards and plaques reflect the amazing support the fanbase has shown him over the decades. The fans are responsible for all of his Comedian of the Year honors; the readers of Country Weekly magazine awarded him a Golden Pick Award as their Favorite Comedian in 1995; and not to forget all of the Gold, Platinum, and Multi-Platinum songs, albums, VHS tapes, and viral online music videos...and during the month of June think about stopping by the CabaRay showroom while you're in the vicinity of Nashville during Country Music Month. It's on River Road just west of downtown Nashville. Ray will be in concert at the CabaRay showroom during the month of June on the 3rd, 10th, 17th, and 24th. You can read all about the showroom and purchase your tickets when you click HERE. 

Ray Stevens: The "Boogity Boogity" YouTube Playlist

One of the albums in the legendary career of Ray Stevens that will always get a lot of focus happens to be 1974's comedy album, Boogity Boogity. Now, if you look at the album cover, you won't see the album title unless you take a look at the dust clouds on the lower right. The album, particularly on eBay and other online stores, is often mistakenly called Woosh!! given the prominent appearance of that phrase in the airbrushed portion of Ray's photo. The album is officially titled Boogity Boogity which happens to be a recurring phrase heard in "The Streak". In an example of where you'll hear the phrase: "here he comes (boogity boogity), there he goes (boogity boogity)...". The phrase is also performed by his backup singers at the end of almost every line in the song's chorus...and in other places in the song. The album, released in 1974, contains 9 comedy songs. The centerpiece of the album was obviously "The Streak" and much of the publicity surrounded that particular single. It was on this date in 1974 that Barnaby Records issued "The Streak" as a single. The fad of streaking (running around with no clothes on in public) dominated the local and national newscasts for most of 1974 although some archive news reports indicate streaking was something that had been happening randomly in and around college campuses for a few years but it wasn't until 1974, and the airing of the Oscar Awards telecast, that the fad became an almost daily, non-stop national news item. A streaker ran across the stage during a live Oscar telecast as David Niven was speaking at the podium. I've come across websites that debate whether or not the streaking was spontaneous or if it was planned by the production staff as an effort to generate a lot of post-Oscar publicity, not only for the ceremony, but for the Oscar organization itself. 

The argument centers around how the person was able to go from point A to point B, completely naked, with nobody trying to stop him backstage. 

Nevertheless, what happened caught the country by surprise and it launched a series of streaking songs by all types of acts...but, as we all know, it was the Ray Stevens recording that grabbed the attention. Ray has always said that he credits having the hit on streaking simply because he heard of the fad months before it became a national craze and that he had been working on the song prior to putting it out as a single. The actual recording of the song, Ray has often admitted, was rush released since streaking was such a topical issue that they wanted to get it out as soon as possible but the writing of the song, given Ray having had the chance to work on it weeks in advance, was certainly not rushed. "The Streak" hit the top of the Hot 100 in only a matter of weeks and sold more than 5,000,000 copies worldwide. It hit in Canada, The United Kingdom, Australia, and several other English-speaking countries. It was also a hit on the Country music charts and the Adult-Contemporary chart. Practically every mainstream radio format was playing the song at one time or another in the spring of 1974.   

Now, as a longtime fan of Ray, I love all of the songs...not just the ones pushed as single releases. Yes, there was another song on this album that was issued as a single...the wonderful "Moonlight Special", a parody of the television series, Midnight Special. Since it wasn't based on a trend/fad or a topical subject matter it performed as most novelty songs performed in that decade. It sold well but it wasn't embraced in the same manner as "The Streak" happened to be. "Moonlight Special" hit the pop chart for a multi-week run, though. Some of the other songs on the 1974 album are: "Heart Transplant", "Smith and Jones", and "Don't Boogie Woogie". Ray closes the album with a non-comedy song. That song's title, "Just So Proud to Be Here", conjures up thoughts of Minnie Pearl. That was part of her opening line at her performances at the Opry and wherever else she performed. 

When you visit the YouTube playlist of Boogity Boogity you'll find that there's a 1966 video performance of "Freddie Feelgood" among the audio tracks. This 1966 performance from the Dick Clark show, Where The Action Is, was recently uploaded onto YouTube and Ray added it to the playlist. There used to be an audio track there. In keeping with Dick Clark's tradition/preference of lip-sync performances that's what we have in this 1966 appearance by Ray. Freddie's band consists of people playing air-instruments to Ray's vocal track. I don't know where the footage was shot but it's at an outdoors location. Here's the YouTube PLAYLIST. 

Ray Stevens sings "The Streak"...

On March 27, 1974 Ray Stevens released "The Streak". Little did he nor his fan's know that "The Streak" would take on a life of it's own in the 47 years since. Ray got the idea for the song when he was skimming through a weekly news magazine during a flight from Los Angeles to Nashville. In the final pages of a magazine he'd read a small news item where it made mention of a college kid that took off his clothes and ran through a crowd and it was called streaking. According to Ray's recollections he immediately began writing ideas for the song. Once he seen the local newscasts on television all he recalls is seeing stories about streaking and how it's taking over college campuses all over America. Ray wrote "The Streak" and Barnaby Records issued it on March 27, 1974. An international news event occurred at the Academy Awards telecast on April 2, 1974...a streaker ran across the stage behind actor, David Niven. Although there were more than 50 novelty songs out capitalizing on streaking it was Ray's that emerged as the biggest hit. The single debuted on the Hot 100 on April 6, 1974 and thanks to the Academy Awards incident and streaking, in general, "The Streak" literally streaked up the Hot 100 pop chart. It hit the top in it's 7th week, May 18th, and remained at number one for three weeks. It was the number one pop song in America on May 18th, May 25th, and June 1st. It crossed over and hit the Top-10 on the Country chart. It was also an international hit peaking at the top in the United Kingdom and in the Top-10 and Top-40 of other English-speaking countries. The single also sold more than 5,000,000 copies worldwide. 

In recent concert appearances Ray sings "The Streak" almost exactly the way he recorded it but for a number of decades, notably the mid '70s through the early '90s, he elaborated on the song and would perform it in concert with an operatic addition. He would open the song with the action news reporter and the witness but then he'd stop the performance and tell the audience that some humorless critics have often said the song had no class. So, in order to please the critics, he decided to perform the song in operatic fashion. After about a minute of operatic splendor he'd revert back to how the song should be performed. In those performances one of the recurring sight gags was Ray putting on a yellow CAT hat every time he'd play the part of the witness who'd tell his wife, Ethel, not to look. Don't Look, Ethel is one of several catch-phrases synonymous with Ray. However, in this performance from 2015, he performs "The Streak" as it was originally recorded, give or take an added line here or there, but there's no CAT hat involvement.

Ray Stevens is the GOAT!

Yes oh yes Ray Stevens is the GOAT!! We've been hearing that acronym for a number of years...it means Greatest of All-Time...and it's most often applied to athletes. The acronym had the lion's share of coverage in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl this year. The game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was played yesterday evening. Well, all over sports media the GOAT acronym was being bestowed upon the Tampa Bay quarterback who'd previously spent nearly 20 years with New England Patriots. In the realm of country comedy/southern humor Ray Stevens is the GOAT. Enshrinement into the Country Music Hall of Fame had been elusive for a number of years but he ultimately was elected as a member in 2019...after having sold millions of singles, albums, home videos, DVD, and after racking up millions of unique views of his on-line music videos. He not only is the GOAT but he can do vocal impressions of apes, pigs, cows, and chickens, too. 

In keeping with the overall theme of the GOAT and Tampa Bay I'm going to do something rare and embed an audio clip of a Ray Stevens song that doesn't come from Ray's official YouTube channel. This audio clip is of a song Ray recorded in 1980, "You're Never Goin' To Tampa With Me". The song isn't necessarily about Tampa Bay, Florida but within the song's lyrics several Florida cities are mentioned and the story takes place in Florida...but once you hear it you'll understand that it isn't a song that's all about Tampa Bay. It's a cleverly written song.

"You're Never Goin' To Tampa With Me", as you can tell from the screen cap in the video, comes from Ray's 1980 comedy album, Shriner's Convention. In addition to my believing Ray Stevens to be the GOAT of country comedy, and, in addition to this song having lyrical mentions of Florida, there was a stoppage of play in the Super Bowl yesterday when a partial streaker ran on the field! By partial I mean the guy was wearing what looked like a pink bathing suit with black shorts. As he ran down the field he began removing the shorts and I believe, if he hadn't been tackled near the end zone, he'd have slipped off the pink suit. The CBS television broadcasters didn't give him much notice...as they didn't want to legitimize the moment...but the national radio broadcaster, Kevin Harlan, did a play-by-play of the streaker running down the field describing how he was evading and dodging security guards from the left and the right side of the field until finally being tackled a few inches shy of the end zone. What will perhaps be a memorable play-by-play is his hollering at the streaker from the broadcast booth to pull up his pants and be a man. Kevin's broadcast is on YouTube. 

Almost immediately after this incident happened at the Super Bowl the various social media sites were linking it to Ray's 1974 hit, "The Streak", and sharing the 1992 music video Ray put together. It was surreal was it was happening. I was watching the game and all of the sudden I hear a roar and cheer from the limited audience and the television broadcaster said someone had gotten onto the field. The camera was taping what was going on, but only briefly, and then the camera began panning over the football players as the off-camera activity was going on. As mentioned in my previous paragraph the television broadcast didn't make much of it but Kevin Harlan's radio broadcast gave the listeners a play-by-play of how the partial streaker almost scored a touchdown. 

Now, then, Ray Stevens is in my opinion the GOAT when it comes to country/southern comedy. So, of course, I'm closing out this blog entry with Ray's 1992 music video of "The Streak" since it uniquely fits into the overall conversation of the Super Bowl, Tampa Bay, and streaking...

 

Ray Stevens: The 40 Year Streak...

Usually in my first blog post(s) of a new year I spotlight specific songs/albums from Ray Stevens that are going to reach some sort of milestone. 2014 is no exception! This is the year that "The Streak" hits 40...debuting in the spring of 1974 comes a song that ultimately became the biggest selling single of his career and has taken on a life of it's own. "The Streak" might seem outrageous to the ears of politically correct consumers, baffling to others, and annoying to some...but the idea of the song ties directly to a real life trend taking place at college campuses and eventually at sporting events where people ran nude through a crowd and although history loves to state that the trend/fad had no real impact on society, the truth is it did...millions upon millions of people talked about streakers, perhaps even thought about streaking themselves, or became aware of streaking by way of the Academy Awards (a streaker ran behind David Nivens). I've never read too much about the ordeal in any in depth sort of way (which might sound surprising considering how streaking impacted Ray's career at the time).

There has long been a feeling that the streaker had been planted for shock value by the producers; but whether or not the streaker was planned or if it was spontaneous, the reaction and attention it gained impacted "The Streak" in a profound way. The humor is decidedly low-brow, which, believe it or not, is one of the chief criticisms leveled against it from music critics both professional and amateur. I feel that the humor and it's delivery is perfect for the subject matter.

Ray's single hit on March 27, 1974 and the Oscar streaker ordeal aired on April 2, 1974...talk about incredible timing, luck, and good fortune on Ray's part!! The single entered the pop chart on April 7, 1974 and reached #1 for the first of three weeks on May 18th.

The song became an international hit. Here in the United States, as mentioned, it reached #1 on the Pop chart and stayed at the top for 3 weeks. It also reached the Top-5 on the Country Music chart and the Top-20 on the Adult-Contemporary chart. Internationally it hit #1 in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and on Canada's three music charts ranking the Pop, Country, and Adult-Contemporary singles. It reached the runner up position in Australia and Ireland.

An official music video emerged in 1992 when it became one of the eight music videos contained in a home video from Ray titled Comedy Video Classics. Technically there are 7 comedy videos and then there's the final one of the collection, "Everything is Beautiful", the only serious song of the group.