1,837 Seconds of Humor is the debut album of Ray Stevens, released in 1962. The front of the album shows a sheik that rides a camel, which is a reference to Stevens' song "Ahab the Arab." All of the material on the album was written by Ray Stevens and published by Lowery Music Co., Inc. (BMI). The back of the album cover contains an essay of biographical information of Stevens from his youth in his hometown of Clarkdale, Georgia to the time of this album's release and gives brief descriptions of all the songs on the album. Four singles were lifted from the album: "Jeremiah Peabody's Poly Unsaturated Quick Dissolving Fast Acting Pleasant Tasting Green and Purple Pills", "Scratch My Back ", "Ahab the Arab", and "Further More."
This Is Ray Stevens is the second album by Ray Stevens. It was released in 1963 by Mercury Records on the catalog numbers of MG 20828 and MG 60828. Like Stevens' previous album, 1,837 Seconds of Humor, all of the songs were written by Ray Stevens and published by Lowery Music Company, Inc. (BMI). The differences between both albums is that Stevens makes an attempt to prove his artistic versatility on this album by including six comical novelty songs and six ballads of serious music.
"Ahab the Arab" is a novelty song written and recorded by Ray Stevens in 1962. In the song, Arab is pronounced "Ay-rab" to rhyme with Ahab. The hero of the story is Clyde the camel and Stevens has made references to Clyde numerous times throughout his career.
"Everything Is Beautiful" is a song written, composed, and performed by Ray Stevens. It has appeared on many of Stevens' albums, including one named after the song, and has become a pop standard and common in religious performances. The children heard singing the chorus of the song, using the hymn, "Jesus Loves the Little Children", are from the Oak Hill Elementary School in Nashville, Tennessee. This group includes Stevens' two daughters.
The song was responsible for two wins at the Grammy Awards of 1971: Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for Ray Stevens and Grammy Award for Best Inspirational Performance for Jake Hess. Stevens' recording was the Number 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in the summer of 1970. The song also spent three weeks atop the adult contemporary chart. Many country stations played the song, with it peaking at number 39 on Billboard's chart. Billboard ranked the record as the No. 12 song of 1970. The song includes anti-racist and pro-tolerance lyrics such as "We shouldn't care 'bout the length of his hair/Or the color of his skin."
Gitarzan was Ray Stevens' fourth studio album, released in 1969, as well as his second for Monument Records. Unlike his previous album, Even Stevens, this album is completely in the genres of novelty and comedy. Although this is a true studio album, all of the songs are overdubbed with cheering and applauding of an audience to provide the feeling of a live album. Contents include three of the Coasters' hits, "Mr. Custer," and "Alley Oop." The album also contains re-recordings of his two novelty hits, "Harry the Hairy Ape" and "Ahab the Arab." "Freddie Feelgood " makes its first appearance on an album but is overdubbed with audience noises for this album.
Everything Is Beautiful was Ray Stevens' sixth studio album, released in 1970, as well as his first for Barnaby Records. After making regular appearances on The Andy Williams Show during the show's eleventh season, Stevens left Monument Records in early 1970 and signed with Barnaby .
The album was rush-released to capitalize on the success of the single of the same name, which was the album's sole single. Cover versions include "Get Together," "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," John Denver's hit "Leaving on a Jet Plane," "A Time for Us," Bob Dylan's song "She Belongs to Me," and two of the Beatles' songs.
Boogity Boogity was Ray Stevens' eleventh studio album, released in 1974, as well as his sixth for Barnaby Records. For this album, Stevens returns to the genres of novelty and comedy. The album was released to capitalize on the success of his hit single "The Streak", which was inspired by the fad of streaking during that time period. Stevens' two songs, "Freddie Feelgood " and "Bagpipes That's My Bag," were taken from his album Gitarzan and were reissued on this album. The front of the album cover shows Stevens running in a blur, seemingly in the nude, and also contains the phrases "Woosh!!" and "Don't look Ethel!" the latter of which is part of the lyrics to the primary single of the album.
Have a Little Talk With Myself is the fifth studio album by Ray Stevens and his third and final for Monument Records, released in 1969. Stevens left Monument in early 1970 and signed with Andy Williams' Barnaby Records label. This album is quite unique from Stevens' previous albums, as he concentrates more on interpreting the works of other composers' songs and only contributes two of his own compositions. Cover versions include Bob Dylan's "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight," The First Edition's hit "But You Know I Love You," two songs from the musical Hair, three songs of the Beatles, Blood, Sweat & Tears' hit "Spinning Wheel," and Joe South's hit "Games People Play."
Ray Stevens...Unreal!!! was the seventh studio album of Ray Stevens and his second for Barnaby Records, released in 1970. Two singles were lifted from the album and were moderately successful on the Hot 100 pop singles chart. Each single reached the Top-20 on the Billboard Adult-Contemporary chart, indicating that Stevens' appeal, even as early as 1970, lay with the adult music buyers rather than the kids and teenagers. All but two of the tracks were written by Stevens himself, with one of the others, "Talking," being written by Stevens's brother, John Ragsdale.
Turn Your Radio On was Ray Stevens' eighth studio album and his third for Barnaby Records, released in 1972. Unlike Stevens' previous album releases, this album shows Stevens' spiritual side and was his first album of gospel. The fourth track, "Let Your Love Be a Light unto the People", was written by Stevens' brother, John Ragsdale. The sixth track, "Have a Little Talk With Myself," was taken from Stevens' album of the same name. The album includes four singles, three of which were issued before this album's release: "A Mama and a Papa," the traditional gospel song "All My Trials," the title track, and "Love Lifted Me", the last of which did not chart.
Losin' Streak is Ray Stevens' ninth studio album and his fourth for Barnaby Records, released in 1973. The second track is a re-recording of one of Stevens' songs that was included on his second album, This Is Ray Stevens (1963). Cover versions include the Everly Brothers' hit "Bye Bye Love" and singer/songwriter Freddie Hart's hit "Easy Lovin'." Both the album and the title track unfortunately failed to chart.
Misty was Ray Stevens' twelfth studio album as well as being his seventh and final for Barnaby Records. It was released in 1975. This album contains primarily cover versions of various songs that were popular from the 1920s to the 1950s, though there are two original songs for the album as well. Four singles were lifted from the album: the title track, "Indian Love Call," "Young Love," and "Mockingbird Hill".
Be Your Own Best Friend was Ray Stevens' sixteenth studio album as well as his fourth and final for Warner Bros. Records, released in 1978. The third track, "You've Got the Music Inside," is a re-recording of a track that was from Stevens' 1973 album Nashville.
The Very Best of Ray Stevens is a collection of 12 previously released singles that were hits for novelty/country artist, Ray Stevens; it was released in December 1975 by Barnaby Records. While this collection has more emphasis on Stevens' hits for Barnaby, it also contains three from the label of Monument Records and two from Mercury Records. The version of "Mr. Businessman" is the single release. "Gitarzan" is the album version that begins with an audience cheering and applauding. "Ahab the Arab" is the original recording that was released by Mercury.
Greatest Hits is a collection of ten previously released singles by Ray Stevens, released in 1983 by RCA Records. This collection contains three singles that were released by Monument Records, four by Barnaby Records, and two by RCA. One of the selections is not an original recording; "Ahab the Arab" is a re-recording of Stevens' 1962 hit for Mercury Records that was included on his album Gitarzan, which was released by Monument in 1969. Additionally, there are two selections featured on this collection that are album versions; "Gitarzan" is the album version that begins with cheering and applauding with an audience; "Freddie Feelgood" is the version that contains audience noises and was first featured on the album Gitarzan.
All-Time Greatest Hits is a collection of 23 songs that were previously recorded by Ray Stevens, released in 2001. Like many collections of Stevens' music, it concentrates 99% on recordings that were made for the record labels of Monument and Barnaby. The one exception is the first track, "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon," an unsuccessful hit that was released in 1960 by the NRC label. "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon" makes its first album appearance on this collection. The rest of the selections were recorded between the years of 1966 to 1975.
Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 is a collection of ten previously released singles by Ray Stevens, released in 1987. Of the selections of songs, three were recorded for the record label of Monument Records, four for Barnaby Records, one for RCA Records, and two for MCA Records. The version of "Gitarzan" is the album version that begins with cheering and applauding of an audience. The version of "Ahab the Arab" on this compilation is not the original recording but a re-recording that Stevens made for his album Gitarzan during his career with Monument.
Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 is a collection of ten previously released singles by Ray Stevens, released in 1987. It is the second volume of the Greatest Hits package of Stevens' music that was released by MCA Records. Of the ten selections on this volume, the fifth track, "Mama's in the Sky With Elvis," makes its first album appearance. Additionally, this collection consists of five recordings for MCA Records, two for Warner Bros. Records, two for Monument Records and one for Mercury Records.
20 Comedy Hits is a collection of previously recorded songs by Ray Stevens, released in 1995. The first, third, fourth and fifth tracks were included through the courtesy of Barnaby Records, for whom Stevens recorded during the early seventies. The selection of "Shriner's Convention" is a live version that was taken from the album Ray Stevens Live! "Gitarzan" is the album version that begins with audience noises, and "Ahab the Arab" is a re-recording of his 1962 hit for his album Gitarzan. The remaining tracks are selections that were recorded for Curb Records; of these selections, only two were released as singles and the rest served as album cuts. The sixth to ninth tracks were taken from the album Classic Ray Stevens, the tenth to thirteenth tracks from #1 With a Bullet, and the last seven from Lend Me Your Ears. Overall, it is not completely accurate to include the word "hits" in the title of this compilation, as it contains only seven songs that were previously released as singles and five of the seven made true impact on the charts.
