# Ray Stevens **URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880 **Category:** Cafe Society **Created:** [September 20, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880 "2009-09-20T22:08:35Z") **Posts on this page:** 20 **Page:** 1
### Author: ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem) #### Post date: [September 20, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/1 "2009-09-20T22:08:35Z")
This man **always** makes me laugh!😃 [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdbktulCOFw) Once, while still in radio, I got the chance to speak to him on the phone. (He lent his voice in support for a charity I was involved in: The Cystic Fibrosis Telethon. At THAT time we called it “The 65 Roses Telethon” - which was a misunderstood version of the charity by a child with the disease - and MANY florists in Carrollton made sure we had THAT many roses in the studio!). Anyway… Ray spoke with me on the phone and let me record his voice, and he made a mistake, which he apologized **PROFUSELY** for: He said: “Cystis Fibrokik”. Bless you, **Ray Stevens**! You were a friend to “The German Boy” ever since _Ahab The Arab_! Yeah, I know: Not PC these days, is it? Sorry! Could we just laugh at ourselves sometimes, then? Love, Quasi ---
### Author: ![Fritz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Fritz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fritz) #### Post date: [September 20, 2009, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/2 "2009-09-20T22:52:12Z")
The first that I heard him was when “Guitarzan” was released way back when. Been a fan ever since. ---
### Author: ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63) #### Post date: [September 20, 2009, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/3 "2009-09-20T23:02:38Z")
Guitarzan is one of those songs that, when you’re ten years old, makes you do cartwheels all over the living room till you break something and your mom forces you to go outside. “Shut up, baby, I’m trying to sing.” Comic genius! ---
### Author: ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem) #### Post date: [September 20, 2009, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/4 "2009-09-20T23:21:59Z")
Mein _WEIF_ loves it when I imitate the monkey “singin’ Boogie-Woogie”! I rub my head and pat my belly at that point!🙂 Cracks her up every time! 🙂 Thanks! Quas’ ---
### Author: ![Fritz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Fritz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fritz) #### Post date: [September 20, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/5 "2009-09-20T23:37:45Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > Mein _WEIF_ loves it when I imitate the monkey “singin’ Boogie-Woogie”! > > I rub my head and pat my belly at that point!🙂 > > Cracks her up every time! 🙂 > > Thanks! > > Quas’ It was the monkey that got me every time. Still does! His newer stuff is funny as hell too! ---
### Author: ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio) #### Post date: [September 20, 2009, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/6 "2009-09-20T23:53:30Z")
I just don’t find his songs to be all that funny. Also, he has a lot of heavy set women in his videos. What’s up with that? ---
### Author: ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela) #### Post date: [September 21, 2009, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/7 "2009-09-21T00:17:42Z")
"He’d blow up flat tires to keep his lungs in shape And his face would turn purple like a big fat grape Ev’ry time he cut out on the chorus of “Clare de Lou” Loved his stuff - was there ever an episode of ‘Doctor Demento’ that didn’t feature at least one of Ray Stevens’ compositions? A happy memory from a simpler time… ---
### Author: ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx) #### Post date: [September 21, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/8 "2009-09-21T00:47:39Z")
And I screamed “DON’T LOOK ETHEL, but it was too late she already got a free shot.” ---
### Author: ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane) #### Post date: [September 21, 2009, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/9 "2009-09-21T01:10:57Z")
Thanks, Quasi, for this thread. Ray has done so many hilarious tunes, from The Streak to Moonlight Special. One of my favorites is this one: [I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND70UGwGP3E). A dead on parody, it has all the overblown melodrama of a genuine Manilow song and name-drops so many of his song titles. Carrying on the parody, it’s from the album **The Feeling’s Gone Again,** which came out about the same time as Manilow’s album **Trying to Get the Feeling Again.** ---
### Author: ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill) #### Post date: [September 21, 2009, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/10 "2009-09-21T02:47:27Z")
**Ahab the Arab** was one of the first 45s I ever owned. ---
### Author: ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady) #### Post date: [September 21, 2009, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/11 "2009-09-21T03:16:19Z")
His songs always made the best titles for Charades. Especially Ned Nostril (and His South Seas Paradise, Put Your Blues on Ice Cheap at Twice the Price Band–Icky Icky Ucky Ucky.) ---
### Author: ![Countrypolitan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/858c86/32.png) [@Countrypolitan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Countrypolitan) #### Post date: [September 21, 2009, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/12 "2009-09-21T03:24:15Z")
I think the reason I like Southern Culture on the Skids so much is early exposure to Ray Stevens. Gotta love “The Streak”, “Shriner’s Convention”, “Mississippi Squirrel Revival”–all the classics! ---
### Author: ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone) #### Post date: [September 21, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/13 "2009-09-21T03:45:51Z")
Ray Stevens was, and is, the trick knee of country music. ---
### Author: ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem) #### Post date: [September 21, 2009, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/14 "2009-09-21T06:50:28Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Ray Stevens was, and is, the trick knee of country music. **OMG!** What a quote, **DZ!** You a “diver”? I used to be, but had to give it up, beccause I couldn’t meet the monthly jump requirement. Lost my job, etc.! 🙂 Thanks! Quasi ---
### Author: ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers) #### Post date: [September 21, 2009, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/15 "2009-09-21T14:04:06Z")
My husband’s a huge fan. It’s funny though - I bought him some Stevens CDs and one of Dr. Demento’s compendiums for his birthday a couple of years ago, and I think he’s only listened to them once. But maybe we just need a long roadtrip to pull them out again. ---
### Author: ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe) #### Post date: [September 21, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/16 "2009-09-21T17:42:40Z")
A friend of mine was a studio musician in Nashville who played guitar on “The Streak.” He tells an interesting story about the song. Ray Stevens was in Los Angeles at some event that got streaked. He called the studio in Nashville and said he was going to do a song on the subject. Stevens wrote part of the song in L.A. and phoned in what he had. Then he wrote and revised the rest of the song on the airplane back to Nashville and radioed in the updates. When the plane landed Stevens went right to the studio to record the song. The musicians were there waiting for him. ---
### Author: ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire) #### Post date: [September 21, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/17 "2009-09-21T18:09:50Z")
I think “The Mississippi Squirrel Revival” is like a great Dave Barry column converted to song. ---
### Author: ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem) #### Post date: [September 21, 2009, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/18 "2009-09-21T18:14:45Z")
… is his version (As the Hen House Five) of “In The Mood”. Couldn’t find it on youtube, though. Q ---
### Author: ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister) #### Post date: [September 21, 2009, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/19 "2009-09-21T20:42:42Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > … is his version (As the Hen House Five) of “In The Mood”. Couldn’t find it on youtube, though. > > Q [You mean this?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meqmRAgOYlc&feature=related) ---
### Author: ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem) #### Post date: [September 21, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880/20 "2009-09-21T21:18:38Z")
That thing is so totally cute, I did not even _look_ at any of the other versions on that page!😃 It’s going on the blog later this week! Thanks!🙂 Quasi [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-stevens/510880.md?page=2)