Search - Ray Stevens :: Collection

26 songs...

Jerry McDaniel | 09/20/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"i must warn anyone who buys this CD that the credits are all wrong. i don't know who layed this CD out but most of the songwriter's listed are under the wrong songs! for example: "Bridget the Midget" was written by Ray...but this CD has the song credited to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller...THEY actually wrote the song that comes before it on this CD, "Along Came Jones", track #3. Yet, THAT'S credited as a song written by Ray!! it looks like a computer error in which all the songwriter's names were inserted but they weren't lined up right...track #16, "Everything is Beautiful", in which everyone knows Ray Stevens wrote it...THAT'S credited to the people who wrote "Misty", Johnny Burke and Erroll Garner!! Another error is "Have a Little Talk With Myself". That was written by Ray, too, but Tom Autry is credited as the writer but he wrote the song before that, "A Mama and a Papa", which is track #10...this is sloppy preparation on a computer's part because i don't think it was intentionally botched like this...i mean, all the songwriter's names are presented...it's just that they're not under the right songs...If you can ignore these huge errors about who wrote what...you don't have a problem with this CD...unless you're the type who wants "original" recordings. These songs were all recorded in the late '60s to the mid '70s...which means that we're presented his early '60s Mercury hits via his 1969 remakes from the Monument album 'GITARZAN'...in other words, "Ahab the Arab", "Harry the Hairy Ape" and "Funny Man" are the late '60s remakes instead of the early '60s originals. The reason for this is money. Apparently Mercury, as i've often heard, is too expensive over song rights and so record companies are more apt to by-pass them and rally around the Monument and the Barnaby material...the fact that Ray re-recorded some of his early songs during his Barnaby stint makes it cheaper for contemporary record companies to grab those versions of his early hits instead of paying an arm and a leg for the originals...the 26 songs on this CD are divied between the comedy and serious. It's a 2 CD set...the first CD starts off with five comedy songs and then tracks #7, #8, and #9 are also comedy songs but everything else is serious; the second CD is nothing but serious songs...there are 13 songs on each CD...the bottom line is 8 songs are comedy and 18 are serious."