Search - Ray Stevens :: Nashville/Boogity Boogity

Hoo-ray for Ray!

Jerry McDaniel | 09/23/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This double album CD is a MUST...a MUST...for ALL fans of Ray Stevens!! Not only is this project a combination of two of his best albums, it's ALSO the only place to find a huge chunk of these songs on CD. Collectables Records distributed this CD. It combines Ray's 1973 "Nashville" album with his 1974 "Boogity-Boogity" album. There's 20 songs on here and the ONLY drawback is that there are no liner notes. It would have been fun to read about these two albums or perhaps read Ray's thoughts about some of the songs but there's no liner notes which kind of is a let down...BUT the music more than makes up for it. The first 11 songs from "Nashville" spotlighted, at the time, the country side of Ray. Back in 1973, Ray was hitting the Hot 100 pop and Adult-Contemporary charts much more than country...BUT, this isn't to say "Nashville" is a totally country album either. There's a lot of pop arrangements on these songs...that even in 1973 would've been considered pop...such as "Golden Age" or the funky "Nobody's Fool". Keeping with the country side, Ray gives us "Nashville", which hit the country Top-40...plus we have the cheatin' song "Love Me Longer" and the full-on positive love song "Undivided Attention". I love "Never Ending Song of Love". The arrangement is did very up-tempo and it's hilarious...the closest thing on this album to a novelty song. "Fish Eat Sleep" is a lullaby! Don't let the title fool you! The longest song on the "Nashville" album is "You've Got the Music Inside", which clocks in at 4 minutes and 45 seconds. He re-recorded this in 1978, at mid-tempo and is much shorter. The second album on this CD, "Boogity-Boogity", is all-comedy. It was thrown together in 1974 to support the single "The Streak". "Smith and Jones" was his other streaking song and it's MORE funny than "The Streak". But "The Streak" was the big hit and it sold over 5 million copies...hitting #1 pop and #1 in the UK and hitting the country Top-10. The other hits from here were "The Moonlight Special", hit 1974 spoof of the TV show "The Midnight Special". Ray does his impersonations of Wolfman Jack; Jerry Lee Lewis; and a Gladys Knight R&B group called Mildred Queen and the Dips. "Bridget the Midget" was actually a hit for Ray in 1970...it hit the pop charts here and hit #2 in England. It was included, obviously, because this was a novelty album and Barnaby {the label Ray was on at the time} was looking for material as filler. "Boogity-Boogity" by the way is the phrase that's sung on "The Streak"... 'here he comes, boogity-boogity....there he goes...boogity-boogity...'. All in all, this double album CD is like i earlier said, a MUST for all Ray Stevens fans!!!"