Ray Stevens - Everything Is Beautiful/Unreal!!!
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CD Details
Artist: Ray StevensEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2005-05-17
Music Label: Collectables
Soundtracks:
- Everything Is Beautiful
- A Brighter Day
- Early In The Morning
- Get Together
- Leaving On A Jet Plane
- Raindrops Keep FallinÂ? On My Head
- Love Theme from Â?Romeo and JulietÂ? (A Time For Us)
- She Belongs To Me
- She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
- Something
- Walk A Mile In My Shoes
- America Communicate With Me
- Can We Get To That
- Come Around
- Dream Girl
- Imitation Of Life
- Islands
- Loving You On Paper
- Night People
- Monkey See Monkey Do
- Talking
- Sunset Strip
Music reviews of Everything Is Beautiful/Unreal!!!
Music Review: Back in 1970...
Rating: 5 Stars
I feel silly...i bought this CD 2 years ago and just now am reviewing it. Anyway, when the CD was released, combining Ray's first two albums for the Barnaby label, it was the 35th anniversary of their release. The albums both go back to 1970. The first 11 songs come from EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL which was named after his Grammy winning #1 pop hit of the same name. The single, like all singles in that era in both pop and country, was the centerpiece of the album. This isn't to say the remaining 10 songs are inferior, though. Far from it. Ray tackles several contemporary pop songs on this album. We hear Ray's versions of "Something", "Walk a Mile in My Shoes", "Get Together", "Leaving on a Jet Plane", and a few more. The first two songs, "Everything is Beautiful" and "A Brighter Day", were the A and B sides of the commercial single out at the time and both written by Ray. The songs on EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL are of mixed tempo's. I'm not much of an expert in sound quality but to me the songs sound wonderful. EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL is also noted for it containing "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head", which Ray originally turned down in 1969 and the song was recorded by B.J Thomas for the 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' movie. However, Ray apparently had a change of heart about the song and recorded it for EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL. The arrangement is almost similar to the arrangement B.J Thomas used. The rest of the 11 songs are from UNREAL...another quality album and an album almost written entirely by Ray himself. Only two songs on here were NOT written by Ray and those are: "Come Around" and "Talking". The songwriter credits show Ray's brother, John Ragsdale, as the writer of "Talking". There are a lot of horns and other instruments utilized on these recordings...specifically making efforts for an all-around pop feel. "America, Communicate With Me" i think is a great account of the conflicts and emotions that were rampant in 1970 America...Ray doesn't take sides in this cleverly written summarization of current events. There is a funky song on here, but it isn't a novelty song...it's track number 20, "Monkey See, Monkey Do", which is basically a song about how people conduct their lives. "Talking" is a brilliant war song...other songs on UNREAL that use socially aware lyrics are "Can We Get To That", "Come Around", and a second war song, "Loving You On Paper". The song, "Night People", to me is a haunting song that i think is about a couple who aren't too lovey-dovey but for the sake of propriety remain an item because divorce would look bad in social circles and the couple deal with their animosity and failed marriage by running around with friends partying and being people of the night: "...all the world's a stage; and the audience is waiting just outside the door...and as you put on your make-up and paint a smile just like you've did so many times before; and i'll wear my silly grin, let the babysitter in, leave on the front porch light, kiss the kids goodnight; for their sakes we'll cover up the fact at the party where we'll try and counteract and hide all our mistakes with charm intact; yeah, time for us to go into our act...". The CD closes with "Sunset Strip", which can be seen as a homage to the sounds of Brian Wilson and Beach Boys music...the high tenor in the background by Ray and the song about the west coast lifestyle...well, the romantic image of the west coast lifestyle with such lines like "all the happy hearts are here; with their minds all free and clear...". It was a great recording. A lot of the singles from these 1970 albums were hits on the then-obscure easy listening format which is now widely known as Adult Contemporary music now. The Middle of the Road charts, MOR for short, is where Ray had his best chart placings when compared to the Hot 100 placings of his singles. "America, Communicate With Me" for example almost reached the pop Top-40, peaking at #45 but on the Easy Listening chart, the same single reached #12. "Sunset Strip" peaked at #81 pop but managed a more better #17 placing on the Easy Listening chart. This is why going with Hot 100 statistics can do a disservice to Ray because a critic or a historian may look and say "well, Sunset Strip only hit #81...it must've not been any good" when it fact it's a good song...but didn't catch the ear of the target audience at Top-40 pop radio as it did the listening audience of MOR radio and the chart placings of the same song on two separate formats show that. Here's some trivia about UNREAL. This UNREAL album was recorded in early 1970 and was ready for release but then news of Ray having a summer TV show put UNREAL on hold and the focus was on "Everything is Beautiful" which Ray wrote for his upcoming summer TV show and had released to radio a month or two before the TV show hit the air. Then, when the single exploded on the airwaves and was reaching a million in sales, Barnaby released an EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL album...that, in my opinion, is why the majority of that album contains cover songs by Ray instead of new material...Barnaby wanted something out there in LP format to tie in with the single, "Everything is Beautiful". So, after the success faded from EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL, Barnaby released UNREAL in late 1970.
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