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Ray Stevens (born Harold Ray Ragsdale, January 24, 1939,^[2] Clarkdale, Georgia) is an American country music, pop singer-songwriter who has become known for his novelty songs as well as his involvement in the Tea Party movement. He was born in Clarkdale, a small town west of Atlanta.

Stevens' recording career began in the mid-1950s with two singles released on Prep Records. He then signed a contract with Capitol Records with the help of Atlanta, Georgia music maven Bill Lowery. In 1958, Stevens joined Lowery's National Recording Corporation (NRC), playing numerous instruments, arranging music, and performing background vocals for its band. After NRC filed for bankruptcy, he signed with Mercury Records with whom Stevens recorded a series of hit records in the 1960s that included songs such as "Ahab the Arab", "Harry the Hairy Ape", "Funny Man," the original recording of "Santa Claus is Watching You", and "Jeremiah Peabody's Polyunsaturated Quick-Dissolving, Fast-Acting Pleasant-Tasting Green and Purple Pills".

In 1966, Stevens signed with Monument Records and started to release serious material such as "Mr. Businessman" in 1968, a Top 30 hit, and "Have A Little Talk With Myself" and the original version of "Sunday Morning Coming Down" in 1969, which became Steven's first two singles to reach the country music charts. Stevens continued releasing novelty songs, and in 1969 he had a Top 10 pop hit with "Gitarzan". Stevens also became a regular on The Andy Williams Show during the 1969–1970 season, and he even hosted his own summer show, The Ray Stevens Show, in 1970.

As an A&R man, music producer, songwriter, and music arranger he assisted countless artists in the recording studio during his years at Mercury Records and Monument Records, 1961 through early 1970. Some of the acts he was associated with during that time period were Brenda Lee, Brook Benton, Patti Page, Joe Dowell, Dusty Springfield, and Dolly Parton. Stevens was a writer or co-writer of several songs those particular acts recorded. My True Confession, a Top-10 on the R&B chart in 1963 for Brook Benton, was written by Stevens and Margie Singleton. Stevens was the arranger for an obscure Doyle Holly recording titled My Heart Cries For You which had been recorded previously by Stevens during the late 1950's.

Starting in the 1970s, Stevens became a producer and well-known studio musician on the Nashville scene. He recorded songs for Barnaby Records and Warner Brothers during 1970–1979. Stevens' biggest hit in the US was his gospel-inflected single "Everything Is Beautiful" (1970). The single won a Grammy Award, was the theme song for his summer 1970 TV show, hit #1 on both the pop and Adult-Contemporary charts, and marked his first time in the Top 40 on the country charts, peaking at #39. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.^[3] His other 1970 singles were "America, Communicate With Me" and "Sunset Strip". Each of those songs made a big impact with adults, reaching the Top-20 on the Adult-Contemporary lists. His novelty song "Bridget the Midget (The Queen of The Blues)" made #2 on the UK chart in 1971 and in the US it reached #50. Stevens had a gospel/country hit single in early 1972 with Albert E. Brumley's "Turn Your Radio On", reaching the country Top 20. Two more of Steven's songs in 1972 were also minor pop hits, "A Mama and a Papa" and "All My Trials," but both crossed over to the Top 40 Adult-Contemporary lists. In 1973, Stevens had a top 40 country hit with the title track of his album "Nashville." In 1974, Stevens recorded perhaps his most famous hit, "The Streak", which poked fun at the early-1970s fad of running nude in public, known as "streaking". It made No. 1 in both the UK and the USA and No. 3 on the country chart. Steven's tenure with Barnaby came to an end in early 1976. In 1975, he released the Grammy-winning "Misty", which became his biggest country hit (reaching #3 on the country charts and #14 on the pop charts); he also entered the country Top 40 with a doo-wop version of "Indian Love Call", "Everybody Needs a Rainbow", and a ballad version of "Young Love" in early 1976.

Stevens joined Warner Brothers in 1976, where his debut was a strong showing with three hit singles in a row. The first was the up-tempo version of "You Are So Beautiful", which reached the country Top 20, then "Honky Tonk Waltz", which reached the Top 30. He then released a novelty single: under the pseudonym "Henhouse Five Plus Too," Stevens recorded a version of Glenn Miller's "In The Mood" in the style of a clucking chicken; it became a Top 40 hit in the US and UK in early 1977. In 1978 he had a hit with "Be Your Own Best Friend" on the country charts, and in 1979 he had a hit on the Hot 100 pop chart with the novelty "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow", which he released from the album The Feeling's Not Right Again. He joined RCA in late 1979, releasing new material in 1980.

After joining RCA in 1980, Stevens continued having hit singles, but with somewhat less success than in the previous decade. His debut single, the Top 10 "Shriner's Convention" and then the Top 20 love ballad "Night Games" performed relatively well on the charts. In 1981, only one single made the charts, the Top 40 hit "One More Last Chance." In 1982, after he had released a few more singles, notably the Top 40 "Written Down in My Heart", Stevens left RCA and returned to Mercury Records, the label that made him a star in the early 1960s. This resulted in only one album, the 1983 project Me, and only one chart hit, "My Dad", in early 1984.

Stevens then joined MCA in 1984 as a "country comedy" act and thereafter released only novelty song albums. The fan-voted Music City News awards named Stevens Comedian of the Year annually for nine consecutive years from 1986 to 1994. However, Stevens' singles were no longer making the Top 40 charts as they were considered comedy–novelty...and country radio resisted playing songs that were not serious. A few of Stevens' commercial singles charted on the Single Sales charts during this time, but only one single, "Mississippi Squirrel Revival", actually made it to the radio-dominated Top 40. "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" reached the Top 20, making that his final single to hit the Top-40 portion of the country singles chart. "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex" is the only single during his 1984–1989 stint on MCA that came close to reaching the Top 40, stalling at #41 in 1987. Second to that, the other single close to hitting the Top 40 on the country chart was the #45 hit "The Haircut Song" in 1985.

Ironically, though, even with the lack of airplay for his comical songs his comedy albums were enjoying widespread success. His first series of albums for MCA all made the country charts with several of them remaining on the charts for months at a time. His first two albums for MCA reached the Top-5...with I Have Returned hitting the top spot in early 1986. Afterward his albums routinely peaked in the middle of the charts. A 1987 Greatest Hits album became a platinum seller while several other releases achieved gold status. One of the trademarks of Stevens' string of comedy albums were the photo shoots. For example...on one album he's dressed up as Napoleon Bonaparte, on another he's humpty dumpty, and on another he's dressed as General MacArthur. It was quite obvious that Stevens' lack of airplay wasn't affecting his ability to sell records nor was it diminishing his popularity. It was also beneficial that there were national shows like Hee-Haw and a variety of programs on The Nashville Network that frequently gave exposure to all forms of country music, commercial or not.

Stevens left MCA in 1989 for Curb/Capitol Records. His first release arrived in 1990. The two labels would split up soon after and Curb Records would continue releasing material on Ray. His All-Time Greatest Comic Hits, a compilation project released by Curb in 1990, became a gold album by mid decade. Lend Me Your Ears and #1 With a Bullet were released in 1990 and 1991 respectively. The latter featured the satirical hit "Working for the Japanese" in which Stevens sings about an exaggerated plight of the American economy and how our dollars are boosting overseas economies instead of our own. 1991 marked the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

The decade of the '90s was marked with a lot of new directions for Stevens. The most ambitious being the opening of his own theater in Branson, Missouri in 1991 which had been under construction since early 1991. The theater business had been steadily growing in the small Missouri town of Branson for a period of years and by the time Stevens began building his theater the area was reaching it's peak. Stevens benefited from the theater boom largely because his stage show was vastly different from everyone else. His reputation as a comedian and as an all-around entertainer meant that for most tourists his show was one of destination spots. Stevens also embarked on a music video career during his early years in Branson. The idea to sell home videos began when he became aware that a home video being sold only at his theater was becoming popular. Some of the music videos were played on a large jumbo screen at his theater and the crowd reaction indicated that there may be a future in selling music videos which had never really been considered a profitable avenue.

The spring and summer of 1992 marked the explosion of Stevens' idea when his Comedy Video Classics became a million selling home video accomplished through direct marketing and television advertisements. Commercials for Stevens' home video aired countless times throughout 1992...mostly in the morning hours and often during late-night. Branson was also experiencing it's highest commercial peak in the summer and fall of both 1992 and 1993 and all of the sudden Ray Stevens was back in the national media once again with his enormously successful home video and music theater. In the midst of all the success, though, Stevens closed down his theater after the 1993 season citing exhaustion and monotony. The daily grind got the best of him what with doing two shows a day, six days a week, for 5 to 6 months at a time. Several of his performances at his theater were filmed and surfaced in home video form. Ray Stevens Live! became another hit home video in 1993 following the same path of Comedy Video Classics. Meanwhile, Comedy Video Classics had become available for retail distribution and it became a big seller all over again. It became so huge during 1993 that it was named Home Video of the Year by Billboard magazine. Classic Ray Stevens was issued soon after. This was the first audio release from Stevens since early 1991. The album's title didn't mean that the material contained were previously recorded songs...instead the album's title was a reference to the classical looking photo shoot which features a bust of Ray Stevens mocking Beethovan.

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