This recording from Ray Stevens comes from 1959. It's the B-side of "My Heart Cries For You". Ray recorded for the NRC label during 1959 and 1960 prior to his joining Mercury Records in 1961 and his almost instant super-stardom with the label.
My main blog page is nothing but Ray Stevens oriented.
4/2/11 RobGems.ca wrote: These pre- "Ahab The Arab" records by Ray Stevens are pretty rare. Originally issued 1959-1961 for Bill Lowery & his NRC label(who also had Joe South on his roster for a brief time), the closest Ray had a hit for NRC was "Sgt. Preston Of The Yukon" (1961), but just as it started to edge it's way into the Top 100, the original radio & TV actor who played Sgt. Preston (Richard Simmons, the Hollywood actor, not the fitness guru)put a cease-and-desist on the record's official release, thus killing the chances of it to move beyond a regional promotion. Discouraged, if not undeterred, Ray moved on to Mercury Records & Shelby Singleton for guidance to his future to superstardom. There were 6 NRC releases in all, none of them, other than "Sgt. Preston" selling outside of Atlanta, Georgia (where he was always popular in his early years), some of them being leased over to the Bahari Brothers at Modern/Crown Records to issue as a one-sided album release cheaply (As the "Ray Stevens & Hal Winters" LP issued in 1963 to cash in on his Mercury success.) Today, "Sgt. Preston" remains something of a cult favorite, the block by Mr. Simmons lapsed long after the actor's passing in 1984.the other NRC releases are rare collectors' items,long out-of-print.
4/2/11 RobGems.ca wrote: These pre- "Ahab The Arab" records by Ray Stevens are pretty rare. Originally issued 1959-1961 for Bill Lowery & his NRC label(who also had Joe South on his roster for a brief time), the closest Ray had a hit for NRC was "Sgt. Preston Of The Yukon" (1961), but just as it started to edge it's way into the Top 100, the original radio & TV actor who played Sgt. Preston (Richard Simmons, the Hollywood actor, not the fitness guru)put a cease-and-desist on the record's official release, thus killing the chances of it to move beyond a regional promotion. Discouraged, if not undeterred, Ray moved on to Mercury Records & Shelby Singleton for guidance to his future to superstardom. There were 6 NRC releases in all, none of them, other than "Sgt. Preston" selling outside of Atlanta, Georgia (where he was always popular in his early years), some of them being leased over to the Bahari Brothers at Modern/Crown Records to issue as a one-sided album release cheaply (As the "Ray Stevens & Hal Winters" LP issued in 1963 to cash in on his Mercury success.) Today, "Sgt. Preston" remains something of a cult favorite, the block by Mr. Simmons lapsed long after the actor's passing in 1984.the other NRC releases are rare collectors' items,long out-of-print.
3 comments:
This recording from Ray Stevens comes from 1959. It's the B-side of "My Heart Cries For You". Ray recorded for the NRC label during 1959 and 1960 prior to his joining Mercury Records in 1961 and his almost instant super-stardom with the label.
My main blog page is nothing but Ray Stevens oriented.
4/2/11
RobGems.ca wrote:
These pre- "Ahab The Arab" records by Ray Stevens are pretty rare. Originally issued 1959-1961 for Bill Lowery & his NRC label(who also had Joe South on his roster for a brief time), the closest Ray had a hit for NRC was "Sgt. Preston Of The Yukon" (1961), but just as it started to edge it's way into the Top 100, the original radio & TV actor who played Sgt. Preston (Richard Simmons, the Hollywood actor, not the fitness guru)put a cease-and-desist on the record's official release, thus killing the chances of it to move beyond a regional promotion. Discouraged, if not undeterred, Ray moved on to Mercury Records & Shelby Singleton for guidance to his future to superstardom. There were 6 NRC releases in all, none of them, other than "Sgt. Preston" selling outside of Atlanta, Georgia (where he was always popular in his early years), some of them being leased over to the Bahari Brothers at Modern/Crown Records to issue as a one-sided album release cheaply (As the "Ray Stevens & Hal Winters" LP issued in 1963 to cash in on his Mercury success.) Today, "Sgt. Preston" remains something of a cult favorite, the block by Mr. Simmons lapsed long after the actor's passing in 1984.the other NRC releases are rare collectors' items,long out-of-print.
4/2/11
RobGems.ca wrote:
These pre- "Ahab The Arab" records by Ray Stevens are pretty rare. Originally issued 1959-1961 for Bill Lowery & his NRC label(who also had Joe South on his roster for a brief time), the closest Ray had a hit for NRC was "Sgt. Preston Of The Yukon" (1961), but just as it started to edge it's way into the Top 100, the original radio & TV actor who played Sgt. Preston (Richard Simmons, the Hollywood actor, not the fitness guru)put a cease-and-desist on the record's official release, thus killing the chances of it to move beyond a regional promotion. Discouraged, if not undeterred, Ray moved on to Mercury Records & Shelby Singleton for guidance to his future to superstardom. There were 6 NRC releases in all, none of them, other than "Sgt. Preston" selling outside of Atlanta, Georgia (where he was always popular in his early years), some of them being leased over to the Bahari Brothers at Modern/Crown Records to issue as a one-sided album release cheaply (As the "Ray Stevens & Hal Winters" LP issued in 1963 to cash in on his Mercury success.) Today, "Sgt. Preston" remains something of a cult favorite, the block by Mr. Simmons lapsed long after the actor's passing in 1984.the other NRC releases are rare collectors' items,long out-of-print.
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