He didn't hit the charts again until 1961, with "Jeremiah Peabody's Polyunsaturated Quick-Dissolving Fast-Acting Pleasant-Tasting Green and Purple Pills", a novelty song about quack medicine. It was followed by "Ahab, the Arab", which took him to #5 pop. Throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s, his presence was hit-and-miss on the charts, although he made top 10 with "Gitarzan" and had a huge #1 hit with the non-humorous pop ballad "Everything Is Beautiful".
Stevens hit his stride in 1974 with "The Streak", a novelty song about, well, streaking. This song and a bluegrass cover of "Misty" were his biggest hits at country radio, where he maintained a hit-and-miss presence for the next several yearsnote . His last song to see the pop charts was "I Need Your Help Barry Manilow", which was followed by his last big country hit, "Shriner's Convention". He has continued to record throughout the 1980s and into the 2000s, constantly releasing albums despite not having anything resembling a hit. In 2010 with the rise of the "Tea Party" in American politics, he staged something of a mini-comeback, gaining a YouTube following with his release of several songs espousing right-wing political views.
Yet, despite his success as a novelty artist, he has always balanced the comedy songs with mainstream ballads and Christian country music. In 1975, he recorded an entire album of standards from the 1920s through 1950s called Misty, of which the title track was his biggest country hit, and also had a modestly popular hit with "Indian Love Call" (one of the co-writers was Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers' partner). His biggest hit overall, "Everything is Beautiful", was widely acclaimed as a plea for tolerance and unity, and several of his comedic releases had themes of repentance ("Mississippi Squirrel Revival") and humility ("Would Jesus Wear a Rolex"); he also has recorded an album of traditional and newer gospel hymns.
His daughter, Suzi Ragsdale, is a folk musician and occasional songwriter.
Not to be confused with the pro wrestler of this name, known also as "The Crippler".
Ray Stevens and his works provide examples of:
- Acid Reflux Nightmare: The events of "The Nightmare Before Christmas", mentioned further below, are a dream that the narrator has after eating too much fruitcake/pizza before bed.
- Acronym and Abbreviation Overload: "Gitarzan" briefly veers into this for comedic effect.He orderd Chet's guitar course C.O.D.note
Makes A and E and he's working on B, digs C&Wnote
And R&Bnote and me and the chimpan-zee agree
That one day soon he'll be a celebri-tee. - Affectionate Parody:
- "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow" is a light-hearted take on Barry Manilow's style.
- "Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens", a parody of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: In "Too Drunk To Fish", Ray's buddy, Harold, drinks so much booze that he mistakes the anchor line of Ray's boat for a snake, freaks out, grabs Ray's shotgun and attempts to shoot it, resulting in him blowing a hole in the bottom of the boat.HAROLD!
- Amazing Freaking Grace: He covers it on his 1995 live album.
- Ambiguous Syntax: "Little League":I remember batting practice — I put a baseball on a string
And I told this kid, "When I nod my head, haul off and hit that thing!"
Heh, gotta give him credit; he did exactly what I said
'Cause the second that I nodded, he hit me in the head! - Anti-Christmas Song: From Christmas Through a Different Window:
- "Guilt for Christmas" which contemplates about giving sorrow toward everyone Ray meets.
- "I Won't be Home for Christmas", where Ray complains about how all the members of one Dysfunctional Family invade his house on December 25.
- "Home for the Holidays" is the reverse of "I Won't be Home for Christmas"; Ray gets guilt-tripped into visiting a different Dysfunctional Family since his mother cries while bringing up Daddy's heart condition.
- "The Little Drummer Boy Next Door" has Ray complaining about a neighbor's kid playing his drums late into the evening. Once the kid's father takes away his drum set, things go From Bad to Worse...Oh, no! What kind of sadistic idiot would buy a kid a set of drums AND a trumpet for Christmas?
- "Santa Claus Is Watching You" brings up the Big Brother-ish
Fridge Logic attached to the old parental standby of Santa Claus knowing if a child has been good or bad through 24-hr surveillance.
- "Arabian Nights" Days: "Ahab, the Arab" is an example of this, as the titular Ahab is a rich sheik with lots of diamonds, a hot woman, and a camel. "The Sheik of R&B" leans into similar stereotypes what with is sitar-driven arrangement and use of camels.
- Author Avatar: The Streak is a cartoon version of Ray.
- Based on a True Story: In a past election, Ray's deceased grandfather was used in a voting fraud. Ray used the incident to write "Grandpa Voted Democrat" to inspire people to vote honestly.
- Bad Santa: Played for Laughs in "Santa Claus Is Watchin' You", where he's the "secret head of the CIA" and wire-taps your phone.
- Big Damn Heroes: "...and then Along Came Jones..."
- Big "SHUT UP!": In "Harry the Hairy Ape", when Ray mentions that the DJ played Harry's record, a woman demanded "What record?", to which Ray said this to avoid explaining where the record came from.
- Black Comedy: Sometimes employed on his MCA albums in the 1980s. Examples include "Hugo the Human Cannonball" (see below).
- Blowing a Raspberry:
- The 1980s re-recording of "Further More" ends on one ("And on top of that... pfffft.")
- "We The People":To put it in words you might understand, if you had the common sense that God gave a billy goat, you'd no doubt noticed that your constituents, the electorate — that's us, voters — are onto your pork-barrel-special-interest-tax-and-spend-scam. Or, to put it more succinctly, pffffft!
- Bowdlerise: The original RCA single of "Shriner's Convention" in 1980 included the line "It don't make no difference if she was sent over from the Knights of Columbus!", in reference to the "little redhead" who interrupted the banquet. Apparently the actual Knights of Columbus objected to the idea that they'd try to sabotage another fraternal organization's convention (and being connected to public nudity), so he re-recorded it without the line for the album version, and the single version was also re-released with the line cut out, and he usually omits it in live performances. But, oddly, Greatest Hits in 1983 included the unedited original, which has led to some references mistakenly claiming that he re-recorded it for the compilation and added the line (since they wrongly assumed the album version was the original single). Another line from the same song had Bubba scolding Coy about the redhead with "I hope Charlene don't find out" (implying Coy was running around on his wife with the redhead), which got dialed down to "I hope your mama don't find out." (embarrassing your elderly parents being much less ugly than adultery)
- Bring Me My Brown Pants: In "The Camping Trip", Ray's wife continuously asked where the restroom was, thinking Ray was joking about going behind a tree or bush. When Ray and his family are running for the lives after encountering a bear, his wife says she doesn't need a restroom anymore.
- Brotherhood of Funny Hats: The Ali Baba Temple of the Shrine in "Shriner's Convention"
; Coy's unique fez is brought up in the second verse.Bubba: Coy, you the only one's got a fez with a propeller on top! - Butt-Monkey: The narrator in "Deerslayer" was perhaps the biggest one in all of Ray's songs. After supposedly accidentally killing a deer that ran into his car, he decided to take it home. Turns out that it was only stunned and upon waking up, it trashed his car. To make matters worse, a pack of hunting dogs that had been chasing the deer attacked him and trapped him on top of a telephone booth. Finally, after the police he had called arrived, they arrested him for having a deer out of season and was given thirty days by a Hanging Judge, during which he lost his job and his wife left him.
- Call-Back:
- "Dudley Dooright of the Highway Patrol" contains references to several other songs, including "The Streak", "Shriner's Convention", "Mississippi Squirrel Revival", and "The Haircut Song".
- Hahira, Georgia, the hometown of the Shriners in "Shriner's Convention", gets referenced again in "Erik the Awful" and "Southern Air".
- Camp Wackyname: The song "Camp Werthahekahwee"note , which is about the narrator's son having a Horrible Camping Trip at summer camp.
- Cargo Ship: In-Universe fictional example with "Erik The Awful", which has the title character become a movie star in his later years. In one film, the character he played got married to the Empire State Building.
- Cerebus Rollercoaster: In The '60s and The '70s especially, Stevens freely bounced between novelty songs and serious pop tunes. "The Streak" also opened him up to the Country Music market. By The '80s he'd reinvented himself as a comedic Country performer, which is where he's mostly stayed, along with his post-9/11 move toward politically-charged humor.
- Chained to a Railway: Parodied in "Along Came Jones", which tells of a TV viewer watching a cliched Western in which a Damsel in Distress is held by a villain, and rescued at the last second by a slow-walking, slow-talking cowboy named Jones. In the third verse, the damsel is tied to a railroad track.
- Chocolate Baby: "Fred", about a hunting dog who comes home with a pregnant female dog. Fred gets run over at the end of the song, and then the narrator realizes that none of the female's pups looks anything like Fred.
- Christmas Songs: Most famously "Santa Claus Is Watching You". He released a novelty Christmas album, titled Christmas Through a Different Window, in the late 1990s which included some Anti Christmas Songs. One track, titled "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (no relation to the Tim Burton film) where people call Santa un-PC because he smokes a pipe, wears fur, works only one day of the year, is "grossly overweight", etc. (But just to keep it from being too anvilicious, he admits that it was All Just a Dream and says that even something politically incorrect can still be right.)
- Code Name: "Shriner's Convention" pokes fun at the titles used by the Shriners International (the dudes with red fezzes).Hello, Noble Lumpkin? This here's the Illustrious Potentate. *pause* I said it's the Illustrious Potentate. *pause* The Illustrious— Coy, dadblame it, this here's Bubba!
- Comically Missing the Point: "Kiss a Pig" starts when a pig falls out of a pickup truck, and Ray's character, having caught the animal, gets stopped by a cop for making an illegal U-turn to try and catch up with the pig's original owner. After the legal issues are dealt with, Ray asks him "What'll I do" (about the pig); the cop tells him to take the pig to a zoo, clearly intending him to donate it to a petting zoo. Ray instead takes the pig to a regular zoo, and the two have so much fun touring the place that Ray decides to take Oink (as he comes to name the pig) to a ball game next.
- The Comically Serious: Bubba in "Shriner's Convention" seems to be only one in attendance treating it as Serious Business, while everyone else focuses on holding parades and playing card games, and of course he squarely disapproves of Coy's Crazy Is Cool hijinks.
- Compensating for Something: According to "Power Tools", this is why men his age play with power tools:Well, some folks say that macho men use tools to compensate
For a decline in virility. Now I've thought about that, but wait
There may be some validity in what those people say
But in my case, it's just the only way I get to go outside and play! - Confused Bystander Interview: In "The Streak", the same witness is there at every appearance of a streaker.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: "Mr. Businessman".
- Counterfeit Cash: In "Obama Budget Plan", the narrator and his family print up their own money in the basement. Naturally, he and his family get arrested at the end of the video.
- Department of Redundancy Department: The lyrics to "Greatest Little Christmas Ever Wuz" include allusions and direct mentions to several holidays at least twice throughout the song.
- Dinner Order Flub: "Gourmet Restaurant" is filled with this.So I asked the waiter, "How's the beef?"
He said "Ze steak tartar is ze best you ever had."
But when he brought it, friends, I thought I'd seen rare meat
But this wasn't even hurt real bad! - Disney Villain Death: Non-villain example in "Mama's in the Sky With Elvis" — "Mama" was dancing on the balcony with her inflatable Elvis Presley doll, came too close to the edge, and fell off to her death.
- Damsel in Distress: Sweet Sue of "Along Came Jones", targeted by Salty Sam for the deed to her ranch.
- Doom It Yourself: The subject of the song "Power Tools", who is so obsessed with the title objects that he keeps finding himself in increasingly humorous situations. In the last verse, he finds himself in the hospital, obsessing over his power bed.
- Drives Like Crazy: In "The Day I Tried To Teach Charlene Mackenzie (How To Drive)", the titular Charlene is so hard of hearing that she misunderstood all of Ray's instructions and ended up tearing across the town.
- Dysfunctional Family: The inspiration behind "I Won't be Home for Christmas".
- Elderly Blue-Haired Lady: In "A Little Blue-Haired Lady", he's stuck behind one driving slowly in an Oldsmobile.
- Elvis Has Left the Planet: According to "I Saw Elvis in a UFO", he was abducted by aliens. Also on the ship are "Colonel" Tom Parker (Elvis's manager), Howard Hughes, Liberace, and Jimmy Hoffa.
- Epic Fail:
- In "The Camping Trip", Ray thought that by taking his family camping, they would save a lot of money compared to their other vacations. At the end of the disastrous trip, with everything that was destroyed, lost, and abandoned, it amounted to them losing $101,379.52!Ray: For what this trip cost, we could've gone to Hawaii, twice! First class!
- In "I Won't Be Home For Christmas", when Ray's brother-in-law messed with the Christmas lights, he ended up blowing out the fuse box, knocking out the heat, and caused all the plumbing to freeze.
- In "The Camping Trip", Ray thought that by taking his family camping, they would save a lot of money compared to their other vacations. At the end of the disastrous trip, with everything that was destroyed, lost, and abandoned, it amounted to them losing $101,379.52!
- Everything's Louder with Bagpipes: "Bagpipes (That's My Bag)" is a novelty song about a stereotypical Scottish bagpiper who joins a rock band, plays any song by request, and blows up tires in his spare time. During the interludes, Ray uses his voice to imitate the sound of bagpipes.
- Facepalm: In the "Sittin' Up With The Dead" music video, a mortician facepalms himself when Uncle Fred sits up after breaking the chains holding him down.
- Falling Bass: "Mr. Businessman" uses the chromatic variant (descending by semitones) during the verses.
- Feuding Families: In "Family Funeral Fight", the feud is within a single family, which was divided and had a shaky truce due to the deceased's youngest son, Earl, burning down his brother's trailer and stealing his wife. The fight in the song erupts when the wife calls out that she still loves Earl.
- Filibuster Freefall: Like an awful lot of Americans, Stevens' politics took a hard-right swerve after 2001, starting with the anti-healthcare song "We the People" in 2009, a pro-Sarah Palin song ("Caribou Barbie") after that, and the anti-immigration (well, illegal immigration, but it's not exactly friendly) song "Come to the USA".
- Fire-Breathing Diner: Played for Black Comedy in "Red Hot Chili Cookoff." The narrator steps in to judge a chili cookoff when his friend (the regular judge) falls ill. He is unprepared for the firepower of said chili and it leaves him terminally injured with internal burns.
- Freudian Slip: His song of that title is about a man who tries to impress a woman with his Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness but instead says something embarrassing. The second time he meets the woman, she's holding his job interview, and Hilarity Ensues once again.
- The "Fun" in "Funeral":
- "Sittin' Up With the Dead", in which his late Uncle Fred is so horribly bent over due to arthritis that the morticians have to use a heavy chain to straighten him out. Somehow the chain snaps in the middle of the wake, causing Uncle Fred to sit up in his casket. Hilarity Ensues.
- Also in "Family Funeral Fight". Starting as a respectable service, and devolving into total insanity when the deceased man's incarcerated son arrives. By mayhem's end, 10 were stabbed, 2 shot (including the sheriff), the preacher was punched out, nobody walked or talked right again, and everyone was hauled in.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: In the music video for "Along Came Jones", Stevens is singing in a crowd about the time he was watching a TV show featuring a stereotypical cowboy type, a greedy villain, and a Damsel in Distress whom the former has to rescue from the latter several times. At the end, as Stevens is singing the last few lines of the song, all three characters pop up behind him and are shown happily singing along.
- Greatest Hits Album: For whatever reason, Curb frequently re-releases several of his biggest songs, usually in re-recorded form, on an increasingly large set of Greatest Hits albums dating back to The '80s.
- Greedy Televangelist: "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex" takes some very pointed jabs at the hypocrisy of visibly wealthy televangelists asking their congregations/viewers for money by asking if Jesus would do the things they do after He returns to earth. The implication is very much "No, He would not".Would He wear a pinky ring, would He drive a fancy car?Would His wife wear furs and diamonds, would His dressing room have a star?If He came back tomorrow, there's something I'd like to knowCould ya tell me, would Jesus wear a Rolex on His television show?
- Hamster-Wheel Power: The music video for "Surfin' USSR" had a nuclear sub powered by a hamster in a wheel and a menacing-looking Red with a bullwhip.
- Hand Wave: Played for Laughs in "Harry the Hairy Ape" when Ray mentioned Harry's record out of the blue, to which a woman demanded where it came from, with Ray responding with a Big "SHUT UP!".
- Harassing Phone Call: "It's Me Again, Margaret" features Willard McBane making several of these to the titular Margaret (one of which is just "are you nekkid?")
- Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: In "Shriner's Convention", Coy claims that he didn't attend the banquet because he didn't have a tuxedo, just a "Hai-waiian flowerdy shirt".
- Here We Go Again!: Done in several of his songs:
- In "Family Funeral Fight", after the law enforcement manages to stop the family from fighting, they attempt to finish the funeral service before hauling them to jail. However, Grandma is startled awake when the Honor Guards fired their rifles, causing a boy to yell out they shot her, resulting in the fight starting back up, even bigger this time.
- In "The Day I Tried To Teach Charlene Mackenzie (How To Drive)", Charlene's bad hearing caused her to mistake Ray's comment "Don't rev it so much! Take your foot off the gas!" for "Hit that clutch and make it go fast!", resulting in her driving like a madwoman. After Ray gets her to stop, a highway patrol cop who was on the windshield said the same sentence, resulting in Ray going on another wild ride.
- Hollywood Midlife Crisis: Implied to be what's happening with Coy in "Shriner's Convention", with the motorcycle and the canoodling with various women.
- Horny Vikings: The titular character of "Erik the Awful" has a "hairy hat, shaped like a big bullet with horns comin' out the sides."
- Horrible Camping Trip: "The Camping Trip" on the album Surely You Joust is about one.
- Human Cannonball: One of his darker songs, "Hugo the Human Cannonball", is about one who has a rather unfortunate mishap. (He splatters all over the upper bleachers.)
- Impact Silhouette: The reverend leaves one as he exits the house during the mass panic in "Sittin' Up With the Dead".
- Implacable Man: Erik the Awful, the brutal, and tenacious. (Mercy sakes, goodness gracious!) He will not stop chasing you.
- In Mysterious Ways:
- The conclusion of "Mississippi Squirrel Revival". After the titular squirrel is set loose in a church and causes havoc, the churchgoers assume the antics to be the doings of the Spirit, and thus undergo redemption. Stevens concludes the song thusly:Now you've heard the Bible stories, I guess
Of how He parted the waters for Moses to pass
All the miracles God has brought to this ol' world
But the one I'll remember to my dyin' day
Is how he put that church back on the narrow way
With a half-crazed Mississippi squirrel. - In "Too Drunk to Fish", after drunkenly getting himself and Ray shipwrecked on a sand-barge, Harold mistakes the rescue helicopter's searchlight for the Lord, to which he prays for another chance, vowing to go sober. Harold makes good on his word and never touches alcohol ever again. Ray comments that Lord performs miracles in mysterious ways.
- The conclusion of "Mississippi Squirrel Revival". After the titular squirrel is set loose in a church and causes havoc, the churchgoers assume the antics to be the doings of the Spirit, and thus undergo redemption. Stevens concludes the song thusly:
- In the Style of:
- Johnny Mathis' "Misty" as a bluegrass song.
- Ray taps The Beach Boys for "Surfin' USSR".
- "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow" is a parody of Manilow's stylings, down to his blatant use of key changes.
- "Moonlight Special" is a five-minute parody of The Midnight Special, with Ray voicing a Wolfman Jack parody called "The Sheepdog", along with style parodies of Gladys Knight and the Pips, Alice Cooper, and Jerry Lee Lewis.
- Sammi Smith's "Help Me Make It Through the Night" in the style of Spike Jones.
- "Ned Nostril" mimics Johnny Cash's deep vocals and boom-chicka rhythms. It even opens with the "Folsom Prison Blues" riff and has the humming and key changes of "I Walk the Line".
- Michael Jackson's "Bad", also as a bluegrass song.
- Issue Drift: Most of his 21st century output has been a lot more politically driven.
- Japan Takes Over the World: Mocked in his 1991 single "Workin' for the Japanese":We’re all working for the Japanese
Little cars and color TV’s
Sending all our money overseas
To the Eastern sphere
One day we’re gonna lose our roots
Wear Oriental jeans and boots
And drink nothing but Kawasaki sake, Honda wine, and Mitsubishi light beer - Jar Potty: From "The Annual Office Christmas Party"...The restroom's occupied, but there's a palm tree in the hall.
[woman screams]
Employee: Well, excuuuuuse me! - Jeopardy! Thinking Music: In the live version of "It's Me Again, Margaret", the first two bars play after the lead character spends way too long dialing the phone.
- Kids Rock: His children sing "Jesus Loves the Little Children" at the opening of "Everything Is Beautiful".
- Laugh Track: He's used one on a lot of his comedic songs, probably to make them sound more "fun". He's even used it when he produces novelty material for other artists (like "Frog Kissin' " by Chet Atkins).
- Lawful Stupid: The title police officer in "Super Cop". Upon seeing a person parked in a handicapped spot, he shoots the owner of the car in the foot and says "You're handicapped now!" Later on, he sees a grocery store patron with 10 items in a checkout lane, and demands that she drink her corn oil — the entire bottle — to get the count down to 9. Potty Failure ensues.
- List Song: "The Greatest Little Christmas Ever Wuz", which mentions having a man cram a year's worth of holidays into Christmas upon reuniting with his love.We'll have birthdays, Easter, and good ol' Valentine's.
Thanksgiving and Halloween and the 4th of July. - Loophole Abuse: Employed in "Juanita and the Kids", where the narrator files a blow-up doll and fourteen Cabbage Patch Kids dolls as dependents on his income taxes.
- Ludicrous Gibs: The eventual fate of "Hugo the Human Cannonball".
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The people at Uncle Fred's funeral visitation in "Sittin' Up With The Dead" have a collective moment of terror when they see him sit up, screaming "Yeow!"
- Meanwhile, Back at the…: The backing vocalists sing "Meanwhile, back at the motel" as a transition to the verses of "Shriner's Convention".
- Microwave the Dog: In "Home for the Holidays", Ray has nightmares about seeing his nephew cooking a cat in a microwave.
- Mighty Lumberjack: "The Haircut Song" is about a variety of haircuts Stevens has received from insane barbers. Whenever he is feeling intimidated by a barber and is asked what he does for a living, his immediate response is "I'm a logger!":Now a lot of people would be intimidated in a situation like this...I was not. I am what I am, play my piano, and sing my little songs. I looked him right in the eye and I said, I'm a logger — just up from Coos Bay, Oregon. Been toppin' trees — quite possibly the toughest man in the entire world.
- Misplaced Retribution: In "The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone", when Ray's friend Virgil threw a chair into the wrestling ring, the titular Blue Cyclone beat up Ray. Granted, he thought Ray did it, but it was still unfair, especially since Virgil had gotten to the safety of the car and locked Ray out.
- Moral Guardians: In-Universe in the music video for "The Streak" (which is bookended by scenes of them actually shooting the music video), where a woman from Standards and Practices shows up on the set to make sure Ray doesn't cross a line during the filming, since it involves... well, streaking. In the end, after filming is done, before stalking off, she says that "Well, once again, Mr. Stevens, you have managed to... pardon the expression... barely stay within the bounds of what is permissible."
- Motor Mouth: The original version of "Further More".
- My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad: Inverted in "My Dad", a cover of Paul Petersen ("My dad can beat up your dad, but he wouldn't").
- Naked People Are Funny: "The Streak", of course.
- Narrative Profanity Filter:
- Occurs in "Vacation Bible School" when the narrator recalls pouring some moonshine into the lemonade that the pastor was drinking:Well, he told that Samson didn't take no sass
And whipped the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass
But to tell the truth, he got all that just a little mixed up
I can't tell you exactly what he said
But the minute he said it, every face went red
But he just paused, and kinda staggered, and then he hiccuped - Another example in "Gone for Good":As she backed out of the drive she hit my Harley
Drug it underneath her car down to the street
Took a baseball bat to my "See Rock City" mailbox
Hollered something at me that I can't repeat
- Occurs in "Vacation Bible School" when the narrator recalls pouring some moonshine into the lemonade that the pastor was drinking:
- Newhart Phone Call: "Shriner's Convention" consists of a one-sided dialogue, via hotel phone, between two members of the Hahira, Georgia, delegation: leader "Illustrious Potentate" (Bubba), and member "Noble Lumpkin" (Coy), whose wild antics and failure to show up for functions are driving Bubba crazy. Over the course of the conversation, we hear from Bubba about Coy's various exploits which include getting his Harley-Davidson motorcycle into his hotel room and, later on, getting his bike atop the high diving board of the hotel swimming pool, being in said pool with "a bunch of them waitresses from the cocktail lounge", and getting a "little redhead" (to quote Bubba) to streak through their banquet yelling out the "secret code", wearing nothing but Coy's fez ('cuz Coy's the only one that has a fez with a propeller on top).
- Never My Fault: In "Bad Little Boy", the eponymous bad boy blames the cat he superglued to a rocket for it veering off course and landing in a dog's backyard.
- Noodle Implements:
- "It's Me Again, Margaret" describes an obscene phone caller, who in the last verse uses his one phone call after his arrest to call the titular Margaret one last time, informing her that when he gets out, he's coming over with a weed whacker, a live chicken, and some Cool Whip (or peach preserves in one recording). The video goes one further, having Margaret show up at the police station with said items as she comes to bail him out.Margaret: And, uh, how much for those handcuffs?
- "Shriner's Convention" combines this with Noodle Incident:Oh! Hello! Coy? Where have you been? No, you wasn't at the meeting! Well, I found out that at three o'clock this mornin', you was out there in your Fruit of the Looms in the motel swimmin' pool with a bunch of them little waitresses from the cocktail lounge! I just hope Charlene don't find out about this, Coy! What? Well, how'd you get that big [Harley Davidson] motorcycle up there on the high dive, Coy?
- "It's Me Again, Margaret" describes an obscene phone caller, who in the last verse uses his one phone call after his arrest to call the titular Margaret one last time, informing her that when he gets out, he's coming over with a weed whacker, a live chicken, and some Cool Whip (or peach preserves in one recording). The video goes one further, having Margaret show up at the police station with said items as she comes to bail him out.
- Odd Name Out: The title characters of "Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens": Fricassee, Cordon Bleu, Cacciatore, and Stu.
- One Phone Call: Parodied in "It's Me Again, Margaret", which is about Willard McBane, an obscene phone caller who keeps calling the title character until he gets arrested. He uses his phone call to call her one last time before he's jailed.
- Only Sane Man: "Please General Custer" is about a soldier at the Battle of Little Big Horn, who keeps pleading with General Custer not to be sent charging against Sitting Bull's army, only for Custer to continue saying "Forward, Ho!". It's implied the soldier was at least the Sole Survivor.
- Overturned Outhouse: In "Redneck Christmas", one of the activities done is putting rudders under the outhouse and using it for a sled. Unfortunately, this inconveniences Grandpa:Grandpa: Darn fool idiots! What are you doing?!
Boy 1: Sorry, didn't know you was in there, Grandpa!
Boy 2: Merry Christmas, Grandad!
Grandpa: I got your 'Merry Christmas' right here! Come back with that catalog!note - Parking Payback: Upon seeing a person parked in a handicapped spot, the title character of "Super Cop" shoots the owner of the car in the foot and says "You're handicapped now!"
- Persona Non Grata: In "Gourmet Restaurant", Ray gets banned from Chateau Larieux (which he'd only gone to on the insistence of some friends) after an incident with dessert — they brought him cherries jubilee, which is traditionally served flambéed and was still on fire when it came to the table. He promptly dumped his soup on it to put out the flames, thinking he was saving the place from burning down, after which the restaurant asked him to leave and never come back.
- Please Put Some Clothes On: In "The Streak", the man being interviewed yells at Ethel to "[...] get your clothes on!" as she's streaking off with The Streak.
- Police Brutality: In several of his songs that feature law enforcement, the officers are either Lawfully Stupid or excessive:
- In "Deerslayer", after the stunned deer he had put in his backseat started wrecking his car while the pack of hunting dogs that had been chasing it had cornered him on a phone booth (with the lead dog biting him in the rear), Ray called the police for help. Unfortunately, when they arrive, they accuse Ray of being the one who had been deer hunting when it was out of season and he was arrested, with a Hanging Judge giving him thirty days while saying he'll teach him a lesson he'd never forget if he did it again. Ray caps off the song by saying he's never calling the police again.
- Political Correctness Is Evil: "Guilt for Christmas" hints at this.I hate Christmas shopping,
it makes me a wreck,
especially when the gifts must be politically correct.
Don't give an boy an army toy;
that gun could make him vicious.
Don't give a girl a doll with curls;
she'll spend her whole life doing dishes. - Poor Communication Kills: In "Sittin' Up With the Dead", the mortician didn't tell the family that Uncle Fred was so stooped over that the only way to keep him straight was with a logging chain. This, unfortunately, led to the Mass "Oh, Crap!" mentioned above when the chain broke.
- Pre-emptive Declaration: In "Sittin' Up With the Dead", during the mass panic, the reverend says he's going out the kitchen door.I hollered, 'Rev, that kitchen ain't got no door in it!'
He said, 'Don't worry son, it will have in a minute!' - Protest Song: Much of his 21st century output has taken on a political bent, but the 1970 hit "America, Communicate with Me" (which addresses war protesters and the assassinations of civil rights leaders, among other things) shows that he is no stranger to the genre.
- Real Men Have Short Hair: "The Haircut Song" is about the terrible haircuts Ray has received from a range of barbers. His description of 'The Macho Barber' and the haircut he gets is as follows:It was a macho barber shop. Hair dryers were mounted on a rifle rack. There were no mirrors. The barber chair was a Peterbilt. Barber walked in; he was huge, seven feet tall, three hundred pounds of spring steel and rawhide wearin' a hard hat, chewin' a cigar, had a t-shirt on said, "I hate musicians". Threw me in the chair, sneered and said, "What'll it be pal?" Now a lot of people would be intimidated in a situation like this...I was not. I am what I am, play my piano, and sing my little songs. I looked him right in the eye and I said, "I'm a logger — just up from Coos Bay, Oregon. Been toppin' trees — quite possibly the tough...(cough) toughest man in the entire world". He said, "All right!" he gave me a haircut and I walked out of there friends, my hair was gone! Made Kojak look like William Lee Golden. Yeah, had a tremendous craving to operate heavy equipment.
- Rearrange the Song:
- The 1984 album He Thinks He's Ray Stevens had a redo of his 1962 single "Furthermore", changing it from a goofy Motor Mouth song to a slower country waltz. He also changed a few of the lyrics, most notably altering the last verse so that it was no longer identical to the first.
- He's re-recorded "Santa Claus Is Watchin' You" (also from 1962) at least twice: first for his 1985 album I Have Returned, and again in the late 1990s for Christmas Through a Different Window.
- Another track from I Have Returned, "The Pirate Song (I Want to Sing and Dance)", showed up in re-recorded form only six years later on #1 with a Bullet.
- "The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone" from I Have Returned was abridged and spliced together from two separate tracks (Part 1 and Part 2) for the single edit. The single edit later appeared on a Greatest Hits Album.
- There's a small debate about why the radio edit of "The Haircut Song" took out the entire second verse (about the skinhead barber). Obviously, with that verse being the longest verse, a radio edit being tough to do with only taking out small parts of a single verse with it being a comedy song, and with the first and last verses meshing well together without the second, it was only a natural omission. However, the second verse also has the most controversial barber of them: the skinhead barber. The barber uses a Nazi flag as a hair shield drape, the detailed description of the barber and the shop, and the barber being a homosexual (ironic that he would be given what is described about him beforehand). Not to mention that the song was recorded somewhat prior to when media attention towards skinheads began to rise (the song was released three years before the now infamous Geraldo skinhead episode). The omission seems like an act of PC censorship, even when the inclusion of the verse would've made the song six minutes long (as opposed to the four minutes of the radio edit). The radio edit, though, (which the video uses and which appears on his Box Set album) does has its positives. It takes out the laugh track that Ray used on a lot of other songs he had. It also adds a few acts of acting out his emotions with the other barbers (he coughs when he tells the first barber, in a squeaky voice, that he's possibly the toughest man in the entire world). The altered track does also seem to have a much cleaner sound than the original.
- Curb Records is notorious for releasing compilation albums that feature re-recordings of some of his bigger hits such as "Ahab, the Arab" and "Shriner's Convention" (the latter of which was already re-recorded for a Greatest Hits Album in The '80s).
- Re-Cut:
- 1,837 Seconds of Humor, his Mercury Records debut, was re-issued in 1971 as Rock & Roll Show with a different track order and two tracks removed.
- Two of his 1980s MCA albums were re-issued in the 1990s with different titles, cover art, and track lists. These were Beside Myself becoming At His Best and He Thinks He's Ray Stevens becoming Mississippi Squirrel Revival, both times with two tracks removed.
- Religion Rant Song: "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex" is one about the hypocrisy of televangelists asking for money while appearing to be opulent themselves.This man was preachin' at me, yeah, layin' on the charm
Asking me for twenty with ten thousand on his arm - Rise from Your Grave: In "Sittin' Up With the Dead", the chains binding Uncle Fred snap and he sits up during a thunderstorm. Cue a Mass "Oh, Crap!" from the people attending the funeral.
- Running Gag:
- Clyde, the camel from "Ahab, the Arab", also appears in "Santa Claus Is Watching You", "Sex Symbols", and several other songs.
- During "The Streak", each of the three disturbances has the news reporter interviewing the same man.Reporter: Pardon me, sir, did you see what happened?
Interviewee: Yeah, I did. - Another one is invoked throughout "It's Me Again, Margaret" with the obscene caller talking to the same woman.
- Running Time in the Title: His debut album, 1,837 Seconds of Humor.
- Saving Christmas: "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (from Christmas Through a Different Window, and completely unrelated to the film) shows Political Over Correctness when Santa Claus is arrested and put on trial for several different crimes, including abusing his reindeer, hiring only elves in his factory, flying without FAA approval, billions of cases of unlawful entry, and smoking tobacco. At the end, the judge, because he was one of Santa's "victims" of unlawful entry, dismisses all the charges. (Fortunately, this whole ordeal was nothing more than an Acid Reflux Nightmare).Must've been the pepperoni/Maraschino cherries.
- Self-Backing Vocalist: Stevens did a lot of his own backing vocals:
- On "Bagpipes (That's My Bag)", Ray dubs over his own voice when imitating the title instrument in order to duplicate the effect of the bellows.
- In "Gitarzan", he voices the title character, his girlfriend Jane, and their pet monkey, all of whom sing together before the final chorus.
- He uses his voice to mimic a whole band in "Freddie Feelgood", making vocal impressions of the bass, trombone, and drums.
- In "Bridget the Midget", he voices himself, the title character, and a Loony Fan.
- In "The Streak", he voices a news reporter and the man being interviewed; he portrays them both in the music video.
- In "The Dooright Family", he voices an entire gospel family band.
- Many of his 1970s and 1980s songs feature a wall of female backing vocalists, which are usually backing vocalist Lisa Silver multi-tracked over herself. Some of the songs (such as "Turn Your Radio On") also have Ray singing a bass harmony under himself.
- The aliens in "I Saw Elvis in a UFO" are all Ray's voice pitched up again; near the end of the song, his normal voice sings over top of them.
- "Sex Symbols" is a "duet" between Ray and "Julio Iglesias" (which Ray pronounces "Joo-le-oh" despite constant corrections). "Julio"'s voice is just Ray impersonating him.
- All of the Beach Boys-flavored harmonies on "Surfin' USSR" are Ray singing over himself.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: In "We The People":To put it mildly, we're harboring feelings of extreme alienation, due to copious amounts of horse manure that have been shoveled out of the White House and the Capitol Building, and we sense that we are being royally defecated upon.
- Shout-Out:
- In "We the People":We've heard from Hannity, Beck, and Limbaugh
What you got in mind for Grandma
And we've found this O'Reilly fellow on Fox - Also:Please tell Nancy Pelosi
We're gonna do the Hokey Pokey
Pull the right ones in
And pull the left ones out
- In "We the People":
- Silly Simian:
- "Harry the Hairy Ape" is about an ape who escapes the city zoo and becomes so popular that he ends up with a music career.
- The title character's pet monkey in "Gitarzan", "who likes to get drunky and sing boogie-woogie and it sounds real funky."
- Solo Duet: Most famously with "The Streak", where he voices both the interviewer and interviewee during the verses.
- Song Style Shift: "Unwind" has fast verses that slow down gradually to a calming chorus. This makes sense, as the song is about escaping the fast pace of a work day to come home and "unwind" with his lover.
- Sound Effects Bleep: In "We the People":You vote Obamacare, we gonna vote you out of there,
We the people have awakened to your tricks,
You vote to let this pass, you gonna be out on your [*foghorn*] note
Cause we the people have awakened... - Spoonerism: From "I Won't Be Home for Christmas":You know, it wouldn't be so bad
if all that came was Mom and Dad
but no, the whole famn damily's got to show. - Spit Take: In "It's Me Again, Margaret", video version, the police visibly have a very Seen It All attitude about the affair until the end, when they realize he's using his one phone call to call his victim again. One spits his drink out.
- Squirrels in My Pants: Happens to two characters in "Mississippi Squirrel Revival", one more literally than the other.Now, Harv hit the aisle, a-dancin' and a-screamin'
Some thought he had religion, others thought he had a demon
And Harv thought he had a weed eater loose in his Fruit of the Looms
[later]
As the squirrel made laps inside her dress
She began to cry and then to confess
To sins that would make a sailor blush with shame - Stalker with a Crush: Willard McBane in "It's Me Again, Margaret" repeatedly makes obscene calls to the titular Margaret. In the final verse, he uses his One Phone Call to give her another obscene call.
- Stop Copying Me: In the "Mildred Queen and the Dips" segment of "Moonlight Special", where he voices both "Mildred Queen" (a Gladys Knight parody) and her backing vocalist. They echo all of her lines, culminating in this exchange:Mildred: Wait a minute!
Backing vocalists: ♪Wait a minute♪
Mildred: How come you're singing everything I sing?
Backing vocalists: ♪How come you're singing everything I sing?♪
Mildred: Now cut that out!
Backing vocalists: ♪Now cut that out♪
Mildred: Stop that!
Backing vocalists: ♪Stop that♪
Mildred: Now I know why I call you guys the Dips!
Backing vocalists: ♪Now I know why I call you guys the Dips♪
Mildred: You're dippy!
Backing vocalists: ♪You're dippy♪
Mildred: (screams)
Backing vocalists: ♪Aaaaaahhhh~♪ - Streaking: "The Streak" is a about a streaker appearing at number of unlikely locales: a supermarket, a gas station, and a basketball playoff game.He ain't crude (boogity, boogity)
He ain't lewd (boogity, boogity)
He's just in the mood to run in the nude. - Super-Persistent Predator: "Erik the Awful" had Erik the Viking continuously chasing the citizens of the village he was attacking across the world until they gave in and allowed themselves to be plundered by him.
- Take That!: The Dixie Chicks song "Goodbye Earl" clashed with his values enough that he recorded a response song saying that Earl survived and was repenting for his misdeeds.
- Talk Like a Pirate: In "The Pirate Song", he voices two characters: a typical "arrrr!"-type pirate who is frustrated at a normal-voiced pirate who wants to abandon his ways to sing and dance instead.
- Thematic Series:
- "Erik the Awful" is this to "Ahab the Arab". The songs, which are both about a sort of wacky stereotypical foreigner, are structured very similarly, and even feature some of the same lines, though there's no direct mention of Ahab in "Erik".
- "Vacation Bible School" feels like a thematic successor to "Mississippi Squirrel Revival", as both are about wreaking havoc in church.
- Translated Cover Version: A Cajun French version of "The Streak" by Belton Richard was released soon after the original and became a huge hit in Louisiana.
- Truck Driver's Gear Change:
- "Everything is Beautiful" was a Trope Codifier for the use of this in a rousing, sentimental ballad, with two modulations toward the end of the song.
- Of course, used in "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow" to parody Manilow's use of the same (and perhaps as a bit of Self-Parody for the usage mentioned above).
- Also shows up in Ray's cover of the theme from The Monkees, which he performs as an Austrian singing troupe. Come the key change, one of the singers (who of course, is Ray) protests that the lead singer went up too high.
- Visual Pun:
- On the cover of #1 with a Bullet (a term often used to describe a #1 song that's gaining in airplaynote ), he's holding an actual bullet.
- The music video for "Surfin' U.S.S.R." has a few, such as during the line "and then a terrible crash awakened every hand" (which prompts several hands to flip up and wave, exposing plastic eyes glued to them). Also, the two "Yo yo yo yo yo" scenes start with the Soviet submariners playing with actual yo-yos.
- Vocal Evolution: Until about the early 1980s, he often sang his novelty songs in a nasal, goofy voice while using a smoother (albeit very strident) voice on the more serious songs. Eventually, he started using a natural baritone voice on everything.
- Vocal Range Exceeded:
- At the end of "The Dooright Family", the titular gospel singing family asks their bass singer to drop down another octave. The result is a loud booming note that makes him explode on stage.
- Also happens to Wolfgang in the aforementioned Monkees cover — it hurts his little wienerschnitzel. He and Fritzy then proceed to argue about it.
- What's He Got That I Ain't Got?!: In "Can He Love You Half As Much As I?", the whole song is this after Ray receives a "Dear John" Letter from his girl telling him she found a perfect guy:You say he's climbing that cooperate ladder?
In business, he's a gem?
General Motors never had
a vice-president as young as him?
You say he wrote a computer program
that saved eight million bucks?
And found the way to cut the cost
on all their cars and trucks?
BIG DEAL! - Your Mom: "Osama — Yo' Mama".
