4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hoo-ray for Ray!, September 23, 2005
This review is from: Nashville/Boogity Boogity (Audio CD)
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 it runs nearly a minute shorter than the original found on the NASHVILLE album.
The second album on this CD, BOOGITY-BOOGITY, is all-comedy. It was put together in 1974 to support the single "The Streak". "Smith and Jones" was his other streaking song but it wasn't issued as a single and only the more dedicated fans are aware of it. "The Streak" hit #1 pop and #1 in the UK and it reached the country Top-10 plus it sold more than five million copies worldwide.
The other hit from the 1974 album was "The Moonlight Special", a very funny 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", found on here, was actually a hit for Ray in 1970...it hit the pop charts in America and it reached #2 in England. It was included, obviously, because this was a novelty album. The same scenario can be applied to "Freddie Feelgood", too. That particular song was originally released as a single in 1966, re-issued in 1969, and then placed on the 1974 album.
"Boogity-Boogity", by the way, is the phrase that's sung on "The Streak"... 'here he comes, boogity-boogity....there he goes...boogity-boogity...'. Some people mishear the lyric as "look at that, look at that" but in reality it's "boogity, boogity" pronounced in the recording as "boog-a-tee, boog-a-tee". Also, some refer to the 1974 album as WHOOSH!! but the actual name, of course, is BOOGITY-BOOGITY.
All in all, this double album CD is like I earlier said, a MUST for all Ray Stevens fans!!!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
