RAY STEVENS: "...Unreal!!!"

Original released on LP KZ 30092

(US, November 1970)

RAY STEVENS: "Everything Is Beautiful"

Original released on LP Barnaby Z12 35005

(US, May 1970)

RAY STEVENS: "Gitarzan" + Bonus

Original released on LP Monument SLP 18115

(US, May 1969)

Stevens plies his stock-in-trade pop novelties on this 1969 album, replete with hayseed monologues, skilled mimicry of various voices (spoken and sung), and Vegas-soul female backup singers. It sounds hokey now - and probably sounded hokey then - but not to everyone, as the title track made the Top Ten, and the remake of the Coasters' "Along Came Jones" made the Top Thirty. The rest of the album's divided between Stevenized covers of vintage rock novelties ("Yakety Yak," "Alley Oop") and satirical originals that ensured his stature as the Top 40's answer to Hee Haw. The CD reissue adds three bonus tracks, including "Bridget the Midget," a small hit from 1970, and "The Streak," his #1 single from 1974. Better than anything else on the disc, though, is his 1974 single "The Moonlight Special" (included here). This satire of DJ Wolfman Jack's TV show is actually genuinely funny in places, complete with spot-on send-ups of Jerry Lee Lewis and a Gladys Knight-type soul group. (Richie Unterberger in AllMusic)