History Music / RayStevens

* BassoProfundo:
** Parodied in "The Dooright Family", where the bass singer in the titular gospel family band (voiced entirely by Ray) is asked to "go for another octave". He does (by way of studio trickery on Ray, who is a baritone at best in RealLife), causing him to [[MadeOfExplodium explode onstage]].
** J. D. Sumner of the Stamps Quartet portrays the eponymous Mama in "Mama Sang Bass".

** 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 [[BassoProfundo loud booming note]] that makes him ''[[MadeOfExplodium explode on stage]]''.

* CallBack: "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".

* MoralGuardians: InUniverse in the music video for "The Streak" (which is [[BookEnds 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 "Once again, Mr. Stevens, you have managed to... pardon the expression... ''barely'' stay within the grounds of what is permissible."

That one day soon he'll be a celebrity.

* DistressedDamsel: Sweet Sue of "Along Came Jones", targeted by Salty Sam for the deed to her ranch.

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 years. 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 Website/YouTube following with his release of several songs espousing right-wing political views.

* LongTitle: "Jeremiah Peabody's Polyunsaturated Quick-Dissolving Fast-Acting Pleasant-Tasting Green and Purple Pills" and "Ned Nostril (And His South Seas Paradise, Puts Your Blues on Ice, Cheap at Twice the Price Band [Ikky-Ikky, Ukky-Ukky])".

* {{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).

* {{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, 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).

* ActingForTwo: The music video for "Help Me Make it Through the Night" features over a dozen characters. Pretty much all of them are played by Ray himself in different costumes.

* RefrainFromAssuming: "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" is commonly assumed to be called "The Day the Squirrel Went Berserk" (the first line of the chorus).

* CluckingFunny: He's rendered "In the Mood" and "''Music/AlsoSprachZarathustra''" entirely in chicken clucks. There's also "[[TeenageMutantSamuraiWombats Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens]]".

* NiceHat: Parodied in "You Gotta Have a Hat", where he is told that wearing a cowboy hat is the key to being a star. This was TruthInTelevision at the time, given that the song came out in the wake of the "hat act" craze in the early 1990s (i.e., young hunky country singers in cowboy hats).

* AcidRefluxNightmare: The events of "The Nightmare Before Christmas", mentioned further below, are a dream that the narrator has after eating too much fruitcake before bed.

-->Must've been the pepperoni.

* AcidRefluxNightmare: The events of "The Nightmare Before Christmas", mentioned further below, are a dream that the narrator has after eating pizza before bed.

* VisualPun: On the cover of ''#1 with a Bullet'' (a term often used to describe a #1 song that's gaining in airplay[[note]]referencing the fact that ''Billboard'' used to mark such songs with a bullet, or •[[/note]]), he's holding an actual bullet.

--->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!

* DisneyVillainDeath: 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.

-->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.

-->It was a macho barber shop. Hair dryers were mounted on a rifle rack. [[VanityIsFeminine 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, [[CigarChomper 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 Series/{{Kojak}} look like [[Music/TheOakRidgeBoys William Lee Golden]]. Yeah, had a tremendous craving to operate heavy equipment.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent:
** Stevens always balanced his goofy, side-splittingly funny songs with serious material, meaning ballads and gospel. Two of his biggest hits -- 1970's "Everything is Beautiful" and 1975's "Misty" -- are prime examples.
** His television appearances also often remind viewers and fans of his broad range of styles; for instance, a ''Series/HeeHaw'' episode from the early 1970s saw him sing the heartbreak song "Isn't It Lonely Together" (about two people who had to get married after the man got the woman pregnant) in the earlier segment, followed up by "Gitarzan" (incidentally, the follow-up single to "... Lonely Together") later in the show. His 1970 TV series often saw him perform at least one of his comedy songs and at least one non-comedic song (either a ballad or gospel song).