A Country Music singer known for his impassioned tenor voice and often-topical songs about societal issues.
Floyd Elliot Wray began his musical career in The '80s as Bubba Wray, bassist for a short-lived band called The Wrays. After they broke up, he went solo and signed to Epic Records in 1990, where he broke through with the tender ballad "Love, Me". Followup album In This Life also sent him to the top of the charts with its title track, but it was 1994's Extremes that established him as a 90s country star, thanks to strong and meaningful songs such as "Little Rock", the story of a recovering alcoholic.
Raye spent the rest of The '90s racking up hits, with a total of 21 Top 10 hits ranging from 1991 to 2000. Although his momentum tapered off entirely after 2000, he has continued to tour and record independently to this day.
Albums
- All I Can Be (1991)
- In This Life (1992)
- Extremes (1994)
- I Think About You (1995)
- Christmas: The Gift (1996)
- The Best of Collin Raye: Direct Hits (1997)
- The Walls Came Down (1998)
- Counting Sheep (2000)
- Tracks (2000)
- Can't Back Down (2001)
- Twenty Years and Change (2005)
- Fearless (2006)
- Never Going Back (2009)
- His Love Remains (2011)
- Still on the Line... The Songs of Glen Campbell (2013)
- Everlasting (2014)
Filmography
- Walker, Texas Ranger: As Himself (1 episode)
Tropes present:
- Caught Coming Home Late: The premise of "That's My Story."
- Christmas Songs: Christmas: The Gift mainly consists of traditional cover songs. "What If Jesus Comes Back Like That" also got some seasonal airplay due to the third verse mentioning Jesus's birth. "The Gift," a collaboration with Jim Brickman and Christian country singer Susan Ashton, is probably the most well-known and got the most radio airplay due to its pop crossover, peaking at #3 on the US Adult Contemporary charts in 1997.
- Common Meter: The verses to "Every Second" are common meter double.
- "Dear John" Letter: The first verse of "Little Red Rodeo" is one.
- Dual-Meaning Chorus:
- "Love, Me". The chorus's line of "If you get there before I do" is literal in the first verse, but metaphorically refers to Heaven in the second.
- "One Boy, One Girl". The title initially refers to the childhood romance between the two, but the last verse refers to the twins they have after becoming married.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: His first two albums were much more slick and dated-sounding, with very few memorable songs besides "Love, Me".
- Implausible Deniability: In "That's My Story", the singer sticks to his story of spending the night in his hammock, even in the face of his wife pointing out that she took it down a week earlier, then breaks down and apologizes... for having spent the night playing poker with his friends, with no women around, nuh-uh.
- Issue Drift: From Extremes onward, he began cutting more challenging and topical material.
- Laundromat Liaisons: "What the Heart Wants" provides the page quote.
- Lyrical Cold Open: "My Kind of Girl"
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: The Love Interest in "My Kind of Girl" is treated this way.
- Melancholy Moon: "Somebody Else's Moon" has him thinking of the moon as this, since just like his former lover, it belongs to someone else.
- "Not So Different" Remark: "Not That Different" has the narrator realizing that he and his lover are not so different because they both feel the same emotions.
- Ode to Sobriety: In "Little Rock", the narrator is a recovering alcoholic who still feels emotional over how his alcoholism has wrecked his marriage ("I got just one small problem here in Little Rock / Without you, baby, I'm not me").
- Old Man Conversation Song: "Love, Me" involves a conversation between the narrator and his grandfather.
- Parental Love Song: "I Think About You" has a father showing concern for his daughter while also bemoaning sexualization of women in the media.
- Race for Your Love: "Little Red Rodeo"
- Stock Rhymes: Notably averted in "My Kind of Girl", which manages not to rhyme the title with "world" once ("Merle", "pearls", and "Tilt-a-Whirl" are used instead). However, both "One Boy, One Girl" and "I Think About You" play that rhyme straight.
- Unto Us a Son and Daughter Are Born: The third verse of "One Boy, One Girl"
