Ray Stevens born in 1939 as Harold Ray Ragsdale in Georgia USA. At the age of 16 he was signed up by a record company in the 1950s, and went on to become famous for comedy songs and a regular guest on the Andy Williams show in the 60s and 70s. His first single hit of the 1970s was a Grammy winner called Everything is Beautiful written by Ray himself.
His next British hit in 1972 was the comedy song Bridget The Midget (The Queen of the Blues) amazingly reaching No.2. But the next song would get to No.1!!!
In the 1970s one of the fads was for someone to strip naked at big televised events and run around trying to get in front of the camera. This led to running around cities naked. The word for this was streaking. So in 1974 Ray had a fun No.1 by acting as a TV reporter who reported on those streaking events. Great song- honest!
In 1975 he climbed the charts once again with the No.2 hit Misty. Originally a hit in 1954 by Erroll Garner and has charted many times including by Johnny Mathis in the 1970s. The song also became famous for appearing in the Clint Eastwood film Play Misty For Me.This was followed by a minor top 30 hit called Indian Love Call and Ray's version of Young Love which was also a hit for Donny Osmond.
- 1970: Gold Single — "Everything Is Beautiful"
- 1970: Grammy — "Everything Is Beautiful" (Best Male Pop Vocal Performance)
- 1974: Gold Single — "The Streak"
- 1975: Grammy — "Misty" (Best Arrangement of the Year)
As far as his birth name goes, you have it posted as Harold Ray Ragsdoll. It isn't 'Ragsdoll', it's Ragsdale. Once he began recording in 1957 he started using the professional name of 'Ray Stevens'. I have a fan-created blog page all about him called 'The Ray Stevens Music Journey'. I've had it up and running since 2008. I've been a fan of his since the mid 1980's. He's sold more than 20 million singles, albums, and home videos/DVDs in his career. He also has a very active YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/raystevensmusic/videos
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