1975 Ray Stevens – Misty – What Was Left In

1975 Ray Stevens – Misty

Ray Stevens started releasing his own brand of comedy songs beginning with Rang Tang Ding Dong in 1957. He finally reached the top forty in 1960 with Jeremiah Peabody’s Polyunsaturated Quick-Dissolving Fast-Acting Pleasant-Tasting Green and Purple Pills. The song only reached #35 on the Hot 100 but held the record for the longest record title on the Hot 100 for more than a decade.

Ray’s biggest hit came with the release of Everything Is Beautiful in 1970. The single topped both the Hot 100 and the Adult Contemporary chart. For the first time, Ray also reached the top forty on the Country chart (even if it only spent one week at #39).

Erroll Garner looked out the window of an airplane he was on and saw a rainbow in the clouds of a thunderstorm. That inspired him to compose a song, Misty. After Johnny Burke wrote lyrics for the melody, Johnny Mathis released the song as a single which reached #14 on the Hot 100 in 1959.

Ray released a cover version of Misty in 1975 that took the song back to #14 on the Hot 100. His single also shot up to #3 on the Country chart.

Ray won his first Grammy award in 1971 for Best Contemporary Male Vocalist for his performance on Everything Is Beautiful. He received his second Grammy award for Misty, but not for writing or singing! That award was for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s).

Ray released In The Mood as the Hen House Five in 1977 and reached #40 and then took I Need Your Help Barry Manilow to #49 in 1979. That was the end of his pop hits. Five more records reached the Country top forty through 1985 before his success faded there as well.

Incredibly, 60 years after Ahab The Arab rose into the top ten on the Hot 100, Ray is still pumping out new music. His latest album, which came out in 2021, has the painful title Ain’t Nothin’ Funny Anymore. The album included songs about Covid, gas prices, the border, and social media. Fortunately, the humorous, non-current events song Hoochie Coochie Dancer also appears on the album. As you would expect, Ray even created a video for the song.