Stevens laughing his way to Grand Strand show

What fun to call Ray Stevens.

After an office aide answered, waiting on hold wouldn’t matter how long, not with one of his first hits, “Ahab, the Arab,” from 1962, playing. It’s not the typical “elevator music” or smooth jazz a person has to endure when calling a company.

Stevens will entertain at 7 p.m. Sept. 19 for a show at the Alabama Theatre, at Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach.

This novelty artist – singer, songwriter, comedian and author – has issued his own encyclopedia set, for mostly listening pleasure. His “Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music” encompasses a box set of 108 of new recordings by Stevens spread across nine CDs, along with some reading material on the background of the tunes, and the writers, producers and artists – along with some of Stevens’ own works – who made the songs famous.

Speaking last week from his home base in Nashville, Tenn., Stevens referred to encyclopedias’ original function, those volumes of book collections sold door to door as household staples, decades before the advent of the Internet.

“My parents bought me a set,” the Georgia native said. “I didn’t read them very much, but every now and then, I had a school project, and I would go to the encyclopedias.”

Stevens said the comedy collection, also with several Christmas numbers such as “Santa Claus Is Watching You,” marks his salute to American comedic music. They include many “‘Dr. Demento’ kind of songs,” which started their road to popularity on that formerly nationally syndicated, weekly radio show from California that continues on www.drdemento.com.

With his own hit parade that includes “Harry the Hairy Ape,” “Gitarzan,” “The Mississippi Squirrel Revival,” “It’s Me Again, Margaret” and “Shriner’s Convention,” Stevens also struck the top of the pop charts in the 1970s with “Everything is Beautiful” and “The Streak.” The former, a TV show theme, and his bluegrass remake of “Misty,” garnered Grammy Awards for Best Male Vocalist and Best Arrangement, respectively.

Stevens’ career in various realms of the music industry, outside of comedic elements, has included compositions recorded by such stars as the Captain & Tennille, Jim Nabors, the Oak Ridge Boys, Marie Osmond, Three Dog Night, B.J. Thomas, and the late Brook Benton, Sammy Davis Jr. and Ray Price.

No jokes emerge when discussing Elvis Presley, for whom Stevens stood in on trumpet for one recording session. He also later published “Way Down,” a country hit for the King of Rock ’n’ Roll the year he died, 1977.

“I liked Elvis,” Stevens said, “ because he was an all-American boy. He was a clean-cut guy and a nice guy. He didn’t try to hurt people.”

Father & Son Publishing Inc. published Stevens’ 50-year retrospective autobiography written with C.W. “Buddy” Kalb, “Nashville,” in August 2014. Stevens said he’s encouraged by the book’s prospects for “a long shelf life,” especially as he works on producing a weekly, 30-minute “music/talk show” of the same name for cable channel RFD-TV, with hopes for a November premiere.

Another project in Music City – where Stevens said, “with lots of tourists coming here, it’s starting to look like Branson, Mo.” – continues with building a Las Vegas-style showroom theater, on the west side of town.

He said its title plays on his name: the “Cabaray.”

This story was originally published September 13, 2015 at 10:01 AM with the headline "Stevens laughing his way to Grand Strand show."