And now, from a section called Easy Listening, but I call it
\n“Before There Was Elvis….”<\/p>\n
Throughout the many pages of “The Daily Vault,” I haven’t seen
\nany reviews concerning pre-Rock albums. So, without further ado,
\nI’ve decided to review one of my many favorite pre-Rock\/pre-Elvis
\nPresley artists, Johnnie Ray.<\/p>\n
I have yet to see a full complete box set of Mr. Ray. Most of
\nthe CDs I’ve found are mostly greatest hit compilations, but there
\nare some that have few songs that are not contained in other
\ncompilations. Therefore, throughout the compilations that I have,
\nthere are duplicate versions on each album.<\/p>\n
Anyway, as I was growing up and discovering the great art of
\nmusic, my parents told the stories of the music influences that
\ninspired them when they were growing up. Being 33 years old, my
\nparents were from the Big Band Era, and early 50s generation.
\nTalents such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Kay Starr and
\nRosemary Clooney were the big stars of their days.<\/p>\n
But one such talent that really never received full attention as
\na Sinatra or Cole, there was a great talent by the name of Johnnie
\nRay. Ray was most famous for two songs: “Cry” and “The Little White
\nCloud That Cried”. I can still remember having the 78 rpm record of
\nthis single, as I pretty much played the heck out of it. I don’t
\nhave that single now, yet with all of the playing out of it, that
\nsingle had seen better days. It wasn’t until I was older (after
\nhigh school) when I finally purchased the 45 rpm record of these
\ntwo songs, until CDs were became the main source in owning
\nmusic.<\/p>\n
But as I was growing up, when I found any Johnnie Ray records, I
\nnaturally picked them up, whether I knew the songs or not. One such
\nsong is featured on
\nHere And Now<\/i>, entitled “You Don’t Owe Me A Thing.” I can
\nremember playing this 45 single as I was just entering high school
\nin the late seventies. Where most teens were focusing on the most
\nrecent songs of the day, I was enjoying the music of the past. One
\ndisappointment when I heard this song on
\nHere And Now<\/i>, is that when I originally owned the 45, there
\nwas whistling throughout the song. On
\nHere And Now<\/i>, there wasn’t. (Luckily, I found another
\nJohnnie Ray import CD which featured the original whistling. See
\nwhat I mean? It would be best to have one big giant collection
\nwithout having duplicate versions on other compilations!)<\/p>\n
“The Little White Cloud That Cried” is also on
\nHere And Now<\/i>, and it is the original version. “Let’s Walk
\nThat-A-Way” is a duet with Doris Day.<\/p>\n
Two songs that I discovered for the first time on this album
\nwere the title track and the tune “In The Candlelight.” The title
\ntrack is a great, easy listening tune. The “Candlelight” tune is
\njust beautiful, and would be a great song to listen to for that
\nspecial romantic candlelight dinner. This is a song that I would
\nnever be tired of listening to. “I’m Beginning To See The Light” is
\na song that is closely related to Harry Connick, Jr. It’s jazzy in
\nthe Connick style. Another song in this style is “It All Depends on
\nYou.”<\/p>\n
The ten songs on this album are pleasant, and very relaxing to
\nenjoy. Being a big fan of music, I enjoy practically every source.
\nMost people think of Easy Listening music is simply boring. This is
\nnot true. To get away from the loud rock, it is very easy to kick
\nback and enjoy what music used to be. Sure, there aren’t a lot of
\nnew talents who follow in the same vein as a Johnnie Ray or Frank
\nSinatra (Harry Connick, Jr. would be the closest), but this music
\ncan be enjoyed by any age, if you really want to put your listening
\nears to it. And some of the famous Easy Listening performers are
\nstill around, and performing today: Tom Jones, Engelbert
\nHumperdinck, to name a few.<\/p>\n
Johnnie Ray was a great musical talent. While he would perform
\nhis famous song “Cry,” he would break down in tears in a split
\nsecond. He was an incredible performer…who also had a handicap.
\nAs a youngster, he had lost his hearing, becoming deaf. He wore a
\nhearing aid to help him with his singing.<\/p>\n
Johnnie Ray passed away in 1990 of liver failure. Even though he
\nmay not have been a household name to some, he has been referenced
\nin songs such as Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ hit “Come On Eileen” and
\nBilly Joel’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire.”<\/p>\n
For the die-hard fans of the more recent music of the day, such
\nas Alternative, Heavy Metal, Rap, Techno Pop, etc., I encourage you
\nto just stop for a moment and listen to what us “older” folks
\nenjoyed when we were growing up. Sure, today’s music isn’t all that
\nbad. I can actually say that I do enjoy today’s music, up to a
\npoint. So if I can enjoy today’s music, being an older person,
\nhopefully today’s young generation can look back and enjoy the
\nhumble beginnings of what would become Rock ‘N’ Roll. Believe it or
\nnot, there are stories concerning the lives of Johnnie Ray and
\nFrank Sinatra in the Rock & Roll Encyclopedia by Rolling Stone
\nMagazine. And don’t be surprised if Johnnie Ray becomes an inductee
\ninto the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
I think the Rolling Stones and Billy Joel said it best:<\/p>\n
Rolling Stones: “I know, it’s only rock and roll, but I like it,
\nlove it…yes I do!”<\/p>\n
Billy Joel: “Everybody’s talkin’ ’bout the new sound, funny, but
\nit’s still rock and roll to me.”<\/p>\n
Johnnie Ray — gone, but never forgotten.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":27310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7253],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38675","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-johnnie-ray","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38675"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38675"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}