Ray Stevens and 'The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music:' Buddy Kalb speaks

Updated March 20, 2012 – Legendary singer Ray Stevens has just released the most ambitious recording project of his career. The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music, only available on RayStevens.com at the present, features a whopping 108 songs tracing the evolution of comedy, including novelty, parody, comedy rock, or political satire.

Best known for his novelty staples such as "Gitarzan," "Everything Is Beautiful," "The Streak," "Misty," and "Mississippi Squirrel Revival," Stevens charted quite successfully on both the pop and country charts in a 25-year chart run. To read an exclusive interview with him, head on over to "Ray Stevens: Still Trying To Figure Out What He's Gonna Do When He Grows Up."

View slideshow: Songwriter Buddy Kalb, courtesy of the "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" 1992 video

In a press release accompanying the box set, the piano extraordinaire admitted, "Comedy music is a dying art form, and I wanted to do my part in preserving all of those great old recordings with the latest equipment and technology."

Songwriter Buddy Kalb is unquestionably the singer's right hand music man. Often referred to by Stevens as a "song doctor," Mr. Kalb has written hundreds of novelty and occasionally serious tunes for his buddy (often under his given name, C.W. Kalb).

In October Mr. Kalb returned to his singer/songwriter roots with a three-volume digital collection of his songs taped at a Nashville Writers' Night concert. Fortunately for us, Mr. Kalb recently let the cat out of the bag concerning his crucial role in Encyclopedia.

In case you missed an earlier interview with the songwriter ("From Atlanta To Nashville's Music Row: An Interview With Songwriter Buddy Kalb"), you can visit the link to read about his often colorful past as a recording artist along with the stories behind some of his monster successes, including "The Squirrel". Otherwise, fasten your seatbelt as the ride takes off below...

The Buddy Kalb Interview

How did the idea originate for The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music?

Years ago when we were talking about doing a DirecTV package with another video (a 1-800 number deal), we were thinking, The Greatest Comedy Hits of All Time by the greatest comedy recording artist of all time might be a nice package. So Ray began collecting songs that he loved (going back to his childhood), and he thought, Well I might do this song or that song.

Finally, he got the energy for it, and he dove in about two years ago. There are 108 recordings, and he produced and arranged them all. In some cases, he tried to be very faithful to the original and at other times, he put his fingerprint on it.

What are some of the memorable recordings on the set?

One song that comes to mind is “Three Little Fishies” (aka “Itty Bitty Poo”). Originally a big hit in 1939 for bandleader and radio personality Kay Kyser, it had lines such as “Three little fishes and their mommy fishy too…and they swam, and they swam right over the dam…Boop boop dittum dattum wattum, choo.”

Another one on the album is the 1943 novelty song “Mairzy Doats.” The Merry Macs had the biggest hit version, do you remember it? “The mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy…a kid’ll eat ivy too, wouldn’t you?” It’s rushing and slurring your words together to make funny words.

Ray also recorded a couple of Spike Jones’s songs, “Cocktails For Two” and “The William Tell Overture.” Spike had a unique band (His City Slickers) that embellished his songs with bells, whistles, sirens, gunshots, and all kinds of sounds.

Ray put his stamp on material by Phil Harris, The Coasters, and the genius that was Roger Miller.” I Wanna Talk About Me” (2001), the Toby Keith song, will be on there. It’s an example of what’s left of novelty songs.

Of course, Ray recorded some of my songs, including “Mississippi Squirrel Revival” and "The Haircut Song" ["The Pirate Song," "Sittin' Up With The Dead," "Osama Yo' Mama," and nine cuts on the final CD were also written by me].

Without a doubt, Ray has been a major contributor to the history of comedy music, so it wouldn’t be complete without numerous contributions from Ray Stevens. They are some of the best songs I think he’s ever done. It’s a really fun and interesting project, and I’m enjoying listening to it.

What are some of the special features included with the project, and will the set be eventually released on iTunes/Amazon.com?

There are nine CDs with the songs in alphabetical order. An encyclopedic book of little-known facts about the songs is included, too. We researched each song, the respective songwriters, and nuggets of info on the performers.

Ray wrote his recollections and memories of each song, its respective era, and their impact on him. There is a photo section with cool facts about the record labels, songwriter, along with chart information about the original record.

Ray has made a number of media appearances [radio, newspaper, television, etc.] this month for The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The best way to know what he's doing is to visit the news section of his official website. By the way, you can see Ray performing several songs on RFDtv this month on Larry's Country Diner, hosted by Larry Black.

We plan to sell Encyclopedia as a direct market item for as long as possible as we work via radio, print, Internet and TV to build demand for it at retail. I suspect we will make it available in stores and at Amazon/iTunes in time for Christmas...late summer to early fall. We hope to have a TV direct campaign, as we are working on the commercials now.