John Alvin Ray (January 10, 1927 - February 24, 1990) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Very popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as the foremost predecessor of what will become rock and roll, for his jazz and blues-influenced music and his animated stage personality. Tony Bennett calls Ray "the father of rock and roll," and historians record him as a pioneer in the development of the genre.
Raised in Oregon, Ray, who was partially deaf, started singing professionally at the age of fifteen at Portland radio station. He will then get local followers who sing at a small nightclub dominated by African-Americans in Detroit, where he was discovered in 1951 and then signed to Columbia Records. He rose quickly from obscurity in the United States with the release of his debut album, Johnnie Ray (1952), as well as with 78 rpm singles, both sides reaching Billboard Top Hot 100 songs from 1952: "Cry" and "The Little White Cloud That Crys".
In 1954, Ray made his first and only film, No Business Like Business Show , in which he, Ethel Merman, Marilyn Monroe and others were part of the ensemble player. His career in his native United States began to decline in 1957, and the American record label dropped him in 1960. He never gained strong followers there and rarely appeared on American television after 1973. His Fanbases in England and Australia, however, remained strong until his death in 1990 due to complications from liver failure.
Single English Hits & amp; The albums note that Ray was "a sensation in the 1950s, the heart-wrenching vocals of 'Cry'... affect many actions including Elvis and are a prime target for teenage hysteria in pre-Presley times. " Ray's dramatic stage performance and melancholy songs have been credited by music historians as a precursor to later performers, from Leonard Cohen to Morrissey.
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Johnnie Ray was born January 10, 1927, in Dallas, Oregon, to Elmer's parents and Hazel (nÃÆ' Â © e Simkins) Ray. Together with Elma's sister, Ray spent part of her childhood on a farm and attended elementary school in Dallas. Ray started playing piano at the age of three, and started at the age of twelve, singing in the local church choir. After the United States entered World War II, the family moved to Portland, Oregon, where Ray attended Franklin High School.
At the age of thirteen, Ray became deaf in his left ear after an accident that occurred during the Scouting ritual was called "throw a blanket." In the years that followed, Ray appeared wearing hearing aids. Surgery done in 1958 made him almost completely deaf in both ears, although hearing aids helped his condition. Ray praised his deafness as very important in his career style and appearance by saying: "My need for sincerity goes back to when I was a kid and lost my hearing, I became drawn, I have an emotional need to develop relationships with others. After high school graduation, Ray worked as a jerk, a bus boy, and as a factory worker in Salem, Oregon. For a while, he did piano work at clubs in Salem and Portland.
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Careers
Early career and success
Inspired by rhythmic singers like Kay Starr, LaVern Baker, and Ivory Joe Hunter, Ray developed a unique rhythm-based singing style, described as an alternative between pre-rock R & B and a more conventional classical pop approach. He started singing professionally on a Portland radio station, Oregon, at the age of 15, sharing bills with Jane Powell, then a local young singer.
He later appeared in comedy and theatrical production in Seattle, Washington, before moving to Detroit, Michigan. In Detroit, Ray regularly performs at Flame Showbar, an African-American nightclub, where he develops local followers. While performing at Flame Showbar, Ray grabbed the attention of Bernie Lang, a plugger song, who saw him perform with local DJ Robin Seymour from WKMH. Lang went to New York to sell the singer to Danny Kessler from label Okeh, a subsidiary of Columbia Records. Kessler came from New York, and he, Lang and Seymour went to Flame. According to Seymour, Kessler's reaction was, "Well, I do not know.This kid looks good in the pulpit, but he will never take notes."
Seymour and Lowell Worley from the local Columbia office who persuaded Kessler to have a test record made by Ray. Worley set records to be cut at United Sound Studios in Detroit. Seymour told reporter Dick Osgood that there was a verbal agreement that he would be cut in a three-way deal in Ray's management. But the deal mysteriously evaporates, and so does Seymour's friendship with Kessler.
Ray's first record, R & amp; Self-written B for Okeh Records, "Whiskey and Gin," was a minor hit in 1951. The following year he dominated the charts with double-sided hit singles "Cry" and "The Little White Cloud That Cry." Sell more than two million copies of the 78rpm single, sending Ray touched a teenager's heart and he quickly became a teen idol. When executives at Columbia Records, the parent company of Okeh, realized that Ray Caucasian had developed a white listener fan base, he was transferred to the Columbia label.
The live television broadcast of Toast of the Town on January 6, 1952 included the first of several appearances in the widely seen American program that officially changed its title in 1955 to The Ed Sullivan Show .
Ray's performances include theatrical associated with rock and roll, including tearing his hair, falling to the floor, and crying on stage. Ray quickly earned the nickname "Tuan Emosi", "The Nabob of Sob", and "The Prince of Wails", and several others.
20th Century Fox took advantage of his fame by putting it into his No House Like Show Business (1954) film ensemble with Ethel Merman as his mother Dan Dailey as his father Donald O'Connor as his brother and Marilyn Monroe as his brother-in-law. This is his only film in addition to a cameo as a cop in Rogue's Gallery . Rogue's Gallery was intended to be released to theaters in 1968 but was withdrawn and not publicly seen until NBC broadcasted it in 1972. When Ray was asked why he never made another movie, he replied, "I never asked. "
In the 1950s, after the two sides of the single "Cry"/"Little White Crying Cloud" ran, further hit songs followed. They include "Please Mr. Sun," "That Night," "Walkin 'My Baby Back Home," "A Sinner Am I" and "Yes Tonight Josephine." He had a British number 1 hit with "Just Walkin 'in the Rain" (which Ray originally disliked) during the 1956 Christmas season. He hit again in 1957 with "You Do not Owe Me a Thing," which reached number 10 on the Billboard charts. Despite his popularity in America declining in 1957, he remained popular in the United Kingdom, breaking the record of attendance at the London Palladium that was originally set by fellow Columbia Recording artist Frankie Laine. In subsequent years, he maintained a loyal fan base abroad, especially in Australia.
Later career
Ray has a close relationship with reporters and television showcase event panelist Dorothy Kilgallen. They get acquainted as soon as he suddenly becomes a star in the United States. They remain close because his career in America is declining.
Two months before Kilgallen's death in 1965, his newspaper column banned Ray's involvement in the Latin Quarter in New York and Tropicana Resort & amp; Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. He started his performance in the Latin Quarter immediately after an eight-month vacation in Spain where he and new manager Bill Franklin had secured himself from a contract with Bernie Lang, who had been managing Ray from 1951 to 1963. Ray and Franklin believed that Lang was dishonest responsible over the end of Ray's star in the United States and for the huge debts he owed to the Internal Revenue Service.
In 1969, Ray led a European concert tour with Judy Garland. She served as the best man in her marriage with her last husband, nightclub manager Mickey Deans, in London on March 15, 1969. Denmark and Sweden are one of the countries where Ray and Garland perform together; they played Stockholm on 19 March.
In the early 1970s, Ray's career in America was revived to some extent, because he has not released a recording or singles album for more than ten years. He made the television network appearance on The Andy Williams Show in 1970 and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson three times during 1972 and 1973. His personal manager Bill Franklin resigned in the year 1976 and cut off contact with the singer a few years later. His awakening in America turned to be short-lived as his career had begun to decline as the 1980s approached.
In 1981, Ray hired Alan Eichler as his manager and re-emerged with an instrumental trio rather than with a large orchestra that he and his audience had been accustomed to during the first 25 years of his career. When Ray and the trio performed at a New York club named Marty on Third Avenue and East 73rd Street in 1981, The New York Times stated, "The fact that Mr. Ray, in the years since the first blush of success, has been seen and heard so rarely in the United States is somewhat ironic because it is his rhythm and singing blues style that helped lay the foundations for rock-and-roll that changed Ray's entertainment world around., Ringo Starr of The Beatles showed that three singers who were heard The Beatles in their early days were Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Johnnie Ray. "
In 1986, Ray appeared as a Los Angeles taxi driver in Billy Idol's "Do not Need a Gun" video and his name was checked in the lyrics of his song. During this period, Ray generally played in small places in the United States such as Citrus College in Los Angeles County, California. She appeared there in 1987 "with a big band," according to her Los Angeles Times profile during the year. Other 1980s appearances include the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas, Resorts International in Atlantic City and Vine St. Bar and Grill in Hollywood, where the show is broadcast live by KJAZZ radio. In February 1987, a high school gym in Alexandria, Louisiana was home to the Big Band Gala of Stars, which included short sets by Ray, Barbara McNair and other aging singers.
In 1986, Ray and soap opera Marla Gibbs was one of the figures who helped dedicate Billie Holiday stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
While Ray's popularity continued to shrink in the United States throughout the 1980s, Australian, British and Scottish promoters booked it for major venues in late 1989, the final year of his performance.
Music effect
Ray is significantly influenced by gospel music and many African American singers, especially Billie Holiday, Little Miss Cornshucks and LaVern Baker, and Kay Starr.
Personal life
Relationships and sexuality
In 1951, before Ray's fame, he was arrested in Detroit to receive and ask a secret squad police officer disguised for sex in a restroom at Stone Theater, a burlesque home. When he appeared in court, he pleaded guilty to the charge, paid a fine, and was released. Due to uncertainty at the time, the Detroit newspaper did not report the story. After his appearance became famous the following year, rumors about his sexuality began to spread as a result of the incident.
Despite his knowledge of appeals, Marilyn Morrison, the daughter of Mocambo nightclub owner in West Hollywood, married Ray at the height of his fame in America. The wedding ceremony took place in New York in a short time after he gave his first New York concert, which is in Copacabana. The New York Daily News made his marriage closing story for May 26, 1952, and reported that guests included Mayor Vincent R. Impellitteri.
Realizing Ray's sexuality, Morrison told a friend that he would "straighten it out." The couple split up in 1953 and divorced in 1954. Some authors note that Ray-Morrison's marriage took place for the wrong reasons, and that Ray had a long-term relationship with his manager Bill Franklin. However, Ray's biography shows that Franklin is 13 years younger than Ray and that their personal and business relationships began in 1963, years after Ray-Morrison's divorce. In a 1953 newspaper interview with James Bacon, Ray blamed the rumors about his sexuality for the breakup of his marriage to Morrison.
In 1959, Ray was arrested again in Detroit for asking an undercover officer at Rail Kuningan, a bar depicted many years later by a biographer as a haven for musicians and by other biographers as a gay bar. Ray went to court after this second arrest and was found not guilty. Two years after his death, some friends shared with biographer Jonny Whiteside their knowledge that Ray is a homosexual.
According to two biographers Ray, Jonny Whiteside and Tad Mann, he has not had a close relationship with a man or a woman during the 13 years he lived after Bill Franklin stopped interacting with him and called him. Ray did maintain a loyal friendship with his street manager Tad Mann, who married and raised five children. When Ray gave a party at his home in Los Angeles in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, frequent guests included Mann, whose real name was Harold Gaze Mann III, and actress Jane Withers.
Health issues
Ray suffered from alcoholism throughout his life, though in the 1950s at the height of his fame, newspapers and magazines about Ray did not reveal the extent of his drinking problems. On September 2, 1952, Ray was arrested in Boston for public drunkenness, but released four hours later. According to biographer Jonny Whiteside, he drank a lot. In 1960, he was hospitalized for tuberculosis. Shortly after his recovery, he stopped drinking, according to Whiteside. His music was not available for sale and he did not appear on American television during the first half of the 1960s. As a result, the American newspaper advertises for the concert but does not report anything about his life: marital status, off-the-shelf behavior or health issues.
Not until December 1966, Ray returned to American television, and even then it was a local broadcast program in Chicago but not elsewhere: Night With Johnnie Ray . The video of the show was reviewed by Whiteside in the early 1990s, and he wrote in his book that Ray looked thin and unwell.
In 1969, shortly after Ray returned to the United States from a European tour with Judy Garland, an American doctor told him that he was well enough to drink a glass of wine once in a while. He returned to drinking and his health began to decline. Nonetheless, in the early 1970s it emerged several times on prime-time network television in the United States. After the offer for television stopped, he went on tour, attracting the attention of major media outside the United States, until he gave his final concert, a benefit to the Grand Theater in Salem, Oregon, on October 6, 1989.
Death
In early 1990, poor health forced Ray to check Cedars-Sinai Medical Center near his home in Los Angeles. He was confined there for more than two weeks without the knowledge of journalists or radio people who had interviewed him in various countries throughout the 1980s.
On February 24, 1990, he died of liver encephalopathy from liver failure at Cedars-Sinai. Kay Starr was among those who spoke at a public memorial ceremony held at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills. She is buried at Hopewell Cemetery near Hopewell, Oregon, in a cemetery with her mother, father, and sister.
Legacy
For his contribution in the recording industry, Johnnie Ray was honored with a star in 1960 at the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6201 Hollywood Boulevard.
In 1999, Bear Family Records released two sets of five CDs from all over, each containing a 84-page book about his career. Companies including Sony Music Entertainment (the parent company of Columbia Records) and Collectables store a large catalog of recordings in sustainable releases worldwide.
Music journalist Robert A Rodriguez notes the contemporary obscurity of Ray in his 2006 book The 1950s' Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Rock & amp; Rebel Rolls, Cold War Crisis, and All American Oddities , writes:
Though hardly ever remembered today, in the fifties note, Ray bought the public is something of ex-Leonard Cohen or Morrissey, who created a workplace that is the definition of depressifest. With titles like "What to Wear", "Oh, Sad, Sad Day", and "Here I'm Broken Heart", coupled with a stage show that emotionally drains the spirit as a revival meeting, Ray dominates pre-rock & amp; roll graph.
Scholar Cheryl Herr noted the impact of Ray's deafness on his unique style and vocals, writes: "[Ray is] a singer whose hearing range has literally defined the contour of his appearance, his short-lived popularity, and his enduring iconic status in pre-rock and proto -rock. "
In popular culture
Ray's archive records that arrived at London Heathrow Airport in 1954 were featured in the 1982 music video for the hit single Dexys Midnight Runners "Come On Eileen". The lyrics of the song also mentioned him: "Poor old Johnnie Ray sounds sad on the radio/He moves a million hearts in mono."
Ray mentioned in the lyric of Billy Idol 1986 hit "Do not Need a Gun" and appeared with him in the video.
Ray mentioned in the song "White, Clean and Neat" on Now and Zen, 1988 album by Robert Plant. "And no one is better qualified to cry for a moment, crying for a moment, not quite like Mr. Johnnie Ray.
He was also mentioned (as Johnnie Ray-ay-ay) at Shangri-La, a song from Kevin Cyyne's 1976 Heartburn album, along with Frankie Laine. In the song, 'the old heart-throbs singing' represents the singer's memory in the 1950s.
Ray is one of the cultural touch stones mentioned in the first paragraph (about events from the late 1940s and early 1950s) from Billy Joel's hit single 1989 "We Did Not Start the Fire", between Red China and the South Pacific
Ray examined the name by Van Morrison in his duet with Tom Jones entitled "Sometimes We Cry" which was released in 1997.
Ray is also mentioned in two classic songs Eartha Kitt, "Monotonous (song)" from "New Faces in 1952" (I even made Johnnie Ray smile for me) and "I Want To Be Evil" (I want to sing a song like a crying person).
In Eva Rice's 2005 novel The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, Johnnie Ray is an idol for the main characters, Penelope and Charlotte - as predecessor Elvis Presley has introduced.
Discography selected
Hit chart
Studio album
- Johnnie Ray (Columbia, 1952)
- I Cry For You (Columbia, 1955)
- The Big Beat (Columbia, 1957)
- 'Until Morning (Columbia, 1958)
- On The Trail (Columbia, 1959)
- A Sinner Am I (Philips Records, United Kingdom, 1959)
- Johnnie Ray (aka Until Cloud Roll With ) (Liberty Records, 1962
- Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (Celebrity Records, England, 1976)
- Remember (K-Tel Record, stereo recording of hit)
Live album
- Johnnie Ray At The Palladium (Philips Records, United Kingdom, 1954)
- Johnnie Ray At Desert Inn in Las Vegas (Columbia Records, United States, 1958)
Compilation
- Most Hits Johnny Ray (Columbia Records, CL 1227)
- 20 Golden Greats (Columbia Records & Warwick Records, UK PR 5065 - 1979)
- High Drama: The Real Johnnie Ray (Columbia/Legacy, 1997)
- Cry (Bear Family Records, 1999)
- Yes Night, Josephine (Bear Family Note, 1999)
Songs
Movieography
Note
References
The work cited
Further reading
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- Rice, Jo (1982). Guinness 500 Book Number One Hits . Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives. ISBNÃ, 0-85112-250-7
External links
- Johnnie Ray's International Fans Club
- Biography
- Johnnie Ray on IMDb
- "Johnnie Ray". The Oregon Encyclopedia
- Johnnie Ray was interviewed at Pop Chronicles (1969)
- 1956 TV Performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCjTWYoRTzM
- 1957 TV Performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIxl_ISz1Ag
- Live Performances 1981: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TLGkUhurvg
- TV Performance 1983: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjqN_PM-_rc
- 1986 Billie Holiday Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xglDcNxgow
- Dexys Midnight Runners 1982 Video, Come On Eileen : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASwge9wc-eI
- Billy Idol 1986 Video, No Need Weapon
- Billy Joel's 1989 Video, We Do Not Start Fire : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g
- Shana Morrison, Sometimes We Cry with the lyrics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCxsy-sgChM
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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