NASHVILLE, TN—On April 7, multiple news outlets reported that Harold Ray Ragsdale, better known as singer-songwriter, Ray Stevens, 87, is recovering after a fall and breaking his neck on March 30.
A representative for Stevens indicated he was initially hospitalized after the fall but is now at home recovering. He will be wearing a neck brace for a while, but “is fully mobile and in good spirits.”
Stevens is one of the musicians who combined his musical talents with comedy. He is responsible for the 1974 hit single “They Call Him the Streak.”
Stevens, who was born Ray Ragsdale, was raised in Albany, Georgia. The Ragsdale’s introduced their son, Ray, to the piano at a young age who took lessons as a child. His family moved to Atlanta during his senior year in high school. Ragsdale played multiple wind instruments for the high school band and worked as a DJ at a local radio station.
According to the Country Music Hall of Fame, it was during this time he played in a small combo, and caught the attention of Bill Lowery, who took him and other upcoming musicians under his wing, promoting them as a sponsor of sorts.
His first single, “Silver Bracelet,” was produced and released in 1957 under Capitol Records in, under his given name, Ray Ragsdale. He changed his name to Ray Stevens soon after.
Stevens moved to Nashville with his wife and daughter in January 1962. Approximately three weeks later, he had his first top ten hit, “Ahab the Arab.”
He produced, “Everything Beautiful,” “Misty,” “Gitarzan,” and “Sunday Morning Coming Down, among others. He was recognized as an inductee of the Christian Music Hall of fame. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1980 and into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019.
