With songs like I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow and Would Jesus Wear A Rolex to
his name, it would be easy to dismiss Georgia boy Ray Stevens as a purveyor of
novelty songs but there is a more serious side to his songwriting talents. His
1975 cover of the jazz standard Misty (originally written by Erroll Garner in
1954) went to number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and his chart-topping
Everything Is Beautiful has become an international classic. Stevens started out
his career in music as a teenage prodigy signing to Capitol Records in 1957. In
the late 1960s a move to Monument Reco...