Hoo Ray

Here are another couple of songs from the wonderful Ray Jessel who passed away on July 17 at age 85. But there's a slight "twist" here which I'll explain in more detail for the second selection.  The short version is together, we have the funny and tender side of the good fellow.

For this first, though, this is Pure Ray, a very funny song with clever lyrics that in this case deal with a pervasive concern in today's culture, "Identity Theft."

The second number is a change of pace from all the comedy numbers I've been posting.  This comes from his terrific CD, The First Seventy Years, which you can buy here. It's a song from a proposed show he co-wrote and was trying to get staged, though alas it never came off.  Based on this song, however, that's a shame.  The show was based on the novel, Moll Flanders, by Daniel Defoe.  It's a gorgeous piece called, "Please, Don't Let It Be Love."  In fact, as Ray explains, the song  is too lovely for him to be the one to sing it, and he brings in popular cabaret performer Maud Maggart to do the honors -- wonderfully.