John Alvin Ray (January 10, 1927 – February 24, 1990) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Highly popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor to what became rock and roll, for his jazz and blues-influenced music, and his animated stage personality. Tony Bennett called Ray the "father of rock and roll", and historians have noted him as a pioneering figure in the development of the genre.

Born and raised in Dallas, Oregon, Ray, who was partially deaf, began singing professionally at age 15 on Portland radio stations. He gained a local following singing at small, predominantly African-American nightclubs in Detroit, where he was discovered in 1949. In 1951, he signed a contract with Okeh Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records. On the Billboard charts, he rose quickly from obscurity with the release of his debut album Johnnie Ray (1952), as well as with a 78 rpm single, both of whose sides reached the Billboard magazine's Top Hot 100 chart, "Cry" and "The Little White Cloud That Cried".

In 1954, Ray made his first film, There's No Business Like Show Business, as part of an ensemble cast that included Ethel Merman and Marilyn Monroe. His career in the music business in his native United States began to decline in 1957, and his American record label dropped him in 1960. He never regained a strong following there and rarely appeared on American television after 1973. Ray's last television appearance in the United States was on a 1977 recorded-for-syndication episode of Sha Na Na. His fanbases in the United Kingdom and Australia remained strong until his final global concert tour in 1989.

At age 13, Ray became deaf in his left ear following a mishap that occurred during a Boy Scout ritual called a "blanket toss". In later years, Ray performed wearing a hearing aid. Surgery performed in 1958 left him almost completely deaf in both ears, although hearing aids helped his condition. Ray credited his deafness as pivotal to his career and performance style, saying, "My need for sincerity traces back to when I was a child and lost my hearing. I became withdrawn. I had an emotional need to develop a relationship to other people." sharing billing with Jane Powell, then a local young singer.

Ray's first record for the race label Okeh, the self-penned R&B number "Whiskey and Gin", was a minor hit in 1951. When executives at Okeh's parent Columbia Records realized that the Caucasian Ray had developed a fan base of Caucasian listeners, he was moved over to the Columbia label. In 1952, he dominated the American popular music charts with the double-sided hit single of "Cry" and "The Little White Cloud That Cried". Selling over two million copies of the 78 rpm single, Ray's delivery struck a chord with teenagers and he quickly became a teen idol.

The live television broadcast of Toast of the Town on January 6, 1952, included the first of his several appearances on the widely-seen program, that officially changed its title in 1955 to The Ed Sullivan Show.

thumb|right|Ray in [[There's No Business Like Show Business (film)|There's No Business Like Show Business (1954)]]

Ray's performing style included theatrics later associated with rock and roll, including tearing at his hair, falling to the floor, and crying on stage. One source states that Ray "opened the way for Elvis and the overt sexual energy of rock and roll ... [and] is credited by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Elton John as being a formative influence on their artistic styles".

20th Century Fox executives included him in the ensemble cast of the film There's No Business Like Show Business (1954) and it never was distributed to theaters. In the 1980s when Ray was asked why he never had made another widely seen film after There's No Business Like Show Business, he replied, "I was never asked."

Later career

thumb|left|200px|Ray in 1969, as best man at [[Judy Garland's wedding in London, by Allan Warren]]

Ray had a close relationship with journalist and television game show panelist Dorothy Kilgallen. They became acquainted soon after his sudden rise to stardom in the United States. They remained close as his American career declined.

Two months before Kilgallen's death in 1965, her newspaper column plugged Ray's engagements at the Latin Quarter in New York and the Tropicana Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. He began his gig at the Latin Quarter immediately after an eight-month vacation in Spain, during which he and new manager Bill Franklin had extricated themselves from contracts with Bernie Lang, who had managed Ray from 1951 to 1963. Denmark and Sweden were among the countries where Ray and Garland performed together; they played in Stockholm on March 19.

In the early 1970s, Ray's American career revived to a limited extent, as he had not released a record album or single in over a decade. He made network television appearances 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 1976 and cut off contact with the singer a few years later. Ray's last television appearance in the United States was on a 1977 syndicated broadcast of Sha Na Na.

In 1981, Ray hired Alan Eichler as his manager and resumed performing with an instrumental trio rather than with the large orchestras to which he and his audiences had been accustomed for the first 25 years of his career. When Ray and the trio performed at a New York club called Marty's on Third Avenue and East 73rd Street in 1981, The New York Times stated, "The fact that Mr. Ray, in the years since his first blush of success, has been seen and heard so infrequently in the United States is somewhat ironic because it was his rhythm and blues style of singing that help[ed] lay the groundwork for the rock-and-roll that turned Mr. Ray's entertainment world around. Recently, Ringo Starr of the Beatles pointed out that the three singers that the Beatles listened to in their fledgling days were Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Johnnie Ray." in Billy Idol's "Don't Need a Gun" video, and is name-checked in the lyrics of the song. During this time period, Ray was generally playing small venues in the United States such as Citrus College in Los Angeles County, California. He performed there in 1987 "with a big-band group," according to a Los Angeles Times profile of him during that year. and the Vine St. Bar and Grill in Hollywood, where his show was broadcast live by KKJZ ("K-Jazz") radio. In February 1987, a high-school gym in Alexandria, Louisiana was the venue for a Big Band Gala of Stars that included short sets by Ray, Barbara McNair,

While Ray's popularity continued to wane in the United States throughout the 1980s, Australian, English and Scottish promoters booked him for large venues as late as 1989, his last year of performing.

Musical influences

Ray was significantly influenced by gospel music and numerous African American singers, specifically Billie Holiday, Little Miss Cornshucks and LaVern Baker, as well as Judy Garland and Kay Starr. The wedding ceremony took place in New York a short time after he gave his first New York concert, which was at the Copacabana. The New York Daily News made the wedding its cover story for May 26, 1952, and it reported that guests included Mayor Vincent R. Impellitteri.

Aware of Ray's unorthodox sexuality, Morrison told a friend she would "straighten it out". The couple separated in 1953 and divorced in 1954. Several writers have noted that the Ray–Morrison marriage occurred under false pretenses, and that Ray had had a long-term relationship with his manager Bill Franklin.

In 1959, Ray was arrested again in Detroit for soliciting an undercover officer at the Brass Rail, a bar that was described many years later by one biographer as a haven for musicians,

According to Ray's two biographers, Jonny Whiteside and Tad Mann, he did not have a close relationship with a man or a woman during the 13 years he lived after Bill Franklin stopped interacting with him and phoning him. Ray did maintain a loyal friendship with his road manager Tad Mann, who was married with five children. When Ray gave parties at his Los Angeles home in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, frequent guests included Mann (real name Harold Gaze Mann III) and actress Jane Withers.

According to lawyer and researcher Mark Shaw, Ray's relationship with Dorothy Kilgallen produced her youngest child Kerry Kollmar, whom her husband Richard Kollmar disowned after Kilgallen's death in 1965. In two books that Shaw has authored, he claims that Kilgallen remained faithful to her husband for 13 years, ignoring rumors of his extramarital affairs because she did not witness evidence of any of them during that time frame.

In 1954, Kilgallen gave birth to a baby boy who was photographed for magazines and newspapers with her holding him, never with a father. According to biographer Jonny Whiteside, he drank heavily then. In 1960, he was hospitalized for tuberculosis. He was confined there for more than two weeks without the knowledge of journalists or talk radio personalities who had interviewed him in various countries throughout the 1980s. however, liver failure is not a cause of death in and of itself. The New York Timess obituary notes Ray had been in a coma for several days before his death.

Legacy

For his contribution to the recording industry, Johnnie Ray was honored with a star in 1960 on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6201 Hollywood Boulevard.

In 1999, Bear Family Records issued two five-CD sets of his entire body of work, each containing an 84-page book on his career. Companies including Sony Music Entertainment (the parent company of Columbia Records) and Collectables have kept his large catalogue of recordings in continual release worldwide.

Music journalist Robert A. Rodriguez noted Ray's contemporary obscurity in his 2006 book The 1950s' Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Rock & Roll Rebels, Cold War Crises, and All American Oddities, writing:

Scholar Cheryl Herr notes the impact of Ray's deafness on his unique performing style and vocals, writing, "[Ray was] a singer whose hearing range appears literally to have defined the contour of his performance, the nature of his short-lived popularity, and his enduring iconic status in pre-rock and proto-rock."

Ray's popularity was spoofed in the play and film As Long As They're Happy, from 1953 and 1955.

The 1959 British film I'm All Right Jack features a young female character with a photograph of Ray on her dressing table, which she kisses.

Archival footage of Ray arriving at London Heathrow Airport in 1954 was featured in the 1982 music video for Dexys Midnight Runners' hit single "Come On Eileen". The lyrics of the song also mention him: "Poor old Johnnie Ray sounded sad upon the radio/Moved a million hearts in mono."

Ray is mentioned in the lyrics of Billy Idol's 1986 hit "Don't Need a Gun", and appears in the video.

Multiple elements of Ray's self-composed hit "I'll Never Fall in Love again" are sampled in Portishead's 1994 song "Biscuit".

He is mentioned in the lyrics of Van Morrison's 1997 song "Sometimes We Cry" from his album The Healing Game, a song that features the backing vocals of Brian Kennedy and Georgie Fame.

Ray is one of the cultural touchstones mentioned in the first verse (concerning events from the late 1940s and early 1950s) of Billy Joel's 1989 hit single "We Didn't Start the Fire", between Red China and South Pacific.

He is mentioned in the lyrics of Jimmy Ray's 1997 song "Are You Jimmy Ray?"

Ray was also referred to in two Eartha Kitt songs: "Monotonous" from New Faces of 1952 ("I even made Johnnie Ray smile for me"), and "I Want to Be Evil" ("I want to sing songs like the guy who cries").

A fictionalized version of him appears in James Ellroy's 2021 novel Widespread Panic.

Bob Dylan has spoken about his very early influences, before he had ever listened to a rock'n'roll record or Hank Williams. Dylan was quoted as saying, "Before that, Johnny [sic] Ray. He was the first singer whose voice and style, I guess, I totally fell in love with. There was just something about the way he sang 'When Your Sweetheart Sends A Letter'...that just knocked me out. I loved his style, wanted to dress like him too."

Selected discography

Chart hits

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|-

! rowspan="2"| Year

! rowspan="2"| Title

! colspan="4"| Chart Positions

|-style="font-size:smaller;"

! style="width:50px;"| US<br/>

! style="width:50px;"| CB

! style="width:50px;"| US<br>R&B<br/>