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 record sales 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.
British Hit Singles & Albums noted that Ray was "a sensation in the 1950s; the heart-wrenching vocal delivery of 'Cry' ... influenced many acts including Elvis, and was the prime target for teen hysteria in the pre-Presley days." Ray's dramatic stage performances and melancholic songs have been credited by music historians as precursors to the work of later performers ranging from Leonard Cohen to Morrissey.
John Alvin Ray was born on January 10, 1927, in Dallas, Oregon, to Hazel (née Simkins) and Elmer Ray. Along with older sister Elma, Ray spent part of his childhood on a farm and attended grade school in Dallas. Ray began playing the piano at age three, and beginning at age 12 sang in the local church choir.
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."
For a year after Ray's 1940 Boy Scout accident, the Ray family continued to live on their farm near Dallas, Oregon. After the United States entered World War II, the family moved to Portland, Oregon. There Ray's father contributed to the war effort by working as "a welder in the shipyards," according to a Ray biography, and Ray attended Franklin High School. After graduating, Ray worked as a soda jerk, a bus boy, and a mill worker in Salem, the state capital. In the interim, he did jobs playing piano at clubs in Salem and Portland.
Inspired by rhythm singers like Kay Starr, LaVern Baker, and Ivory Joe Hunter, Ray developed a unique rhythm-based singing style described as alternating between pre-rock rhythm and blues and a more conventional classic pop approach. He began singing professionally on a Portland, Oregon, radio station at age 15, sharing billing with Jane Powell, then a local young singer.
He later performed in comedy shows and theatrical productions in Seattle, Washington before relocating to Detroit, Michigan. In Detroit, Ray regularly performed at the Flame Show Bar Talent Club, an African-American nightclub, where he developed a local following. While performing at the Flame, Ray attracted the attention of song plugger Bernie Lang, who saw him perform with local DJ Robin Seymour of WKMH. Lang went to New York to sell the singer to Danny Kessler of the Okeh Records label. Kessler came over from New York, and he, Lang, and Seymour went to the Flame. According to Seymour, Kessler's reaction was, "Well, I don't know. This kid looks well on the stand, but he will never go on records."
It was Seymour and Lowell Worley of the local office of Columbia Records who persuaded Kessler to have a test record made of Ray. Worley arranged for a record 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 on the three-way deal in the management of Ray. However, the deal mysteriously evaporated, and so did Seymour's friendship with Kessler.
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.
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. Ray quickly earned the nicknames "Mr. Emotion", "The Nabob of Sob", "The Prince of Wails", and several others. 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". As well, Ray's manager said that Elvis Presley often watched Johnnie's concerts.
20th Century Fox executives included him in the ensemble cast of the film There's No Business Like Show Business (1954) alongside Ethel Merman as his mother, Dan Dailey as his father, Donald O'Connor as his brother, Mitzi Gaynor as his sister, and Marilyn Monroe as his sister-in-law. His second and final film role was a cameo as a police officer in Rogue's Gallery, which was intended for release to cinemas in 1968 but was withdrawn. It was not seen publicly until NBC telecast it in 1972, 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."
In the 1950s, after both sides of the single "Cry"/"The Little White Cloud That Cried" ran their course, more hit songs followed. They included "Please, Mr. Sun", "Such a Night", "Walkin' My Baby Back Home", "A Sinner Am I", and "Yes Tonight Josephine". He scored a number-one hit in the United Kingdom with "Just Walkin' in the Rain" (which he initially disliked) during the Christmas season in 1956. He hit again in 1957 with "You Don't Owe Me a Thing", which reached number 10 on the Billboard chart in the United States. Though his American popularity was declining in 1957, he remained popular in the United Kingdom, breaking the attendance record at the London Palladium formerly set by fellow Columbia Records artist Frankie Laine. In later years, he retained a loyal fan base overseas, particularly in Australia.
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.