Ray Stevens – Everything Is Beautiful

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Everything Is Beautiful (Song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Everything Is Beautiful”

Everything Is Beautiful - Ray Stevens.jpg
By Barnaby Records – 45cat.com, Fair use, Link

Single by Ray Stevens
from the album Everything Is Beautiful
B-side“A Brighter Day”
ReleasedMarch 1970
GenrePopcountrysoft rock
Length3:29
LabelBarnaby
Songwriter(s)Ray Stevens
Producer(s)Ray Stevens
Ray Stevens singles chronology
“I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”
(1970)”Everything Is Beautiful
(1970)”America, Communicate with Me”
(1970)

Everything Is Beautiful” is a song written, composed, and performed by Ray Stevens. It has appeared on many of Stevens’ albums, including one named after the song, and has become a pop standard and common in religious performances. The children heard singing the chorus of the song, using the hymn, “Jesus Loves the Little Children“, are from the Oak Hill Elementary School in Nashville, Tennessee. At the time, this group included Stevens’ two daughters.

The song was responsible for two wins at the Grammy Awards of 1971Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for Ray Stevens and Grammy Award for Best Inspirational Performance for Jake Hess. Stevens’ recording was the Number 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in the summer of 1970. The song also spent three weeks atop the adult contemporary chart. Many country stations played “Everything Is Beautiful”, with it peaking at number 39 on Billboard‘s Country chart. Billboard ranked the record as the No. 12 song of 1970. The song includes anti-racist and pro-tolerance lyrics such as “We shouldn’t care about the length of his hair/Or the color of his skin.”

“Everything Is Beautiful” is viewed as a major departure for Stevens, as the song is a more serious and spiritual tune, unlike some of his earlier (“Gitarzan

Ray Stevens – Gitarzan (Original)

and “Ahab the Arab“)

Ray Stevens – Ahab The Arab (1969)

and later (“The Streak“) recordings, which were comedy/novelty songs.

Ray Stevens – The Streak (Original)

The success of the record would allow Stevens (while still recording his comedy and novelty songs) to devote much of his 1970s work to more serious material, before pivoting back almost exclusively to comedy in the 1980s.

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1970)Peak
position
Australian Singles Chart1
Belgian VRT Top 3025
Canadian RPM Top Singles1
Dutch Top 4012
Euro Hit 5016
Irish Singles Chart3
New Zealand (Listener)16
UK Singles Chart6
US Billboard Easy Listening1
US Billboard Hot 1001
US Billboard Hot Country Singles39
US Cash Box Top 1001

Year-end charts

Chart (1970)Rank
Australia21
Canada34
US Billboard Hot 10012
US Cash Box Top 10025

Jody Wayne cover

South African singer Jody Wayne covered “Everything is Beautiful” in early 1972. His version reached number 20 in his home nation.

Everything is Beautiful

Other cover versions

Bing Crosby Everything Is Beautiful (1972)
  • Neil Sedaka performed a version of this selection on his 1976 album Live in Australia.
Neil Sedaka – "Everything Is Beautiful" (1974)
  • Dana named her 1980 album after that song. It made #43 in the UK chart. In 1986 her single reached #42 in Ireland.
Everything Is Beautiful
  • Foster & Allen recorded a version of the song for their album Songs We Love to Sing (1994) which reached number 41 on the UK Albums Chart that year and number 66 on the Irish albums chart.
Foster & Allen – Everything is Beautiful
Cledus T. Judd – Everything Is Beautiful
American Idol season 4 Top 10 Song AI4
  • Sonny And Cher – Everything Is Beautiful
SONNY & CHER "Everything Is Beautiful"
  • Stevens re-recorded the song in 2020. This “50th Anniversary” re-recording includes a spoken prologue and epilogue noting how much progress had been made since 1970, while calling out those who use diversity to divide society and beseeching Americans not to fall apart.
Ray Stevens – "Everything Is Beautiful" [50th Anniversary Edition] (Music Video)

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