Buford Garfield "Baby" Ray (September 30, 1914 – January 21, 1986) was an American football player who played eleven seasons in the National Football League for the Green Bay Packers from 1938 to 1948.

Early life

Ray was born in Una, Tennessee, an unincorporated town east of Nashville. He attended Central High School in Nashville.

College career

Ray played for Vanderbilt University for three seasons, 1935-1937. He was a stand-out at both offensive and defensive tackle, due in part to his tremendous size. Ray stood 6' 6" and weighed over 280 pounds, much larger than nearly all college football players of the day. In his final season with the Commodores, Ray was named a co-captain.

Ray also competed in the shot put while at Vanderbilt.

Professional career

Ray was not selected in the 1938 NFL Draft, and became the subject of a free agent bidding war between George Halas of the Chicago Bears and Curly Lambeau of the Packers. Ray signed with Green Bay, playing the entirety of his eleven-year NFL career with the Packers.

Baby Ray is a band from Cambridge, MA that was formed in the 1996 from members of another band (Brain Helicopter). The founding members are Ken Lafler and Erich Groat (also of Willard Grant Conspiracy). Their sound carries a pop sensibility, while still adhering to the alternative style of rock from the 90's. The Boston Phoenix described the band's music as a "clever kind of contortionist pop, with its pretzel-shaped melodies and impishly bratty wordplay".

Discography

References

External links

Joseph Raymond "Ray" Conniff (November 6, 1916 – October 12, 2002) was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s.

Biography

Conniff was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, and learned to play the trombone from his father. He studied music arranging from a course book.

Early career

After serving in the U.S. Army in World War II (where he worked under Walter Schumann), he joined the Artie Shaw big band and wrote many arrangements for him. After his stint with Shaw, he was then hired by Mitch Miller, then head of A&R at Columbia Records, as their home arranger, working with several artists including Rosemary Clooney, Marty Robbins, Frankie Laine, Johnny Mathis, Guy Mitchell and Johnnie Ray. He wrote a top 10 arrangement for Don Cherry's "Band of Gold" in 1955, a single that sold more than a million copies. Among the hit singles he backed with his orchestra (and eventually with a male chorus) were "Yes Tonight Josephine" and "Just Walkin' in the Rain" by Johnnie Ray; "Chances Are" and "It's Not for Me to Say" by Johnny Mathis; "A White Sport Coat" and "The Hanging Tree" by Marty Robbins; "Moonlight Gambler" by Frankie Laine; "Up Above My Head," a duet by Frankie Laine and Johnnie Ray; and "Pet Me, Poppa" by Rosemary Clooney. He also backed up the albums Tony by Tony Bennett, Blue Swing by Eileen Rodgers, Swingin' for Two by Don Cherry, and half the tracks of The Big Beat by Johnnie Ray.

"Angie Baby" is a popular song that was written by American Alan O'Day, and became a hit for Australian singer Helen Reddy. The song reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart at the end of December 1974 and became one of Reddy's biggest-selling singles. The song also topped the U.S. adult contemporary chart, Reddy's fifth #1 on this chart.

The song's cryptic lyrics have inspired a number of listener theories as to what the song is really about. Reddy has refused to comment on what the true storyline of the song is, partly because she has said she enjoys hearing other listeners' interpretations. Reddy has also said that "Angie Baby" was the one song she never had to push radio stations into playing.

Lyrical story

The song tells the story of Angie, a young "crazy" girl who "lives [her] life in the songs" she hears on "rock and roll radio;" her mental disturbances led to her being removed from school and having no friends, leaving her to spend most of her time listening to the radio. One day, a young man "with evil on his mind" arrives at Angie's house, but once he enters Angie's room he is disoriented by the loud music. The song then takes a decidedly surrealistic turn as when Angie turns the volume down, the boy is said to be sucked into the radio and disappears. The closing verse describes the boy as Angie's "secret lover" and that nobody bothers to get an explanation from Angie in regard to the boy's whereabouts because of her insanity.