Collin Raye
Collin Raye first reached the top of Billboard's Country charts in early 1992 with "Love, Me," a sentimental ballad recounting the enduring love between the narrator's grandparents. "Love, Me" was the first of four Country number one singles Raye racked up in the 1990s, and it also established the gentle touch that would serve him well throughout his career. He could kick up some dust -- "My Kind of Girl," a number one from 1995, was a lively bit of rocking country -- but at his core, Raye was a storyteller with a sweet streak, a singer who specialized in softer moments and slower tempos. These skills easily transferred over into contemporary Christian music, which he began recording on occasion in the 2000s. Even though he'd sometimes sing gospel, Raye continued to return to country on a regular basis, releasing albums like 2009's Never Going Back and 2020's Scars, which built upon the country-pop sound that made him a star in the early '90s.
Raye was born Floyd Collin Wray in De Queen, Arkansas, in 1960, and his mother, Lois, was a locally popular singer who opened concerts for various Sun Records stars in the '50s. She sometimes brought Collin and his older brother Scott on-stage to harmonize with her, and so Collin first performed publicly at the age of seven. As teenagers, he and Scott formed a country-rock outfit called the Wray Brothers Band, and Collin adopted the stage name Bubba Wray. They first played in Texas roadhouses and honky tonks and later found regular gigs in Portland, Oregon, and Reno, Nevada; the group also recorded several independent-label singles starting in 1983. Shortening their name to the Wrays, they signed with Mercury in 1986 and released two singles over the next two years, but nothing came of them, and the band broke up. Raye contemplated leaving music in favor of a factory job that would support his new family but elected to stick it out, changing the spelling of his name and ultimately landing a deal with Epic in 1990.
Raye released his debut album, All I Can Be, in 1991, and it really took off with the release of its second single, "Love, Me." A tearjerker about the death of a loved one, "Love, Me" zoomed to the top of the country charts in early 1992, becoming a popular funeral song among fans. The follow-up single, "Every Second," went to number two, and All I Can Be went platinum -- as did its follow-up, 1992's In This Life, whose title track became Raye's second number one hit and a popular wedding ballad. In This Life also spun off three additional Top Ten hits in "I Want You Bad (And That Ain't Good)," "That Was a River," and "Somebody Else's Moon." Raye notched his third straight million-selling album with 1994's harder-rocking Extremes, whose number two hit "Little Rock" was his first big message song, taking on the subject of alcohol abuse. He also hit the Top Ten with "That's My Story," "Man of My Word," and "If I Were You" and landed another number one with "My Kind of Girl." 1995's I Think About You returned to his trademark ballad-heavy style and became his fourth platinum album in a row, helped by the Top Five hits "One Boy, One Girl," the anti-domestic-violence title track, the anti-racism "Not That Different," and "On the Verge."
Having cranked out hits for the last four years, Raye relaxed a little bit, issuing only the holiday album Christmas: The Gift in 1996 and the compilation The Best of Collin Raye: Direct Hits the following year; the latter's newly recorded "What the Heart Wants" and "Little Red Rodeo" both went Top Five. Finally, Raye issued another full album of new material, The Walls Came Down, in 1998. "Someone You Used to Know" and "Anyone Else" both made the Top Five, and "I Can Still Feel You" became Raye's fourth number one hit; the album also contained an anti-child-abuse statement in "The Eleventh Commandment." Perhaps Raye's recent divorce had turned his attention to children even more than usual, for he followed that with an album of lullabies for kids, Counting Sheep, in 2000. Later that year, he issued the proper album Tracks, which featured the Top Five hit "Couldn't Last a Moment" but didn't produce the usual number of massive singles. His next record, 2001's Can't Back Down, confirmed that Raye was hitting a sales slump, as it became his first album to miss the country Top Ten. The newly independent Raye took nearly five years to release his next studio LP. In the meantime, Live at Billy Bob's Texas appeared in 2004. The studio album Twenty Years and Change finally arrived in 2005 and marked a return -- for better or for worse -- to the ballad-heavy style that won him acclaim in the late '90s.
© Steve Huey /TiVo
Ähnliche Künstler
-
16 Biggest Hits
Country - Erschienen bei Epic - Legacy am 23.08.2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Extremes
Country - Erschienen bei Epic - Nashville am 31.12.1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I Think About You
Country - Erschienen bei Epic - Nashville am 22.08.1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
All I Can Be
Country - Erschienen bei Epic - Nashville am 27.08.1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
In This Life
Country - Erschienen bei Epic - Nashville am 25.08.1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Everlasting
Country - Erschienen bei Goldenlane Records am 01.12.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Walls Came Down
Country - Erschienen bei Epic - Nashville am 29.06.1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Christmas: The Gift
Weihnachtsmusik - Erschienen bei Epic - Nashville am 29.10.1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Never Going Back
Country - Erschienen bei StarVista Music am 28.04.2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Tracks (Album Version)
Country - Erschienen bei Epic - Nashville am 28.04.2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Holy Night & a Merry Christmas
Weihnachtsmusik - Erschienen bei Cradle Concepts am 10.01.2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Still on the Line....the Songs of Glen Campbell
Country - Erschienen bei Cradle Concepts am 12.01.2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Power in You (Live)
Collin Raye, The Salt Lake Symphony
Hörbücher - Erschienen bei StarPointe Records am 01.09.2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Selected Hits
Country - Erschienen bei StarPointe Records am 26.06.2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Playlist: The Very Best Of Collin Raye
Pop - Erschienen bei Epic - Nashville am 09.10.2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Live At Billy Bob's Texas
Country - Erschienen bei Smith Music Group am 31.08.2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Greatest Hits Live
Country - Erschienen bei Goldenlane Records am 28.04.2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Counting Sheep (Album Version)
Kinder - Erschienen bei Sony Wonder am 25.01.2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo