On this day in 1970, Ray Stevens knew ‘Everything is Beautiful’

Best known as a comedian and the singer of comedy songs such as The Streak and Gitarzan, Ray Stevens topped the charts all over the world with his anti-racism and pro-tolerance anthem Everything Is Beautiful.

It was a number one hit for Ray in 1970 and has been released on some his albums. While many have tried to cover it, none of the covers has charted as they were missing the magic that Ray Stevens brings to the song.

Ray originally wrote the song as an uplifting theme song for his television program The Ray Stevens Show. In an interview, Ray told the story of the song. “”I needed a very special song for the program. I went down in my basement for about three days. I had crumpled paper all over the place. And suddenly the idea for the song came to me. I wrote it in maybe 45 minutes. It was a very special song and one that a lot of people still remember and sing along when I do it in shows.”

The song won Ray his first Grammy but was made even more special as the song was backed by the children’s choir of the Oak Hill Elementary School in Nashville Tennessee and two of those children were his daughters.

While Ray would go on to have a few more serious songs, it’s the comedy songs that he is best known for and still performs to this day. However, no one can resist the magic and the sheer beautiful of this 1970s classic that was number one in Australia on this very day.