HILARIOUS!| FIRST TIME HEARING Ray Stevens - Sittin' Up With The Dead REACTION

HILARIOUS!| FIRST TIME HEARING Ray Stevens - Sittin' Up With The Dead REACTION
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Welcome to Rob Squad Reactions This is a music reaction channel. My passion is being a content creator, and providing my audience with unique, funny, and never before seen reaction videos. I have come to grow a love for all types of music from my beloved rap to heavy metal and I want to share that love with all of you. Being a content creator is my passion and it brings me so much joy and being able to share my passion and joy with all of you and grow as a community is an amazing feeling. In addition to reacting to all different types of music, I am also a a husband to my amazing wife Amber and a dad to 3 amazing kids Bria, Kiya and Luca.We here to try and make a change in this world starting with something that brings us all together MUSIC!!
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[@akastarchild]

I can honestly say, that this song speaks the truth. One custom that is no longer practiced. But I too remember a coffin in our living room when I was a kid. Needless to say, I didn't stay home that night.😂😂😂😂❤❤❤

[@tobysmith3351]

Yup. During 1800's very common to have home wakes

[@renep2220]

@@tobysmith3351 Even during the Great Depression. My moms sister died in 1932. They had the showing in the parlor. THEY had people from out of town, so some of them had to sleep on cots in the same room as the casket. NO THANKS!

[@UTubeHandlesSuck]

@@renep2220 Depression? Pffft...last person I knew who had to sit up was a friend in junior high school- in *_1981._*

[@daveowens9849]

Sat up with my uncle Dallas all night and he died in 2010. It's still a practice in Appalachian families.

[@akastarchild]

I was so hoping that no one would say that this thing was still going on. But truthfully, not really surprised. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@TracyfromNC]

We all need to hear Ray Steven's Grammy award song from 1971...Everything Is Beautiful...great for today's world as well

[@suewilliamson5382]

This is one of my favorites. The message in this song is still relevant today. This version with the children and diverse people singing along is the one to watch . kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZpKXZq2Vfaxmjbcsi=3s_cKdjYBJHa0j7j

[@louisb5563]

Yes, yes, YES!

[@mollycaz1]

Yes that is amazing song for everything going on in the world. I wish they play everything is beautiful. They need to hear his true voice. They think he is just funny singer.

[@kathylivedinthe80s14]

Absolutely love that song

[@DouglasHall1947]

He also did a version of Misty

[@stevefloyd9740]

Im a 74 year old man and YES we did use to set up with the dead!

[@jillmcclellan2844]

In the house

[@prointraining1]

Correct me if im wrong please but I was told you did that because there was no AC so windows would often be left open. Sitting up with the dead was to make sure critters didnt get to them.

[@fkinney3]

The casket was placed in the home in the room called the "Parlor." Which is where the term Funeral Parlor came from. Even after funerals started being held outside the home, the term Parlor still held a negative connotation due to it being equated with death and funerals. For this reason, the parlor in the home started being called the "Living Room."

[@jadefire2817]

*OR* you had a "parlor" and a living room. The parlor being where you had "company" if you were having a big to do. (Mammaw would keep the parlor furniture covered in plastic just in case, lol )

[@ewrekzz7360]

100% accurate. As a matter of fact, residential architecture included design elements to accommodate this exact thing. It was very common for homes to have a specific wall in the house where the windows were up high to cast favorable light on the deceased - typically where a fireplace might be, and then built in pew style bench called a "deacon seat". So named because this is where a church deacon would set at the end of the receiving line after people had visited the body to help them deal with their overwhelming grief. It also sets the stage for why funeral homes were called "homes" - because when funerals began to be practiced outside the home the process took place in converted houses.

[@billclisham8668]

The house I grew up in had years earlier belonged to the town's mortician and was the first "funeral parlor" in the area. I had a small shop area in the back where I would rebuild and sell bikes and it had originally been the embalming room.

[@triman95]

Didn't know about the deacons seat! Very interesting. I was aware that the reason so many homes had double doors leading into the parlor was to make it easier to move the casket in and out of the room.

[@UTubeHandlesSuck]

Oh yes, sitting up with the dead was 100% real and went 100% as Ray described it. Okay, Uncle Fred's antics were a bit unique- but sitting up was waaaaay too real. You did NOT leave Grandma lying in there all by her lonesome! Oh, and in a couple of months, Ray can give y'all another good chuckle with _Santa Clause is Watchin' You._

[@surlechapeau]

Jay & Amber, you'll love his "Everything Is Beautiful", "The Streak" and "Misty"!! Nice backing choir on "Everything Is Beautiful" ( a serious song).

[@michaelairheart6921]

Don't forget "Guitarzan".

[@spantle3888]

Everything is Beautiful is completely different but real good. The Streak is the best. Please listen to both.

[@rharvey2124]

DON'T LOOK ETHEL!!!!!!!!

[@cosmiccowboy7764]

Too late -She had already been mooned!

[@carolyncappitelli1460]

And she liked it!@@cosmiccowboy7764

[@karenvanpelt2890]

Yes , when I was a child, when someone died they brought the body to the house until the body was taken to the church for the funeral.

[@debbowers5769]

Hey guys, yes, this custom was definitely done. In 1979 my grandpa passed and the day before his burial, his coffin was in the living room, open, with folding chairs included. Relatives and friends brought food and we did sit around, eat, cry and tell stories about our dearly departed. It wasn't as bad as it sounds, I loved that man more than any other, even to this day, so it didn't bother us that we slept in the house that night with him, one last time. Back then it was commonplace so, not as nerve wracking as it would be now-a-days probably. It was sort of comforting to the family back then. Close family members would stay over too. Personally, I got more closure from that than from leaving my loved one at a funeral home. I'm not saying that it was easy, because losing anyone we love is terribly hard, but back in the day, especially for people who lived out in the country like we did, it was just how it was normally done. Sorry if that freaks y'all out, but then again, I'm "way, way older" than y'all are. You can never go wrong with Ray Stevens, but I think you two already know that. God bless!

[@gkiferonhs]

Guitarzan is another silly song of Ray's that you would like. His "Everything Is Beautiful" is another song that is really good, but serious (as in not goofy, not that it's a sad song)

[@waynecatterton5127]

Classic, Ray Stevens is hilarious, one song you must do is "Southern Air" "Aha The Arab" "The Streak" "Shriners Convention" "Gitarzan" "I'm My Own Grandpaw" "I'm Kissing You Goodbye" "It's Me Again Margaret" "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" "Net Nostril" "Erk The Awful" I know that's more than 1, but he has A LOT of songs.

[@wordgiesworld5483]

LOVE Shriner’s Convention!

[@NeetkaAbru]

The Streak still makes me laugh (Ethel is my heroine)

[@cassianfalkener3706]

The Haircut Song and The Pirate Song are both some of my favorites.

[@blankbruno70]

I see you listed two of my favorites, I'm Kissing You Goodbye and Erik The Awful--they always put a smile on my face!

[@Falcun21]

Can't do Southern Air until they listen to Jerry Clower and watch some Hee Haw. Without those two, the jokes won't land.

[@user-dc2tp3tk1m]

Believe it or not but Rays got some bangers ! You should randomly do one sometime. I mean legit songs and not always funny . He can SANG ! And he can smack the keys right out of the top of a piano .

[@mw7584]

One song that combines the comedy with excellent vocals and piano is I Need Your Help Barry Manilow

[@richardkint6531]

I know my grandparents stated back in the 1930's and 40's that it was common to have the funeral in the dead person's home. I know I would not sleep in that house! Ray's hits were mostly comical or novelty although I know 2 songs that were not. His #1 hit "Everything is Beautiful" and "Misty". Good reaction. First time I heard this song also. 👻

[@jeffeckhard460]

One of Ray Stevens biggest hits was a more serious song called "Everything is Beautiful," a nice song about what the title suggests.

[@jojokrako7818]

As said so many times here already, it is the truth. When someone died, the body was prepared by the family members.....bathed, dressed and flowers/scented herbs used to freshen up the rooms in the house. With my parents generation and older, the coffins were handmade by local carpenters. As a child and young teen, I attended a few of those old fashioned funerals. The coffins were laid out usually in the living room of the house for up to 3(even 4) days so that kinfolks who lived away would have a chance to come and pay their respects. The body was never left alone. Someone or multiple family members would stay there in shifts throughout the entire night(s). My very first funeral was when I was 6 years old. My great grandpaw's brother had died....he was born in 1882, died 1971. I remember all of the mirrors in the house being covered with black cloth, which was to keep the spirit of the deceased from seeing their self in the mirror and remaining on earth rather than moving on to the afterlife. The preacher would come on the final day and preach a sermon, give the last rites, and old hymnals were sung. From there, they departed to the graveyard for the burial. For 7 days after, men in the community would come by and help with chores about the house and the women would take time about cleaning the house and bringing foods they had cooked. That was the relief given during the mourning period for the family. By the 1980's those old rituals had pretty much stopped.

[@LC-ck8xc]

For Christmas you should do Ray Steven's "Santa Clause is Watching You". And yes, in the old days they laid out the dead at home and people would have to set up with them. My grandmother used to talk about it.

[@taun856]

His song "I'm My Own Grandpa" is both hilarious and disturbingly thought provoking. Back in the late 60's and 70's Ray was the king of comedy music, but his serious/gospel side was just as impressive. "Everything is Beautiful" is a wonderful song.

[@joycarlson2492]

This song is actually based on a story told by Southern comedian Lewis Grizzard. I heard it on the radio and had to pull my car over, I was laughing so hard.

[@Shellgrit]

"The Streak" is one from Ray Stevens that you'll find really funny

[@pamcrumpler9169]

Absolutely. I would love to hear the streak😊

[@nnyjim]

my niece worked at a hospital and she still tells everyone about the time, she and another nurse was working the late shift and had to take a drowning victim down the morgue in the hospital basement. when they elevator door closed. rigorous set in and the drowning victim sat up on the gurney. she almost dropped dead of a heart attack.

[@jephybean]

Yes. that used to be the custom. They used to cover up mirrors with cloths to make sure the soul of the loved one crossed over and didn't get stuck in the mirrors or was confused as to where to go. Also, some regions actually used to sit the deceased up in a chair and the living would take final photos with their loved one - before the funeral the next day. You can see some of these old photos online if you look and notice the eyes of the deceased - some were open and the eyes of the dead are filled with a milky black abyss from the camera flash. Ah, the good ol' days lol

[@stevedavis5704]

On my fathers side of the family back in the last of the 1800’s and the first half of the 1900’s they had a family farm where they not only sat with the dead but then they buried them in the side yard by the flower bed. They had nine family members and one guy my grandpa had hoboed around the country with in the 30’s who died while visiting. You can go past the old house all falling down and still see the head stones in the weeds.

[@rayj1011]

My grandpa hoboed around about that time. He "rode the rails." Even as a child, I remember "wakes" being held in homes in my area.

[@LMmccallL57]

Guys, having a wake in a person's home was absolutely a very popular thing. Many people did so because of financial issues, and some did and still do because of cultural tradition. My great-grandmother attended wakes at houses a couple of times when she was young. I'm still waiting for comedic songs like... "Big Cockroach" - Kip Adotta "Wet Dream" - Kip Adotta (it's not a dirty song at all!) "Rappin' Rodney" - Rodney Dangerfield (a quick cameo of Pat Benetar) "You Look Marvelous" - Billy Crystal (pay attention to each celebrity and see if you notice something they have in common. Also, he's known as Fernando in the video and on SNL, as a take on actor Fernando Lamas. "Sorry" - Arsenio Hall "Boogie In Your Butt" - Eddie Murphy "King Tut" - Steve Martin "I Can't Stop My Leg" - Robert Klein

[@TerrieAllred2023]

It's true. I remember my grandparents talking about sitting with the dead at the house. "Everything is Beautiful' is a wonderful song he sang!

[@jackedwards7420]

Yes, this is still practiced to this day in many areas, especially here in West Tennessee and many parts of Appalachia !!

[@shirleybuffington6420]

He has so many great comedy songs but he dose have one really great song called Everything is Beautiful

[@karendoss6026]

Yes that is the way it use to be back in the day. I can remember as a small child going with Mom and Dad to visit their elderly dead kin folks in their homes until time to take them to the church for the funeral. Sometimes if the church allowed it the bodies would be taken to the church and someone would have to sit up with them in the church also, just to make sure no one would bother the deceased. Love y'alls reaction to Ray. He is the best at telling these stories!! Some true, some may be a little true.

[@AngelaKearney]

Elvis Presley was carried back to Graceland for the 2 days between his death and funeral. Thousands of public walked through the living room to see the casket, and his body guards have talked about sitting up with his casket overnight. Elvis died in 1977.

[@rexredmonwalkingintheword9892]

Never forget too that Ray Stevens is the one who wrote and performed the unbelievably wonderful song.

[@cherylgoss5849]

Back in the day they did lay them out in the house

[@paulwalker9421]

Ray Stevens is a great singer of hilarious songs but Y'all need to hear" Every Thing Is Beautiful" for his serious side. .Thank you

[@Georgia_Outlaw_Vinyl]

While I’ve never done it settin’ Up with the dead at home was at one time a southern tradition. While looking through family records I found that in my great grandfather’s obituary it says his visitation was at home & the service was at church.

[@farrahlynne7121]

It's called a Wake! Families did do this in the old days, sitting up with the dead was very customary, family and friends would gather in a home where they'd lay the body of their loved one out at the front or Middle of the room, usually in their parlor, or living room, it's like a viewing would be at the funeral home, except it was in your own home or a neighbor's & you didn't just pay respects then leave, it was an all day/night event, and some country folk still practice it, at least in Appalachia, but very few. It was held all day and night, even up to a couple days (depending), to show honor & respect and even provoked togetherness for the family (and friends), Wakes were where those gathered to show respect & express condolences and share memories and to celebrate the deceased's former life, it was less formal & more relaxed than at a funeral home & most of the time food and drinks were also furnished along with sharing stories and memories of the deceased among each other. The sitting up with the dead part is a very true event that was widely practiced, I know there had to be true stories of wakes gone wrong, I wonder how many times something similar to this story, actually happened,? COULD YOU IMAGINE!?

[@jamessullivan5860]

I have stayed overnight with a dead relative in a funeral home because you weren’t supposed to leave them alone. Family members would do sitting shifts when possible.

[@daveowens9849]

Well, it's an Appalachian custom that I've done quite a few times. One just a few years ago for my uncle, a Vietnam veteran. Grandpa Owens was in his farmhouse and his favorite clock hanging on the wall had the pendulum stop dead in mid swing when his casket was brought into the front room. And yeah, the men in our family sat up with the dead.

[@cmccullough12C]

This custom was also done in Canada. My grandparents were waked at home. The last in home wake I went to was about 20 years ago. I believe the Irish,Scottish and British also did this custom and there are likely many other places where this was done.

[@gkiferonhs]

There were funerals, etc. in a home, most often that of the deceased and it was traditional for someone(s) to sit up with them.

[@roypartible9759]

I can't believe you haven't reacted to Ray Steven's "Everything is Beautiful." One of the most uplifting and biggest hits of the 70's. I mean, I constantly have to shake my head and ask, "Who are these people you pull your requests from?"

[@halidenenberg1449]

Ray Stevens does a wide range of music from comedy to gospel to covers of standards. He even did a whole Sinatra album. You should really check out his show on KZbin called "Ray Stevens CabaRay Nashville." The music history alone on the show is amazing, as is Ray's music and his guest stars.

[@delorespetree3243]

Love ray stevens he is so funny

[@TheAbbfan]

This was a real thing that people used to do. They put the coffin in the house and had the visitation there as well as some sat up with the dead all night.

[@marybartsch2650]

My grandpa drove the town ambulance/hearse when my dad was a kid. He brought my dad along with him one night to pick up a body to take to the funeral home. Well, it turned into a learning moment when the body suddenly sat straight up in the back of the hearse! That's the night my dad learned about rigor mortis. 😄

[@leidell]

😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@heidibrown342]

For his best humorous songs is THE STREAK andf or the best of his serious songs EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL

[@spiderdog7599]

My grandmothers house built in 1870 had a large octagonal shaped bedroom in the front where they used to hold funerals. They actually still used it in the 1930s when my mother was a little girl. I will never forget when my brothers and I would go spend a few days with grandma on the farm we would have to stay in that room. It was pretty scary sleeping in that old house, in an odd shaped room where we were told about ancestors funerals. PS: That old house was still standing a couple of years ago and my cousin was living there. It burned down one night a couple of years back.

[@normabreazile5500]

I LOVE RAY STEVENS..HIS SONGS WERE HILARIOUS GROWING!! 😂 YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO “ THE STREAK”😂

[@BrennanBarrier]

Hahaha ray is so underrated. He’s an amazing pianist and I love his sense of humor. The guy who played “old uncle Fred” in this is Bill Byrge. He’s most famous for being in the Ernest movies. He’s in his 80s and still lives in Nashville. He told me those were real change and he had to lay in that box forever while they shot this video. He said Ray was very very nice. Ray is also in his 80s and owns his own theater just outside of Nashville called CabaRay and it is a great show.

[@paulelliott682]

The Streak. Shriners convention. There's also a funny COVID song Ray did 2019 ? 2020 ?

[@CCIPres]

Sitting up with the dead the night before the funeral is why the viewing before the funeral is called a "wake," as in we used to "stay awake" with the deceased.

[@marykjones4084]

Several years ago, I asked my Irish grandma to tell me what life was like in the early 1900s. One story I remember: her neighbor lady was 'waking' her husband who was laid out in their home. (She and the deceased husband did not get along.) As the night wore on, she was shouting at 'dear Johnny' and her neighbors had to take her away to calm the hysterical screaming. I'm glad we don't have that type of wake in my part of the world. I'm fine to sit by the deceased in a church or funeral home and pray for them. but my grandma had such a good sense of humor, I couldn't help but laught at her description.

[@Bill-1370]

Yes, this absolutely did happen and still does happen, I grew up in rural Louisiana and remember it happening back even in the 70's. It still happens in places like Appalachia even today along with certain communities down in the swamps of South Louisiana and I'm sure in other places also..

[@cmccullough12C]

We even did this in Canada

[@xzonia1]

Yeah, wakes used to be a common practice to make sure the dead were actually dead (before embalming became the new common practice). You don't want to bury someone who's still alive, so people would sit with the dead for a day or two to make sure they hadn't just passed out or something they couldn't be shook awake from. Ray Stevens made it funny, though! :) X)

[@samf.6298]

Awe, love me some Ray Stevens! Laughed for hours to him as a kid. Blue Cyclone, The Streak, Mississippi Squirrel Revival, BBQ...so many laughs!

[@tonybus1288]

One of my favorite serious song of Ray Steven’s is Everything is Beautiful it also has children singing

[@thumper7047]

Yes, that's true. In the old days it was called a "Parlor" and it was customary to have those right in the house. When they made a business of doing it at the funeral homes, they changed the name to "LIVING room" for a reason. It was also common to have a portrait taken of the corps all dressed in their best and maybe even with family several days after they had passed.

[@caryriggs5719]

Everything is beautiful. We need this song now.

[@stevetatum4169]

Even back in the late 60s, morticians would set up open casket viewing for visitation in people's "parlors" (living rooms). That's how my granddaddy's viewing was at grandmama's house in Tennessee. We all stayed as a family overnight at grandmama's and sat up with granddaddy's open casket body with a wake and a sitting. Tennessee tradition from the old days still practiced in the 60s before we started leaving deceased family inside fancy expensive air conditioned funeral homes with wall-to-wall carpet and expensive caretakers on sumpin' known today as "insurance". Open casket viewings inside the livingroom. That's one tradition I'm glad we stopped.

[@teresacartwright5406]

Although Ray Stevens is noted for his novelty songs ("Along Came Jones"), he has a wonderful album of gospel songs and an unforgettable rendition of "Misty". Back in the early 1970s he had a summer show with Mama Cass that I wish I could find copies of. Thanks for playing this & your comments.

[@mw7584]

You can find some here on KZbin. Clips for sure.

[@BW-jv6jg]

😂😂My Great-grandfather was laid out in the parlor of his house. I was about 6 when he died and I never went back in that room.. gave me nightmares!! Yes, it was a small town, but it was about 1964.

[@robertbailey5239]

There are other musical acts that performed comedy or novelty songs. I think you would like The Royal Guardsmen who did a lot of them. Their most famous songs were about Snoopy from the Peanuts comic strip. Check out Snoopy and the Red Baron and Snoopy's Christmas. Both songs explore Snoopy's fantasy of being a World War I flying ace where he sat on top of his doghouse in flying gear and pretended it was a Sopwith Camel, a British fighter plane of the era. This was the subject of many comic strips, and the Royal Guardsmen set the story to music.

[@nelsonhemstreet3568]

I had a 45rpm of that song and played it a lot.

[@TXplowgirl]

Yep, like a lot of others. I was 4 years old in 1968. My first memory that I can remember is my grandmother's sister had passed and they had her in her casket in my grandmother's house in the living room. I remember climbing up on a chair next to the casket and looking at her. My family didn't believe in keeping things from kids especially someone dying so they treated it as something that was normal. Just everyday life.

[@hockemeyer1]

i remember funerals in home back in the 50s. My grandpa was a preacher and I lived with him so I attended a few of those wakes and funerals. BTW Ray Stevens did record a few serious songs to go with his comedies. One of those songs is "Everything is Beautiful'.

[@robertbushee3892]

You would LOVE "The Streak" and "I'm My Own Grandpa". One of his earliest songs is "Bubble Gum the Bubble Dancer", also hilarious 😂

[@angelabowman1614]

Oh! Yes! I Love Ray Stevens music! 😁👍 He's hilarious and his videos along with his songs are creative and funny!

[@NathanThurberMusic]

This is my favorite Ray Stevens song! Had the VHS tape as a kid with all his music videos.

[@DewayneGore]

A MUST DO - "It's ME AGAIN, Margaret!" You will love it lol One of his best and funniest songs

[@StarGeezerTim]

It's quite true. In fact, to this day that period of time of the viewing up through to the funeral is known in many circles as the "wake", as that is when at least one person would stay with the body through the night out of respect. It was particularly popular among the Irish, but many other cultures shared a similar observance.

[@dannyrhollingsworth4200]

My great grandparents were from London Kentucky. Yes they had the wake in the living room. I slept in the car at night

[@farrahlynne7121]

Ray Stevens has his own country music show called 'CabaRAY Nashville' and he can still sing just as solid as he ever did. He mostly did comedic songs and the official music videos to them are all hilarious, but he also sang some regular themed country songs too like the song, Everything Is Beautiful. Y'all should listen to Its Me Again Margaret, The Ballad Of Blue Cyclone Pts1 & 2 (full), The Shriner's Convention, The Streak, The Pirate Song (I Want To Sing & Dance), & for Christmas this year, y'all gotta do SANTA CLAUS IS WATCHING YOU!! He also has an obviously newer song & video called Taylor Swift Is Stalking Me! lol Make sure you watch the official music video versions!

[@timbuckingham6734]

Im 66 yrs old to the best of my knowledge all of Ray Stevens songs are funny, the first one i remember hearing was the streak,

[@angelabowman1614]

Shut up and drive, Gone for Good, Red Hot Chili cook-off, Deerslayer, Juanita and the kids, family funeral fight......all great songs and videos!

[@Rose-ko1pw]

The Walker Brothers ... The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore ... Fab song 🎵

[@johnlong9534]

Don't miss Ray Stevens "Shriners Convention" Oh yeah, they did this in the house. I can remember when my uncle died. He was laid out in the front room but we did not sit up with him.

[@DontMindManda]

This is my all time favorite Ray Stevens song! So few people react to it, and I loved y'alls responses!

[@joecor2710]

wHEN I was 12 my grandfather passed and was in an open coffin in the living room, am 70 now and can remember that well

[@johnniebradley3101]

I'm 58. Sat up with my grandmother when she passed. My dad and uncles sat up with her and dad asked me to join them.

[@Rebel9668]

Why yes, sitting up with the dead was a real thing and not that long ago. This particular story has been told by Southern comedians for a long time too. Lewis Grizzard did a good version of it and Jerry Clower did another, though to be fair, in Jerry's version they sat up with the dead at the funeral home and got powerful thirsty and took the dead man with 'em when they went to a bar. You gotta hear that sometime.

[@rangerlobo5402]

Sitting up with the dead was a long standing tradition in rural areas up until I think the mid sixties. I remember a couple of coffins in the living room when I was young.

[@denpea-mm8zr]

Ray Stevens had a huge peace anthem hit in 1970 with "Everything is Beautiful". Worth checking out for a another side of Ray Stevens.

[@Friend_Of_The_Muse]

Check out Ray's serious side with "Everything is Beautiful". You will love it. The song is beautiful. Ray's singing is beautiful. And Amber's Children's Choir to boot.

[@TheWynch]

Yes it is true. We lived in the country and I very much remember my granny having the viewing of my pappaw and uncle in her house, and they laid there for a couple days, and someone always sat up with them, so yes true tradition. There is a back story to the tradition also that comes from the old country. Sometimes people weren't really dead and would wake up from comma's and stuff, so they waited to see if they were really gone before they buried them.

[@dianeparker-miller4494]

I'm an OLD lady (62 years) and when I was 7 or 8 my granddad passed. And yes I remember grandpa's services being at home. I know

[@jeanniewright2554]

Hate to tell you, but, yes, we used to sit up with the dead, either at home or at the‘Funeral Parlor’.

[@jayce711]

Or the local rural church too.

[@hobbypassion]

My wife is Romanian and her father passed away there a few years ago. No embalming and the body was in the house until burial.

[@GaryTaylor-vy1lh]

I've got a picture of my grandfather from 1963 laying in his casket unbelievable

[@daviddavison3970]

Everything is Beautiful is his best

[@Renovion]

lol Sitting with the dead was a very real thing, I imagine in small communities across America it still happens. I have never done it, but I know of some past family members who were shown at home. Knowing that, it makes this song all the more funny. I am a huge Ray Stevens fan, he has 100's of great songs to listen and react to.

[@shirleyujest7786]

I remember The Streak, and Ahab the Arab from when I was little. I remember every word because of the way his songs tell a story with humor. Such fun. More please!

[@texasdustfart]

Ray Stevens was nominated for a Grammy 30 times and won twice. Both songs were not comedy songs, he won with Misty for best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist and Best Contemporary Vocalist Male for Everything is Beautiful. At age 84 Ray still performs and is still writing and recording music. If you want a fun project check out Play Misty for Me by Johnny Mathis (the original) then see how Ray covered it.

[@sbrady53]

The song is "Misty," and I can't believe more people haven't suggested it. It's the one song of his you should hear before you die! It was composed and introduced by Errol Garner in 1954, and was already a jazz standard by the time Mathis recorded it in 1959. Stevens' 1975 country version won the Grammy for Music Arrangement of the Year.

[@texasdustfart]

Thanks for the correction, I was thinking of the movie.@@sbrady53

[@brianpike9589]

I have sat up with the dead, both in someone's house and at the funeral home, with my grandparents when i was younger. This was a real southern tradition back in the day.

[@nelsonhemstreet3568]

My favorite of his has to be "The Streak".

[@tobysmith3351]

Don't look Ethel

[@nelsonhemstreet3568]

@@tobysmith3351 Exactly! She'd already gotten a free shot.

[@patrickperry6945]

Ray Stevens also did some serious tunes. My favorite is “Misty”. Another one is “Everything is Beautiful”.

[@carind-ah2663]

Yes, up until the late 60's it was common for funerals to be held in the home. It was not unusual to put a bell on the deceased toe. I went to a few of these as a young girl and had nightmares to days on end after a cat began playing with the toe bell at one. In the dark, when you start hearing the bell ringing from the dead.. it's something you don't forget quickly lol

[@TSIRKLAND]

For my money, the era this video is from is PEAK Ray Stevens. He's had a long career before and after, but I feel that this specific period is when he was at his absolute best. There are several music videos of his best classic songs- most of them comedic and silly, but several more serious-minded, as well. "The Streak" and "Shriners' Convention" are a couple more funny ones. "Everything is Beautiful" is one of my favorite sincere songs of his.

[@j7286]

Yes, the dearly departed would be in your house. My sister heard a story about her in-law's family where the ground was too frozen to bury the little 4 year girl that had died in their family. So she was kept on the back porch where it was cold so her body wouldn't decay while they were waiting for the spring thaw.. Granted, that was 100 years ago. But less than two lifetimes ago.

[@ragabashmoon1551]

Another classic Ray Stevens song or at least one of my favorites) is Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens! Also, a great song, that I don't think anyone has ever suggested is... Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) by Baz Luhrmann. He's actually a movie writer/director most famous for The Fifth Element and that's his only song (though he didn't write it, it was written by Mary Schmich, a columnist with the Chicago Tribune in 1997), but it's so iconic 90's. I won't say more.

[@quixote6942]

Although not a Comedic Song, One of his greatest hits was "Everything is beautiful"... It'll warm your heart! "Turn your radio on" is another non comdec hit from Ray. Then there's songs like "Little Egypt", "Guitarzan" and "yakety Yak".

[@michaelwise7230]

Always love Ray Stevens. Another artist you really should check out is Bobby Russell. He sang a song called " Saturday Morning Confusion". Funny song about a family man on a Saturday morning. Very humorous. Song was recorded in 1971

[@Keedeeg]

I was re-watching this again this morning. This never gets old!! Absolutely LOVE this video & song!!

[@glasswhisperer]

In South Carolina we still call the visitation and viewing the night before the funeral a "sitting up" to this day.

[@musketbal]

My grandmother who was 92 when she died set up all night with her grandmother when she was a girl (who was dead) and said it was exactly how it shows in this video back in the day when a family member passed away here on the East Coast and South. A lady I knew who was 98 told me that when she was young, the only way she could see the boy she liked was to meet at a "wake" and hold hands when the adults' would leave the room. In areas of the East Coast and South if you look at old houses one of the windows are usually wider than the other. It was so the casket could be passed through in what was called the "Front Room".

[@rgfisher21]

It is true... when my grandmother died. It sometimes became hilarious after everyone got tired.