It's a Shame About Ray
| It's a Shame About Ray | ||||
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| Studio album by Lemonheads | ||||
| Released | June 2, 1992 | |||
| Recorded | 1991–1992 at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles, California | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock | |||
| Length | 29:46 | |||
| Label | Atlantic | |||
| Producer | The Robb Brothers | |||
| Lemonheads chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Chicago Tribune |  |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | |
| Mojo | |
| NME | 8/10 |
| Pitchfork Media | 8.4/10 |
| Q | |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| Select | 4/5 |
| Uncut | |
It's a Shame About Ray is the fifth album by American alternative rock band The Lemonheads. It was released on June 2, 1992. Tom Morgan of Australian band Smudge helped author the album, The Robb Brothers produced, and Juliana Hatfield played bass and sang backing vocals on some songs.
The title track was inspired partially by a club owner who called everyone 'Ray'. Band leader Evan Dando later saw the actual line, "It's a shame about Ray" in a Sydney newspaper article about something that happened to a child named Ray. "It's a Shame about Ray" was a big international hit for the band, as well as a #5 hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in America. The music video features Johnny Depp. The song was later included at #138 on Pitchfork Media's Top 200 Tracks of the 90s.
"Alison's Starting to Happen" refers to Alison Galloway, the drummer for Smudge. The album also includes a cover of the song "Frank Mills" from the musical Hair.
Pressure from the record label caused the title of the song "Drug Buddy" to be reduced to the less-provocative title "Buddy" when the album was reissued, only to be changed to "My Drug Buddy" on later releases.
"Confetti" and the title track were also released as singles in the UK.
Actress Polly Noonan and her car appear on the cover of the album.
After its initial release, the album was re-issued with a cover of the song "Mrs. Robinson", originally by Simon & Garfunkel. This version was released as a single, recorded to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of the movie The Graduate, for which the song and video appeared in the DVD release. The song had been recorded after the other tracks, with a different bass player.
The album was re-issued as a collector's edition by Rhino in 2008. This edition includes several bonus demo versions of album tracks, along with the B-side "Shaky Ground" plus a DVD containing the previous VHS release Two Weeks in Australia.
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Wikipedia