The ' 90s airwaves were full of catchy , confusing pop hits . What precisely is a " chica cerise cola " ? Did anyone ever calculate out the correct syncope of " MMMBop " ? Why was Deee - Litegrooving to Dr. Seuss books ? And who were all those Rays that Jimmy was singing about ?
It ’s been more than two decades , yet 1998 ’s " Are You Jimmy Ray?"—the one and only hit by gloriously arrange British tonic rocker Jimmy Ray — stand out as one of the more puzzling hit of the era . For starter , whose idea was it to conflate twangy ' 50s rockabilly with the sunny ' 90s alt - rock elan of Smash Mouth ? The jazz band intelligibly worked , as Ray ’s retro - modern anomaly attain No . 13 on theBillboardHot 100 , take in him a slot opening for the Backstreet Boys on a 1998 U.S. turn .
And then there are the questions build into the Sung itself . " Are you Johnnie Ray ? Are you Slim Ray ? Are you Link Wray ? Are you Fay Wray ? " Jimmy Ray sings in the refrain , seemingly echoing things he has been asked on a regular fundament . The only solvent he provide , of row , is another inquiry : " Who wants to know ? " gene in the music telecasting , wherein Ray and a bunch of hip joint - hop dancer cavort around outside a trailer place , and this enigma seems like something David Lynch and Carson Daly might ’ve somehow fix up together .
as luck would have it , Jimmy Ray is on LinkedIn , and last fall , the 46 - year - older London aboriginal wrote acandid and insightful articleexplaining how he — a guy who vocalise like Sugar Ray auditioning for Sun Records — scored such a massive pop smasher .
" I have been ask questions about it that surprise me , " Ray pronounce of his signature Sung . " Surprising conceive the music jam receive the birdsong as nothing more than a thick-skulled piece of self - promotion . "
" Are You Jimmy Ray ? " might have been self - furtherance , but it was n’t boneheaded . A longtime fan of ' 50s rock-and-roll , Ray had in reality acquire his start in a ' ninety techno group telephone A / V. After they rive up , he landed a direction deal with Simon Fuller , the guy who make the Spice Girls . Someone at Ray ’s recording label suggested he cooperate with Conall Fitzpatrick , the pop songsmith behind the British duo Shampoo ’s 1994 come to " Trouble . " Fitzpatrick patently had a flair for boom drums and insistent catchphrases , and before the two even sat down for their first writing seance , he had come up with the " Are You Jimmy Ray ? " hook .
Ray wonders whether Fitzpatrick might have been " subconsciously shape " by the inscrutable " Who is Christian Goldman?“graffitiseen all over London at the time . Fitzpatrick claims he contract the approximation from the 1988 filmMidnight Run ; in one scene , Charles Grodin ’s character ask a barkeeper , " Who ’s in charge here ? " to which the fellow reply , " Who require to know ? " As for all those " Rays”—pre - Elvis teen idolJohnnie Ray , " Father-God of the power chord"Link Wray , King KongactressFay Wray , theChevrolet Corvette Stingray — they were also Fitzpatrick ’s melodic theme . But Jimmy Ray knew what Fitzpatrick was going for .
" Retro heroes and heroine who symbolized my own cultural interestingness from euphony , film , and … motoring haha ! " Jimmy writes in summary . " I could n’t even take a car at this time . "
Fitzpatrick knew the variety of stuff Jimmy dug , but the two were n’t 100 percent on the same page . Working with Fitzpatrick ’s paraphernalia , in Fitzpatrick ’s studio , Ray felt like his debut record album was slipping out of his control . " Before then , I had always been in the pilot ’s seat attain my medicine , so allow ’s just say there was a teeny - weeny bit of tension right from the off , " Ray wrote .
For instance , he had to campaign to replace the original fake - sound synth - basso with " a different , more realistic synth bass . " He alludes in the LinkedIn piece to other battles , but ultimately , he might not have push too hard . After all , he did n’t cerebrate " Are You Jimmy Ray ? " was going to be a individual .
Alas , the EXEC at Epic Records knew they had a hit on their hands , and just like that , Jimmy Ray was all over the airwave with a song that " was n’t really my idea . " While Ray insisted that he prise and admires Fitzpatrick for creatively plow the pressure of have to produce a hit record for a major label , the tone of the LinkedIn art object evoke that Ray might ’ve gone a different itinerary if he ’d been in the machine driver ’s bottom .
Ray actually may get that do - over , as the singer is prepping a new record album on his ownLa Rocka Recordstentatively titledLive to fight back Another Day , which is set for an October release . He has posted some demos online , including one Morrissey - esque top of Elvis Presley ’s " Devil In Disguise . " It ’s a cool track that sound as though he ’s displace beyond the " belt down - a - billy hip joint - hop " that put him on the charts back in the day . And with other ' 90s roleplay do the most of nostalgia ticket sale ( after all , Jimmy Ray ’s former pals the Backstreet Boys have aworld tourplanned for their 25th day of remembrance next year ) , it seems like the correct time to come to the old question of just who this Jimmy Ray fellow is .
