Collin Raye

Collin Raye - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Collin Raye

Floyd Elliot Wray (born August 22, 1960), known professionally as Collin Raye and previously as Bubba Wray, is an American country music singer. He initially recorded as a member of the band The Wrays between 1983 and 1987. He made his solo debut in 1991 as Collin Raye with the album All I Can Be, which produced his first Number One hit in "Love, Me". All I Can Be was the first of four consecutive albums released by Raye to achieve platinum certification in the United States for sales of one million copies each. Raye maintained several Top Ten hits throughout the rest of the decade and into 2000. 2001's Can't Back Down was his first album that did not produce a Top 40 country hit, and he was dropped by his record label soon afterward. He did not record another studio album until 2005's Twenty Years and Change, released on an independent label.

This profile of Collin Raye covers Early Life and Family Background, All I Can Be, In This Life and Extremes, I Think About You and The Best of Collin Raye: Direct Hits and The Walls Came Down.

Between 1991 and 2007, Raye charted 30 singles on the U.S. Country charts; he has also charted twice on the Adult Contemporary format as a duet partner on two Jim Brickman songs. Four of Raye's singles have reached Number One on the Billboard country music charts: 1992's "Love, Me" and "In This Life", 1995's "My Kind of Girl", and 1998's "I Can Still Feel You". He has also recorded 11 studio albums, counting a Christmas album and a compilation of lullabies, in addition to releasing a Greatest Hits compilation, a live album, and a live CD/DVD package.

Early Life and Family Background of Collin Raye

Floyd Elliot Wray was born in De Queen, Arkansas. His mother, Lois Wray, was a local musician; in the 1950s, she served as an opening act for several Sun Records artists, including Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins. Later, she became a solo musician in her own right; she would occasionally bring both Collin and his brother Scott (known professionally as Scotty Wray, died February 2022) onstage to sing harmony vocals. By the 1980s, the two brothers began a country-rock band called the Wray Brothers Band, in which Collin assumed the stage name Bubba Wray. The Wray Brothers Band performed primarily in the state of Texas; Corvallis, Oregon; and later in Reno, Nevada; eventually releasing singles on independent labels. By 1986, the band (which had shortened its name to The Wrays) signed to Mercury Records, releasing four singles. After the singles performed poorly on the charts, The Wrays disbanded.

All I Can Be of Collin Raye

After altering the spelling of his last name to Raye, he was signed to a record deal with Epic Records in 1990. His debut single, "All I Can Be (Is a Sweet Memory)", entered the charts in 1991, reaching a peak of No. 29 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. Raye's first album, also titled All I Can Be, was released soon afterward.

The follow-up single, a ballad co-written by Skip Ewing and titled "Love, Me," reached number 1 on the country music charts in early 1992, holding the peak position for three weeks. All I Can Be was then certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album's final single was "Every Second," which peaked at No. 2 on Billboard.

In This Life and Extremes

Raye's second album, titled In This Life, was released in 1992. The album's title track, which served as its lead-off single, spent two weeks at number 1 and crossed over to the Adult Contemporary charts with a peak of number 21. In late 1992, Raye made an appearance on the Carl Weathers television drama series "Street Justice", where he gave a live performance of "In This Life". The second-season episode, entitled "Country Justice", was directed by David Winning. The album produced three additional Top Ten country hits in "I Want You Bad (And That Ain't Good)", "Somebody Else's Moon", and "That Was a River", in addition to achieving his second platinum certification.

Extremes, Raye's third album, was released in 1993. It was his first to be produced by Paul Worley and Ed Seay, the latter of whom would serve as Raye's co-producer until 2000. The lead single, "That's My Story", was co-written by Lee Roy Parnell, who recorded for Arista Nashville at the time. Following it was "Little Rock", a song about a recovering alcoholic. The song's accompanying music video also promoted Al-Anon, an international support group for friends and family of alcoholics. Also released from the album were the Top 10 hits "Man of My Word", "My Kind of Girl", and "If I Were You". "My Kind of Girl" became Raye's third number 1 hit, while the other two singles reached Top 10 as well.

Also in 1993, he was nominated by the Academy of Country Music for Top New Male Vocalist, along with Billy Ray Cyrus and Tracy Lawrence, but lost to Tracy.

I Think About You and The Best of Collin Raye: Direct Hits

I Think About You was the title of Raye's fourth album. Released in 1995, it produced six singles overall and became Raye's fourth consecutive platinum-certified album. Of the singles, the first three all reached Top 5: "One Boy, One Girl", "Not That Different", and the title track, whose music video won a Video of the Year award from the Academy of Country Music. While "Not That Different" was climbing the charts, the album track "What If Jesus Comes Back Like That" received unsolicited airplay which brought it as high as number 57. After "I Think About You", "Love Remains" peaked at number 12, followed by an official release of "What If Jesus Comes Back Like That" which achieved a peak of number 21. The album's sixth and final single was "On the Verge", at number 2.

In 1996, Raye also released a Christmas album titled Christmas: The Gift. He also appeared on Stars and Stripes Vol. 1, a Beach Boys album featuring lead vocals by country musicians. A year later, his first Greatest Hits package was issued; titled The Best of Collin Raye: Direct Hits, it comprised several of his hit singles from the past five years, as well as four new songs, of which three released as singles. "What the Heart Wants" and "Little Red Rodeo" both reached Top Five on the country music charts, while "The Gift", a collaboration with Jim Brickman and Susan Ashton, was a top 5 hit on the Adult Contemporary charts. The album also included a cover of Journey's "Open Arms", with Raye's version reaching a peak of number 70 from unsolicited airplay. Direct Hits received a gold certification from the RIAA for selling 500,000 copies in the United States.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collin_Raye), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.