Ray Kennedy was born in Philadelphia, Pa. November 26, 1946. He grew up in New Jersey, the youngest of three children. Ray started playing music at the age of nine years old. The first instrument he played was the saxophone. At ten years old Ray became a member of a group that played in Philadelphia in the "New Years Day" parade also known as the "Mummers Parade". There he met many old jazz musicians who influenced him greatly in the choice of music that he would learn to play and love.
At age thirteen Ray became a regular on American Bandstand (1960). A couple of months later Dick Clark knowing that he played the saxophone, asked him if he wanted to play behind some of the acts that appeared on the show and be paid a couple of bucks for it.
Shortly after that he did his first recording as a singer with Kenny Gamble on "Virtue Records" (1961) in Philadelphia. The record charted and Ray did many shows in the Philadelphia area to support it. This first success took him to his next record with a group called "Eddie and the Tri-Counts", again as a vocalist. This record and group did very well, a few of these songs made the charts, Ray was off and running.
After many one-niters he got a gig at a hotel and club, "The Latin Casino" in New Jersey, when good luck was coming his way. While sitting at a booth eating breakfast, he over heard a couple of men talking about their tenor sax player being ill and what were they going to do. Ray walked over to them and said that he played tenor and alto saxophone. They smiled and ask how old he was. "Sixteen", of course he said with a smile. It was a little white lie, he was fourteen! They asked if he would meet and audition for the job, he did and got it. The gig was with "Jerry Mulligan", arguably the greatest baritone jazz saxophonist in the world.
One gig after the other for about three months meeting and jamming with some of the greatest, Dizzy Gillespie, J.J. Johnson just to mention a few. Then Ray met jazz drummer Gene Krupa. Ray left Jerry and went with "The Gene Krupa Jazz Group" in 1962. From one jazz gig to the other until Ray decided that the life style of a jazz musician was not for him.
Not long after, Ray met Brenda Lee and decided that he would try playing with her for a while. So off he went to Kentucky with the band "The Casual One Niters ". After that he teamed up with the drummer from her band and left to join Little Richard. While playing with Little Richard he met Jerry Lee Lewis, from Jerry Lee to Wilson Picket from Wilson to the next until he met Otis Reading in Macon Georgia, that became home for awhile.
One day Otis said baby Ray you gotta sing little brother, the next day Ray boarded a plane for New York. He knew a musician in New York named John Misland who played guitar, organ and was also a great singer, he teamed up with him, and they formed a group called "John and Ray". Immediately they started playing in the New York area and soon got signed to Atlantic records. They did an album that was produced by Phil Specter, Jeff Barry and the owner of Atlantic Records Ahmed Ertegan (1964). They did a few records and toured with various other acts. In (1966) he formed another band called "Group Therapy" they did three albums together and had great success, both domestic and international.
In 1968 they moved from New York to Los Angles, a year later Ray did a solo album on "United Artist". This album did well and launched his solo career. There were many well known musicians on the album, Bob Mosley on bass from Moby Grape, Jim McCarty guitarist from Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, George Soranovich on drums from the group Love, and Duane Hitchings on piano from the Jeff Beck Group. There were many other well known musicians on this album.
With this album Ray toured with "Sly and the Family Stone" for about six months and then his own solo tour for about a year. In 1970 he wrote a song with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys called "Sail on Sailor" it became a number one record. In late 1970 Ray got together with Dave Mason from the group "Traffic", a couple of months later they went on tour together and a friendship began. In 1971 they wrote the song "Seasons" on Dave Masons hit album "So High". They toured for a year together.
Then Ray got a call from Jeff Beck who wanted Ray to write a couple of songs with him. After they recorded the songs Jeff asked Ray if he wanted to go on tour and sing with the group, he accepted and on tour they went. In 1974 a couple of his manager friends Elliot Roberts and his partner David Geffen called and said that they wanted to put together a group and wanted Ray to front it. Ray accepted and the group "KGB" was formed which consisted of Michael Bloomfield, guitarist from the Electric Flag, Barry Goldberg, keyboards from the Electric Flag, Rick Gretch bass from the groups Traffic and Blind Faith and Carmine Appice, drums from the Jeff Beck Group, and of course Ray lead singer and writer of most of the songs.
The group did two very successful albums and toured for about two years. During this period 1974 he met Ian Lafranis and Dick Clemet two very successful writers of television and film from England. Ray wrote the music for a few of their shows being produced by Norman Lear and John Rich, all of the shows got picked up for television on (CBS) or (NBC). In 1978 Elliot Roberts his old manager called, he was now managing a group from England called the "Baby’s". He asked Ray if he had a song for the group. They recorded the first of two songs, the first called "Isn’t it Time", it went number one. A year later on their second album they recorded "Every Time I Think Of You" it also went number one.
In 1979 Ray met Maurice White from the group "Earth Wind and Fire" and signed a record deal with Maurice’s new label. Ray called a friend of his David Foster to co-produce the album with him. They had three hits off the "Ray Kennedy" album, and toured for about two years world wide.
In 1983 he got a call from Steven Tyler from the group "Aero Smith" who ask Ray if he would like to write with him for their next album. They started writing together and off they went from city to city on a tour as they were writing. Ray toured with him for about one year singing and writing and growing closer as friends. After the tour Steven moved into Ray’s house in Malibu for about six months.
In 1984 he got a call from his old partner Michael Shanker from an early band "UFO" which he was the lead singer of in the early seventies. Michael wanted to put the old band back together and record and tour again. After about three months in England together writing and rehearsing, they headed for the studio, cut about ten songs with some of the old members of the band and added some new ones. While recording and rehearsing they got a call from their manager David Krebs, he asked if they were ready to tour, Michael and Ray both said yes and into rehearsals for the tour they went.
After a couple of months rehearsal they headed for the road and the tour "Super Rock 84" began, it started in Japan with some of the biggest acts in the business, "White Snake", "Bon Jovie" "The Scorpions" and more. After about six months touring with the band Ray said this is not for me and came back to the states and started another "Ray Kennedy" solo album for "Warner Brothers" Records.
While recording the album he got a call from Steve Badell at Paramount Pictures who ask Ray if he would like to write music for some feature films, he said yes and the films just started to come, "Trading Places", "Fire Starter", "48 Hrs", "Uncommon Valor" and many more.
Ray then got a call from Engelbert Humberdink who asked Ray if he would get together and play some songs for him, so off to Las Vegas Ray went, not only writing for Engelbert, but getting a chance to sing some duets with him in his show, what a great time. From city to city they went. While Ray was writing and performing with Engelbert he was asked to write music for the opening of the "1988 Olympics" for several of the artist performing in the opening ceremonies. He gladly accepted. This turned out to be an incredible experience for him. So off the two of them went, Engelbert and Ray for about three weeks, to "Soul Korea". This was one of the highlights in Ray’s career.
Than in 1991 Ray got a very interesting call, he was asked to do some music and a videos for a country that had just been invaded. This sounded interesting so he gladly accepted. The next thing he knew he was in London England giving interviews on the affects that war has on people, especially the children. Well that was a longer commitment than he planned, he didn’t come home for seven months. When he returned back to the United States it just wasn’t the same for him in the music industry, so he headed to Washington D.C. and got in touch with as many politicians as he could talking about the affects of war on children.
That took him to another interesting venture, a call from Wayne Newton. He heard the song Ray wrote for the Children of War, titled "Can You Tell Me Who The Heroes Are" and wanted to get together with Ray. This was again a very interesting situation. Wayne Newton wanted to meet Ray and record the song and sing it in his show. Wayne had Ray picked up and flown to Las Vegas where they talked for hours, had a lovely dinner and was invited to his show. Well here was another interesting situation, Wayne asked Ray to stay with him, write some songs and that Ray was the brother he never had. So he gave Ray a house on his property, a car to drive and the "Elvis Presley" suit in the Hilton Hotel. After about six months living and touring with Wayne, Ray got a call from Tanya Tucker and Willie Nelson in Nashville Tenn. Ray loved the south, but with Willie and Tanya, Ray was getting no sleep. So he decided that he had written some great songs, met some good southern folks but it was time to go back home to L.A. (1994). After returning to California Ray then teamed up with long time friend Mick Fleetwood, wrote and produced a couple of tracks on there albums and went on the road singing with the band. Ray had a few hits along the way, but decided that he needed to branch out, so he started a record label, what a night mare. That’s when Ray realized how much he missed writing and singing his own music.
So here Ray is today, happily married, two unbelievable children, a dog, two cats, and thanking God every day for all the blessings he has been given. Now Ray is looking forward to his future knowing that he can help to bring back the purpose of what he as a young boy believed in and why he loved singing, writing and performing so much. The feelings of love, kindness, compassion, honesty, trust, friendship and most importantly, his faith in God.
