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Ray Starr / Ray Pennington / the Starlighters


Cincinnati, mid 1950s - 1980s

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Ray Pennington was born in rural Kentucky. He started playing professionally as a teenager, in the early 1950s, and made his way to Cincinnati and the active country music scene. 

Around 1955, with rockabilly starting to find its way into Cincinnati, he had a band, the Midwest Rhythm Boys.Ray started his recording career with Ruby records in Hamilton. A few months later, he recorded the first of three 45s for Lee records in Cincinnati. The record is credited to Ray and the Western Rhythm Boys. We don't know if Western replaced Midwest by accident or purpose. The record had the band doing covers of Joe Turner and Fats Domino songs. 

A couple years later Ray was back recording for Lee, with "My Steady Baby", a strong rocker written by Ray and label owner Russel Dyche.  Af few months later he recorded a another good rocker, "Billy Jo". For that record he used the name Ray Starr, which he adopted for a few years, naming his band the Starlighters, Starliners, or Starrlighters. He beat Ringo to the name by a couple years! There are some online postings that say he used Starr to create a seperate identity as a rock/R&B artist and keep Pennington for the country market.

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We couldn't find any confirmed details about the band members or more history.

Ray started recording for King records in 1960, with one 4 on Federal, followed by two with King. Another online report says the Federal record was withdrawn at Ray's request but the record was certainly distributed for awhile. He made two more 45s for King. He had steady gigs at SW Ohio clubs playing as Ray Starr. The Starlighters had one more 45 for Lee, recording two instrumentals, with Ray credited as a songwriter.

In 1964, he had a radio show on WCNW. He did some live music and DJ.

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His recording career restarted on Capitol records in 1966 where he released 5 singles over a couple years. He moved to Monument records where he became an executive/A&R person, as well was writing and performing songs. From 1968 until 1972 he had 11 45s and one LP on Monument, the last four singles after the label was taken over by CBS. During the time he was on Monument, he lived in the Nashville area, but returned fairly often to Cincinnati for live performances and recording sessions. His biggest hit was "Ramblin' Man", which was later recorded by Waylon Jennings, a big country chart hit. Several more of his records made the lower end of the country top 100 hits

His recording career tapered off but he made occasional records for Nashville independent labels through the late 1970s and early 1980s, with records on the Zodiac, MRC, Dimension, and EMH labels. He was also in a short lived duo, BlueStone, with Jerry McBee.

He started his own Nashville based label, Step One, in 1985. Step One signed several older generation country artists, including Faron Young and Ray Price. 

Ray worked often with Cincinnati's Kenny Price, who had success with some of Ray's songs. They worked together in the mid 1960s and continued into the late 1970s while Kenny became a nationally known artist through his role on the "Hee Haw" TV show.

Ray passed away in 2020

Discography:
credited to Ray Starr (RS) or Ray Pennington (RP)
(RP)Fancy Free / You'll Want Me Back But I Won't Care - Ruby 290, 1956
(RP)I'm In Love Again / Boogie Woogie Country Girl - Lee 502, 1956
They Took The Stars Out Of Heaven / My Steady Baby - Lee 504, 1958
(RS)I'm Falling Out Of Love (With You) / Billy Jo - Lee 505, 1960
(RS)Three Hearts In A Tangle / Donna Lou - Federal 12393, Nov 1960
(as the Starlighters) Slow And Easy / One Way Express - Lee 110, 1962
(RS)(Caught) In The Middle Of Two Hearts / I Have To Laugh To Keep From Cryin' - King 5652, May 1962
(RP)Your Diary/ The First Step Down Is The Longest - King 5783, Aug 1963
(RS)How Do You Like The Pain / Please Save Your Love For Me - Fraternity 927, May 1964

all releases below credited to Ray Pennington
Red Roses / Just One More Time - Dome 1560, 1964
Who's Been Mowing The Lawn (While I Was Gone) / I Don't Feel At Home In This House Anymore - Capitol 5751, Oct. 1966
Ramblin' Man / Let Go - Capitol 5855, April 1967
My Heart's Gonna Rise Again / The Woman In Town - Capitol 5909, May 1967
Who's Gonna Walk The Dog (And Put Out The Cat) / You Turned The Lights On - Capitol 2006, Sept 1967
Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte / Someday You'll Fall Back To Me - Capiolt 2118, Feb 1968
Raining In My Heart / My Mind Is No Match For Your Heart - Monument 1109, Oct 1968
After I'm Number One / Cold, Gray Light Of Dawn - Monument 1134, March 1969
What Eva Doesn't Have / Denver - Monument 1145, May 1969
This Song Don't Care Who Sings It / I Wouldn't Treat A Doggone Dog (The Way You're Treatin' Me) - Monument 1170, Nov 1969
You Don't Know Me / Country Blues - Monument 1194, March 1970
The Other Woman / I Know Love - Monument 1208, June 1970
LP- Sings For The Other Woman - Monument 18145, 1970
Bubbles In My Beer / Don't Build No Fences For Me - Monument 1231, Nov 1970
The Best Worst Thing / My Daddy Was A Travelin' Man - Monument 8527, Oct 1971
My Church / This Song Don't Care Who Sings It - Monument 8537, Feb 1972
Woman, Go On Home / Dark-Haired Woman - Monument 8540, April 1972
Let Them Talk / Happy Times - Monument 8553, Nov 1972
I Can't Get Up By Myself / Steppin' Aside Just Aint My Style - Zodiac 1003, 1976
The Good Ole Days Are Right Now / Steppin' Aside Just Aint My Style - Zodiac 1010, 1976
Lucy Needs A Friend / If This Is Living (Wonder How It Feels To Die) - MRC 1015, May 1978
She Wanted A Little Bit More / Selena - MRC 1022, 1978