It's a Shame About Ray (song)

"It's a Shame About Ray" was written by Evan Dando with friend Tom Morgan while in Australia. The song title came from when they saw the line, "It's a shame about Ray," in a Sydney newspaper article about TV presenter Ray Martin losing his hosting job. Dando recalled:

We came across a newspaper article that said, "It's a Shame About Ray," and we just liked that phrase. From there, I had the music and I just wrote it really quickly—about half an hour or an hour—and then we had it. We brought it down to our friend's record store and played it for him, and we were all excited about it. That was the first song we had written together.[1]

Dando said of the song's ambiguous lyrics, "It's spooky. It's about a disappearing person. It's a very open-ended, grey sort of song. I think it's one of those things, like The Trouble with Harry. Like a mysterious sort of song."[1]

"It's a Shame About Ray" was released on the album of the same name in 1992. The song was released as the debut single from the album, with "Shakey Ground" on the B-side. The single became a major chart hit, reaching number 31 in the UK[2] and number 68 in Australia.[3][4] The song also reached number five on the US modern rock charts.[5]

A music video for the song was filmed, featuring Johnny Depp in a starring role.[6] The song has also appeared on the compilation The Best of The Lemonheads: The Atlantic Years.

"It's a Shame About Ray" has generally seen positive reception from critics. Len Comaratta of Consequence of Sound wrote that the song was "among the best releases of the decade (if not beyond),"[7] while Michael Gallucci of Diffuser.fm praised the song as "a ringing '90s power-pop tune laced with Dando's sleepy-stoner delivery and a sprinkling of indie-rock spice."[8] Bill Janovitz of AllMusic described the track as "a wistful, melodic singalong song that has an underlying element of melancholy [that] is delightfully vague in its message" and praised the song's melody and production.[9]