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Ray Stevens wrote one of the biggest novelty hits of the 1970s, but he almost missed the boat.
The song was “The Streak,” and it came at the height of the nationwide streaking craze in 1974, which culminated with a jaw-dropping moment at the Academy Awards.
Written by Stevens for his album Boogity Boogity, the campy country classic featured an upbeat country-pop feel and lyrics satirizing the absurdity of the naked running trend that swept America that spring. “The Streak” soared to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1974, where it spent three weeks as the top song in the country.
Stevens once admitted that he was almost too late when he wrote and recorded his song about the streaking trend.
In a video interview posted on David Carroll’s YouTube page, Stevens recalled that he wrote the song quickly while on a flight home after reading a blurb in a magazine about streaking.
"One of those little, short columns was about a UCLA student who took off his clothes and ran through a crowd, and they called it streaking,” Stevens recalled. “I thought, well, that is a good idea for a song, and so I started writing it on the plane, and I got home, and I finished it up, and I booked the session immediately when I got home."
“I made the record and got it out as soon as possible, but the idea was so hot that I couldn't get my record out in time to beat 12 other recordings that were already out,” Stevens added. “And I thought, well, who knows what's going to happen here. But mine was the one that made it, so it turned out okay, turned out all right.”
Stevens, who wrote the song on an airplane napkin, told the Nashville Songwriters Association International that given the competition, he was lucky that radio stations liked his ”Streak” song.
"I was pretty fast,” he recalled, per The Tennessean. “I wrote the song the minute I heard about streaking and got in the studio and cut it. People were just … I don't know how they got their records out so fast, but maybe they weren't all that good. When mine came out, it took the market. It was the one that radio liked."
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A few days after Stevens’ “The Streak” was released, the streaking craze reached its peak when a streaker, later identified as Robert Opel, ran across the stage flashing a peace sign during the 46th Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
The moment on the live TV broadcast took place just as actor David Niven was announcing the presenter for Best Picture.
“Well, ladies and gentlemen, that was almost bound to happen,” Niven said. “But isn't it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings.”
Niven proceeded to introduce Best Picture presenter Elizabeth Taylor, who quipped, “That’s a pretty hard act to follow.”
Related: The Wild Backstory Behind ‘Convoy,’ the Novelty Song That Hit No. 1 in 1976
