In Stevens' Career
Along with "The Streak", it was one of Stevens' biggest hits and contributed greatly to his popularity. It reached number 5 on the Billboard top 40 during July 1962.
A later song by Stevens, a Christmas novelty number called "Santa Claus Is Watching You", features a "cameo" by Clyde. The intrepid camel is pressed into service in place of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (in different recordings of the song, the famous reindeer's reason for being absent alternates between "He's at a stakeout at your house" or being "all stove up in the hospital" after injuring himself during "a twist contest"). The song also repeats the "Ahab the Arab" schtick of reciting a random list of objects, in this case gifts for "all the good little girls and boys."
Stevens has said that Clyde the camel was named after rhythm-and-blues singer Clyde McPhatter, formerly the lead singer of The Drifters. Clyde is arguably the most memorable character of the song, due to Stevens' exaggerated imitation of a camel's braying vocalization. Clyde has become something of a mascot for Stevens, and for several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s the artist released albums and video entertainment under the label Clyde Records (complete with camel-shaped logo). Clyde Records continues to be the outlet for a lot of contemporary material from Stevens.
Stevens' music publishing company was once named Ahab Music Inc. before he changed its name in 1977 to Ray Stevens Music. His publishing company is affiliated with BMI.
Read more about this topic: Ahab The Arab
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