Ray Vaughn- Member of Rick’s Continentals Southern Rock & Roll Band (originally known as The Continentals) from Meridian,, MS. This Mississippi Band was prominent during the mid to late 1960s and best known for their Smash Hits ”Live It Up” and ” I Don’t Know”. The group’s home, Meridian, Mississippi, is also the home of great artists like Jimmy Rodgers and Paul Davis. The band was active throughout the Southeast in appearances and concerts, special entertainment events like Miss America Junior Miss Pageant, live radio shows and television broadcasts from 1965–1969. The group performed Southern Style Rock & Roll, Pop, Classic Rock, Instrumentals, Soul and classic standard music. Rick’s Continentals Band was contemporary with groups like Paul Davis and the Endless Chain, David And The Giants and John Fred And The Playboys . The band recorded with Paul Davis and George Soule on their first two records and toured with Jimmy Elledge ( Jimmy was produced by Chet Atkins on the RCA label) performing Jimmy's great hits like "Funny How Time Slips Away". The band's story is featured in a new book titled "Rick's Continentals Music Biography". Many popular bands from the '60s just fade away and leave little trace of their impact. With The Continentals, there remains an amazing amount of memorabilia that fans, friends and family members continue to hold on to after so many years. Most remarkable is the band's promotional photo, commissioned by RIP Coard's in 1966.. The photo of the group posed in their dress coats with ties, all matching, served the band then and continues to do the job today. There are many 45's still floating around. Sometimes they surface on ebay and sell for 20-30 dollars a record. And who could have imagined that there would still be intact and viable reel to reel tapes anywhere after 40 plus years. But so far, four of these have surfaced. Another recording has been identified and its' location in a collection confirmed, but so far we have been unable to pinpoint this recording. And there is yet another album length reel to reel recording that may one day surface and become another new album from Rick's Continentals. Today the Rick's Continentals Band website has been viewed by people from all around the world. Links created and posted on myspace, blogspots, Wikipedia.org, Metacafe.com, youtube.com and various music sites like TheRadio.com and LastFM.com are no doubt responsible for the traffic the band's website regularly receives. Today, visitors from all around the world visit the band's websites. These visitors include fans and friends from Tel Aviv, Israel, Singapore, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moscow, Russia, Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, France, the UK, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Chile, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and other locations around the world, not to mention the clicks from all over the United States. The websites promote the wonderful, albeit brief success of Rick's Continentals Band, which has subsequently brought much joy to all the band members, the hearts of their families, extended families, friends and even strangers. It's a wonderful feeling of nostalgia to walk over to any connected computer and simply google Rick's Continentals, and you're listening to the music and reliving those great memories of this group of young men who became rock stars at 16 for a season.
