Ray Davis is an abbreviation of Raymond Davis (b. 29 Mar 1940, Sumter, SC, USA - d. 5 Jul 2005), who was the original bass singer and a founding member of The Parliaments, Parliament and Funkadelic. His regular nickname, while he was with those groups, was "Sting Ray Davis".

Aside from George Clinton, he was the only original member of The Parliaments not to leave the Parliament / Funkadelic conglomerate, in 1977. He is one of the sixteen Parliament / Funkadelic members inducted the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1997).

In the early to mid '80s, he worked with Roger Troutman and Zapp - His distinctive baritone can especially be heard on I Can Make You Dance.

In a later period, he was briefly a member of The Temptations, replacing the original bass singer, Melvin Franklin (after death) and appears on "For Lovers Only" (1995). Davis left them when diagnosed with throat cancer.

In later years, he reunited with Glenn Leonard, in The Temptations Experience and, in 1998, he formed the Original P - along with original Parliament / Funkadelic members: Clarence Haskins (aka Fuzzy Haskins), Calvin Simon and Grady Thomas. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.