Raised in The Dalles, Oregon, Ray, who was partially deaf, began singing professionally at age fifteen on Portland radio stations. He gained a local following singing at small, predominantly African-American nightclubs in Detroit, where he was discovered in 1951 and subsequently signed to Okeh Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records. He rose quickly from obscurity in the United States with the release of his debut album "Johnnie Ray" (1952), as well as with a 78 rpm single, both of whose sides reached the "Billboard" magazine's Top Hot 100 chart, "Cry" and "The Little White Cloud That Cried".