- True Genius · 2021
- Georgia on My Mind (Original Master Recording) - Single · 1960
- Ray Charles · 1957
- True Genius · 2021
- The Best of Ray Charles: The Atlantic Years · 1959
- Ray Charles · 1957
- True Genius · 2021
- True Genius · 2021
- The Genius Sings the Blues · 1961
- Ray Charles · 1957
- The Genius Sings the Blues · 1961
- Pure Genius: The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959) [Remastered] · 1958
- Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music, Vols 1 & 2 · 2008
Essential Albums
- Released in 1962, the first volume of Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music documents Ray Charles’ genre-bending foray into the lily-white terrain of commercial country music. It almost immediately became one of the most important records in American popular music history—an endlessly listenable revolution hiding in plain sight. The Florida native had performed country songs while growing up, but it wasn’t until he had the commercial power of an R&B-star-turned-pop-star that he could finally capture his love of the genre on record. The singer’s uncompromising intent was made explicit in the album’s title: You could call it modern—but this was pure country and western. From the gently shuffling rendition of Don Gibson’s “I Can’t Stop Loving You” to Charles’ groovy take on “You Are My Sunshine” to the heartbreaking pathos of Eddy Arnold and Cindy Walker’s “You Don’t Know Me,” Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music is packed with now-definitive versions of genre classics. Charles’ bluesy, evocative phrasing and effortless piano not only give heft to pop arrangements that might otherwise be overly saccharine, they also drive the album’s rollicking, big-band R&B grooves. Modern Sounds turned out to be one of the most successful records of Charles’ career (it even inspired a quickly recorded follow-up, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music Volume Two, released later that same year). Still, it’s impossible to quantify the way that it erased—even for a moment—American popular music’s original sin: The commercial segregation of white and Black artists. Charles’ album changed country music forever, forcing a symbiotic relationship with sounds and artists from other genres, and proving that country’s songs could easily stand on their own. The singer didn’t fix racism in pop music with what became his magnum opus, but he did as much as any artist could to show that any division was a toxic fallacy. Today, his brave effort sounds better and truer than ever.
- Released in 1959, What’d I Say brings together singles and forgotten B-sides from Ray Charles’ electric 1950s run—and marks the dawn of the singer’s crossover era. By the late 1950s, Charles’ unforced groove and instantly recognizable voice had coalesced into a seductive signature sound, but full-on pop stardom had eluded him. That would change with “What’d I Say,” a simmering, salacious track that’s carried by a jangling, Latin-tinged groove and a spicy call-and-response. A sensation on stage, “What’d I Say” retains its bright, live energy in its studio version—which became a smash on the US charts, and remains one of Charles’ most beloved hits. The other tracks collected on What’d I Say cover a wide swath of Charles’ favored sounds; his roots in boogie-woogie, gospel, and jazz are laid out side by side, synthesized more often than not. He’s joined here by a familiar cast of star instrumentalists—including saxophonist David “Fathead” Newman and trumpet player Marcus Belgrave—who add to the fluid, timeless quality of each track, and help expand Charles’ classic Southern blues into every possible musical direction. From the unhurried love song “That’s Enough” to the jazzy instrumental jam “Rockhouse, Pts. 1 & 2” to his improbably hip-swiveling rendition of the traditional Scottish folk song “My Bonnie,” What’d I Say spotlights Charles at the height of his powers—with his gently loping orchestra’s flawless, earthy big-band sounds supporting him all the way through.
- With 1959’s The Genius of Ray Charles, the maestro produced a cinematic expansion of his rollicking, heartrending R&B. In the first half, big-band arrangements transform “’Deed I Do” and “Let the Good Times Roll” from beat-up pickup trucks into shiny, new Cadillacs. In the second half, a string orchestra elevates ballads like “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying” and “Am I Blue” into luxurious expressions of loss and loneliness. Through it all, Ray’s voice channels the rough-hewn emotion that was often lacking in an era of candy-flavored crooners.
- Released in 1957, Ray Charles is technically the singer’s debut album—even though it arrived a full four years after Charles’ boogie-woogie hit “Mess Around” introduced him to millions of listeners. The fact that his music career took off just as LPs were becoming popular obscures how long Charles had already been working—both as a recording artist and, before that, as a fixture on the South’s Chitlin’ Circuit. Ray Charles collects 14 tracks from the singer’s early years—many of them hits, and all of them essential. Because the songs here span a few years, Ray Charles traces the ways the singer was refining his gospel-meets-jazz R&B sound. “I Got A Woman,” the 1954 single that became Charles’ first R&B No. 1 hit—and the tune that, decades later, would anchor Kanye West and Jamie Foxx’s “Gold Digger”—is notably looser than “Mess Around,” with Charles expanding the familiar blues template into an easy groove, as well as an ecstatic vocal showcase. “Come Back” and “A Fool For You,” meanwhile, established Charles as a superlative interpreter of ballads: On the stage, his tempos would stretch and lag into almost avant-garde territory, while his croons were punctuated with expressive growls and precise vibrato—and marked by improvisatory, expansive phrasing that brought Sunday morning into Saturday night. Elsewhere on Ray Charles, the urbane spoken word of “Greenbacks” showcased the singer’s humorous side, while “Mary Ann”—with its easy rhythmic shifts and lush, big-band sound—proved his ability to traverse jazz and pop worlds. And the bright piano licks of “Hallelujah I Love Her So”—which Charles penned himself—hinted at his pop star future. Given the road-tested nature of these tracks, it’s no surprise that Ray Charles remains a compelling front-to-back listen, chock full of songs that would remain signatures well into the singer’s decades-long career.
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Artist Playlists
- From the ‘50s to the ‘00s, his voice towered over pop.
- Cool jazz and finger-snapping blues thrive in his back pages.
- The work of this R&B monarch touched rockers and soul stars.
- The jazz pianists and jump blues singers who inspired The Genius.
Live Albums
- 1973
Appears On
More To Hear
- Writer Tom Roland helps highlight Ray's 1962 country album.
About Ray Charles
Ray Charles changed popular music in the U.S., drafting the blueprint for soul music in the 1950s and exerting a massive influence on the R&B and rock that came in its wake. Born in Albany, GA, in 1930, he spent most of his childhood in Greenville, FL, where he began losing his sight at age five, going fully blind by age seven. But by then he was already a talented pianist, playing boogie-woogie and absorbing the gospel and rural blues that surrounded him. When he set out on his own in the late ’40s, his music was clearly modeled after the sleek R&B of early Nat “King” Cole and Charles Brown. In 1952 he signed with Atlantic Records, where he infused his sound with churchy fervor, a heavier blues feel, and more passionate singing. He masterfully exploited his rich baritone to fleck his inventive phrasing with cracks and sighs, overshadowing the jazz-informed brilliance of his piano playing. His music was marked by exquisite tension, the profane battling the holy, but his lyrics addressed more earthly concerns, as on his 1959 hit “What'd I Say,” where his moans and grunts were brazenly sexual. Charles moved to ABC-Paramount later that year and explored his broad interests more freely, making jazz records with singer Betty Carter, cutting the string-drenched standard “Georgia on My Mind,” and diving headfirst into country music. He spent the ensuing decades tackling pop standards, show tunes, and country, returning to the country charts in the early 1980s. His cameo in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers and his role as a Diet Pepsi pitchman cemented his iconic status. Charles toured until his death in 2004; soon after, the acclaimed biopic Ray, with Jamie Foxx, introduced his legend to a new generation.
- HOMETOWN
- Albany, GA, United States
- BORN
- September 23, 1930
- GENRE
- R&B/Soul