- True Genius · 2021
- Ray Charles · 1957
- Georgia on My Mind (Original Master Recording) - Single · 1960
- Ray Charles · 1957
- Super Hits · 1984
- The Best of Ray Charles: The Atlantic Years · 1959
- The Genius Sings the Blues · 1961
- What'd I Say · 1959
- Ray Charles · 1957
- The Genius of Ray Charles · 1959
- True Genius · 2021
- Friendship · 1984
- The Best of Ray Charles: The Atlantic Years · 1958
Essential Albums
- Ray Charles' 1959 album sparks into life with the title track's flurry of swinging keyboard lines, jangling percussion, and his legendary moans and wails. From that upbeat start, Charles runs through a frisky selection of powerhouse R&B songs. He also takes fearless detours over to the blues side (the slinky, Hammond organ-powered "Tell Me How Do You Feel") and flirts with rock 'n' roll on the sassy "You Be My Baby," a ditty about wooing the girls that's pepped up by perky horns.
- 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.
- Also known as Hallelujah I Love Her So, this 1962 release compiles the hits Charles had for the Atlantic label, the ones that first put this "Genius of Soul" on the map. Songs such as "This Little Girl of Mine" and "Sinner's Prayer" would be the first time audiences heard gospel twisted into jazzy, bluesy R&B, turning spiritual moments into secular performances. The salacious moans on Ray's first big hit, "I Got a Woman," sent some gospel fans scampering for their Bibles, but the energy beaming off his performances connected with a larger, more understanding audience.
- 2021
- 2021
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Artist Playlists
- From the ‘50s to the ‘00s, his voice towered over pop.
- The work of this R&B monarch touched rockers and soul stars.
- Cool jazz and finger-snapping blues thrive in his back pages.
- The jazz pianists and jump blues singers who inspired The Genius.
Live Albums
- 1973
Appears On
- Wink Martindale
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.