Ray Charles & Mary Ann Fisher – Sweet Memories Lyrics | Ray Charles Greatest Hits – The Very Best Of Ray Charles – Ray Charles Collection 상위 133개 베스트 답변

당신은 주제를 찾고 있습니까 “ray charles & mary ann fisher – sweet memories lyrics – Ray Charles Greatest Hits – The Very Best Of Ray Charles – Ray Charles Collection“? 다음 카테고리의 웹사이트 https://chewathai27.com/you 에서 귀하의 모든 질문에 답변해 드립니다: https://chewathai27.com/you/blog. 바로 아래에서 답을 찾을 수 있습니다. 작성자 Soul – Jazz – Blues Music 이(가) 작성한 기사에는 조회수 1,261,757회 및 좋아요 12,132개 개의 좋아요가 있습니다.

Table of Contents

ray charles & mary ann fisher – sweet memories lyrics 주제에 대한 동영상 보기

여기에서 이 주제에 대한 비디오를 시청하십시오. 주의 깊게 살펴보고 읽고 있는 내용에 대한 피드백을 제공하세요!

d여기에서 Ray Charles Greatest Hits – The Very Best Of Ray Charles – Ray Charles Collection – ray charles & mary ann fisher – sweet memories lyrics 주제에 대한 세부정보를 참조하세요

Ray Charles Greatest Hits – The Very Best Of Ray Charles – Ray Charles Collection
————★★ ★★————-\r
● Thank you for watching my video\r
● Share this song with your friends: https://youtu.be/5YZzZIt6Tmg\r
● Subscribe to the channel here: https://bom.to/v7ko1M\r
#Frank Sinatra #natkingcole #deanmartin #soulmusic #soulgreatesthits #classicsongs #oldsongs #barrywhite #dianaross\r
———— ★★ ★★ ————-\r
✔ Photos and music in their possession\r
✔ This video is completely made by fans. If you (the owner) want to delete this video, please contact us directly before doing anything. We will remove it carefully.\r
✔ If you are a music producer, photographer .. all copyright issues please contact us via email: [email protected]

ray charles & mary ann fisher – sweet memories lyrics 주제에 대한 자세한 내용은 여기를 참조하세요.

Ray Charles – IMDb

Ray Charles, Actor: The Blues Brothers. A tragic fate may have given this visionary a heightened sensitivity, perception, awareness, even expansion to his …

+ 여기에 표시

Source: www.imdb.com

Date Published: 1/15/2022

View: 9950

Charles, Ray (1930-2004) – HistoryLink.org

The Bottom of the Ladder Ray Charles Robinson was born September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia, the first child of Aretha and Bailey Robinson.

+ 여기에 표시

Source: www.historylink.org

Date Published: 11/20/2022

View: 1455

주제와 관련된 이미지 ray charles & mary ann fisher – sweet memories lyrics

주제와 관련된 더 많은 사진을 참조하십시오 Ray Charles Greatest Hits – The Very Best Of Ray Charles – Ray Charles Collection. 댓글에서 더 많은 관련 이미지를 보거나 필요한 경우 더 많은 관련 기사를 볼 수 있습니다.

Ray Charles Greatest Hits - The Very Best Of Ray Charles - Ray Charles Collection
Ray Charles Greatest Hits – The Very Best Of Ray Charles – Ray Charles Collection

주제에 대한 기사 평가 ray charles & mary ann fisher – sweet memories lyrics

  • Author: Soul – Jazz – Blues Music
  • Views: 조회수 1,261,757회
  • Likes: 좋아요 12,132개
  • Date Published: 2020. 8. 24.
  • Video Url link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YZzZIt6Tmg

Why is Ray Charles blind?

Ray Charles did not lose his sight until he was about seven years old. Years later, doctors suggested that juvenile glaucoma had caused his blindness. But Charles always maintained that his visual impairment never hindered his career in any way.

Was Ray Charles blind at birth?

Ray Charles Robinson was born September 23, 1930 in Albany, Georgia. His mother Aretha was a sharecropper, and his father Bailey worked as a railroad repair man and handyman. At an early age, his vision began to deteriorate, and by age seven, Ray was completely blind.

What is Ray Charles most famous song?

Ray Charles’ 10 Greatest Hits
  1. 1. “ Georgia On My Mind”
  2. 2. “ Hit The Road Jack”
  3. 3. “ I Got A Woman“
  4. 4. “ What Would I Do Without You”
  5. 5. “ American The Beautiful”
  6. 6. “ Hallelujah I Love Her So”
  7. 7. “ I Can’t Stop Loving You”
  8. 8. “ What’d I Say”

Who was Ray Charles when he died?

American musical icon Ray Charles died Thursday of complications from liver disease at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 73.

Was Stevie Wonder deaf?

Blind since shortly after his birth, Wonder was a child prodigy who signed with Motown’s Tamla label at the age of 11, where he was given the professional name Little Stevie Wonder. Saginaw, Michigan, U.S.

How did Ray Charles brother drown?

Ray Charles grew up with both parents and one other sibling, his brother George. At the age of four, George (Ray’s brother) drowned in his mother’s laundry tub. Ray Charles was the only person to witness to what happened to his brother, but he never thought his brother’s death would affect him later in life.

What does a blind person see?

A person with total blindness won’t be able to see anything. But a person with low vision may be able to see not only light, but colors and shapes too. However, they may have trouble reading street signs, recognizing faces, or matching colors to each other.

Who inherited Ray Charles estate?

Charles’ 12 children have just survived the first big challenge in their termination attempt. When he died in 2004, Charles left most of his estate to the Ray Charles Foundation, a charity that supports the vision- or hearing-impaired.

What Ray Charles died from?

Was Ray Charles a good piano player?

What is for certain is that Ray Charles was a rare and exceptional pianist – and it was years of dedicated practice at the piano that gave him the skills to play music that brought joy to the world.

Did Ray Charles write any of his own songs?

Today, the Ray Charles Marketing Group represents about 500 songs from those companies, including about a dozen Charles wrote and another 30 or 40 where he is credited as co-writer.

What is Ray Charles best album?

Ray Charles Greatest Hits/Songs

Is the movie Ray accurate?

The film’s credits state that Ray is based on true events, but includes some characters, names, locations, and events which have been changed and others which have been “fictionalized for dramatization purposes.”

What was Ray Charles net worth when he died?

Ray died at his home in Beverly Hills, California as a result of liver failure on June 10, 2004, at the age of 73.

Ray Charles Net Worth.
Net Worth: $75 Million
Profession: Singer-songwriter, Musician, Jazz Pianist, Composer, Artist, Actor, Film Score Composer, Music Arranger, Music artist

How wives did Ray Charles have?

Ray Charles/Wife

Did Ray Charles have both eyes removed?

Because of this arduousness, Charles would just memorize a song by heart instead of going back to read the score. That same year of 1937, Charles became completely blind, as his right eye was removed due to its painfulness.

What Ray Charles died from?

Did Ray Charles stare at the sun?

At about that time Ray developed what may have been glaucoma. He soon found he could stare straight at the sun. By the time he was 7, the sun stopped coming out. Ray Charles, who died last week at 73, was born with the last name Robinson but dropped it to avoid being confused with the boxer Sugar Ray Robinson.

Did Jamie Foxx actually sing in Ray?

But Foxx does not sing them; he skillfully lip-syncs to the actual vintage Ray Charles studio sessions and concert recordings.

Five Things to Know About Ray Charles

by Regan Shrumm

Ray Charles’ voice could be as blues-y cool as it was achingly gospel, as confessionary country as it was brassy jazz. His groundbreaking style and sound reflected his diverse life experiences. While fans of the “father of soul” might be familiar with the basic rolodex of Charles’ life, here are five pieces of trivia that fill in a few more details about the piano man who did it all, from why he first started wearing his iconic shades to the game he played to fight insomnia.

How Ray Got His Ray-Bans

Ray Charles Robinson was just 18 years old when he moved to Seattle and started a band with his friends, guitarist Gossie McKee and bassist Milton S. Garret. The three began the McSon Trio, a combination of the two names McKee and Robinson. The trio even developed publicity photos for the group. But before the images were printed and distributed, McKee had an artist retouch the photos, painting sunglasses over Charles’s sightless eyes. Charles began to wear sunglasses while performing after this, and some authors even suggest that this began the trend for blind musicians to do the same.

Ray Charles Never Saw Blindness as a Handicap

A Yamaha KX88 keyboard, owned by Ray Charles, complete with braille stickers, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

Ray Charles did not lose his sight until he was about seven years old. Years later, doctors suggested that juvenile glaucoma had caused his blindness. But Charles always maintained that his visual impairment never hindered his career in any way. Charles once told the New York Times: “I was going to do what I was going to do anyway. I played music since I was three. I could see then. I lost my sight when I was seven. So blindness didn’t have anything to do with it. It didn’t give me anything. And it didn’t take nothing.” Charles had his keyboards marked with braille stickers, including the Yamaha KX88 keyboard now held in the collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. In 1994, the musician received a Helen Keller Personal Achievement Award from the American Foundation for the Blind for his determination “not to let his disability limit him.” However hearing loss or the inability to listen to music, Charles believed was a tragic impairment. After experiencing a temporary ear ailment, Charles began to fund research in cochlear implants and other electronic devices; and he often anonymously funded hearing aid implants for those who could not afford them.

The Blues Brothers Renewed Charles’ Popularity

In the 1980 John Landis film The Blues Brothers, Charles sang “Shake a Tail Feather”

The above media is provided by YouTube (Privacy Policy, Terms of Service)

During the 1970s when disco was huge, Ray Charles’ career had bottomed out and his album sales hit an all-time low. Recently divorced and having suffered a number of setbacks after battling a long-time drug addiction, Charles’ fortunes changed with the release of John Landis’ feature film The Blues Brothers in 1980. Joining such performers as Cab Calloway, John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin, and James Brown, Charles took on a role as the owner of a down-and-out music shop. The film became a box office hit and sparked an R&B revival.

Ray Charles Was a Chess Fiend

It was while Ray Charles was enrolled in a rehabilitation program at St. Francis hospital, near Los Angeles in 1965 that the musician learned to play chess. Taught by his doctor at the clinic, Charles, fighting insomnia, often played throughout the night with other patients. Charles loved that winning at chess was not a matter of luck, but rather of skill. “We start with the same pieces in the same places,” he observed. “You’ve got to outwit, out-think, and out-maneuver the other person.”

Charles maintained a life-long passion for the game and even had his own chessboards made, one of which is now in the American History Museum. The musician’s board features squares of alternating height; the black squares are raised while the white squares are lowered. To help him identify the pieces by touch, the black pieces have sharper tops, while the white ones have round ones.

Ray Charles Could Fly

Ray Charles with his aircraft, “Ray Charles.”

Charles had an interest in flying and was determined to buy his own airplane. During the early 1960s, he bought a five-passenger Cessna 310, which was piloted by Tom McGarrity, one of the very few black Air Force veterans. Often Charles would ask McGarrity questions about the plane, and would even help the pilot under the plane’s hood. On some nights, instead of McGarrity’s switching to autopilot, Charles would fly, listening to the hum of beam tones of the radar.

Regan Shrumm is an intern in the Division of Culture and the Arts at the National Museum of American History. She recently finished her Masters in Art History and Visual Studies at the University of Victoria in Victoria, BC, Canada.

The Story of Ray Charles

As a talented singer, songwriter and composer, Ray Charles captivated the eyes and ears of people around the world. Dubbed the “Father of Soul”, he brought soul music into the mainstream by using a unique blend of R&B, gospel and blues in hits such as “Georgia on My Mind” and “Hit the Road Jack”. In honor of what would have been his 84th birthday, we’re taking a look back at Ray Charles’ story, and how it’s impacted us here at Industries for the Blind – Milwaukee.

Ray Charles Robinson was born September 23, 1930 in Albany, Georgia. His mother Aretha was a sharecropper, and his father Bailey worked as a railroad repair man and handyman. At an early age, his vision began to deteriorate, and by age seven, Ray was completely blind. The cause of his blindness was believed to be glaucoma.

Shortly after losing his vision in 1937, Ray Charles was sent to St. Augustine, Florida to attend a special school for the deaf and visually impaired. At that time, the school – which was founded by a deaf man – was called The Institute for the Blind, Deaf and Dumb. The organization’s name has since been changed to the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind; it is now the largest school for the blind and deaf in the United States. Although the original name is no longer in use, it serves as a stark reminder of how far we’ve come and why organizations like IB Milwaukee are much-needed.

During the eight years he spent at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, Ray Charles discovered and developed his musical skills and was known to be the most talented musician at the school. The school encouraged his natural gifts, teaching him how to play the piano, saxophone, organ, trumpet and clarinet. In addition, he was also taught how to not only read music in Braille, but also how to write and arrange music in that format – a life-changing skill which gave him the ability to compose his own songs.

While the popular biopic “Ray” did a wonderful job of sharing Ray Charles’ life story, the film glossed over the huge impact that the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind had on his life. In a 2004 article on Slate, David Ritz – the co-author of Ray Charles’ biography – points out, “The fact that Ray fails to include a single scene from his extraordinary educational experience is another grievous oversight. It was at that state school where he was taught to read Braille, play Chopin, write arrangements, learn piano and clarinet, and start to sing.”

There’s no doubt that Ray Charles is a man that was blessed with innate musical talent. However, his story reinforces the importance of creating and providing opportunities for the blind and visually impaired. Here at Industries for the Blind – Milwaukee, we firmly believe that remarkable potential lies within every human being, and it’s our goal to provide employment opportunities that allow blind and visually impaired professionals to realize their true potential.

Ray Charles’ 10 Greatest Hits

Ray Charles is an interesting person, in that he’s a musician everyone knows and largely loves, yet he doesn’t often appear atop anyone’s top artist’s lists. Yet, when all the songs are accounted for and all the influences tracked, Charles may indeed be the most important American artist of the 20th century.

For Charles, who was born in Albany, Georgia in 1930 and died at 73 years old in June of 2004, the piano was as much his voice as the sounds of the words and melodies that emanated from his mouth.

While he’s known for hits like “Georgia on my Mind” and “Hit The Road Jack,” Charles truly has a number of standouts that have since become standards. So, without further ado, let’s dive into Ray Charles Greatest Hits.

10. “Mess Around”

9. “Night Time Is The Right Time”

8. “What’d I Say”

7. “I Can’t Stop Loving You”

6. “Hallelujah I Love Her So”

5. “American The Beautiful”

4. “What Would I Do Without You”

3. “I Got A Woman“

2. “Hit The Road Jack”

1. “Georgia On My Mind”

Ray Charles Dies at Age 73

Ray Charles, American Legend, Dies at 73 ‘Genius’ Overcame Obstacles, Broke Down Musical Boundaries

toggle caption Institute of Jazz Studies

toggle caption Vanguard Photography

American musical icon Ray Charles died Thursday of complications from liver disease at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 73.

Known as “The Genius” since the early 1950s, Charles started out primarily as a jazz and blues pianist and singer in the style of his early musical idols such as Nat “King” Cole and pianist Charles Brown. But over his more than 50 years in show business, Charles built a career that defied genre, bringing his soulful voice, keyboard prowess and songwriting talent to the pop, country and R&B charts.

Among the first musicians to blend the emotional power of gospel music with secular themes, Charles won 12 Grammys, including a lifetime achievement award in 1987. His songs “Hit the Road Jack,” “What’d I Say” and “Georgia on My Mind” have become American classics. In 1986, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Born Ray Charles Robinson in Albany, Ga., on Sept. 23, 1930, Charles grew up in Greenville, Fla. He contracted an unknown illness at the age of four that began to affect his eyesight and within three years, he was completely blind.

From 1937 to 1945, he attended a Florida school for the deaf and blind where he learned to read braille, repair — and listen to — radios, and play piano as well as clarinet, saxophone, trumpet and organ. After his mother died, he left school for Jacksonville at 15 to begin his career as a professional musician.

After several years, Charles moved to Seattle where he started his steady rise to fame — and also became hooked on heroin. In 1949, Charles cut his first two singles, and after both became hits, he moved to Los Angeles in 1950. He toured the United States for several years as the musical director for blues guitarist Lowell Fulson.

Charles signed with Ahmet Ertegun’s Atlantic Records in 1953 and then switched to ABC-Paramount in 1959, building an impressive track record of hits along the way. But in 1965, he was arrested for heroin possession and left music for a year to kick his habit.

He came back strong, beginning a touring regimen that had him on the road for much of the year. Throughout the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s — even into the new century, Charles continued that schedule, until earlier this year, when illness forced him to cancel several appearances.

Ray Charles | Biography, Songs, & Facts

Ray Charles, original name Ray Charles Robinson, (born September 23, 1930, Albany, Georgia, U.S.—died June 10, 2004, Beverly Hills, California), American pianist, singer, composer, and bandleader, a leading entertainer billed as “the Genius.” Charles was credited with the early development of soul music, a style based on a melding of gospel, rhythm and blues, and jazz music.

When Charles was an infant his family moved to Greenville, Florida, and he began his musical career at age five on a piano in a neighbourhood café. He began to go blind at six, possibly from glaucoma, and had completely lost his sight by age seven. He attended the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine, where he concentrated on musical studies, but left school at age 15 to play the piano professionally after his mother died from cancer (his father had died when the boy was 10).

Britannica Quiz Pop Culture Quiz Are you a princess of Pop? The king of Culture? See if you’re an entertainment expert by answering these questions.

Charles built a remarkable career based on the immediacy of emotion in his performances. After emerging as a blues and jazz pianist indebted to Nat King Cole’s style in the late 1940s, Charles recorded the boogie-woogie classic “Mess Around” and the novelty song “It Should’ve Been Me” in 1952–53. His arrangement for Guitar Slim’s “The Things That I Used to Do” became a blues million-seller in 1953. By 1954 Charles had created a successful combination of blues and gospel influences and signed on with Atlantic Records. Propelled by Charles’s distinctive raspy voice, “I’ve Got a Woman” and “Hallelujah I Love You So” became hit records. “What’d I Say” led the rhythm and blues sales charts in 1959 and was Charles’s own first million-seller.

Charles’s rhythmic piano playing and band arranging revived the “funky” quality of jazz, but he also recorded in many other musical genres. He entered the pop market with the best-sellers “Georgia on My Mind” (1960) and “Hit the Road, Jack” (1961). His album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music (1962) sold more than a million copies, as did its single “I Can’t Stop Loving You.” Other notable hit songs included “Busted” (1963), “Crying Time” (1965), and “America the Beautiful” (1972). Thereafter his music emphasized jazz standards and renditions of pop and show tunes.

Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now

New from Britannica New from Britannica More people have walked on the Moon (12) than have been born in Antarctica (11). See All Good Facts

From 1955 Charles toured extensively in the United States and elsewhere with his own big band and a gospel-style female backup quartet called the Raeletts. He also appeared on television and worked in films such as Ballad in Blue (1964) and The Blues Brothers (1980) as a featured act and sound track composer. He formed his own custom recording labels, Tangerine in 1962 and Crossover Records in 1973. The recipient of many national and international awards, he received 13 Grammy Awards, including a lifetime achievement award in 1987. In 1986 Charles was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received a Kennedy Center Honor, and he was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1993. He published an autobiography, Brother Ray: Ray Charles’ Own Story (1978), written with David Ritz. He was the subject of the acclaimed biopic Ray (2004), which starred Jamie Foxx as Charles in an Academy Award-winning performance.

Ray Charles

Ray Charles’ recordings spanned every genre of music including Rhythm & Blues, Jazz, Rock & Roll, Gospel and Country & Western.

We’re all familiar with such hits like “Georgia On My Mind.” “Hit The Road Jack” and “America The Beautiful.” But Ray’s catalog also includes a huge collection of other “classically Ray” recordings that may not be as well known such as “Come Live With Me,” “A Song For You” and many others.

Ray Charles

Ray Charles was the musician most responsible for developing soul music. Singers like Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson also did a great deal to pioneer the form, but Charles did even more to devise a new form of Black pop by merging ’50s R&B with gospel-powered vocals, adding plenty of flavor from contemporary jazz, blues, and (in the ’60s) country. Then there was his singing; his style was among the most emotional and easily identifiable of any 20th century performer, up there with the likes of Elvis and Billie Holiday. He was also a superb keyboard player, arranger, and bandleader. The brilliance of his 1950s and ’60s work, however, can’t obscure the fact that he made few classic tracks after the mid-’60s, though he recorded often and performed until the year before his death. Blind since the age of six (from glaucoma), Charles studied composition and learned many instruments at the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind. His parents had died by his early teens, and he worked as a musician in Florida for a while before using his savings to move to Seattle in 1947. By the late ’40s, he was recording in a smooth pop/R&B style derivative of Nat “King” Cole and Charles Brown. He got his first Top Ten R&B hit with “Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand” in 1951. Charles’ first recordings came in for their fair share of criticism, as they were much milder and less original than the classics that would follow, although they’re actually fairly enjoyable, showing strong hints of the skills that were to flower in a few years. In the early ’50s, Charles’ sound started to toughen as he toured with Lowell Fulson, went to New Orleans to work with Guitar Slim (playing piano on and arranging Slim’s huge R&B hit, “The Things That I Used to Do”), and got a band together for R&B star Ruth Brown. It was at Atlantic Records that Ray Charles truly found his voice, consolidating the gains of recent years and then some with “I Got a Woman,” a number-two R&B hit in 1955. This is the song most frequently singled out as his pivotal performance, on which Charles first truly let go with his unmistakable gospel-ish moan, backed by a tight, bouncy horn-driven arrangement. Throughout the ’50s, Charles ran off a series of R&B hits that, although they weren’t called “soul” at the time, did a lot to pave the way for soul by presenting a form of R&B that was sophisticated without sacrificing any emotional grit. “This Little Girl of Mine,” “Drown in My Own Tears,” “Hallelujah I Love Her So,” “Lonely Avenue,” and “The Right Time” were all big hits. But Charles didn’t really capture the pop audience until “What’d I Say,” which caught the fervor of the church with its pleading vocals, as well as the spirit of rock & roll with its classic electric piano line. It was his first Top Ten pop hit, and one of his final Atlantic singles, as he left the label at the end of the ’50s for ABC. One of the chief attractions of the ABC deal for Charles was a much greater degree of artistic control of his recordings. He put it to good use on early-’60s hits like “Unchain My Heart” and “Hit the Road Jack,” which solidified his pop stardom with only a modicum of polish attached to the R&B he had perfected at Atlantic. In 1962, he surprised the pop world by turning his attention to country & western music, topping the charts with the “I Can’t Stop Loving You” single, and making a hugely popular album (in an era in which R&B/soul LPs rarely scored high on the charts) with Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been so surprising; Charles had always been eclectic, recording quite a bit of straight jazz at Atlantic, with noted jazz musicians like David “Fathead” Newman and Milt Jackson. Charles remained extremely popular through the mid-’60s, scoring big hits like “Busted,” “You Are My Sunshine,” “Take These Chains From My Heart,” and “Crying Time,” although his momentum was slowed by a 1965 bust for heroin. This led to a year-long absence from performing, but he picked up where he left off with “Let’s Go Get Stoned” in 1966. Yet by this time Charles was focusing increasingly less on rock and soul, in favor of pop tunes, often with string arrangements, that seemed aimed more at the easy listening audience than anyone else. Charles’ influence on the rock mainstream was as apparent as ever; Joe Cocker and Steve Winwood in particular owe a great deal of their style to him, and echoes of his phrasing can be heard more subtly in the work of greats like Van Morrison. One approaches sweeping criticism of Charles with hesitation; he was an American institution, after all, and his vocal powers barely diminished over his half-century career. The fact remains, though, that his work after the late ’60s on record was very disappointing. Millions of listeners yearned for a return to the all-out soul of his 1955-1965 classics, but Charles had actually never been committed to soul above all else. Like Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley, his focus was more upon all-around pop than many realize; his love of jazz, country, and pop standards was evident, even if his more earthy offerings were the ones that truly broke ground and will stand the test of time. He dented the charts (sometimes the country ones) occasionally, and commanded devoted international concert audiences whenever he felt like it. For good or ill, he ensured his imprint upon the American mass consciousness in the 1990s by singing several ads for Diet Pepsi. He also recorded three albums during the ’90s for Warner Bros., but remained most popular as a concert draw. In 2002, he released Thanks for Bringing Love Around Again on his own Crossover imprint, and the following year began recording an album of duets featuring B.B. King, Willie Nelson, Michael McDonald, and James Taylor. After hip replacement surgery in 2003, he scheduled a tour for the following summer, but was forced to cancel an appearance in March 2004. Three months later, on June 10, 2004, Ray Charles succumbed to liver disease at his home in Beverly Hills, CA. The duets album, Genius Loves Company, was released two months after his death. The biopic Ray hit screens in the fall of 2010 and was a critical and commercial success, with the actor who portrayed Charles in the move, Jamie Foxx, winning the 2005 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role. Two more posthumous albums, Genius & Friends and Ray Sings, Basie Swings, appeared in 2005 and 2006 respectively. Charles’ recordings began reappearing in various facsimile editions, reissues, remasters, and box sets as his entire recorded legacy received the attention that befits a legendary American artist. ~ Richie Unterberger & Steve Leggett, Rovi

Ray Charles

Ray Charles was a pioneer of soul music, integrating R&B, gospel, pop and country to create hits like “Unchain My Heart,” “Hit the Road Jack” and “Georgia on My Mind.”

Who Was Ray Charles? Ray Charles was a legendary musician who pioneered the genre of soul music during the 1950s. Often called the “Father of Soul,” Charles combined blues, gospel and jazz to create groundbreaking hits such as “Unchain My Heart,” “Hit the Road Jack” and “Georgia on My Mind.” He died in 2004, leaving a lasting impression on contemporary music.

Early Life Ray Charles Robinson was born on September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia. His father, a mechanic, and his mother, a sharecropper, moved the family to Greenville, Florida when he was an infant. One of the most traumatic events of his childhood was witnessing the drowning death of his younger brother. Soon after his brother’s death, Charles gradually began to lose his sight. He was blind by the age of 7, and his mother sent him to a state-sponsored school, the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine, Florida — where he learned to read, write and arrange music in Braille. He also learned to play piano, organ, sax, clarinet and trumpet. The breadth of his musical interests ranged widely, from gospel to country, to blues.

Musical Evolution Charles’ mother died when he was 15, and for a year he toured on the “Chitlin’ Circuit” in the South. While on the road, he picked up a love for heroin. At the of age 16, Charles moved to Seattle. There, he met a young Quincy Jones, a friend and collaborator he would keep for the rest of his life. Charles performed with the McSon Trio in 1940s. His early playing style closely resembled the work of his two major influences — Charles Brown and Nat King Cole. Charles later developed his distinctive sound. In 1949, he released his first single, “Confession Blues,” with the Maxin Trio. The song did well on the R&B charts. More success on the R&B charts followed with “Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand” and “Kissa Me Baby.” By 1953, Charles landed a deal with Atlantic Records. He celebrated his first R&B hit single with the label, “Mess Around.”

Critical Acclaim: “The Genius” A year later, Charles’ now classic song, “I Got a Woman,” reached No. 1 on the R&B charts. The song reflected an advance in his musical style. He was no longer a Cole imitator. His fusion of gospel and R&B helped to create a new musical genre known as soul. By the late 1950s, Charles began entertaining the world of jazz, cutting records with members of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Fellow musicians began to call Charles “The Genius,” an appropriate title for the ramblin’ musician, who never worked in just one style, but blended and beautified all that he touched (he also earned the nickname “Father of Soul”). Charles’ biggest success was perhaps his ability to cross over into pop music too, reaching No. 6 on the pop chart and No. 1 on the R&B chart with his hit “What’d I Say.” Scroll to Continue READ NEXT Pedro Pascal (1975–) Oscar Isaac (1979–) James Beard (1903–1985) The year 1960 brought Charles his first Grammy Award for “Georgia on My Mind,” followed by another Grammy for the single “Hit the Road, Jack.” For his day, he maintained a rare level of creative control over his own music. Charles broke down the boundaries of music genres in 1962 with Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. On this album, he gave his own soulful interpretations of many country classics. While thriving creatively, Charles struggled in his personal life. He continued to battle with heroin addiction. In 1965, Charles was arrested for possession.

Later Career Charles avoided jail after his arrest for possession by finally kicking the habit at a clinic in Los Angeles. His releases in the 1960s and ’70s were hit-or-miss, but he remained one of music’s most respected stars. Charles won a Grammy Award for his rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “Living for the City.” Three years later, he released his autobiography Brother Ray. In 1980, Charles appeared in the comedy The Blues Brothers with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. The music icon received a special honor a few years later as one of the first people inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Charles was recognized for his contributions to the genre alongside such fellow luminaries as James Brown, Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke and Buddy Holly. Charles returned to the spotlight in the early 1990s with several high-profile appearances. He also recorded commercials for Pepsi-Cola, singing “You Got the Right One, Baby!” as his catchphrase, and performed “We Are the World” for the organization USA for Africa alongside the likes of Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen and Smokey Robinson.

Ray Charles

(musician: original and new recordings) / (musician: pianos)

2021 Twist à Bamako (performer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”) / (writer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”)

(performer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”) / (writer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”)

2021 Charming the Hearts of Men (writer: “Hit the Road Jack”)

(writer: “Hit the Road Jack”)

2021 The United States vs. Billie Holiday (performer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”) / (writer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”)

(performer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”) / (writer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”)

2021 Tom & Jerry: Quậy Tung New York (writer: “Don’t You Know”)

(writer: “Don’t You Know”)

2020 One Night in Miami… (writer: “I Believe to My Soul”)

(writer: “I Believe to My Soul”)

2020 Chuyên Gia Tài Chính (performer: “A Childhood”)

(performer: “A Childhood”)

2020 The BRITs at 40 (TV Movie documentary) (writer: “Gold Digger”)

(TV Movie documentary) (writer: “Gold Digger”)

2019 Noelle (performer: “Winter Wonderland”)

(performer: “Winter Wonderland”)

2019 Đàn Ông Song Tử (performer: “I Got A Woman”) / (writer: “I Got A Woman”)

(performer: “I Got A Woman”) / (writer: “I Got A Woman”)

Burger Quiz (TV Series) (performer – 1 episode, 2019) (writer – 1 episode, 2019)

Episode #3.24 (2019) … (performer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”) / (writer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”) (TV Series) (performer – 1 episode, 2019) (writer – 1 episode, 2019)

2018 Bỗng Dưng Làm Sếp (performer: “You Don’t Know Me”)

(performer: “You Don’t Know Me”)

2018 Desfile Leo Paparella 2018 (TV Special) (writer: “Gold Digger”)

(TV Special) (writer: “Gold Digger”)

2017 Già Gân Trả Đũa (writer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”)

(writer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”)

2016 Bộ Ba Ưu Việt (performer: “Sticks and Stones”)

(performer: “Sticks and Stones”)

2016 The 25 Songs of Christmas (TV Movie) (lyrics: “Christ Is Born”)

(TV Movie) (lyrics: “Christ Is Born”)

2016 Manchester by the Sea (performer: “Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin'”)

(performer: “Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin'”)

2016 Deadpool (performer: “Hit The Road Jack”)

(performer: “Hit The Road Jack”)

2016 The Great Everything & the Nothing (performer: “Let The Good Times Roll”)

(performer: “Let The Good Times Roll”)

2015/III The Audition (Short) (performer: “What’d I Say Parts I & II”) / (writer: “What’d I Say Parts I & II”)

(Short) (performer: “What’d I Say Parts I & II”) / (writer: “What’d I Say Parts I & II”)

2015/I Bố Già Học Việc (performer: “Deed I Do”)

(performer: “Deed I Do”)

2015 Le nouveau (performer: “Ain’t That Love”) / (writer: “Ain’t That Love”)

(performer: “Ain’t That Love”) / (writer: “Ain’t That Love”)

2015 Tiếng Gọi Con Tim (writer: “Gold Digger”)

(writer: “Gold Digger”)

2015 Gấu Bựa Ted 2 (performer: “Mess Around”)

(performer: “Mess Around”)

2015 James White (performer: “Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying”)

(performer: “Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying”)

2015 Trùm Bài (performer: “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

(performer: “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

2014 Seal Team Eight: Behind Enemy Lines (Video) (performer: “What’d I do”) / (writer: “What’d I do”)

(Video) (performer: “What’d I do”) / (writer: “What’d I do”)

2013 If I Had Wings (performer: “So Help Me God”)

(performer: “So Help Me God”)

2013 The Best Man Holiday (performer: “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”)

(performer: “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”)

2013 Cuộc Giải Cứu Thần Kỳ (performer: “One Mint Julep”)

(performer: “One Mint Julep”)

2013 Monica Z (lyrics: “Hit The Road Jack”)

(lyrics: “Hit The Road Jack”)

Bi no tsubo (TV Series documentary) (performer – 1 episode, 2013) (writer – 1 episode, 2013)

Chikurin (2013) … (performer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”) / (writer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”) (TV Series documentary) (performer – 1 episode, 2013) (writer – 1 episode, 2013)

2013 Twenty Feet from Stardom (Documentary) (performer: “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

(Documentary) (performer: “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

2012 Rắc Rối Vòng Quanh (performer: “You Are My Sunshine”)

(performer: “You Are My Sunshine”)

2012 Un bonheur n’arrive jamais seul (writer: “Ain’t That Love”)

(writer: “Ain’t That Love”)

2011 Vago (Video short) (performer: “Georgia on my mind”) / (writer: “Georgia on my mind”)

(Video short) (performer: “Georgia on my mind”) / (writer: “Georgia on my mind”)

2011 Người Giúp Việc (performer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”) / (writer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”)

(performer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”) / (writer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”)

2011 Jedermann Remixed (TV Movie) (writer: “I Got a Woman”)

(TV Movie) (writer: “I Got a Woman”)

2011 Gerry (performer: “Georgia on my mind”)

(performer: “Georgia on my mind”)

2011 Textuality (performer: “HIDE NOR HAIR”) / (publisher: “HIDE NOR HAIR”)

(performer: “HIDE NOR HAIR”) / (publisher: “HIDE NOR HAIR”)

2011 Glee Encore (Video) (writer: “Gold Digger”)

(Video) (writer: “Gold Digger”)

2011 Who the Hell Is Not George Clooney? (Short) (performer: “Unchain My Heart” – uncredited)

(Short) (performer: “Unchain My Heart” – uncredited)

2011 CMT: 40 Greatest Love Songs (TV Special) (performer: “I Can’t Stop Loving You”)

(TV Special) (performer: “I Can’t Stop Loving You”)

2011 Sing Your Song (Documentary) (writer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”)

(Documentary) (writer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”)

2011 Tiến Thoái Lưỡng Nan (performer: “Sticks and Stones”)

(performer: “Sticks and Stones”)

2010 The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts (TV Special) (lyrics: “Abbey Road”, “A Song and Dance for Bill T Jones”) / (music: “Abbey Road”, “A Song and Dance for Bill T Jones”)

(TV Special) (lyrics: “Abbey Road”, “A Song and Dance for Bill T Jones”) / (music: “Abbey Road”, “A Song and Dance for Bill T Jones”)

2010 Sexting (Short) (performer: “Hide Nor Hair”)

(Short) (performer: “Hide Nor Hair”)

2010 Escape from New Jersey (performer: “Hit the Road Jack” – uncredited)

(performer: “Hit the Road Jack” – uncredited)

2010 Axis of Evil (Short) (performer: “America the Beautiful”)

(Short) (performer: “America the Beautiful”)

2010 Country’s Greatest Stars Live: Vol. 1 (Video) (performer: “Take These Chains From My Heart”, “Bye Bye Love”)

(Video) (performer: “Take These Chains From My Heart”, “Bye Bye Love”)

2009 Johnny Mercer: The Dream’s on Me (TV Movie documentary) (performer: “Georgia on My Mind”)

(TV Movie documentary) (performer: “Georgia on My Mind”)

2009 Lãnh Án (TV Series) (performer – 1 episode)

The Crossing (2009) … (performer: “I Got A Woman”, “We Don’t See Eye To Eye”, “Hide Nor Hair”, “Careless Love”, “Drown In My Own Tears”, “What Would I Do Without You”) (TV Series) (performer – 1 episode)

2009 Định Mệnh (writer: “What’d I Say”)

(writer: “What’d I Say”)

2009 He’s Just Not That Into You (writer: “I Got A Woman”, “Sweet Sixteen Bars”)

(writer: “I Got A Woman”, “Sweet Sixteen Bars”)

2009 An Education (performer: “Tell the Truth”)

(performer: “Tell the Truth”)

2008 Tommy Emmanuel: Center Stage (TV Special) (writer: “Georgia On My Mind”)

(TV Special) (writer: “Georgia On My Mind”)

2008 The Express: Câu chuyện của Ernie Davis (performer: “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

(performer: “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

2008 Không Thể Xa Em (performer: “Gold Digger”) / (writer: “Gold Digger”)

(performer: “Gold Digger”) / (writer: “Gold Digger”)

2008 The Wrecking Crew! (Documentary) (performer: “It’s Not Easy Being Green”)

(Documentary) (performer: “It’s Not Easy Being Green”)

2007 A la diestra del cielo: Silvio, un cantaor rockero (Documentary) (writer: “Unchain Break My Heart”)

(Documentary) (writer: “Unchain Break My Heart”)

2006 Elvis Presley: Love Me Tender (Video) (writer: “I Got A Woman”)

(Video) (writer: “I Got A Woman”)

2006 Möbelhandlarens dotter (TV Mini Series) (writer: “What’d I Say?”)

(TV Mini Series) (writer: “What’d I Say?”)

2006 Điệp Vụ Kép (performer: “Gold Digger”) / (writer: “Gold Digger”)

(performer: “Gold Digger”) / (writer: “Gold Digger”)

2006 Failure to Launch (performer: “Hit the Road Jack”)

(performer: “Hit the Road Jack”)

2005 Saturday Night Live: The Best of John Belushi (TV Special) (writer: “What’d I Say” – uncredited)

(TV Special) (writer: “What’d I Say” – uncredited)

2005 Live from New York: The First 5 Years of Saturday Night Live (TV Special documentary) (performer: “I Can See Clearly Now”)

(TV Special documentary) (performer: “I Can See Clearly Now”)

2004 The Last Shot (performer: “Let the Good Times Roll” (1946))

(performer: “Let the Good Times Roll” (1946))

2004/I Ray (“Route 66”, “Straighten Up and Fly Right”, “I Got a Woman”) / (performer: “What’d I Say”, “Anytime”, “Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand”, “Roll with My Baby”, “The Midnight Hour”, “The Key of G”, “Pete Johnson’s Stride”, “Mess Around”, “I Got a Woman”, “Hallelujah, I Love Her So”, “Drown in My Own Tears”, “Leave My Woman Alone”, “Mary Ann”, “What Kind of Man Are You?”, “Night Time Is the Right Time”, “What’d I Say?”, “I Believe to My Soul”, “Georgia on My Mind”, “Hit the Road Jack”, “Unchain My Heart”, “You Don’t Know Me”, “Rockhouse”, “I Can’t Stop Loving You”, “Bye, Bye Love”, “Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I)”, “Born to Lose”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”, “Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand”, “The Key of G”, “Pete Johnson’s Stride”, “I Got a Woman”, “Hallelujah, I Love Her So”, “Mary Ann”, “What Kind of Man Are You?”, “What’d I Say?”, “Rockhouse”, “Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I)”)

(“Route 66”, “Straighten Up and Fly Right”, “I Got a Woman”) / (performer: “What’d I Say”, “Anytime”, “Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand”, “Roll with My Baby”, “The Midnight Hour”, “The Key of G”, “Pete Johnson’s Stride”, “Mess Around”, “I Got a Woman”, “Hallelujah, I Love Her So”, “Drown in My Own Tears”, “Leave My Woman Alone”, “Mary Ann”, “What Kind of Man Are You?”, “Night Time Is the Right Time”, “What’d I Say?”, “I Believe to My Soul”, “Georgia on My Mind”, “Hit the Road Jack”, “Unchain My Heart”, “You Don’t Know Me”, “Rockhouse”, “I Can’t Stop Loving You”, “Bye, Bye Love”, “Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I)”, “Born to Lose”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”, “Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand”, “The Key of G”, “Pete Johnson’s Stride”, “I Got a Woman”, “Hallelujah, I Love Her So”, “Mary Ann”, “What Kind of Man Are You?”, “What’d I Say?”, “Rockhouse”, “Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I)”)

2003 Celebrity Poker Club (TV Series) (“The Cincinnati Kid”)

(TV Series) (“The Cincinnati Kid”)

2003 Chàng Tiên Đáng Yêu (performer: “Winter Wonderland” (1934))

(performer: “Winter Wonderland” (1934))

2003 My House in Umbria (TV Movie) (performer: “If I Give You My Love”)

(TV Movie) (performer: “If I Give You My Love”)

2002 Bollywood Queen (performer: “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now”)

(performer: “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now”)

2002 Người Vận Chuyển (“I Got Love”)

(“I Got Love”)

2002 Drumline (performer: “I’m Scared of You”)

(performer: “I’m Scared of You”)

2002 Showtime (performer: “What’d I Say” (1959)) / (writer: “What’d I Say” (1959))

(performer: “What’d I Say” (1959)) / (writer: “What’d I Say” (1959))

2001 Đằng Sau Chiến Tuyến (performer: “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

(performer: “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

2001 Metoroporisu (performer: “I Can’t Stop Loving You”)

(performer: “I Can’t Stop Loving You”)

2001 Russian Doll (writer: “Frenesí”)

(writer: “Frenesí”)

2000 Where the Heart Is (writer: “What’d I Say”)

(writer: “What’d I Say”)

1999 Liberty Heights (performer: “I Got a Woman”) / (writer: “I Got a Woman”)

(performer: “I Got a Woman”) / (writer: “I Got a Woman”)

1999 Võ Sĩ Cuồng Phong (performer: “Hard Times No One Knows”, “A Fool for You”) / (writer: “Hard Times No One Knows”, “A Fool for You”)

(performer: “Hard Times No One Knows”, “A Fool for You”) / (writer: “Hard Times No One Knows”, “A Fool for You”)

1999 The Iron Giant (performer: “Genius After Hours”) / (writer: “Genius After Hours”)

(performer: “Genius After Hours”) / (writer: “Genius After Hours”)

1999 Late Night Poker (TV Series) (“The Cincinnati Kid”)

(TV Series) (“The Cincinnati Kid”)

1999 Dogma (performer: “Alabamy Bound”)

(performer: “Alabamy Bound”)

1998 Hollyweird (TV Movie) (performer: “Hit the Road Jack” – uncredited)

(TV Movie) (performer: “Hit the Road Jack” – uncredited)

1998 The Parent Trap (performer: “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye”)

(performer: “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye”)

1998 In God’s Hands (performer: ” (Night Time Is) The Right Time”)

(performer: ” (Night Time Is) The Right Time”)

1996 Bound (performer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”) / (writer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”)

(performer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”) / (writer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”)

1995 Nhạc Phẩm Của Thầy Holland (performer: “I Got a Woman”) / (writer: “I Got a Woman”)

(performer: “I Got a Woman”) / (writer: “I Got a Woman”)

1995 Sinatra: 80 Years My Way (TV Special documentary) (performer: “Ol’ Man River” – uncredited)

(TV Special documentary) (performer: “Ol’ Man River” – uncredited)

1995 Sòng Bạc (performer: “Takes Two to Tango”, “Stella By Starlight”)

(performer: “Takes Two to Tango”, “Stella By Starlight”)

1995 The Beatles Anthology (TV Mini Series documentary) (writer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”)

(TV Mini Series documentary) (writer: “Hallelujah I Love Her So”)

1995 Unstrung Heroes (performer: “You Are My Sunshine”)

(performer: “You Are My Sunshine”)

1995 Tommy Boy (“What’d I Say”)

(“What’d I Say”)

1995 Bye Bye Love (writer: “This Little Girl of Mine”)

(writer: “This Little Girl of Mine”)

1995 Camerieri (performer: “Born to Lose”)

(performer: “Born to Lose”)

1995 Unhappily Ever After (TV Series) (performer: “Hit the Road Jack” (1961))

(TV Series) (performer: “Hit the Road Jack” (1961))

1994 INXS: The Great Video Experience (Video documentary) (“PLEASE (YOU GOT THAT…)”)

(Video documentary) (“PLEASE (YOU GOT THAT…)”)

1994 Speechless (performer: “Hit the Road Jack”)

(performer: “Hit the Road Jack”)

1994 Phép Màu Trên Phố 34 (performer: “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”)

(performer: “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”)

1994 Love Affair (performer: “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)”)

(performer: “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)”)

1994 Everything Went Wrong (Short) (performer: “The Good Life” (La Belle Vie))

(Short) (performer: “The Good Life” (La Belle Vie))

1993 Anni 90 – Parte II (performer: “I Can’t Stop Loving You”)

(performer: “I Can’t Stop Loving You”)

1993 For Love or Money (performer: “Let Me Take Over”)

(performer: “Let Me Take Over”)

1993 Calendar Girl (performer: “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

(performer: “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

1993 Heart and Souls (performer: “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

(performer: “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

1993 Another Stakeout (performer: “Love Has a Mind of Its Own”)

(performer: “Love Has a Mind of Its Own”)

1993 Rookie of the Year (performer: “You Got the Right One Baby, Uh Huh”)

(performer: “You Got the Right One Baby, Uh Huh”)

1993 Không Ngủ Ở Seattle (performer: “Over The Rainbow”)

(performer: “Over The Rainbow”)

1993 Lũ Quỷ Nhỏ (arranger: “America the Beautiful”) / (performer: “America the Beautiful”)

(arranger: “America the Beautiful”) / (performer: “America the Beautiful”)

1993 Indecent Proposal (performer: “Cryin’ Time”)

(performer: “Cryin’ Time”)

1993 Ngày Chuột Chũi (performer: “You Don’t Know Me”)

(performer: “You Don’t Know Me”)

1992 Malcolm X (performer: “That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven)”)

(performer: “That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven)”)

1992 Love Potion No. 9 (performer: “Born to Lose”)

(performer: “Born to Lose”)

1992 Night and the City (performer: “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

(performer: “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

1991 Eric Clapton: 24 Nights (TV Special documentary) (writer: “Hard Times”)

(TV Special documentary) (writer: “Hard Times”)

1991 Jerry Lee Lewis: The Story of Rock & Roll (Video documentary) (writer: “I Got A Woman”)

(Video documentary) (writer: “I Got A Woman”)

1991 The Butcher’s Wife (performer: “Just for a Thrill”)

(performer: “Just for a Thrill”)

1991 Let Him Have It (performer: “Guitar Blues”) / (writer: “Guitar Blues”)

(performer: “Guitar Blues”) / (writer: “Guitar Blues”)

1991 The Fisher King (performer: “Hit The Road Jack”)

(performer: “Hit The Road Jack”)

1991 La carne (performer: “We Didn’t See A Thing”)

(performer: “We Didn’t See A Thing”)

1991 Thirtysomething (TV Series) (performer – 1 episode)

The Wedding (1991) … (performer: “Come Rain Or Come Shine”) (TV Series) (performer – 1 episode)

1991 Nothing But Trouble (performer: “The Good Life” (La Belle Vie))

(performer: “The Good Life” (La Belle Vie))

1990 Tay Đấm Huyền Thoại 5 (performer: “Winter Wonderland”)

(performer: “Winter Wonderland”)

1990 Joe và ngọn núi lửa (performer: “Ol’ Man River”)

(performer: “Ol’ Man River”)

1989 National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (performer: “That Spirit of Christmas”)

(performer: “That Spirit of Christmas”)

1989 Mưa Máu (performer: “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

(performer: “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

1989 The Dream Team (performer: “Hit the Road Jack”)

(performer: “Hit the Road Jack”)

1989 Cinq jours en juin (performer: “Love Makes The Change”)

(performer: “Love Makes The Change”)

1989 New York Stories (performer: “Night Time is the Right Time”)

(performer: “Night Time is the Right Time”)

1987 The Big Town (performer: “Drown in My Own Tears”)

(performer: “Drown in My Own Tears”)

1986 Designing Women (TV Series) (performer: “Georgia on My Mind”)

(TV Series) (performer: “Georgia on My Mind”)

1986 Off Beat (performer: “Georgia on My Mind”)

(performer: “Georgia on My Mind”)

1986 WrestleMania 2 (TV Special) (performer: “America, the Beautiful”)

(TV Special) (performer: “America, the Beautiful”)

1986 The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years (TV Movie) (performer: “It’s Not Easy Being Green”)

(TV Movie) (performer: “It’s Not Easy Being Green”)

1985 Tears Are Not Enough (Documentary) (“We Are the World”, uncredited)

(Documentary) (“We Are the World”, uncredited)

1985 The Best of John Belushi (Video) (writer: “What’d I say”)

(Video) (writer: “What’d I say”)

1985 Quy Luật Tự Nhiên (performer: “Just Because”)

(performer: “Just Because”)

1985 We Are the World (TV Movie documentary) (“We Are the World”, uncredited)

(TV Movie documentary) (“We Are the World”, uncredited)

1984 The Flamingo Kid (performer: “Yes, Indeed”)

(performer: “Yes, Indeed”)

1982 The King of Comedy (performer: “Sweet Sixteen Bars”, “Come Rain or Come Shine”) / (writer: “Sweet Sixteen Bars”)

(performer: “Sweet Sixteen Bars”, “Come Rain or Come Shine”) / (writer: “Sweet Sixteen Bars”)

1981 Four Friends (performer: “Georgia On My Mind”)

(performer: “Georgia On My Mind”)

1981 Lynda Carter’s Celebration (TV Movie) (performer: “It Hurts To be In Love”, “(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman” – uncredited)

(TV Movie) (performer: “It Hurts To be In Love”, “(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman” – uncredited)

1980 Any Which Way You Can (performer: “Beers To You”)

(performer: “Beers To You”)

1980 Bò Đực Nổi Điên (performer: “Tell the Truth”)

(performer: “Tell the Truth”)

1980 Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie (performer: “Hit The Road Jack”)

(performer: “Hit The Road Jack”)

1980 Tinh Anh Em (performer: “Shake a Tail Feather”, “Jailhouse Rock” – uncredited)

(performer: “Shake a Tail Feather”, “Jailhouse Rock” – uncredited)

1980 The Hollywood Knights (performer: “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

(performer: “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

1978 Spécial Ray Charles (TV Movie) (performer: “La Mamma”, “Il est Mort le Soleil”, “Ne me Quitte pas”, “I feel so bad”)

(TV Movie) (performer: “La Mamma”, “Il est Mort le Soleil”, “Ne me Quitte pas”, “I feel so bad”)

1978 Big Wednesday (performer: “What’d I Say” (1959) – uncredited) / (writer: “What’d I Say” (1959) – uncredited)

(performer: “What’d I Say” (1959) – uncredited) / (writer: “What’d I Say” (1959) – uncredited)

1977 Jimmy the C (Short) (performer: “Georgia on My Mind”)

(Short) (performer: “Georgia on My Mind”)

1977 The Carpenters at Christmas (TV Special) (writer: “Christ is Born”)

(TV Special) (writer: “Christ is Born”)

1977 The Beatles Forever (TV Special) (performer: “Yesterday”, “The Long and Winding Road”, “Let it Be”)

(TV Special) (performer: “Yesterday”, “The Long and Winding Road”, “Let it Be”)

1977 Elvis in Concert (TV Special documentary) (writer: “I Got a Woman”)

(TV Special documentary) (writer: “I Got a Woman”)

1973 Barbra Streisand and Other Musical Instruments (TV Special) (performer: “Look What They’ve Done to My Song, Ma”, “Cryin’ Time”, “Sweet Inspiration”)

(TV Special) (performer: “Look What They’ve Done to My Song, Ma”, “Cryin’ Time”, “Sweet Inspiration”)

1973 Ash Wednesday (performer: “Ruby”)

(performer: “Ruby”)

1973 Neispravimyy lgun (performer: “What’d I Say” – uncredited)

(performer: “What’d I Say” – uncredited)

1973 That’ll Be the Day (writer: “What Did I Say”)

(writer: “What Did I Say”)

1972 A Revolta dos Anjos (TV Series) (performer: “People”)

(TV Series) (performer: “People”)

1972 Elvis on Tour (Documentary) (writer: “I Got a Woman”)

(Documentary) (writer: “I Got a Woman”)

1971 Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte (performer: “Let’s Go Get Stoned”) / (writer: “Let’s Go Get Stoned”)

(performer: “Let’s Go Get Stoned”) / (writer: “Let’s Go Get Stoned”)

1971 Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (performer: “Don’t Tell Me Your Troubles”)

(performer: “Don’t Tell Me Your Troubles”)

1970 Elvis: That’s the Way It Is (Documentary) (writer: “What’d I Say?”)

(Documentary) (writer: “What’d I Say?”)

1969 Mondo Trasho (performer: “What’d I Say”, “I’m Movin’ On”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

(performer: “What’d I Say”, “I’m Movin’ On”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

1968 Caj o páté s Golden Kids (TV Special short) (performer: “I Don’t Need No Doctor”)

(TV Special short) (performer: “I Don’t Need No Doctor”)

1968 Histoires extraordinaires (performer: “Ruby”)

(performer: “Ruby”)

1968 Andy Williams’ Kaleidoscope Company (TV Special) (performer: “I’m Moving On”, “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

(TV Special) (performer: “I’m Moving On”, “What’d I Say”) / (writer: “What’d I Say”)

1967 Movin’ with Nancy (TV Special) (writer: “What’d I Say”)

(TV Special) (writer: “What’d I Say”)

1967 Playgirl Killer (writer: “Leave My Woman Alone”)

(writer: “Leave My Woman Alone”)

1967 Sức Nóng Màn Đêm (performer: “In the Heat of the Night”)

(performer: “In the Heat of the Night”)

1967 Easy Come, Easy Go (writer: “Leave My Woman Alone”)

(writer: “Leave My Woman Alone”)

1966 Tom Jones Hilton Special (TV Special) (writer: “What’d I Say”)

(TV Special) (writer: “What’d I Say”)

1966 The Big T.N.T. Show (Documentary) (performer: “It’s All Right”, “Georgia On My Mind”, “Let the Good Times Roll”) / (writer: “It’s All Right”)

(Documentary) (performer: “It’s All Right”, “Georgia On My Mind”, “Let the Good Times Roll”) / (writer: “It’s All Right”)

1965 The Cincinnati Kid (performer: “The Cincinnati Kid”)

(performer: “The Cincinnati Kid”)

1965 It’s What’s Happening, Baby! (TV Special) (performer: “What I Say”) / (writer: “What I Say”)

(TV Special) (performer: “What I Say”) / (writer: “What I Say”)

1965 Ballad in Blue (arranger: “Careless Love” – uncredited) / (performer: “What’d I Say?”, “Don’t Tell Me Your Troubles” (uncredited), “I Got A Woman”, “Light Out Of Darkness”, “That Lucky Old Sun” (uncredited), “Careless Love” (uncredited), “Talkin’ ‘Bout You”, “Busted” (uncredited), “Let The Good Times Roll” (uncredited), “Hit The Road Jack” (uncredited), “Unchain My Heart” (uncredited), “Hallelujah I Love Her So”) / (writer: “What’d I Say?”, “I Got A Woman”, “Light Out Of Darkness”, “Talkin’ ‘Bout You”, “Hallelujah I Love Her So”)

(arranger: “Careless Love” – uncredited) / (performer: “What’d I Say?”, “Don’t Tell Me Your Troubles” (uncredited), “I Got A Woman”, “Light Out Of Darkness”, “That Lucky Old Sun” (uncredited), “Careless Love” (uncredited), “Talkin’ ‘Bout You”, “Busted” (uncredited), “Let The Good Times Roll” (uncredited), “Hit The Road Jack” (uncredited), “Unchain My Heart” (uncredited), “Hallelujah I Love Her So”) / (writer: “What’d I Say?”, “I Got A Woman”, “Light Out Of Darkness”, “Talkin’ ‘Bout You”, “Hallelujah I Love Her So”)

1964 The Comedy Man (writer: “Tell All the World About You” – uncredited)

(writer: “Tell All the World About You” – uncredited)

1964 Viva Las Vegas (writer: “What’d I Say” – uncredited)

(writer: “What’d I Say” – uncredited)

1963 Scorpio Rising (Short) (performer: “Hit the Road Jack” – uncredited)

(Short) (performer: “Hit the Road Jack” – uncredited)

Charles, Ray (1930-2004)

Ray Charles was a poor, blind, newly orphaned teenager living in Tampa, Florida, in 1948 when he decided to move to Seattle, picking the city because it was as far away as he could get from where he was. He stayed only two years, but during that time he cut his first record and began to develop the genre-bending musical style that would make him an international star. Charles often spoke of Seattle as a pivotal point in his long and hugely successful career as a singer/songwriter. “I met a lot of very good friends here,” he told one interviewer. “I liked the atmosphere. The people were friendly, the people took to me right away. Seattle is the town where I made my first record. And if you ever want to say where I got my start, you have to say that” (MacDonald).

The Bottom of the Ladder

Ray Charles Robinson was born September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia, the first child of Aretha and Bailey Robinson. His father worked off and on for the railroads; his mother took in laundry. The family started out poor and stayed that way throughout the hard years of the Depression. “Even compared to other blacks,” Charles recalled, “we were on the bottom of the ladder looking up at everyone else. Nothing below us except the ground” (Charles, 4).

The family moved across the border to Greenville, Florida, when Charles was a few months old. A second child soon followed, a son named George. Bailey Robinson became little more than an occasional visitor after that. “The old man wasn’t part of my life,” Charles wrote in his 1978 autobiography. “… to tell the truth, I wouldn’t bet a lot of money he and my mother ever were married. He was a tall dude — I remember that. But he was hardly ever around” (Charles, 4).

Despite the poverty, Charles recalled his early childhood as a happy time. He felt loved by two women: his mother, whom he called “Mama,” and his father’s first wife, a woman he called “Mother.” He loved the singing he heard on Sundays at the Shiloh Baptist Church. Above all, he loved picking out boogie-woogie tunes on the upright piano owned by a neighbor named Wylie Pitman. “I was born with music inside me,” he said. “And from the moment I learned there were piano keys to be mashed, I started mashing ‘em, trying to make sounds out of feelings” (Charles, 8).

When he was about five, Charles witnessed the drowning death of his younger brother. The two boys had been in the backyard playing near a large metal tub their mother used for washing clothes when four-year-old George slipped over the edge and into the soapy water. Charles tried to pull him out, but his brother — quickly weighted down by his wet clothing — was too heavy. Charles ran indoors, screaming for his mother, but it was too late. It was the first major tragedy in a life that would have many other sorrows.

Blindness

Not long after the drowning, Charles began to lose his vision, apparently as the result of untreated glaucoma. He was completely blind by the time he was seven. He credited his mother with preparing him to live without sight. She made him continue to draw water from the well, bring in the firewood, and do other chores, even though he often tripped and fell. You may be blind, she told him, but you’re not stupid; you have to do things for yourself, no one else will do them for you. “She let me roam, let me make my own mistakes, let me discover the world for myself,” he wrote (Charles, 6). From this he developed a fierce independence and the ability to maneuver so adroitly that some people, later in his life, doubted that he was really blind.

His mother managed to get him accepted as a charity student at the Florida State School for the Deaf and the Blind (known at the time as the Institute for the Blind, Deaf and Dumb), in St. Augustine, about 130 miles southeast of Greenville. He stayed there for eight years, with time off for summers at home. He learned how to read Braille, to type, to weave baskets, and to repair radios and cars. He also studied music formally for the first time, mastering the piano and other instruments, including clarinet and saxophone. He learned to read and compose music in Braille. He played everything, from Chopin to jazz pianist Art Tatum. On the radio he listened to swing, country-western, and gospel.

Charles later summed up the effect of blindness on his career with three words — “Nothing, nothing, nothing” — and pointed out that he had begun playing music by the age of three, when he could still see, and he continued after age seven, when he lost his sight: “I was going to do what I was going to do anyway. So blindness didn’t have anything to do with it. It didn’t give me anything. And it didn’t take nothing” (Pareles and Weinraub).

On His Own

Charles’ mother died shortly before his 15th birthday. It was, he wrote later, the most devastating experience of his life. He felt like “truly a lost child.” He left school and moved to nearby Jacksonville, where he stayed for a while with one of his mother’s friends. He began trying to make a living as a musician, working as a sideman in small combos. “Work was very sparse,” he wrote. “I might work a couple of nights and then no more for two weeks or three weeks — whenever something came along. Hit and miss, really, that’s what it was” (Charles, 26).

Eventually, he moved on to Tampa. But he found it difficult to survive as a musician in Florida. He also resented working for other people. He wanted to form his own group, and make a fresh start in a new place. Too intimidated to try New York or Chicago, he asked a friend — guitarist Garcia “Gosady” McGee — what city in the continental United States was farthest from Florida. McGee “took a map and went diagonal across it, and there was Seattle sittin’ up in the Northwest, and I said let me go there and see what I can do” (MacDonald).

R. C. Robinson arrived in Seattle in March 1948, after a five-day bus trip from Tampa. He found a town that was, as he put it “really open and smokin’.” A vibrant jazz scene had sprung up in Pioneer Square and in the Central Area, nurtured by a wartime influx of African Americans drawn by jobs in Puget Sound shipyards. There were more than 30 nightclubs in the area around Jackson Street, open all hours of the day and night. The competition for jobs in the clubs was fierce, Charles told jazz historian Paul de Barros. “Many cats had just left the armed-forces bands — and don’t think those outfits couldn’t play,” he said. “There were lots of musicians roaming the streets who’d blow your ass off the stand if you gave ‘em half the chance” (de Barros, 151).

Sojourn in Seattle

Despite his youth, Charles quickly established himself in the Seattle music community. Within days, he had earned a gig at the black Elks Club at 662 Jackson Street, playing piano and singing in a trio with his friend McGee, on guitar, and local bassist Milt Jarrett (sometimes spelled Garred). They called themselves the McSon Trio (after the “Mc” in McGee and the “son” in Robinson). The trio “was the first thing I had that I could honestly say was mine,” Charles said later.

However, the McSon Trio belonged more to Nat “King” Cole than to Ray Charles. “When Ray came here, you could close your eyes and you’d swear Nat King Cole was singing,” said jazz vocalist Ernestine Anderson, a teenager when she met Charles during his Seattle sojourn (Seattle Post-Intelligencer). Charles had yet to put his own stamp on his music. He deliberately mimicked Nat Cole, Charles Brown, and other popular artists. He later said the legacy of growing up poor made him hesitate to develop his own sound. “I could get a lot of work sounding like Nat Cole,” he told interviewer Terry Gross. “I could work in night clubs. I could make a living with his sound” (Gross interview).

Charles moved into a small apartment on 20th Avenue and equipped it with the essentials, including an electric piano and a combination radio/record player. He shopped on his own, cooked his own meals, did his own laundry. His independence greatly impressed the young Quincy Jones, another teenage musical prodigy, who showed up at the Elks Club one night to check out rumors he had heard about “a blind dude” who was “tearing the place up with his singing and playing.” It was, Jones wrote in his autobiography, “love at first instinct for both of us” — the beginning of a lifelong friendship and collaboration (Jones, 86).

Jones, then 15, was amazed that the 17-year-old Charles had his own apartment, a well-stocked bar, three suits, and a bevy of girlfriends. He also marveled at the way Charles ignored his blindness. “I’d watch him cross the street without cane or dog, dodging traffic … never missing a step,” he wrote. “It was like somebody forgot to tell Ray he was blind. In fact, Ray never acted blind unless there was a pretty girl around, then he’d get all helpless and sightless, bumping into walls and doors” (Jones, 86). Jones went on to become one of the country’s most successful composers and producers. His body of work includes collaborations with Charles on three important albums: The Genius (1959), Genius + Soul = Jazz (1961), and Back on the Block (1989).

In the racially divided Seattle of the 1940s, the McSon Trio played gigs for white audiences at such venues as the Seattle Tennis Club, University of Washington fraternities, and uptown ballrooms. They played for black audiences at after-hours clubs such as the Washington Social Club, the Black & Tan, the 908 Club, and the blues-oriented Rocking Chair, on 14th just off Yesler. Their popularity gained them a regular 15-minute spot on KRSC radio. Late in 1948, the group performed on KRSC-TV (predecessor to KING-TV), in one of the earliest live broadcasts in Seattle. At 18, Charles was getting his first taste of celebrity.

Rockin’ Chair Blues

It was at the Rocking Chair that Charles met Jack Lauderdale, a record producer from Los Angeles. As Charles told the story, “Jack was there one night and heard us playing. He said, ‘I’d like to sign you guys up to a contract. What would you think about that?’ Oh, man, I was so excited! ‘Wow! We’re gonna get a record contract!’ There was nothing about any advance or money up front. All the man said to me was he was gonna record me, and we’d have a hit” (Charles, 18).

The trio recorded “Confession Blues” (written by Charles) and “I Love You, I Love You” (written by his friend, Joe Lee Lawrence) in a small, primitive Seattle studio. It was released as a 78 in early 1949 — credited to the Maxin Trio. It sold respectably enough that Lauderdale took the group to Los Angeles to make several other recordings for the Swingtime label, including “Rockin’ Chair Blues,” which pays tribute to Charles’ Seattle days. “If you’re feelin’ low down, don’t have a soul to care, just grab your hat and start for the Rockin’ Chair,” he sang. The record was a hit on “race records” (later called Rhythm and Blues) charts in late 1949.

Charles returned to Los Angeles in 1950 to record “Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand,” working with musicians who had played with Nat Cole. By this time, he was billed as “Ray Charles, the blind singing sensation.” He had dropped his last name, partly in deference to the boxer, Sugar Ray Robinson, and partly in an effort to define himself as his own person — not a Nat Cole clone. “I woke up one morning and started thinking: nobody knows my name,” he said. “Everybody’s calling me ‘Hey kid — you sound just like Nat Cole.’ It was always ‘Hey kid.’ I started telling myself, ‘Your mama always told you to be yourself and you got to be yourself if you want to make it in this business'” (Gross interview).

One other legacy of Charles’ Seattle years was an addiction to heroin. He discussed his addiction openly in his autobiography. It began, he said, with a desire to both emulate older musicians and prove his independence. Although he never served an extended jail sentence, he was arrested for possession of narcotics in 1955, 1961, and 1965. After his third arrest, he checked himself into a California sanatorium to kick his 17-year habit and stopped performing for a year, the only break during his long career.

On the Road

Charles left Seattle in 1950 and began touring with blues guitarist Lowell Fulson. “We woke up one day and R.C. was here,” said Ernestine Anderson, who occasionally sang with Charles in Seattle clubs. “We didn’t know where he came from or how he got here. That’s the way he left. We woke up one day and no Ray” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer).

He continued to refine his style during the next few years, melding blues and gospel, bebop and swing. He toured up and down the West Coast and throughout the South. His schedule kept him on the road for much of the year — a regimen that he continued for more than half a century. He still managed to find studio time, although it was often in radio stations along the way.

After signing with Atlantic Records in 1952, he persuaded the label to let him record with his touring band. His first national hit, “I’ve Got a Woman,” was recorded in 1954 in a radio station studio in Atlanta with his seven-piece band. It signaled the emergence of what became the classic Ray Charles – bluesy, tender, raw, intense, a mix of the secular (jazz) and the sacred (gospel). The record was followed by a string of other gospel-tinged hits, including “Drown in My Tears” and “Hallelujah I Love Her So.”

In the mid-1950s, Charles expanded his band to include a group of female backup signers (the Raelettes), who provided gospel-like responses to his deep, raspy baritone. They became a permanent part of his music — and they also hinted at his sometimes volatile relationships with women.

On the road in the 1950s and 1960s, Charles often encountered the same kind of segregation that he had grown up with in the South. As an African American, he stayed in rooming houses instead of the Hilton or the Sheraton; he had to make sure that the band stopped at a gas station that had rest rooms for “Colored;” at restaurants, he sometimes had to go around to the back door for a sandwich instead of a hot meal in the dining room. He would say years later that racism affected him just as it did any other black person at the time. “What I never understood to this day, to this very day, was how white people could have black people cook for them, make their meals, but wouldn’t let them sit at the table with them,” he said. “How can you dislike someone so much and have them cook for you? Shoot, if I don’t like someone you ain’t cooking nothing for me, ever” (Pareles and Weinraub).

The Genius of Soul

Charles became a certified star with the 1959 release of “What’d I Say.” The record broke the usual two and a half-minute mold for a radio song, with its extended “call and response” chorus and improvisational style. It was followed the next year by a version of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia on My Mind,” a sweet ballad with strings and a vocal chorus. The song demonstrated Charles’ versatility and his love for the South. In 1979, it became the official anthem of the state of Georgia.

He branched out into other musical genres in the 1960s and 1970s, including country-and-western (“Your Cheatin’ Heart” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” both released in 1962); middle-of-the-road pop (“You Are My Sunshine,” 1962); and British pop (releasing a version of the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” in 1968). At the same time, he continued to pay homage to his roots in jazz. He refused categorization. He confounded some of his fans by accepting an invitation to perform “America the Beautiful” for President Richard Nixon in 1972, but the song became one of his standards (he sang it again at the Republican National Convention in 1984). Drawing from jazz, gospel, blues, and country, he created a river that only he could navigate.

Music critic Patrick Macdonald credits Charles with first using the word “Soul” to describe his style of music. To Frank Sinatra, Charles was “The Genius.” Quincy Jones put the two together and called Charles “The Genius of Soul.”

He could be difficult. He was sometimes hard on his band members and background singers. His private life was, as The New York Times delicately put it, “complicated” (Pareles and Weinraub). He was divorced twice and fathered 12 children. Still, he remained a consummate performer almost to the very end of his life. He made more than 60 albums, won 12 Grammys (including one for “A Song for You” in 1993), and earned a string of honors, including induction into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Presidential Medal for the Arts in 1993. Along the way, he influenced generations of singers, from Sinatra to Elvis to Billy Joel.

Charles died at his home in Beverly Hills, California, on June 10, 2004, of liver disease. He was 73. He had recently recovered from hip replacement surgery and had planned to resume touring in June when he became ill. Earlier, he had completed work on his last album, a collection of duets with Norah Jones, B. B. King, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, and others. The album was released on August 31, 2004, under the title Genius Loves Company. It swept the Grammys in 2005, winning eight awards, including Album of the Year.

He saw his life primarily as an example of what anyone can accomplish. “I would like people to know that you can recover from a lot of adversity that you might have in your life if you keep pressing on,” he told one interviewer. “In other words, you don’t give up just because you get knocked down a few times” (Kahn interview).

His death unleashed a torrent of tributes, including this one from Ernestine Anderson: “The gods were smiling on us when he came to Seattle” (MacDonald).

Ray Charles

Ray Charles (born September 23, 1930, Albany, Georgia, USA – died June 10, 2004, Beverly Hills, California, USA) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He was inducted into Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 (Performer).

키워드에 대한 정보 ray charles & mary ann fisher – sweet memories lyrics

다음은 Bing에서 ray charles & mary ann fisher – sweet memories lyrics 주제에 대한 검색 결과입니다. 필요한 경우 더 읽을 수 있습니다.

이 기사는 인터넷의 다양한 출처에서 편집되었습니다. 이 기사가 유용했기를 바랍니다. 이 기사가 유용하다고 생각되면 공유하십시오. 매우 감사합니다!

사람들이 주제에 대해 자주 검색하는 키워드 Ray Charles Greatest Hits – The Very Best Of Ray Charles – Ray Charles Collection

  • Ray Charles Greatest Hits
  • Ray Charles
  • ray charles hit the road jack
  • ray charles live
  • ray charles best hits
  • ray charles best song
  • ray charles best live
  • ray charles top hits
  • ray charles top songs
  • ray charles playlist
  • ray charles full album
  • The Very Best Of Ray Charles
  • Ray Charles Collection
  • ray charles 2020
  • best ray charles songs
  • best ray charles
  • best ray charles live
  • best of ray charles full album

Ray #Charles #Greatest #Hits #- #The #Very #Best #Of #Ray #Charles #- #Ray #Charles #Collection


YouTube에서 ray charles & mary ann fisher – sweet memories lyrics 주제의 다른 동영상 보기

주제에 대한 기사를 시청해 주셔서 감사합니다 Ray Charles Greatest Hits – The Very Best Of Ray Charles – Ray Charles Collection | ray charles & mary ann fisher – sweet memories lyrics, 이 기사가 유용하다고 생각되면 공유하십시오, 매우 감사합니다.

Leave a Comment