Ray Charles - King Of Soul: Classic Hits Ray Charles

This outstanding LP contains all of Ray Charles’ top-10 Billboard hits between 1953 and 1959, a seminal period in the legendary career of one of the most influential musicians of the 20th Century. Born Ray Charles Robinson on September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia (he died on June 10, 2004 in Beverly Hills, California), Ray Charles has been described by many writers as the “father of Soul Music”. His early years were full of tragedies. He was born into extreme poverty and slowly blinded by glaucoma until, at the age of six, he lost his sight completely. Before going blind, he had to cope with the death of his brother, who he watched drown in a water tub. Ray studied composition and learned several instruments at the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind. His mother Aretha died when Ray was 15, and he was brought up by Mary Jane (the first wife of Ray’s absent father). Ray worked as a musician in Florida for a while before using his savings to move to Seattle in 1947. There he continued his career, playing piano at several nightclubs. Ray made his first recordings in 1947 and over the following years his career was in a continuous state of evolution. A crossover of many different sources, mostly blues, jazz, gospel and soul, Ray Charles developed a unique style, and his personal touch became evident in all the different projects he undertook. Charles possessed one of the most recognizable voices in American music. Late in 1954, Charles recorded his own composition “I Got a Woman”. It became one of his most notable hits, reaching number one on the R&B chart. “I Got a Woman” included a mixture of gospel, jazz and blues elements that would later prove to be seminal in the development of rock and roll and soul music. In 1955, he had a hit with “A Fool for You”. In upcoming years, he scored with “I’ll Drown in My Own Tears” and “Hallelujah, I Love Her So”. By 1959, Charles reached the Billboard Top Ten with “What’d I Say”, which made him a major figure in R&B. Charles reached the pinnacle of his success at Atlantic with the release of “What’d I Say”, a complex song that combined gospel, jazz, blues and Latin music, which Charles would later claim he had composed spontaneously as he was performing in clubs and dances with his small band. Despite some radio stations banning the song because of its sexually suggestive lyrics, it became Charles’ first ever crossover top ten pop record. Later in 1959, he released his first country song (a cover of Hank Snow’s “I’m Movin’ On”), as well as recording three more albums for the label: a jazz record (later released in 1961 as The Genius After Hours); a blues record (released in 1961 as The Genius Sings the Blues); and a traditional pop/big band record (The Genius of Ray Charles). The Genius of Ray Charles provided his first top 40 album entry, where it peaked at No. 17, and was later held as a landmark record in Charles’ career. “It’s easy, in retrospect,” explains jazz critic Steve Leggett, “to map out Ray Charles’ journey to musical icon status – his one-of-a-kind talent became more evident each step of the way as he moved from Swing Time Records to Atlantic Records, and then on to ABC Records. Charles’ first recording sessions from the late ‘40s and very early ‘50s featured an artist heavily influenced by Nat King Cole and Charles Brown and working in a pronounced pop direction. Charles recorded for several small West Coast labels during this time, but most notably for Jack Lauderdale’s Swing Time Records. It wasn’t until Lauderdale sold Charles’ contract to Atlantic Records (for a mere $2,000) in 1952 that Charles began the legendary fusion of R&B and gospel that led to hits like ‘What’d I Say’ and ‘I’ve Got a Woman’ that single-handedly created what became known as soul. Charles hit his stride at Atlantic, creating the signature synthesis of R&B, gospel, blues, country, and jazz that made him one of the most important and influential figures in pop music history. When ABC-Paramount offered him more creative freedom, ownership of his master recordings after five years, and his own label imprint, Tangerine Records (which Charles used to record some of his personal R&B favorites, including Percy Mayfield, Louis Jordan, and Little Jimmy Scott), Charles left Atlantic and signed with ABC in 1960, remaining with the label through 1972, by which time he was firmly established as an American treasure and icon, thanks to his enduring versions of songs like ‘Georgia on My Mind,’ ‘Hit the Road Jack,’ and ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’.”