Ray Charles

:Disambiguation: For Ray Charles of the Ray Charles Singers, and longtime vocal conductor for Perry Como, see Ray Charles (elder).

Middle years

His first hit in this mode was "Mess Around," which was based on the 1929 classic "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" by Pinetop Smith and written by Ahmet Ertegun, his producer at Atlantic Records. He had another hit with the rap-like urban jive of "It Should Have Been Me," but went into high gear with the gospel drive of "I Got A Woman." (1955) This was followed by "This Little Girl of Mine," "Drown in My Own Tears," "Hallelujah I Love Her So," and "Lonely Avenue," half of them were gospel songs converted with secular lyrics, and the others blues ballads.

Related Topics:
1929 - Pinetop Smith - Ahmet Ertegun - Rap-like - 1955 - Secular - Lyrics - Blues ballad

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Although Charles was criticized for singing gospel songs with secular lyrics, there is a long tradition of putting religious lyrics to popular songs and vice versa. See Thomas A. Dorsey, one of the founders of gospel music, who also had a significant career in secular music. Solomon Burke and Little Richard also moved between the two styles.

Related Topics:
Thomas A. Dorsey - Solomon Burke - Little Richard

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After an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival he achieved mainstream success with "(The Night Time is) The Right Time" and his 1959 signature song, "What'd I Say." The essence of this phase of his career can be heard on his live album Ray Charles In Person, recorded before a mostly African American audience in Atlanta in 1959. This album also features the first public performance of "What'd I Say." It broke out as a hit in Atlanta from the tape, months before it was recorded in the studio in a two-part version with better fidelity.

Related Topics:
Newport Jazz Festival - 1959 - African American - Atlanta

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Charles had already begun to go beyond the limits of his blues-gospel synthesis while still at Atlantic, which now called him The Genius. He recorded with large orchestras and with jazz artists like Milt Jackson and even made his first country music cover with Hank Snow's "I'm Movin' On."

Related Topics:
Milt Jackson - Country music - Cover - Hank Snow

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Then, he moved on to ABC Records. At ABC, Charles had a great deal of control over his music, and broadened his approach, not on experimental side projects, but with pop music, resulting in such hits as "Unchain My Heart" and the No.1 hit on the Billboard pop charts, "Hit the Road, Jack." In 1962, Charles surprised his new, broad audience with his landmark album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, which included the numbers "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "You Don't Know Me." This was followed by a series of hits, including "You Are My Sunshine," "Crying Time," "Busted" and "Unchain My Heart."

Related Topics:
ABC Records - Pop music - No.1 - Billboard - 1962 - Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music

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In 1961, Charles cancelled a concert scheduled to take place in the Bell Auditorium in Augusta, Georgia to protest segregated seating. Contrary to what the biopic Ray says, he was never banned in Georgia, although he did have to pay the promoter compensation. http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=2660672&nav=0RZFTvXr That same year he did a duet album with accomplished jazz vocalist Betty Carter.

Related Topics:
1961 - Ray - Jazz - Betty Carter

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