Ray Charles Genius Hits The Road

Born September 23, 1930 in Albany, Georgia, Ray Charles was one of the most versatile recording artists of all time, excelling in R&B. rock and roll, country, gospel, blues, and pop music. He won 17 Grammy Awards and achieved 14 number one Billboard singles.

• Top Ray Charles Hits
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• Ray Charles Genius Hits The Road Vinyl

His long list of accolades includes induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Arts, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Listen to The Genius Hits the Roadby Ray Charles on Slacker Radio, where you can also create personalized internet radio stations based on your favorite albums, artists and songs. Listen online to Ray Charles - Hit the Road Jack and see which albums it appears on. Scrobble songs and get recommendations on other tracks and artists.

On June 10, 2004, Charles passed away from a liver disease at his home in Beverly Hills, California, He was 73 years old.

His final album, Genius Loves Company, was released two months after his death, featuring duets with B.B. King, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, James Taylor, Gladys Knight, Michael McDonald, Natalie Cole, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Diana Krall, Norah Jones and Johnny Mathis. The CD won eight Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, and Record of the Year for 'Here We Go Again.'

Here is a list of 'Ten Reasons Why Ray Charles Was a Genius.'

1960 - 'Georgia On My Mind'

In 1961, 'Georgia On My Mind' by Ray Charles won two Grammy Awards: Best Vocal Performance Album, Male and Best Performance By A Pop Single Artist. Recorded for the 1960 album The Genius Hits the Road, it became the official state song of the State of Georgia in 1979.

1959 - 'What'd I Say'

The title song of Ray Charles' 1959 album, What'd I Say, was his fifth number one RandB hit, and his first top ten pop single, reaching number six on the Billboard Hot 100. It was his first certified gold single, and in 2002, it was added to the National Recording Registry.

1955 - 'I Got A Woman'

'I Got A Woman' in 1955 was Ray Charles' first number one hit on the Billboard RandB chart. From his self-titled debut album, the song has been covered by dozens of artists, including Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and Stevie Wonder.

1961 - 'Hit The Road Jack'

In 1961, 'Hit The Road Jack' became Ray Charles' first song to reach the top of both the Billboard Hot 100 and RandB charts. It was number one for five weeks on the RandB chart, and remained on top of the Hot 100 for two weeks. The next year, the song won a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording.

1962 - 'I Can't Stop Loving You'

In 1962, 'I Can't Stop Loving You' by Ray Charles became his first song to hit number one on three Billboard charts: Hot 100, RandB. and Adult Contemporary. It was number one for five weeks on the Hot 100. The next year, the song won a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording.

1960 - 'Let The Good Times Roll'

In 1961, 'Let The Good Times Roll' by Ray Charles won a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Performance. Charles also recorded the song again with Stevie Wonder and Bono from U2 for Quincy Jones' 1995 album, Q's Jook Joint.

1993 - 'A Song For You'

In 1994, Ray Charles' version of the Leon Russell classic 'A Song For You' won a Grammy Award for Best RandB Vocal Performance, Male.

2004 - 'Here We Go Again' with Norah Jones

'Here We Go Again' by Ray Charles and Norah Jones from the 2004 GeniusLoves Company CD won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals. The CD was also honored as Album of the Year.

1966 - 'Crying Time'

The title song of Ray Charles' 1966 album Crying Time won Grammy Awards for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording, and Best Rhythm and Blues Solo Vocal Performance, Male Or Female. Charles and Barbra Streisand recorded the song as a duet on her 1973 album, Barbra Streisand...And Other Musical Instruments.

1989 - 'I'll Be Good To You'

In 1991, 'I'll Be Good To You' by Ray Charles and Chaka Khan from Quincy Jones 1989 CD, Back on the Block, won a Grammy Award for

Best RandB Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal. The song reached number one on the Billboard RandB and Dance charts.

The Genius of Ray Charles is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Ray Charles, released in 1959 by Atlantic Records. The album eschewed the soul sound of his 1950s recordings, which fused jazz, gospel, and blues, for swinging pop with big band arrangements.^[1] It comprises a first half of big band songs and a second half of string-backed ballads.^[4]The Genius of Ray Charles sold fewer than 500,000 copies and charted at number 17 on the Billboard 200.^[1] 'Let the Good Times Roll' and 'Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin' were released as singles in 1959.^[5]

• 4Personnel

Composition[edit]

— Will Friedwald^[2]

The album showcased Charles' breakout from rhythm and blues and onto a broader musical stage. Atlantic Records gave him full support in production and arrangements. As originally presented, the A side of the album featured the Ray Charles band with David 'Fathead' Newman supplemented by players from the Count Basie and Duke Ellington bands, and arrangements by Quincy Jones.

The B side of the original album consists of six ballads with arrangements by Ralph Burns and a large string orchestra. Charles's performance of 'Come Rain or Come Shine', a song identified with Frank Sinatra, brought public attention to his voice alone without the 'distractions' of his soulful piano and his snappy band.

Each side contains a tribute to Louis Jordan with two songs he had hits with 'Let the Good Times Roll' and 'Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin'.

Critical reception[edit]

In a contemporary review, Joe Goldberg of the American Record Guide panned the arrangements as 'hopelessly banal and inadequate, saved only' by the piano playing of Charles, who 'comes through beautifully', and felt that only the last three songs give the album 'its importance'. He called 'Am I Blue?' the album's highlight and 'almost unbearably poignant, with the same feeling of deep sensibility transcending limited vocal equipment that can be heard on Walter Huston's recording of 'September Song', or Adolph Green's of 'A Quiet Girl'.'^[9]

In a retrospective review for Allmusic, music critic Scott Yanow wrote that 'Charles' voice is heard throughout in peak form, giving soul to even the veteran standards.'^[6] In a 1990 review of its CD reissue, Lloyd Sachs of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that The Genius of Ray Charles is 'one of the all-time great albums. But it is not, alas, one of all the all-time great CDs. The sound is extremely harsh, exaggerating the partially hidden flaws of the original ... Still, the glory of Charles' singing and the ace arrangements ... have a way of breaking down resistance.'^[4] In 2000, Q magazine included The Genius of Ray Charles in their list of the 'Best Soul Albums of All Time' and wrote that it 'finds the great man swinging, emoting, cajoling and laughing his way through a selection of standards that he makes his own ... it exudes pure class.'^[10]

In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked The Genius of Ray Charles number 263 on their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time,^[1] and 265 in a 2012 revised list.^[11] In a 2004 review for the magazine, Robert Christgau praised producers Jerry Wexler and Nesuhi Ertegun for persuading 'five different arrangers into the subtlest charts of Charles' career.' Christgau asserted that 'Charles tried many times, but except for Modern Sounds, he never again assembled such a consistent album in this mode.'^[12] In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), critics J. D. Considine and Michaelangelo Matos said that it is 'perhaps the most important of [Charles'] albums for Atlantic', because it 'introduces the musical approach he would follow for much of the '70s.' They argued that, instead of pursuing the contemporary sounds of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, or swing era big bands, Charles played a 'curious hybrid of the brassy R&B of his pop-oriented recordings and the showy shmaltz favored by the era's middle-of-the-road acts.' However, they cautioned listeners that the album was 'abysmally recorded, with frequent overmodulation muddying its brasher moments.'^[3]

Track listing[edit]

Side one

1. 'Let the Good Times Roll' (Sam Theard, Fleecie Moore) – 2:53
2. 'It Had to Be You' (Gus Kahn, Isham Jones) – 2:45
3. 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' (Irving Berlin) – 2:53
4. 'Two Years of Torture' (Percy Mayfield, Charles Joseph Morris) – 3:25
5. 'When Your Lover Has Gone' (Einar Aaron Swan) – 2:51
6. 'Deed I Do' (Walter Hirsch, Fred Rose) – 2:27

Side two

1. 'Just for a Thrill' (Lil Hardin Armstrong, Don Raye) – 3:26
2. 'You Won't Let Me Go' (Bud Allen, Buddy Johnson) – 3:22
3. 'Tell Me You'll Wait for Me' (Charles Brown, Oscar Moore) – 3:25
4. 'Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin' (Joe Greene) – 3:46
5. 'Am I Blue?' (Grant Clarke, Harry Akst) – 3:41
6. 'Come Rain or Come Shine' (Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen) – 3:42

Personnel[edit]

Side one[edit]

• Ray Charles - piano and vocals
• Clark Terry - trumpet
• Ernie Royal - trumpet
• Joe Newman - trumpet
• Snooky Young - trumpet
• Marcus Belgrave - trumpet
• John Hunt - trumpet
• Melba Liston - trombone
• Quentin Jackson - trombone
• Thomas Mitchell - trombone
• Al Gray - trombone
• Frank Wess - flute, alto saxophone and tenor saxophone
• Marshal Royal - alto saxophone
• Paul Gonsalves - tenor saxophone (and solo on 'Two Years of Torture')
• Zoot Sims - tenor saxophone (on 'Let the Good Times Roll', 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' and 'Deed I Do')
• Billy Mitchell - tenor sax (on 'It had to be You', 'Two Years of Torture' and 'When Your Lover Has Gone')
• David 'Fathead' Newman - tenor saxophone (and solos on 'Let the Good Times Roll', 'When Your Lover Has Gone', 'Deed I Do')
• Quincy Jones – arranger, conductor

Side two[edit]

Top Ray Charles Hits

• Ray Charles - piano and vocals
• Allen Hanlon - guitar
• Wendell Marshall - bass guitar
• Ted Sommer - drums
• Bob Brookmeyer - valve trombone
• Harry Lookofsky - concertmaster
  • Unidentified - large woodwinds and strings section
• Ralph Burns - arranger

Other credits[edit]

• Sleeve notes: Nat Hentoff
• Recording engineers: Bill Schwartau and Tom Dowd

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcd'263) The Genius of Ray Charles'. Rolling Stone. New York. November 1, 2003. Archived from the original on June 15, 2009. Retrieved May 27, 2013.Cite uses deprecated parameter deadurl= (help)CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
2. ^ ^abFriedwald, Will (September 27, 2005). 'Genius, Pure & Otherwise'. The New York Sun. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
3. ^ ^abConsidine & Matos et al. 2004, p. 155.
4. ^ ^abSachs, Lloyd (February 15, 1990). 'CD mars `Genius' by Charles'. Chicago Sun-Times. p. 44. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
5. ^'By Popular Demand! Ray Charles'. Billboard: 25. December 21, 1959. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
6. ^ ^abYanow, Scott. 'The Genius of Ray Charles - Ray Charles'. Allmusic. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
7. ^Larkin 2006, p. 159.
8. ^Considine & Matos et al. 2004, p. 154.
9. ^Goldberg, Joe (February 1960). 'Ray Charles. The Genius of Ray Charles'. American Record Guide. 26: 491.
10. ^'Best Soul Albums of All Time'. Q. London: 134. May 2000.
11. ^'500 Greatest Albums of All Time Rolling Stone's definitive list of the 500 greatest albums of all time'. Rolling Stone. 2012. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
12. ^Christgau, Robert (July 8, 2004). 'The Genius at Work'. Rolling Stone. New York. Retrieved May 27, 2013.

Bibliography[edit]

• Considine, J. D.; Matos, Michaelangelo; et al. (2004). Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. ISBN0-7432-0169-8.
• Larkin, Colin (2006). Encyclopedia of Popular Music. 9 (4th ed.). Muze. ISBN0195313739.

External links[edit]

Ray Charles The Genius Hits The Road Rar

• The Genius of Ray Charles at Discogs (list of releases)

Ray Charles Genius Hits The Road Vinyl