The music of the genius
Ray Charles
The latest
Ray Charles was commissioned to perform the theme song for the 1967 movie In The Heat Of The Night. The result was the first song on the soundtrack LP, and a single was released on ABC Records as well. But fans will need both discs, for they are two completely different versions of “In The Heat Of The Night”. The Movie In The Heat Of The Night The movie starred Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. The film, a pissed-off and in-your-face exploration of race in America, won five... [read all]
Ray Charles and Ginie Line duet on the French-language "Ensemble" from 2002. It was released in France as a CD single and the duo performed it live on TV.
"A Bit Of Soul" is a Ray Charles tune recorded in 1955 and released in 1961. Split into two halves, it shows Ray's versatility with a unique arrangement.
"The Sun's Gonna Shine Again" finds Ray Charles in an unconvincingly hopeful mood. It was the A-side of an Atlantic single in 1953, his second-ever.
"Mississippi Mud" is a fun, jaunty singalong that Ray Charles covered on his first album for ABC Records, The Genius Hits The Road, in 1960.
Album of the day
Coming a mere three months after the excellent A Message From The People LP, Ray Charles’ Through The Eyes Of Love album of August 1972 is an excellent collection of eight mostly slow and romantic songs that stand in stark contrast to the pointed political commentary of that preceding album. Despite the quality of the material on Through The Eyes Of Love, it seems to have been something of vanity project for Ray and not the record-buying public. In August 1972, ABC/Tangerine... [read all]
Song of the day
Ray Charles’ sweaty, gospel-inspired song “Somebody” was the first song on Side 2 of his 1974 LP Come Live With Me, and one of the very few songs he wrote in the last decades of his career. “Somebody” sort of follows in the footprints of his breakthrough 1954 hit “Hallelujah I Love Her So” in that it derives from energetic black church music but has an entirely secular message. A chattering bunch of people in the background – not a chorus, exactly... [read all]