“Beaucoup Love”
Song by Ray Charles
“Beaucoup Love” is a song from Ray’s last-gasp 1980s-country album From The Pages Of My Mind. Bright and fast-paced, the 1986 tune adopts a kind of sped-up Sesame Street theme as its base and features Ray and a background chorus singing joyously about experiencing “beaucoup” love. (The word is French for “a lot of”).
The general feel of “Beaucoup Love” is not exactly hard country, but it does lean that way. A steel guitar battles it out on the solo with a conventional electric rock guitar while Ray Charles’s piano and the rest of the hoppin’ band crank up the boogie-woogie something fierce.
The sentiment of this track doesn’t reach much beyond the title – at least we have love even if we don’t have money, is the main thrust of the lyrics – and so “Beaucoup Love” is less weighty and compelling than much of Ray’s work. It is, however, a riotously fun little confection. And, though it certainly goes without saying, Brother Ray sounds great and pours his heart into “Beaucoup Love”.
Listen to “Beaucoup Love”
Songs on From The Pages Of My Mind