“I’m Wonderin’ And Wonderin'”
Song by Ray Charles
When did Ray Charles record the song “I’m Wonderin’ And Wonderin'”? Nobody seems to know for sure, but it’s probably the earliest existing recording of Ray.
“I’m Wonderin’ And Wonderin'” was first released in 1952 on a small and short-lived label called Rockin’ Records. It was the B-side to “Walkin’ & Talkin’ To Myself”, a song evidently recorded at the same time. According to some sources the best guess about “I’m Wonderin’ And Wonderin'” is that it was recorded by Ray himself in February 1948 when he bought a wire recorder, which was a piece of consumer electronics for home recording that never caught on. Ray mentions such recordings, made in Tampa, Florida, in his autobiography Brother Ray, though he doesn’t mention “I’m Wonderin’ And Wonderin'” specifically.
The sound quality was so bad it sounded like we were all locked away in a closet.
– Ray Charles on his early home recordings
Posited as the machine Ray recorded “I’m Wonderin’ And Wonderin'” on. (image from reel2reeltexas.com)
The other, smaller possibility is that this song, and three other similar recordings, date from a time after Ray left Swing Time but before he signed to Atlantic in mid-1952. Detractors of this theory reason that the quality and style most likely dates “I’m Wonderin’ And Wonderin'” and the others to 1948. We agree, and if that is indeed accurate that means that the song represents the earliest known recorded Ray. He was seventeen years old at the time.
Somewhat murky sound doesn’t hide the special quality of Ray’s remarkable performance on “I’m Wonderin’ And Wonderin'”. It’s a slow, hopeless blues, Ray howling to his departed woman to come back to him, slamming his hands down on the piano in frustrated chords and poking his nimble fingers to evoke melodic asides. It is an easy, inspired musicality – his skill at handling the keys is already much in evidence.
Of equal interest is the fact that Ray seems to be singing in his own voice, not in the Nat Cole croon that made him popular during the 1948-1951 period on Swing Time Records. His throat is yet undeveloped of course, but he isn’t copying anyone. Now we know how he sounded in his earliest musical years.
How can a young kid summon such impressive, authentic human wailing and artistry? Ray Charles had been blind about ten years, a little over half his life at the time. He had lost his brother George, whose shocking drowning was one of the last things Ray ever saw, and most significantly his mother Retha just a couple years earlier. Feeling alone and lost, RC Robinson (as he still called himself) was truly living the blues and letting all of it – all of it – flow through his music.
Besides his bluesy piano and at turns angry and plaintive cry, the musicians are assumed to be Gossie McKee on his usual excellent, dramatic guitar; Otto McQueen on standup bass; and Manzy Harris on simple drums. (Only Gossie of this bunch would follow Ray up to Seattle soon after these recordings.)
Over the years “I’m Wonderin’ And Wonderin'” has been a popular inclusion in the fly-by-night proto-bootleg LPs that compile Ray Charles’ pre-Atlantic 78s. (Ray didn’t have the rights to any of these and apparently never sought them.) Note that as this is a home recording, there is no official title and some sources drop the “I’m”, or replace the apostrophes with g’s (“Wondering And Wondering”).
As an example of a lost, late-night weepfest with an air of profound loss, and as a document of the very earliest part of Ray Charles’ musical career, “I’m Wonderin’ And Wonderin'” is mesmerizing and invaluable. We dare you to listen to it and keep your cheeks dry.
Single releases
Listen to “I’m Wonderin’ And Wonderin'”
Get your own “I’m Wonderin’ And Wonderin'” on MP3 from Amazon. Or get the complete 1948-51 recordings CD.