“My World”
Song by Ray Charles
Synthesizers and synthetic drums pop out of the speakers on Ray Charles’ 1993 song “My World” from the eponymous album – and as vivacious as the pre-programmed instrumentation is, Ray as a singer is equally impassioned over the top.
“My World” is a call-to-arms for peace and understanding, but from a disappointed and frustrated point of view. It was written by Phil Roy, Bob Thiele, Jr., and Billy Valentine, all of whom contribute to the sound of the song as well.
With a decided air of exasperation, “My World” eschews the hesitant pleas for peace as found on Ray songs such as “There’ll Be No Peace Without All Men As One” from the 1970s; this song opts for a different tactic, personalizing the demand: this is my world, the one I live in; stop screwing with it right now or else.
With its hip-hop-esque beat and fussy sampled sounds shooting out in all directions, plus a stringent chorus echoing Ray’s outrage, “My World” is in intriguing mix of old Ray – 63 years old at the time – and the latest sounds of youth music. Writers Roy and Valentine join no less than Mavis Staples and others for the chorus, which engages in some call-and-response with Ray on each chorus, and Thiele, Jr. programmed the synthetic strings.
Ray doesn’t even play the piano himself – Jimmy Cox rather gets that rarest of rare credits, piano on a Ray Charles album. This speaks to the unusual and unfortunate reality behind the recording of the album: the producer was Richard Perry, who was brought in to guide the album and re-establish Ray as a commercial force. In fact, Richard and Ray didn’t get along, and when Richard would complete the instrumental tracks, completely independent of Ray, he would send them to the wise old Genius, who’d recorded his vocals and his vocals only. There was virtually no true collaboration.
“My World” is certainly evidence of this bifurcated way of working: Ray is singing, and everyone else is doing the playing. The two merge well enough, though; Ray had been using outside synthesizer programmers since 1990 and knew what he was getting into. Besides, the exhilaration of the music and his voice together make the song a great choice to open (and name) the album.