DOWNLOAD BOOKLET HIS INSPIRATION

DOWNLOAD BOOKLET HIS INFLUENCE

By Joël DUFOUR

INSPIRATION FOR A GENIUS

Scope of this release

Probably no one could deny that Ray Charles had been an enormously influential artist during the 20^th century, and beyond (who could imagine a world without him?). Yet it had taken him a long time, a lot of experiences and encounters, to discover and develop the elements of his own unmistakable voice and style. This collection attempts at shedding some light on important artists and songs that nurtured his musical world. Needless to say that, with it, we have no claim at providing the ultimate “explanation” of what “made” this exceptional artist.   

Fortunately, Ray Charles wrote his autobiography, in 1977 (with David Ritz), and it provides many clues – but not the whole picture. More information is to be found through Ray Charles interviews in other books and magazine articles, but let’s admit it: in a few instances, a little guessing also took place in our choice of what rendition to include as the (possible, in this case) inspiration for Ray Charles’ cover of such or such song. For example, our inclusion of Billie Holiday’s 1941 version of Georgia on My Mind does not mean that we have any proof that it was that specific record which inspired Ray to record his own version of this standard, first recorded by its composer, Hoagy Carmichael, in 1930. By the time he recorded the song, in 1960, Ray Charles probably knew quite a few versions of this popular song, no doubt including Billie’s one. He was a staunch fan of hers (“Billie Holiday always destroyed me”) (1).        

Florida

Released at age fifteen from the (segregated) Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, located in St. Augustine, young Ray Charles Robinson (then nicknamed “R.C.”) was a black blind orphan who had to make a living on his own. For him, music was the way.

Before progressively losing his sight (he became totally blind by age seven), the Robinson little boy had been given some informal piano lessons from the owner the Red Wing Cafe, in his hometown of Greenville, Florida, Wylie Pitman. « Mr. Pit », as he was called, not only had a piano but also a jukebox. While, in Greenville, the only radio stations which could be heard played only music made by, and for, white people, Mr. Pit’s jukebox would be blasting boogie from Meade Lux Lewis, Pete Johnson or Albert Ammons, country blues from Tampa Red, Washboard Sam, Arthur Big Boy Crudup or Blind Boy Fuller, or the jazz bands of the time – black (Jimmie Lunceford, Lucky Millinder, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Jay McShann, Buddy Johnson, Billy Eckstine…) – or white (Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Gene Krupa...) And there were the singers: “Al Hibbler singing with Duke, Ella [Fitzgerald] singing with Chick Webb or the Ink Spots – this was music which hit me hard. I also knew all the white singers of the time: Bing Crosby, Dick Haymes, Vaughn Monroe, Tony Martin. Of the whites, only one – Jo Stafford – impressed me much. She had a silky quality to her voice that I liked” (1).

Ray soaked up all this music – and so he did, every Saturday night, when listening at home to the Grand Ole Opry, the “country music” program broadcast from Nashville by the WSM radio station. He used to like listening to such singers as Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Roy Acuff, Hank Snow or Eddie Arnold. 

It had been a very rebellious little Ray that his mother had taken the to the St. Augustine institution, on October 23, 1937. Yet, upon his release, on October 5, 1945, he was a fully trained piano player, able to read Braille music scores and play the long classical pieces he had to memorize. There he had received lessons on harmony as well. Moreover, in his spare time, he had learnt to play the clarinet by himself, out of fondness for Artie Shaw’s playing. 

Then started for the teenage R.C. Robinson the toughest years of his career when he had to struggle for gigs in Florida (Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa), alone or as a sideman with any band. This is also when he wrote his first arrangements for the seven-piece orchestra of saxophonist Joe Anderson, and briefly played piano in the all-white country combo “The Florida Playboys”.

By that time, Ray had found his first models: “There was one guy who sang and played the piano in a way that changed my life. He influenced me above all others. This dude did it all for me, and I couldn’t hear him enough. In fact, I followed him for nearly a decade. Musically, I walked in his footsteps until I found a stride of my own. I stole many of his licks. And I got his vocal style down to a T. He was my idol (…) I was also aware of Nat Cole’s popularity in the forties, the fact that everyone loved him, and that he was making big money playing this kind of music (…) His style put together so much of what I loved: jazz improvisation, pretty melodies, hot rhythms, and an occasional taste of the blues.

There were other piano players and singers of that school who were powerful influences on me: Charles Brown, for example, in the early part of my career, especially when I was struggling down in Florida. I made many a dollar doing an imitation of his Drifting Blues. That was a hell of a number” (1).

Seattle

Accordingly, with the help of guitarist Gossie D. McKee [aka G.D. McKee, aka Garcia D. McKee], young R.C. Robinson would mostly concentrate on his imitations of Nat “King” Cole and Charles Brown. But gigs were too scarce in Florida, so Gossie and Ray (both claimed having had the idea first) decided to go as far away from Tampa as possible within the U.S. The busy industrial town of Seattle, WA, seemed to be the right choice. So, in March of 1948, they travelled up North by bus, and they soon blended into the music scene of the big city, forming their McSon trio (Mc for McKee and Son for Robinson) with local bassist Milt Garred, in order to imitate the Nat King Cole and Charles Brown trios.

They proved so successful at it that they soon secured a regular job at the Rocking Chair club for most of the rest of 1948. But Ray also wanted to play jazz, and so he did, in his spare time, jamming here and there, and joining the Bumps Blackwell band, whose young trumpet player and aspiring arranger, Quincy Jones, would become Ray’s lifelong friend, and collaborator on some important music projects. The kind of jazz they favored, and played whenever they could, was the then new “bebop” style. Ray listened to the top piano players: “Everyone was talkin’ ‘bout Bud Powell back then, and he was a fine pianist. But I actually preferred Hank Jones. I like his touch, and I had a great feeling for his solo work. He reminded me of Nat Cole with all that wonderful taste. Phineas Newborn was one of the best young pianists of the period, and of course I still had tremendous admiration for the real master-cats like Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner” (1).

By that time, Ray had given up playing clarinet in favor of the alto-saxophone “The first alto saxophone player that I loved -– my idol -– was Charlie Parker. And I am not saying that because he was a jazz cat. He did more (on the instrument) … just like Art Tatum for the piano. But, as for saxophone... What’s strange about the saxophone… My true idol – you know I was a clarinet player before I became a saxophone player – and there was a man named Artie Shaw whom I really loved. It’s still true to this day. I don’t know why he stopped playing music, because, to me, he had more feeling than any other clarinet player I ever heard. He could play with so much feeling as to make you cry. Artie Shaw was the one who started me to playing clarinet. And then, in the late forties, the clarinet was no longer the instrument. The saxophone was, so I just switched. It was easy to switch, and I loved Charlie Parker, although I knew I never could do what he did, not even come close. But I liked what he was doing with the instrument.” (2).

The first recording contract

Ray Charles’ first big break would come when Los Angeles record company owner Jack Lauderdale discovered the McSon trio in Seattle. Would ensue a nearly four years association with Lauderdale’s successive record labels (Down Beat, Swing Beat, Swing Time…), his records being successively released as by the Maxin trio, the Maxim trio, and, ultimately, after the trio split, as “Ray Charles”.

Lauderdale took two crucial decisions regarding his new young discovery. The first one was to put him under the guidance of the great blues piano player Lloyd Glenn “Lloyd Glenn was an excellent pianist. A very creative type of guy. And he was what we call an A&R [artists and repertoire] man for that little company I was with, Swing Time. He was the man who coordinated everything. He would find the songs, play me on the piano what the song was like… But I liked him far more than as an A&R man because he was a very talented musician, and he would play things on the piano that I wanted to learn how to do. So, he was very helpful to me.” (2).

We don’t know whether it was Lloyd’s idea, or Ray’s, to record old blues standards such as Leroy Carr’s Blues Before Sunrise or How Long Blues or St. Louis Jimmy’s Going Down Slow, but Ray would record again the latter in 1965 and frequently performed it on stage.

Lowell Fulson

The second critical decision that Jack Lauderdale took regarding Ray Charles was to have him join the 1950 tour of the southern states of another artist of his roster, singer and guitarist Lowell Fulson, who just had a hit record with his version of Everyday I Have the Blues. Ray would play piano behind Lowell and have his own place in the show. This experience, which finally lasted two years, helped young Ray to discover and experience with what would become his own voice and style, which would progressively move toward a much harsher kind of blues.       

Atlantic

Ray Charles’ second big break came in 1952 when Ahmet Ertegun, the boss of the fledging Rhythm & Blues and Jazz New York record company Atlantic bought Ray’s contract from Jack Lauderdale for $ 2,500.

When, after Ray’s first Atlantic session, made under the aegis of usual R&B arranger for the label, Jesse Stone, Ahmet Ertegun gathered Ray and Jesse for a work meeting aimed at choosing songs for Ray’s forthcoming next recording session, he had the good idea of recording the whole process.

The content of that 1953 work tape (which was eventually published in its entirety in the 2004 Pure Genius Rhino CD box set) was revelatory of what songs Ahmet wanted Ray to record, and those that Ray himself wished to record and presented to Ertegun and Stone. Ray wanted to make his own version of Lowell Fulson’s Sinner’s Player, which he had been playing behind Lowell on stage. It was he, too, who had brought Big Maceo’s Worried Life Blues and Walter Davis’s Come Back Baby. While Ray would not record Walter Davis’s song, he would use it as a basis for his own song of the same title. After Atlantic had lost Ray Charles to ABC-Paramount, in 1959, they would include, as “Some Day Baby”, Ray’s version of Big Maceo’s Worried Life Blues from the 1953 work tape in their album The Genius Sings the Blues. Obviously fond of the song, Ray would record it with his band seven years later.

Freelance on his own again

After leaving Lowell Fulson’s band, Ray Charles had joined for a while the touring band of trumpeter and singer Joe Morris, after which he was on his own again, embarking on a lot of the then current multi-artists Rhythm & Blues shows on which not only he had his own spot, but he often would back other artists, such as Big Joe Turner, Pee Wee Crayton or T-Bone Walker (on piano) or Little Walter (on alto-sax). T-Bone particularly fascinated him: “T-Bone Walker impressed the hell out of me. At that time, he was really, really big. He would come in… and the girls would be throwing their drawers and everything… and money (…) You know how he would make the guitar cry and cry.” (3). “I used to love T-Bone Walker and Lightnin’ Hopkins. They were the backbone of the blues, like Bessie Smith.” (4).

New Orleans

In between those “Cavalcade of Stars” tours, as they used to be called, Ray Charles would also play in local clubs, and he would often play the Dew Drop Inn in New Orleans. The club was located in the hotel by the same name, where Ray Charles lived for half of the year of 1953. In August of that year, Ahmet Ertegun came down to record local singer and bandleader Tommy Ridgley for Atlantic, and he managed to have Ray back him on piano and then record two songs for himself as well. By that time, Ray had made an acquaintance with the impressive rising singer and guitarist “Guitar Slim” (Eddie Jones), whose Feelin’ Sad he decided to record –  in a version quite revealing of the impact that the original version had had on him.

After having written the arrangement and played piano on Guitar Slim’s smash hit The Things That I Used to Do, Ray would use Slim’s band to back him for his next Atlantic recording session. The most successful song that came out of that session, Don’t You Know clearly “borrowed” its great riff from Buddy Johnson’s That’s How I Feel.

Gospel

By 1954, Ray Charles had formed (in Dallas) his first seven-piece orchestra, and it already featured two saxophone players who would remain the greatest soloists that Brother Ray ever had, David “Fathead” Newman and Don Wilkerson.

One of the first arrangement that Ray wrote for his own band was an instrumental version of the Clovers’ song One Mint Julep (which he would eventually record six years later).

Then Ray Charles recruited Louisiana trumpet player Renald Richard as his band leader. Here’s Renald’s recollection of the genesis of Ray Charles’ famous first song drenched in gospel music, I’ve Got a Woman:

“We were on a Midwest tour and I always rode in a car with Ray Charles because we would discuss things about the band, and we would sometimes talk about songs. And this particular night we were travelling, and we were listening to some gospel music on the radio. And this tune came up and Ray Charles said: ‘Oh, man, I sure like that groove’… and he said something like: ‘I’ve got a woman’ and I said ‘Yes, she lives across town’. He said ‘She’s good to me’. He said ‘I like that’. He said ‘You write lyrics. You think you can write something with that for me?’ I said ‘Yeah’.” (5).

When Renald could hear an mp3 file of It must be Jesus by the Southern Tones, he said “Yes, I am 90% certain that the song was what Ray and I were listening to when we came up with the idea for I Got A Woman.” (5).

Ray Charles’ first endeavor of infusing his blues with gospel was felt as sacrilegious by most black churches, but it also proved hugely successful, providing him with his fist number 1 record in the R&B charts of the Billboard magazine in January 1955. Ray had found his key to success.

“I became myself. I opened up the floodgates, let myself do things I hadn’t done before, created sounds which, people told me afterward, had never been created before. If I was inventing something new, I wasn’t aware of it. In my mind, I was just bringing out more of me. I started taking gospel lines and turning them into regular songs. (…) None of the spirituals had copyrights. How could they? Black folks had been singing them as far back as anyone could remember. And often my new tunes would be based on three or four gospel numbers – not just one. (…)

Imitating Nat Cole had required a certain calculation on my part. I had to gird myself, I had to fix my voice into position. I loved doing it, but it certainly wasn’t effortless. This new combination of blues and gospel was. It required nothing of me but being true to my very first music. (…)

I knew many of the gospel men and women. Some were friends of mine, others just acquaintances. Among them were the best singers I ever heard in my life. And the very cream of the crop – for me at least – were cats like Ira Tucker of the Dixie Hummingbirds, Archie Brownlee of the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, and Claude Jeter of the Swan Silvertones. These guys have voices which could shake down your house and smash all the furniture in it. Jesus, could they wail!” (1).

Now, Ray Charles wanted to perfect his new gospel approach to his music by adding to his band a chorus of female voices. He would soon achieve that by turning the Cookies girl group, led by the stunning Margie Hendrix, into what would become his famous Raelets. “I’d always liked the sound of girls’ gospel groups. Albertina Walker [leader of the Caravans] – who had James Cleveland playing piano for her in those days – was a favorite of mine. And the Davis Sisters were also highly satisfying spiritual artists.” (1).

Jazz

“Right in the middle of the rock ‘n’ roll craze, I made my first jazz records. (…)  I heard what West Coast cats like Gerry Mulligan or [Dave] Brubeck or [Stan] Kenton were doing, and it was good music. But my heart was really with the East Coast dudes. They were harder cats and had a grittier sound. I’m talkin’ ‘bout Art Blakey’s band [the Jazz Messengers] or Horace Silver’s or the Max Roach/Clifford Brown outfit. There was more blues in their playing, and my own band, when we did jazz, played more in that mold.” (1).

The Turning Point

One tends to associate Ray Charles’ venture into pop and country music to his switch in labels, from Atlantic to ABC-Paramount, at the end of 1959, but it actually occurred earlier that year, when he was still with Atlantic.

With a program mainly made of standards from Broadway shows, one side with a big jazz band and the other with strings and choir, the album The Genius of Ray Charles was clearly a step into Frank Sinatra territory (the two singers had an admiration for each other, by the way).      

But that album also contained covers of songs by two artists who were important in Ray Charles’ music, Louis Jordan and Percy Mayfield (a few years later, Ray would sign both artists for his Tangerine label).  

Ray Charles was a fan of the famous dynamic small band leader, singer and alto-sax player Louis Jordan, and, starting with this 1959 album, he adopted (for decades) Jordans’ song Let the Good Times Roll as his own introductory song for most of his concerts.

Ray Charles’s friendship with Percy Mayfield dated back to the time when Ray was backing Lowell Fulson on the road (Percy hadn’t had yet his dreadful car crash accident then), and Ray would soon hire Percy to write songs for him, one of them, Hit the Road Jack, turning into a huge hit two years later. Ray Charles recorded 18 of Percy Mayfield’s songs, including two that they wrote together.

Revolution in Country Music

While Ray Charles had recorded his first country song on Atlantic in 1959 (I’m Movin’ On), it was in 1962 that he created his big commotion in the American popular music with his controversial album Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music, so successful that he would record a second volume in a hurry. The latter featured the song You Are My Sunshine which had been a hit in 1940 for country singer Jimmie Davis – who, incidentally, had been twice the governor of the state of Louisiana and who was (in)famous for having declared that he was “at 1,000 percent for segregation.”)

With the mighty help of Margie Hendrix, Ray Charles gave You Are My Sunshine his full treatment of gospel drenched R&B, elevating his rendition of the song to the status of a soul classic, inspiring cover versions by, among others, Ike & Tina Turner, Etta James, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye.

By 1962, Ray Charles had pretty much defined all of the musical territories that he would be roaming through for the rest of his career (except for pure gospel, which he only sporadically, tackled starting in 1976).  

When asked what he considered himself as his greatest achievements in music, Ray Charles would invariably come up with such an answer:

“All I think I’ve done. I have allowed for myself the privilege to perform different kinds of music, like a good utility person. I play a little jazz, I play a little blues, I play a little country music, love songs… but I’m not a specialist. In other words, I am not a blues singer, I am not a jazz singer. I am a singer that sings jazz, I am a singer that sings the blues, you see there’s a difference. You have guys who are country singers, guys who are classical musicians, guys who are strictly this or strictly that. I’m not a specialist in anything, but I know a little bit of almost everything, musically speaking.” (2).

Now, to conclude this attempt at a modest “survey” of Ray Charles’ influences, what about a little discographic mystery?

According to Cedric Hayes & Robert Laughton’s “Gospel Discography” (Eyeball Productions), we have indicated “circa 1953” as recording date for the Gospel All Stars’s Apollo 312 single, both sides of which [“That’s Why I Love Him So”, sung by James Cleveland, and “What Could I Do”, sung by Ella Mitchell] present striking similarities with two songs that Ray Charles recorded on November 30, 1955 and which were released on the Atlantic 1096 single – respectively: Hallelujah I Love Her So and What Would I Do Without You. But… the Ray Charles single entered the Billboard magazine charts on June 16, 1956, while the Gospel All Stars’ single was apparently not reviewed in that same magazine before its April 7, 1958 issue.

In his book “The Gospel Sound” (Limelight Editions), specialist Anthony Heilbut has chosen what to believe: “Cleveland cut Ray Charles’s ‘Hallelujah I Love Her So’, an early acknowledgement that two could play at the same game”.

So maybe those Gospel All Stars tracks are out of place in this compilation, and would rather belong to a “Ray Charles’ influence” collection?

J.D.

© Frémeaux & Associés 2024

(1) Ray Charles & David Ritz: Brother Ray – Ray Charles’ Own Story (The Dial Press, 1978)

(2) Ray Charles interview by Joël Dufour (in Soul Bag magazine #117, March 1989.)

(3) Ray Charles interview by Thomas J. Cullen III (in Blues Review #24, August 1996.)

(4) Lilian Terry – Dizzy, Duke, Brother Ray & Friends (University of Illinois Press, 2017)

(5) Renald Richard interview by Joël Dufour (in Soul Bag magazine #176, September 2004.)

Note: For some of Ray Charles’ songs contained in this compilation, we have used a live version (previously unreleased) instead of his original recording. In this case, we have mentioned the recording date of the original version as well.  

Special thanks to: Michel Brillié, Alain Tomas, Jean-Francis Merle, Michelle Dufour.

Discography

His inspiration

CD1

 1.
I Realize Now – The King Cole Trio – vocal: Nat “King” Cole

 2. I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now – Ray Charles

 3.
Travelin’ Blues – Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers – vocal: Charles Brown

 4. Lonely Boy – Ray Charles

 5. This Love of Mine – Tommy Dorsey – vocal: Frank Sinatra

 6. This Love of Mine – Ray Charles

 7. How Long, How Long Blues – Leroy Carr

 8. How Long Blues – Ray Charles [as “Maxim Trio”]

 9. Going Down Slow – St. Louis Jimmy

10. “I’ve Had My Fun” [Going Down Slow] – Ray Charles

11. Sinner’s Prayer – Lowell Fulson

12. Sinner’s Prayer – Ray Charles

13. Feelin’ Sad – Eddie (Guitar Slim) Jones

14. Feelin’ Sad – Ray Charles

15. That’s How I Feel – Buddy Johnson – vocal: Ella Johnson

16. Don’t You Know – Ray Charles

17.
Lord If I Go – The Dixie Hummingbirds – lead vocal: Ira Tucker

18. It Must Be Jesus – Southern Tones – lead vocal: Bob King

19. I’ve Got a Woman* – Ray Charles (live version)

20. Come Back Baby – Walter Davis

21. Come Back Baby – Ray Charles

22.
That’s the Blues – Clyde Hart’s All Stars – vocal:
Rubberlegs Williams

23. A Fool for You – Ray Charles

24.
What Kind Of Man Is This – The Caravans with James Cleveland, lead vocal

25. This Little Light of Mine – The Famous Ward Singers

26. This Little Girl of Mine – Ray Charles

* = previously unreleased live Ray Charles track. 

Discography CD1

(1) (Stanley Cowan, Sidney Miller) Nat “King” Cole-vo,p/Oscar Moore-g/Johnny Miller-b. Los Angeles, March 6, 1944. Capitol 169.

(2) (Joseph E. Howard, Harold Orlob, Will M. Hough, Frank R. Adams) Ray Charles-vo,p/Oscar Moore-g/Johnny Miller (b). Prod. Lloyd Glenn. Los Angeles, November 24. 1949. Swing Time 249

(3) (Charles Brown, Johnny Moore, Edward Williams) Charles Brown-vo,p/Johnny Moore-g/Eddie Williams-b. Los Angeles, 1946. Modern Music 131.  

(4) (Jack Lauderdale, Shifty Henry) Ray Charles-vo,p/Oscar Moore-g/Johnny Miller (b). Prod. Lloyd Glenn. Los Angeles, November 24. 1949. Swing Time 250.

(5) (Sol Parker, Hank Sanicola, Frank Sinatra) Frank Sinatra-lead vo/The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (ldr): Jimmy Blake, Ziggy Elman, Chuck Peterson, Clarence “Shorty” Sherock-tp/George Arus, Tommy Dorsey, Lowell Martin, Walter Mercurio-tb/Heine Beau, Manny Gershman, Don Lodice, Paul Mason, Hymie Schertzer-saxes/Clark Yocum-g/Joe Bushkin-p/Jack Kellerher-b/Buddy Rich-dm/The Pied Pipers-bgd-vo. New York, May 28, 1941. Victor 27508 

(6) (Sol Parker, Hank Sanicola, Frank Sinatra) Ray Charles-vo,p)/G. D. McKee-g/Milton Garred-b. Prod. Lloyd Glenn. Los Angeles, c. March 1949. Everest LP 292.

(7) (Leroy Carr) Leroy Carr-vo,p/Francis “Scrapper” Black­well-g. Indianapolis, June 19, 1928. Vocalion 1191

(8) (Leroy Carr) Ray Charles-vo,p/G. D. McKee & Tiny Webb-g/Ralph Hamilton-b. Prod. Lloyd Glenn. Los Angeles, November 11. 1949. Down Beat 178.

(9) (James Oden) St. Louis Jimmy (James Oden)-vo/Roosevelt Sykes-p/Leonard Caston-g/b. Chicago, 1947. Bullet 270.

(10) (James Oden) Ray Charles-vo,p/G. D. McKee & Tiny Webb-g/Ralph Hamilton-b. Prod. Lloyd Glenn. Los Angeles, prob. November 1949. Down Beat 215.

(11) (Lowell Fulson) Lowell Fulson-vo,g/Lloyd Glenn-p/Billy Hadnott-b/Bob Harvey-dm. Los Angeles, 1950. Swing Time 237.

(12) (Lowell Fulson) Ray Charles-vo,p/Pinky Williams-as/Freddie Mitchell-ts/Dave McRae-bs/Mickey Baker-g/Lloyd Trotman-b/Connie Kay-dm. Arr. Jesse Stone. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun. New York, May 17, 1953. Atlantic 1021.

(13) (Eddie Jones) Eddie Jones, aka “Guitar Slim”-vo,g/Herman Butler & Calvin Cage-saxes/Huey Smith-p/Hugh Dickson-b/Oscar Moore-dm. Nashville, 1952. J-B 603. 

(14) (Eddie Jones) Ray Charles-vo,p/ with Edgar Blanchard’s band: Auguste “Dimes” Dupont-as/ Warren Hébrard-ts/Edgar Blanchard-g/Frank Fields-b/Alonzo Stewart-dm. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New Orleans, August 18, 1953. Atlantic 1008.

(15) (Buddy Johnson) Ella Johnson-vo/Purvis Henson-ts/Buddy Johnson-p/others unk. New York, February 17, 1953. Mercury 70173.

(16) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p/with Guitar Slim’s band: Wallace Davenport & Frank Mitchell-tp/Warren Bell & O’Neil Gerald-as/Joe Tillman-ts/Charles Burbank-bs/Lloyd Lambert-b/Oscar Moore-dm. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New Orleans, December 4, 1953. Atlantic 1037.

(17) (Ira Tucker) William Bobo, James Davis, Paul Owens, Beachey Thompson, Ira Tucker-vo.Solo: William Bobo, Ira Tucker. August 1952. Peacock 1713.   

(18) (Bob King) Bob King-lead vo,g/Rev. W.L. Richardson, Johnny Noble, Franklin Pouncy-vo grp. January 1954.Duke 205.

(19) (Ray Charles, Renald Richard) see personnel and location at the bottom of this list (+). Arr. Ray Charles. Solo: Don Wilkerson (ts). Rec. May 18, 1962.

Ray Charles’s studio version of this song recorded on November 18, 1954 and released on Atlantic 1050.

(20) (Walter Davis) Walter Davis-vo,p. Chicago, July 12, 1940. Bluebird B8510. 

(21) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p/Joe Bridgewater & Charles “Clanky” Whitley-tp/Don Wilkerson-ts/David “Fathead”
Newman-bs/Wesley Jackson-g/Jimmy Bell-b/Glenn Brooks-dm. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. Atlanta, November 18, 1954. Atlantic 1050.

(22) (Rubberlegs Williams, Morty Shad) Henry “Rubberlegs” Williams-vo/Dizzy Gillespie-tp/Trummy Young-tb/Charlie Parker-as/Don Byas-ts/Mike Bryan-g/Clyde Hart-p/Al Hall-b/Gordon “Specs” Powell-dm. New York March or April 1945. Continental C-6013

(23) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p/Joe Bridgewater & Riley Webb-tp/Don Wilkerson-ts/David Newman-bs/ Roosevelt “Whiskey” Sheffield-b/ William Peeples-dm. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. Miami, April 23, 1955. Atlantic 1063.

(24) (James Cleveland) James Cleveland-lead vo,p/The Caravans: Johneron Davis, Cassietta George, Gloria Griffin, Albertina Walker-vo/unk.org. Chicago, October 5,1954. States S-146.

(25) (unk.) Henrietta Waddy, Clara Ward, Gertrude Ward, Willarene “Willa” Ward Moultrie, Marion Williams-vo/p/org. Soloists: CW,HW,WWM. New York, May 7, 1952. Savoy 4038.

(26) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p/Joe Bridgewater & Riley Webb-tp/Don Wilkerson-ts/David Newman-bs/ Roosevelt “Whiskey” Sheffield-b/ William Peeples-dm/Mary Ann Fisher, Davide Newman & Don Wilkerson (background vo). Solo: Don Wilkerson (ts). Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. Miami, April 23, 1955. Atlantic 1063.

(+) Ray Charles-vo,p/Marcus Belgrave & Wallace Daven­port-tp/John Hunt (flh)/Henderson Chambers, Leon Comegys, Jim Harbert, Keg Johnson-tb/Hank Crawford-as, band leader/Rudy Powell-as/David Newman & Don Wilkerson-ts/Leroy Cooper-bs/Sonny Forriest-g/Edgar Willis-b/Bruno Carr-dm/ The Raelets (where heard): Gwen Berry, Margie Hendrix, Pat Lyles, Darlene McCrea. Recorded live at the Olympia Theater, Paris, 1962.

 CD2

 1. Blues Hangover – Lloyd Glenn

 2. “A Bit of Soul” [Blues Hangover] – Ray Charles

 3. Hard Way – T- Bone Walker

 4. Mary Ann – Ray Charles

 5.
I’ll Drown in My Tears – Sonny Thompson with Lula Reed, vocal  

 6. Drown in My Own Tears – Ray Charles

 7.
That’s Why I Love Him So – Gospel All Stars – lead vocal: James Cleveland

 8. Hallelujah I Love Her So* – Ray Charles (live version)

 9.
What could I do – Gospel All Stars – lead vocal: Ella Mitchell

10. What Would I Do Without You – Ray Charles

11.
How Jesus Died – The Pilgrim Travelers – lead vocal:
Jesse Whitaker

12. Lonely Avenue – Ray Charles

13.
I Want to Know – Cecil Shaw with the Alpha-Omega Singers

14. I Want to Know – Ray Charles

15. Let That Liar Alone – Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet

16.
I’m Gonna Wait – Swan’s Silvertone Singers – lead vocal: Claude Jeter

17. Leave My Woman Alone – Ray Charles

18. Doodlin’ – Horace Silver & the Jazz Messengers

19. Doodlin’ – Ray Charles

20.
That’s Enough – The Original Gospel Harmonettes – lead vocal: Dorothy Love [Coates] 

21. That’s Enough – Ray Charles

22. I Want a Little Girl – T- Bone Walker

23. I Want a Little Girl – Ray Charles

24.
Yes Indeed – Tommy Dorsey – vocal: Sy Oliver & Jo Stafford

25.
I Never Heard A Man – The Original Five Blind Boys – lead vocal: Archie Brownlee

26. Yes Indeed – Ray Charles

* = previously unreleased live Ray Charles track.

Discography CD2

(1) (Lloyd Glenn) Lloyd Glenn-p/ Billy Hadnott-b/Bob Harvey-dm. Los Angeles, circa September 1950  

(2) (Lloyd Glenn) Ray Charles-p/Joe Bridgewater & Riley Webb-tp/David Newman-as/Don Wilkerson-ts/ Roosevelt “Whiskey” Sheffield-b/ William Peeples-dm. Solo: David Newman (as). Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. Miami, April 23, 1955. Atlantic 2094.

(3) (T-Bone Walker, Clarence Grady McDaniel) Aaron “T- Bone” Walker-vo,g with possibly Dave Batholomew’s orchestra. Los Angeles, June 20, 1954. Imperial X5330.

(4) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p)/Joe Bridgewater & Joshua “Jack” Willis-tp/Don Wilkerson-ts/Cecil Payne-bs/Paul West-b/Panama Francis-dm. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, November 30, 1955. Atlantic 1085.

(5) (Henry Glover) Lula Reed-vo/Dennis Brooks-as/David “Bubba” Brooks-ts/Chauncey “Lord” Westbrook-g/ Alphonso “Sonny” Thompson-p/Clifford McCray-b/Norman F. John­son-dm. New York, December 14, 1951. King 4527.

(6) (Henry Glover) Ray Charles-vo,p)/Joe Bridgewater & Joshua “Jack” Willis-tp/Don Wilkerson-ts/Cecil Payne-bs/Paul West-b/Panama Francis-dm/fem. choir [“Boo” (high part), unknown (middle part), Mary Ann Fisher (bottom part)]. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, November 30, 1955. Atlantic 1085.

(7) (James Cleveland) James Cleveland-lead vo,p/Dorothy Bates,Imogene Greene,Rose Hines,Ella Mitchell-vo/Herman Stevens-org. Circa 1953 (?). Apollo 312.

(8) (Ray Charles) see personnel and location at the bottom of this list (+). Arr. Ray Charles. Solo: Don Wilkerson (ts). Rec. May 18, 1962.

Ray Charles’s studio version of this song recorded on November 30, 1955 and released on Atlantic 1096.

(9) (James Cleveland) Ella Mitchell-lead vo/ James Cleveland-vo,p/ Dorothy Bates,Imogene Greene,Rose Hines-vo/ Herman Stevens-org. Circa 1953 (?). Apollo 312.

(10) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p)/Joe Bridgewater & Joshua “Jack” Willis-tp/Don Wilkerson-ts/Cecil Payne-bs/Paul West-b/Panama Francis-dm. Solo: Don Wilkerson (ts). Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, November 30, 1955. Atlantic 1096.

(11) (George McCurn, Jesse Whitaker) James W. Alexander,Keith Barber,George McCurn,Kylo Turner,Jesse Whitaker-vo/Theresa Childs-p/Charles Brown-org/John Harris-b/Albert Bartee-dm. Soloists: Jesse Whitaker, George McCurn. Hollywood, CA, August 4, 1955. Specialty 889.       

(12) (Doc Pomus) Ray Charles-vo,p/Joe Bridgewater & John Hunt-tp/David Newman-ts/Emmett Dennis-bs/ Roosevelt Sheffield-b/William Peeples-dm/The Cookies [Margie Hendrix, Dorothy Jones, Darlene McCrea]-bgd vo. Solo: David Newman (ts). Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, May 16, 1956. Atlantic 1108.

(13) (Cecil Shaw) Cecil Shaw-lead vo/the Alpha-Omega Singers-
mass vocal group. Houston, TX, December 1954. Shaw no #.

(14) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p/Joe Bridgewater & John Hunt-tp/David Newman-ts/Emmett Dennis-bs/ Roosevelt Sheffield-b/William Peeples-dm/The Cookies [Margie Hendrix, Dorothy Jones, Darlene McCrea]-bgd vo. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, May 16, 1956. Atlantic 1124.

(15) (trad.) Willie Johnson, William Langford, Henry Owens, Orlandus Wilson-vo. New York, August 10, 1938. Bluebird B7835.  

(16) (Claude Jeter) Claude Jeter-lead vo/Henry Bossard, John Myles, Roosevelt Payne-vo/ Solomon Womack-vo/g. Cincinnati, June 13, 1949. King 4308.

(17) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p/Joe Bridgewater & John Hunt-tp/David Newman-ts/Emmett Dennis-bs/Roosevelt Sheffield-b/William Peeples-dm/The Cookies [Mary Ann Fisher, Margie Hendrix, Dorothy Jones, Darlene McCrea]-bgd vo. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, May 16, 1956. Atlantic 1108.

(18) (Horace Silver) Horace Silver-p/Kenny Dorham-tp/Hank Mobley-ts/Doug Watkins-b/Art Blakey-dm. Hackensack, NJ, November 13, 1954. Blue Note BLP 1518.

(19) (Horace Silver) Ray Charles-p/Joe Bridgewater & John Hunt-tp/David Newman-ts/Emmett Dennis-bs/Roosevelt Sheffield-b/William Peeples-dm. Solo: John Hunt (tp), David Newman (ts). Arr. Quincy Jones. Prod. Nesuhi Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, November 26, 1956. Atlantic LP 1259.

(20) (Dorothy Love Coates) Dorothy Love Coates-lead vo/ Odessa Edwards, Vera Kolb, Mildred Miller, Willie Mae Newberry Garth-vo/Herbert Pickard-org/Evelyn Starks-p. Los Angeles, January 20, 1956. Specialty 904. 

(21) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p/Joe Bridgewater & Lee “Ricci” Harper-tp/David Newman-ts/Emmett Dennis-bs/Edgar Willis-b/William Peeples-dm/Mary Ann Fisher & the Raelets [Margie Hendrix, Pat Lyles, Darlene McCrea]-bgd vo. Solo: David Newman (ts). Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, May 26, 1957. Atlantic 2022.

(22) (Murray Mencher, William Moll) T-Bone Walker-vo & g/Jack Trainor-tp/Bumps Myers-ts/Willard McDaniel-p/Billy Hadnott-b/Oscar Lee Bradley-dm. Los Angeles, December 29, 1947.Back & White 125.

(23) (Murray Mencher, William Moll) Ray Charles-vo,p/Joe Bridgewater & Lee “Ricci” Harper-tp/David Newman-ts/Emmett Dennis-bs/Edgar Willis-b/William Peeples-dm. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, May 26, 1957. Atlantic 1154.

(24) (Sy Oliver) Sy Oliver & Jo Stafford-vo/Tommy Dorsey-tb/Jimmy Blake, Ziggy Elman,Ray Linn,Chuck Peterson-tp/
George Arus,Les Jenkins,Lowell Martin-tb/Johnny Mince, Freddie Stulce-as/Don Lodice,Paul Mason-ts/Heinie Beau-bs/Clark Yocum-g/Joe Bushkin-p/Sid Weiss-b/Buddy Rich-dm. Solo: Tommy Dorsey. New York, February 17, 1941. Victor 27421.

(25) (Lloyd Woodard) Archie Brownlee-lead vo/Lawrence Abrams,John T. Clinkscales, Lloyd Woodard-vo/Wayne Ben­nett-g/Ronald Hall-p/dm. Chicago May 2^nd, 1956. Vee-Jay 194.    

(26) (Sy Oliver) Ray Charles-vo,org,p/Marcus Belgrave & Lee Harper-tp/David Newman-ts/Hank Crawford-bs/Edgar Willis-b/Richie Goldberg-dm/Mary Ann Fisher & the Cookies [Margie Hendrix, Dorothy Jones, Darlene McCrea] (bgd vo). Solo: David Newman (ts). Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, February 17, 1958. Atlantic 1180.

(+) Ray Charles-vo,p/Marcus Belgrave & Wallace Daven­port-tp/John Hunt (flh)/Henderson Chambers, Leon Comegys, Jim Harbert, Keg Johnson-tb/Hank Crawford-as, band leader/Rudy Powell-as/David Newman & Don Wilkerson-ts/Leroy Cooper-bs/Sonny Forriest-g/Edgar Willis-b/Bruno Carr-dm/ The Raelets (where heard): Gwen Berry, Margie Hendrix, Pat Lyles, Darlene McCrea. Recorded live at the Olympia Theater, Paris, 1962.

CD3

 1. Warming Up A Riff – Charlie Parker’s All Stars

 2. The Spirit-Feel – Ray Charles

 3. Now`s The Time – Charley Parker’s Ree Boppers    

 4.  X-Ray Blues – Ray Charles & Milt Jackson

 5. Early in the Mornin’ – Louis Jordan & his Tympany Five

 6. Early in the Mornin’ – Ray Charles

 7. Come Rain or Come Shine – Dinah Shore

 8. Come Rain or Come Shine* (1^st version) – Ray Charles (live version)

 9. Let the Good Times Roll – Louis Jordan & his Tympany Five

10. Let the Good Times Roll* – Ray Charles (live version)

11. Two Years of Torture – Percy Mayfield, with Monroe Tucker and his orchestra

12. Two Years of Torture – Ray Charles

13. Alexander’s Ragtime Band – Louis Armstrong   

14. Alexander’s Ragtime Band* – Ray Charles (live version)

15. I’m Moving On – Hank Snow and his Rainbow Ranch Boys

16. I’m Movin’ On – Ray Charles

17. Georgia on My Mind – Billie Holiday

18. Georgia on My Mind* – Ray Charles (live version)

19. I Wonder – Cecil Gant

20. I Wonder – Ray Charles

* = previously unreleased live Ray Charles track. 

Discography CD3

(1) (Charlie Parker) Miles Davis-tp/Charlie Parker-as/”Hen Gates”(Dizzy Gillespie)-p/Curley Russell-b/Max Roach-dm.New York, November 26, 1945. Savoy 45-302.

(2) (Milt Jackson) Ray Charles-as/Marcus Belgrave & John Hunt-tp/David Newman-ts/Hank Crawford-bs/Edgar Willis-b/Teagle Fleming-dm). Solo: JH, DN, MB, HC, RC. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Zenas Sears. Atlanta, May 28, 1959. Atlantic LP 8039.

(3) (Charlie Parker) Charlie Parker-as/Miles Davis-tp/”Hen Gates”(Dizzy Gillespie)-p/Curley Russell-b/Max Roach-dm.New York, November 26, 1945. Savoy 573.

(4) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-p,as,el-p/Milt Jackson-vb/Kenny Burrell-g/Percy Heath-b/Art Taylor-dm. Ray Charles successively plays piano, alto sax and electric piano. Prod. Nesuhi Ertegun. New York, April 10, 1958. Atlantic LP 1360.

(5) (Leo Hickman, Louis Jordan, Dallas Bartley) Louis Jordan-vo,as/Aaron Izenhall-tp/Eddie Johnson-ts/Carl Hogan-g/”Wild” Bill Davis-p/Dallas Batley-b/”Chris Columbus”(Joe Morris)-dm.New York, April 23, 1947.Decca 25155.

(6) (Leo Hickman, Louis Jordan, Dallas Bartley) Ray Charles-vo,el-p/Marcus Belgrave & Lee Harper-tp/David Newman-ts/Hank Crawford-bs/Edgar Willis-b/Milton Turner-dm/Mongo Santamaria-cga/the Raelets: Gwen Berry, Margie Hendrix, Pat Lyles, Darlene McCrea-bgd vo. Solo: David Newman (ts). Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, October 28, 1958. Atlantic LP 8052.

(7) (Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen) Dinah Shore (vo) with orchestra directed by Sonny Burke. New York, 1946. Columbia 36971.

(8) (Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen) see personnel and location at the bottom of this list (+). Arr. Quincy Jones. Solo: Don Wilkerson (ts). Rec. May 18, 1962.

Ray Charles’s studio version of this song recorded on May 6, 1959 and released on Atlantic LP 1312.

(9) (Sam Theard, Fleecie Moore) Louis Jordan-vo,as/Aaron Izenhall-tp/Josh Jackson-ts/Carl Hogan-g/“Wild” Bill Davis-p/Jesse “Po” Simpkins-b/Eddie Byrd-dm.New York, June 26, 1946. Decca 23741.

(10) (Sam Theard, Fleecie Moore) see personnel and location at the bottom of this list (+). Arr. Quincy Jones. Solo: David Newman (ts). Rec. 1^st concert of  May 19, 1962.

Ray Charles’s studio version of this song recorded on June 23, 1959 and released on Atlantic LP 1312.

(11) (Percy Mayfield) Percy Mayfield-vo/Vernon “Geechie” Smith-tp/Marshall Royal-as/Maxwell Davis-ts/Floyd Tur­ham-bs/Charles “Chuck” Norris-g/Willard McDaniel-p/Roy Hamilton-b/Henry Williams-dm. Los Angeles, 1949. Recorded in Hollywood 111.

(12) (Percy Mayfield) Ray Charles-vo,p/with orchestra dir. by Quincy Jones: Marcus Belgrave, John Hunt, Joe Newman, Clark Terry, Eugene “Snooky” Young-tp/Al Grey, Quentin Jackson, Melba Liston, Thomas Mitchell-tb/Marshall Royal, Frank Wess-as/Paul Gonsalves, Billy Mitchell, David Newman-ts/Hank Crawford, Charlie Fowlkes-bs/Freddie Green-g/Eddie Jones, Edgar Willis-b/Teagle Fleming, Charlie Persip-dm. Solo: Paul Gonsalves (ts). Arr. John Acea. Prod. Nesuhi Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, June 23, 1959. Atlantic LP 1312.

(13) (Irving Berlin) Louis Armstrong-vo,lead tp/Henry “Red” Allen,Louis Bacon,Shelton Hemphill-tp/J.C. Higginbotham, George Matthews, George Washington-tb/Pete Clark,Charlie Holmes-as/Bingie Madison,Albert Nicholas-cl,ts/Luis Rus­sell-p/Lee Blair-g/Pops Foster-b/Paul Barbarin-dm. New York, July 7, 1937. Decca 1408.

(14) (Irving Berlin) see personnel and location at the bottom of this list (+). Arr. Ralph Burns. Solo: Marcus Belgrave (tp). Rec. 1^st concert of   May 19, 1962.

Ray Charles’s studio version of this song recorded on June 23, 1959 and released on Atlantic LP 1312.

(15) (Hank Snow) Hank Snow-vo,g/Tommy Waden-fiddle/Joseph Talbot III-steel-g/Ernie Newton-b. Nashville, March 28, 1950. RCA Victor 21-0328.

(16) (Hank Snow) Ray Charles-vo,el-p/Marcus Belgrave & John Hunt-tp; David Newman-ts/Hank Crawford-bs/Charley Macey-pedal steel g/Edgar Willis-b/Teagle Fleming-dm/Jerry Wexler-tamb/the Raelets [Gwen Berry, Margie Hendrix, Pat Lyles, Darlene McCrea]. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, June 26, 1959. Atlantic 2043.

(17) (Hoagy Carmichael, Stuart Gorrell) Billie Holiday-vo/Shad Collins-tp/Eddie Barfield,Leslie Johnakins-as/Lester Young-ts/John Collins-g/Eddie Heywood-p/Ted Sturgis-b/Kenny Clarke-dm.New York, March 21, 1941. Okeh 6134.

(18) (Hoagy Carmichael, Stuart Gorrell) see personnel and location at the bottom of this list (+). Arr. Quincy Jones. Solo: David Newman (fl). Rec. May 18, 1962.

Ray Charles’s studio version of this song recorded on March 29, 1960 and released on ABC-Paramount LP 335.

(19) (Cecil Gant) Cecil Gant-celeste/g/b.Nashville, 1947.
Bullet 272

(20) (Cecil Gant) Ray Charles-vo, el-p/Martin Banks & John
Hunt-tp/Hank Crawford-as/David Newman-ts/Leroy Cooper-bs/Edgar Willis-b/Milt Turner-dm/the Raelets including Margie Hendrix. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Sid Feller. New York, April 27, 1960. ABC-Paramount 10141.

(+) Ray Charles-vo,p/Marcus Belgrave & Wallace Davenport-tp/John Hunt (flh)/Henderson Chambers, Leon Comegys, Jim Harbert, Keg Johnson-tb/Hank Crawford-as, band leader/Rudy Powell-as/David Newman & Don Wilkerson-ts/Leroy Cooper-bs/Sonny Forriest-g/Edgar Willis-b/Bruno Carr-dm/ The Raelets (where heard): Gwen Berry, Margie Hendrix, Pat Lyles, Darlene McCrea. Recorded live at the Olympia Theater, Paris, 1962.

CD4

 1. Worried Life Blues – Big Maceo

 2. “Some Day Baby” [Worried Life Blues] – Ray Charles

 3. Worried Life Blues – Ray Charles

 4. Margie – Johnny Mercer

 5. Margie* – Ray Charles (live version)

 6. I’ve Got News for You – Woody Herman

 7. I’ve Got News for You – Ray Charles

 8. One Mint Julep – The Clovers

 9. One Mint Julep* – Ray Charles  (live version)

10. Hit the Road Jack – Percy Mayfield

11. Hit the Road Jack* – Ray Charles (live version)

12. Careless Love Blues – Bessie Smith

13. Careless Love* – Ray Charles (live version)

14. Bye Bye Love – The Everly Brothers

15. Bye Bye Love* – Ray Charles (live version)

16. I Can’t Stop Loving You – Don Gibson

17. I Can’t Stop Loving You* – Ray Charles  (live version)

18. You Are My Sunshine – Jimmie Davis with Charles Mitchell’s orchestra

19. You Are My Sunshine – Ray Charles

Bonus tracks:

20. Come Rain or Come Shine* (2^nd version) – Ray Charles (live version)

21. I Believe to My Soul* – Ray Charles (live version)

* = previously unreleased live Ray Charles track. 

Discography CD4

(1) (Major “Big Maceo” Merryweather) Big Maceo-vo,p/Tampa Red-g. June 24, 1941. Bluebird B8827.

(2) (Major “Big Maceo” Merryweather) Ray Charles-vo,p. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun. New York, May 10, 1953. Atlantic LP 8052.

(3) (Major “Big Maceo” Merryweather) Ray Charles-vo, el-p/David Newman-as/Edgar Willis-b/Milt Turner-dm. Solo: David Newman (as). Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Sid Feller. New York, April 27, 1960. ABC-Paramount 1118.

(4) (Bennie Davis, Con Conrad, J. Russell Robinson) Johnny Mercer-vo/Don Anderson, Charlie Griffard, Nate Kazebier-tp/Bill Schaefer, Elmer Smithers, Allan Thompson, Joe Yukl-tb/Matty Matlock, Fred Sluce-as/Harry Schuchman, Herbie Haymer-ts/George Van Eps-g/Stan Wrightsman-p/Jack Ryan-b/Nick Fatool-dm. Arr. Matty Matlock. Dir. Paul Weston. Los Angeles, September or October 1946. Hindsight LP HSR152.  

(5) (Bennie Davis, Con Conrad, J. Russell Robinson) see personnel and location at the bottom of this list (+). Arr. Marty Paich. Rec. May 18, 1962.

Ray Charles’s studio version of this song recorded on August 24, 1960 and released on ABC-Paramount LP 355.

(6) (Roy Alfred) Woody Herman-vo, cl/Bernie Glow,Stan Fishelson, Marky Markowitz, Ernie Royal,Shorty Rogers-tp/Bob Swift, Earl Swope,Ollie Wilson-tb/ Sam Markowitz-as/Herbie Stewart-as, ts/Stan Getz, Zoot Sims-ts/Serge Chaloff-bs/Gene Sargent-g/Fred Otis-p/Walter Yoder-b/Don Lamond-dm. Arr. Shorty Rogers. Hollywood, December 24, 1947. Columbia 38213

(7) (Roy Alfred) Ray Charles- vo, Hammond C3 organ/Phil Guilbeau, Thad Jones, Joe Newman, Clark Terry, Snooky Young-tp/Henry Coker, Urbie Green, Al Grey, Benny Powell-tb/Marshall Royal, Frank Wess-as/Frank Foster, Billy Mitchell-ts/Charlie Fowlkes-bs/Freddie Greene-g/Eddie Jones-b/Sonny Payne-dm. Arr.-cond. Ralph Burns. Prod. Creed Taylor. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, December 26, 1960. Impulse 202.

(8) (Rudolph Toombs) John “Buddy” Bailey, Harold Lucas, Matthew McQuater, Harold Winley (vo group)/Willis Jackson-ts/Harry Van Walls-p/Connie Kay-dm. New York, December 19, 1951. Atlantic 963. 

(9) (Rudolph Toombs) see personnel and location at the bottom of this list (+). Arr. Quincy Jones. Rec. 1^st concert of  May 19, 1962.

Ray Charles’s studio version of this song recorded on December 27, 1960 and released on Impulse 200.

(10) (Percy Mayfield) Percy Mayfield & Tina  Mayfield (vo). 1961. Specialty SP7000. 

(11) (Percy Mayfield) see personnel and location at the bottom of this list (+). Arr. Ray Charles. Rec.1^st concert of  May 19, 1962.

Ray Charles’s studio version of this song recorded on July 5, 1961 and released on ABC-Paramount 10244.

(12) (William C. Handy, Spencer Williams, Martha E. Koenig) Bessie Smith-vo/Louis Armstrong-cornet/Charlie Green-tb/Fred Longshaw-p. New York, May 26, 1925. Columbia 14083-D.

(13) (Ray Charles) see personnel and location at the bottom of this list (+). Arr. Gerald Wilson. Rec. May 18, 1962.

Ray Charles’s studio version of this song recorded on February 5, 1962 and released on ABC-Paramount LP 410.

(14) (Felice Bryant, Boudleaux Bryant) Don Everly-lead vo&g/Phil Everly-harmony vo&g. 1957.Cadence 1315.

(15) (Felice Bryant, Boudleaux Bryant) see personnel and location at the bottom of this list (+). Arr. Gerald Wilson. Rec. 1st concert of  May 19, 1962.

Ray Charles’s studio version of this song recorded on February 5, 1962 and released on ABC-Paramount LP 410.

(16) (Don Gibson) Don Gibson-vo&g/steel-g/p/male choir. 1957. RCA 1056.

(17) (Don Gibson) see personnel and location at the bottom of this list (+). Rec.1st concert of  May 19, 1962.

Ray Charles’s studio version of this song recorded on February 15, 1962 and released on ABC-Paramount 10330.

(18) (Jimmie Davis, Charles Mit­chell) Jimmie Davis-vo&g/Charles Mitchell-steel g/orch. incl. ct, cl, bjo. 1940.Decca 5813.

(19) (Jimmie Davis, Charles Mitchell) Ray Charles - 1^st lead vo,p/Margie Hendrix - 2^nd lead vo/Marcus Belgrave, Wallace Davenport,  Phil Guilbeau-tp/John Hunt-flh/Henderson Chambers, Leon Comegys, Jim Harbert, Keg Johnson-tb/Hank Crawford, Rudy Powell-as/David New­man, Don Wilkerson-ts/Leroy Cooper-bs/Sonny Forriest-g/Edgar Willis-b/Bruno Carr-dm/the Raelets: Gwen Berry, Pat Lyles, Darlene McCrea. Arr. Gerald Wilson. Prod. Sid Feller. New York, September 5, 1962. ABC-Paramount 10375.

Bonus tracks:

(20) (Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen) see personnel and location at the bottom of this list (+). Arr. Quincy Jones. Solo: Don Wilkerson (ts). Rec. 1^st concert of May 19, 1962.

(21) (Ray Charles) see personnel and location at the bottom of this list (+). Arr. Ray Charles. Rec.1st concert of  May 19, 1962.

(+) Ray Charles-vo,p/Marcus Belgrave & Wallace Davenport-tp/John Hunt (flh)/Henderson Chambers, Leon Comegys, Jim Harbert, Keg Johnson-tb/Hank Crawford-as, band leader/Rudy Powell-as/David Newman & Don Wilkerson-ts/Leroy Cooper-bs/Sonny Forriest-g/Edgar Willis-b/Bruno Carr-dm/ The Raelets (where heard): Gwen Berry, Margie Hendrix, Pat Lyles, Darlene McCrea. Recorded live at the Olympia Theater, Paris, 1962.

His influence

By Joël DUFOUR

ECHOES OF RAY CHARLES

Singer, musician (keyboards, alto saxophone), arranger, composer, Ray Charles (1930-2004), who did not hesitate to have himself announced on stage as “The Legendary Genius of Soul”, was, however, in reality, a fundamentally modest artist. Was he recognized as one of the fathers of Rock & Roll, in the 1950s, or, a decade later, was he celebrated as the decisive author of the marriage of Blues and Gospel which gave birth to Soul Music? He tirelessly denied:

“I never considered myself part of rock ‘n’ roll. I didn’t believe that I was among the forerunners of the music, and I’ve never given myself a lick of credit for either inventing it or having anything to do with its birth. When I think of the true rock ‘n’ roll, cats like Chuck Berry and Little Richard and Bo Diddley come to mind. I think they’re the main men (…)

There was a lot of black music in the last half of the sixties that I could relate to. More blacks sang the way they really were (…) I liked many of the so-called soul singers – David Ruffin with the Temptations, Otis Redding, Little Milton, and Sam and Dave. Some people told me that I’d invented the sounds they call soul – but I can’t take credit. Soul is just the way black folk sing when they leave themselves alone.” (1) 

Prominent American music historian Peter Guralnick takes a different view: “Sam Cooke was the first gospel star to cross over, certainly, but it was Ray Charles, as we know, who started it all […] It was Charles who gave Cooke and an entire generation the courage to make the leap into the temporal world. If you listen to the clunkety rhythms of I Got a Woman today, it’s hard to imagine the impact that it had in 1954 for blacks and whites, for a young Elvis Presley and an only slightly older Sam Cooke, and for nearly every singer, writer, and producer I have interviewed for this book [Sweet Soul Music]. The very stratagem of adapting a traditional gospel song, putting secular lyrics to it, and then delivering it with all the attendant fanfare of a Pentecostal service was simply staggering. It was like a blinding flash of light in which the millennium, all of a sudden and unannounced, had arrived. […] It was from that point on that Ray Charles acquired his near-iconic status in the black community, and for the next ten years his success was without artistic or commercial parallel in the business.” (2)

Two decades after his death, what (temporary) “evaluation” could we attempt to establish of the influence that the exceptional artist that was Ray Charles (Robinson) will have exerted on the music of the 20^th century, and beyond?

Could an attempt at an “accounting” approach (even probably incomplete) provide some interesting indications?

Between Stevie Wonder’s “Tribute to Uncle Ray”, in 1962, and Steve Tyrell’s “Shades of Ray”, in 2021, some fifty albums devoted to Ray Charles covers have been released (include the beautiful “I Remember Brother Ray”, by David “Fathead” Newman, and “Light Out of Darkness”, by Shirley Horn), while about 70 songs, or instrumental tunes, having Ray’s name in their title have been recorded (from Duke Ellington’s Ray Charles’ Place to Lightnin’ Hopkins Me and Ray Charles) and his name is mentioned in about 40 songs by other artists – from the blues Red’s Dream by Louisiana Red’s [Red wanted to run in the US presidential elections and enroll Ray in his government!] to the funk classic We Got More Soul by Dyke & the Blazers.

Having undertaken to draw up a (probably incomplete) inventory of the songs and instrumentals signed Ray Charles which have been covered, one or more times, by other artists (an inventory which should no doubt had been extended to songs that Ray created without being their author, such as Lonely Avenue, Hit the Road Jack or Unchain my Heart), we reached a total of 1,046 covers…

While it is without any surprise that we find, among the vocalists who have drawn into Ray Charles’s songs the white “pioneers” of Rock & Roll, who fed themselves with black music in spite of a social environment that often displayed its execration for it (Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Eddie Cochran, Bill Haley, Roy Orbison, Gene Vincent…). But the stylistic range of performers on whom Ray Charles made an impression, passing or more profound, is very wide, ranging from great Rhythm & Blues / Soul artists (Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, King Curtis, Otis Redding, Etta James, Donny Hathaway…), pure bluesmen (Pee Wee Crayton, Albert King, Otis Rush, Phillip Walker, Freddie King, Buddy Guy…), jazz musicians (Jimmy McGriff, Junior Mance, Jimmy Smith, Herbie Mann, Yusef Lateef, Brother Jack McDuff…), to popular vocalists more or less imbued with Jazz (Jo Stafford, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, Earl Grant, Bobby Darin…) 

Beyond his own country, Ray Charles would also have, in the 1960s, a deep effect outside the USA, and in particular on many British artists who opened up to popular African-American music – which they would assimilate and adapt, before returning it to its country of origin in the form of the so-called “British Invasion”:  Eric Burdon (with the Animals), Van Morrison (with Them), Graham Bond, Georgie Fame… Joe Cocker is the most emblematic example of the fascination exerted by Ray Charles on some of these singers. He described the revelation he had, when he was 15, when he first listened to What’d I Say:  

“‘I was well into rock ‘n’ roll records by then but there was some magic that came out; his voice just did something to me.’

Ray Charles became an obsession with Joe […]. He went into a phase of of listening to Charles’s music to the exclusion of almost everything else. Years later he told John Mendelsohn of the Los Angeles Times ‘When you do that long enough you reach a point where it’s all in the back of your head, where the influence becomes part of you and you sing in a particular way without thinking about it. When I sing now it comes out the way it does – without any conscious effort on my part to sound like Ray Charles.’” (3)   

In an intuitively less obvious way, Ray Charles will have deeply marked another famous English artist, guitarist and singer Eric Clapton:

“I hate my singing. I don’t like the way I sing, […] I do my best to try and feel it. You know, when I watch Ray Charles sing, I think, ‘That’s it, that’s how it’s done.’ […] He remembers thousands of songs and he sings them all as if they’re the most important song he knows. He does it from the bottom of his heart, every time, every song. And that’s the inspiration. That’s my influence.” (4)   

But it was, of course, in his own community that Ray Charles first began to exert an influence, very significant from his first recordings for Atlantic (1952). If it touched the whole country, it manifested itself very strongly in this vital center of music that is New Orleans (where Ray resided in 1953), as evidenced by the famous producer/arranger/composer/pianist/singer Allen Toussaint, who reigned over the city for several decades:

“When I was a teenager, I saw Ray Charles once on stage, at a New Orleans municipal auditorium, And I was totally elated. He played alto. Of course, I wasn’t interested in that – it was just amazing that he could do it. All I was interested in, as a musician, was his piano playing. I did see him but not get a chance to look over his shoulder, or anything like that. But I didn’t need to, because I had been with his recordings, every recording that I could get my hands on – including those from the times when he would sing like Nat King Cole, like on Roll with My Baby, or The Midnight Hour, when he played like Charles Brown. […] He got some intros that you can spend quite a bit of time on it. The first place I’ve ever heard a raised ninth chord being used was Ray Charles on Lonely Avenue. That first chord he played […] I had to call Little Snooks [Fird “Snooks” Eaglin], the blind guitarist, over to my house to ask him: ‘Snook, play that for me. Show me how to play that’. And he stood up at the piano, reluctantly… Cause Snook, he could hear anything, even as a little child. He just heard it all. Anything… like that Ray Charles type of thing, that was far out… and the introduction Ray played on A Fool for You … […]

I Liked everything about Ray Charles... the piano player, of course, but also the arrangements that I found so interesting. There were more into them than just the average arrangements out there. Ray Charles’s were unvaluable.” (5)    

Ray Charles occupied a unique place on this Rhythm & Blues scene, where he had chosen to express himself, in that he had a solid classical musical education (which had been provided to him by the institution for the blind in which he had been a resident when he was between seven and fifteen years of age) and that he was passionate about jazz, favoring the harmonically complex bebop style, which he also practiced, with the orchestra of peerless musicians he had assembled since 1954, and which, over the years had encompassed leading soloists such as David “Fathead” Newman, Don Wilkerson, Hank Crawford and Leroy Cooper on saxophones, or Marcus Belgrave and John Hunt on trumpet. This “small band” (of seven or eight musicians) led by Ray Charles (as opposed to the “big band” of 17 musicians that he had from 1961 on) has largely served as a model for a lot of R&B outfits.

Allen Toussaint goes on : “This man, he expanded things for us, as kids. And I say for us – because it was the whole band. I was highly inspired in my arranging ability by arranging Ray Charles’s songs for our band, the little band that we had. Because other things we could play [Allen hums a Fats Domino type of song], but when it came to Ray Charles… you might encounter something like a sixth/ninth chords mixed. You just didn’t come across that in everyday life, not for teenagers, you know. His music was in a higher class… A Fool for You, Come Back Baby, Blackjack… When I heard it, with the piano playing like a guitar […] At that time, I didn’t have a record player at home, so I’d go around to this bar, and we’d sneak in there, and we played that record over and over, then go back home – which was five blocks away – and try again. Then back to the bar and play the record about five times… But Ray Charles was just amazing, and just absolutely wonderful. The Gospel thing was great. The influence of the Gospel, of course, is always behind Ray’s music. But it wasn’t straight Gospel (like Alex Bradford’s Gospel), Ray had other elements in hi playing […] Again, I must say that I was elated by his intros, like on Ain’t That Love or That’s Enough. That intro on That’s Enough, I had to sit and work with that, figure out what was happening […] So, before he starts singing, something had taken you, make you sit up there, and then… song! I mean, to have that much thought and caring for what you’re about to do is very, very special. […] Ray Charles was so much more prolific than the other people during this period. And then, years after he had been so wonderful, he stretched out and did those jazz things at Newport [1958]. Killed me again! And then he went, after he had exhausted that area, went to the Country & Western market, and made History. Ah, Ray Charles! Good Heavens! […]

We played everything on the radio – but all of Ray Charles. […] I insisted that we play all of Ray Charles with Snooks in mind, because he sounded exactly like Ray Charles when he sang in those days. And when he’d sing other folks and he tried and sounded like them, he still sort of naturally sounded like Ray Charles during those days. Because he had all true respect for Ray Charles, as I did.” (5)   

Memphis, Tennessee, is another center where Soul music flourished in the 1960s, largely at the instigation of Jim Stewart, originally a country music fiddle player, founder of the Stax label where would soon record mainly leading black artists (Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, Sam & Dave, William Bell, Albert King…) Stewart had first founded his own label (as ‘Satellite’) to record other white musicians, like him, doing Country or Rockabilly music, but an event was to change everything for him, as he told writer and filmmaker Robert Gordon:

“‘I listened to [black radio stations] WDIA and WLOK and I became exposed to black music. When I heard a record called What’d I Say by Ray Charles, I was baptized in Soul Music and never looked back. When I heard that record it was like a lightning bolt hit me, something I never, never felt before. And that’s what I wanted to do, that’s where I wanted to go’ […] In 1960, Jim heard Ray’s new live album, In Person. ‘That really blew me away. Like the addict, that was the second fix, and I was gone, hooked, never looked back from there.’” (6)

The Stax label achieved its first No. 1 on the Billboard music magazine chart in 1962 with Green Onions, an instrumental by the (racially integrated) four-piece band Booker T. & the MGs, which constituted the basic team for the recordings of all the artists of the label. Their first album, bearing the same title as their “hit” record, contained two Ray Charles covers. Organist Booker T. Jones describes his inspiration for adopting organ as his main instrument as follows:

“I was a big Ray Charles fan, and he played on One Mint Julep in the early 60s. And his organ sound was unique and his was the one I was trying to emulate, the one he was playing on One Mint Julep.” (7)

Rick Hall, the boss of the Fame label, and the Muscle Shoals (Alabama) studio by the same name, who disputed Stax’s supremacy on Soul music recordings in the South of the United States (with many smash recordings by Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Clarence Carter, Etta James, Laura Lee or Candi Staton), had, just like Jim Stewart, been hit by the What’d I Say hurricane: “I became such a schizophrenic guy that I wanted a Wurlitzer electric piano on everything I recorded, or I wouldn’t record. I became so mindful of the fact that everything I’d cut had been with a Wurlitzer electric piano. My first taste of it was in the band [Hall was originally a country/rock guitarist]. We tried to copy Ray Charles’ What’d I Say. That was the kind he used - the Wurlitzer piano. We fell in love with that.” (8)

Very strong in the southern states, the Ray Charles influence exerted itself everywhere in the country, and notably in the industrial metropolis of the North, Detroit, seat of the powerful Mowtown company, founded by the very imaginative black entrepreneur Berry Gordy, who had undertaken, with a wide range of local talents (The Supremes, The Miracles, the Temptations, Martha & the Vandellas, The Four Tops, the Marvelettes…) to seduce also (and sometimes particularly) the white public, with a lightweight repertoire served by vocalists, female and male, with impeccable bearing. Marvin Gaye testified as follows: “You can’t imagine how important Ray Charles was for us. We all idolized him – me, Smokey [Robinson], Stevie [Wonder], Berry [Gordy] … all the cats who really knew music. Ray had crossed over by being his bad self, and that impressed us. Berry’s aim was to sell white people, and Ray had already accomplished that.” (9) 

After Ray Charles’s passing, many shows claiming to trace his life were mounted, and many tribute concerts were organized, some having been the subject of a publication on DVD. Examples include Genius: A Night for Ray Charles [Stevie Wonder, David Newman, B.B. King, Billy Preston] or Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis play the Music of Ray Charles (with Norah Jones).

A great admirer of Ray Charles, saxophonist and singer Maceo Parker, famous for his collaborations with James Brown, George Clinton and Prince, gave many concerts partially or entirely devoted to Ray’s repertoire. Two publications reflect this: the CD Roots & Groove and the DVD A Tribute to Ray Charles Live in Leverkusen.

But far and away the most prolific artist in his reverence for the Genius is Slovenian singer and pianist Uroš Peric´. Born in 1977, Uroš was twelve years old when he discovered the music of Ray Charles, of which he applied himself tirelessly to know and assimilate just everything. There are, to this date, about thirty albums that Uroš Peric´ has, in whole or in part, devoted to the music of Ray Charles.  

Obviously, the present compilation in no way aims at providing an encyclopedic account of the influence that the work of Ray Charles may have had, not even within the restricted time frame considered here [until 1962] – its only ambition being to illustrate with a few examples the phenomenon that it could represent.

Similarly, we have taken into consideration the influence of Ray Charles only in his own country, whereas it has, especially from 1960, largely overflowed abroad, with many adaptations in local languages. As an illustration of this geographical expansion of the “Ray Charles effect”, we have concluded this collection with the four titles of a 45t EP by American jazz organist Lou Bennett, which were recorded while Bennett was an expatriate in Paris.

J.D.

© Frémeaux & Associés 2024

(1) Brother Ray – Ray Charles’ Own Story by Ray Charles & David Ritz, The Dial Press, 1978

(2) Sweet Soul Music by Peter Guralnick, Harper & Row, 1986

(3) The Authorized Biography of Joe Cocker by J.P. Bean, Virgin Books, 2003.

(4) The reason why Eric Clapton hates singing by Joe Taysom, Far Out magazine, 2021.

(5) Allen Toussaint interview (June 24, 1989) by Joël Dufour & Jacques Périn, in Soul Bag #120, 1990  

(6) Respect Yourself, by Robert Gordon, Bloomsbury, 2013

(7) Booker T, the longtime king of soul-rock organ, talks to Scott Kara, NZ Herald

(8) Rick Hall discusses the Man from Muscle Shoals, by Randy Patterson, Boomerocity.com

(9) The Life of Marvin Gaye – Divided Soul, by David Ritz, Grafton 1985

Discography

His influence

CD-5

 1 - Ray Charles - The Sun’s Gonna Shine Again

 2 - Eddie Bo - I’m So Tired

 3 - Ray Charles - Mess Around

 4 - Sammy Davis Jr. - Mess Around

 5 - Ray Charles - Losing Hand

 6 - Harry Belafonte - Losing Hand

 7 - Ray Charles - Don’t You Know

 8 - Stevie Wonder - Don’t You Know

 9 - Ray Charles – I’ve Got a Woman

10 -
Geneva Vallier - You Said You Had a Woman
(I Got a Woman)

11 - Jo Stafford - I Got a Sweetie

12 - Elvis Presley - I Got a Woman

13 - King Curtis - I’ve Got a Woman

14 - Jimmy McGriff - I’ve Got a Woman

15 - Ray Charles - A Fool for You

16 - Ford Eaglin - By the Water

17 - Bob Gaddy - What Wrong Did I Do

18 - Bobby Peterson Quintet - One Day

19 - Isley Brothers - A Fool for You

20 - Ray Charles - This Little Girl of Mine

21 - Gloria Lynne - This Little Boy of Mine

22 - Everly Brothers -This Little Girl of Mine

23 - Ray Charles - Drown in My Own Tears

24 - Jackie DeShannon - I’ll Drown in My Own Tears

Discography CD5

(1) (Sam Sweet) Ray Charles-vo,p/with orchestra arr./dir. Jesse Stone, possibly including: Jesse Drake-tp/Sam “The Man” Taylor-ts/Dave McRae-bs/Lloyd Trotman-b/Connie Kay-dm/. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Herb Abramson. New York, September 11, 1952. Atlantic 984.

(2) (Edwin Bocage) Eddie Bo-vo,p/with unidentified musi­cians. New Orleans 1955. Ace 515.

Eng: Eddie Bo was one of those New Orleans piano playing singers who had been hit by the Ray Charles impact. Others include James Booker, Al Reed, Dr. John, or even S.Q. Reeder (Little Richard’s model also known as “Esquerita”) or even Professor Longhair (whose stage program included Mess Around).

Fr: Eddie Bo était l’un de ces pianistes et chanteurs de la Nouvelle Orléans qui avaient été frappé par l’impact de Ray Charles. Parmi les autres, il convient de citer James Booker, Al Reed, Dr. John, et même S.Q. Reeder (le modèle de Little Richard, également connu sous le nom d’Esquerita) ou encore Professor Longhair (dont le répertoire incluait Mess Around).

(3) (Ahmet Ertegun) Ray Charles-vo,p/Pinky Williams-as/Freddie Mitchell-ts/Dave McRae-bs/Mickey Baker-g/ Lloyd Trotman-b/Connie Kay-dm/Arr. Jesse Stone. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun. New York, May 17, 1953. Atlantic 999.

(4) (Ahmet Ertegun) Sammy Davis, Jr-vo/John Anderson, Ernie Royal, Snooky Young, Thad Jones, Joe Newman-tp/ Marshall Royal, Frank Wess, Eric Dolphy-as/ Frank Foster, Billy Mitchell-ts/ Charlie Fowlkes-bs/ George Rhodes-p/ Freddie Green-g/ Eddie Jones-b/ Sonny Payne-dm. Arr.& cond. Sy Oliver. 1960. From the LP“I Gotta Right To Swing” (Decca LP 8981).

Eng: Famous all-around entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr.’s stage shows often featured impersonations, and Ray Charles wa one of the artists he used to imitate. This one album features 4 Ray Charles covers.

Fr: Les spectacles du célèbre comédien/chanteur/danseur Sammy Davis, Jr. comportaient souvent une partie où il se livrait à des imitations, et Ray Charles faisait partie des chanteurs qu’il avait l’habitude d’imiter.

L’album d’où est extraite cette interprétation comportait 4 reprises de Ray Charles.

(5) (Charles Calhoun) Ray Charles-vo,p/Pinky Williams-as/Freddie Mitchell-ts/Dave McRae-bs/Mickey Baker-g/ Lloyd Trotman-b/Connie Kay-dm/Arr. Jesse Stone. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun. New York, May 17, 1953. Atlantic 1037.

(6) (Charles Calhoun) Harry Belafonte-vo/Don Fagerquist-tp/Milt Bernhart-tb/Plas Johnson-ts/Howard Roberts-g/Jimmy Rowles-p/Red Callender-b/Jack Sperling-dm.Arr. & cond. Dennis Farnon. Hollywood, June 5, 1958. From the LP“Belafonte Sings the Blues” (RCA Victor LOP 1006).

Eng: Actor and pop singer Harry Belafonte (who usually sang ballads and calypso) did that odd “blues” album of which 5 songs (out of 13) were Ray Charles covers.

Fr: L’acteur et chanteur populaire Harry Belafonte (qui chantait habituellement des ballades et des calypsos) avait fait un pas de côté en enregistrant cet inattendu album “blues” dont 5 des 13 chansons étaient des reprises de Ray Charles.

(7) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p/with Guitar Slim’s band: Wallace Davenport & Frank Mitchell-tp/Warren Bell & O’Neil Gerald-as/Joe Tillman-ts/Charles Burbank-bs/Lloyd Lambert-b/Oscar Moore-dm. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New Orleans, December 4, 1953. Atlantic 1037.

(8) (Ray Charles) “Little” Stevie Wonder-vo, p/with unidentified musicians. Prod. by Clarence Paul. Detroit, July 19, 1962. From the LP“Tribute to Uncle Ray” (Tamla TM 232).

Eng: Tagged as “the 12 years old Genius” by his record company, “Little” Stevie Wonder would live up to the ordeal!

Fr: Ayant été estampillé par sa marque de disques comme “le génie de 12 ans”, “Little” Stevie Wonder se montrera à la hauteur de cette épreuve!

(9) (Ray Charles, Renald Richard) Ray Charles-vo,p/Joe Bridgewater, Charles Whitley-tp/Don Wilkerson-ts/David “Fathead” Newman-bs/Wesley Jackson-g/Jimmy Bell-b/Glenn Brooks-dm. Solo: Don Wilkerson. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. Atlanta, November 18, 1954. Atlantic 1050.

(10) (Ray Charles, Renald Richard) Geneva Vallier vo/ with unidentified musicians. Los Angeles, May 1955. Cash 1009.

Eng: A typical “answer song” [covering a hit record with new lyrics challenging the original ones] by obscure R&B singer Geneva Vallier, who apparently recorded only three singles.

Fr: Une “chanson réponse” typique [exercice qui constituait à reprendre la musique d’une chanson à succès en en parodiant les paroles], par l’obscure chanteuse de R&B Geneva Vallier, qui semble n’avoir enregistré que 3 disques 45t.

(11) (Ray Charles, Renald Richard) Jo Stafford-vo/with Paul Weston (p) & his orchestra. 1955. Columbia 4-40451.

Eng: Ray Charles had the greatest of admiration for jazz/pop singer Jo Stafford and he had been thrilled when she recorded this song of his, soon after the release of his original version.

Fr: Ray Charles avait la plus grande admiration pour la chanteuse de jazz et de ballades Jo Stafford et il avait été enchanté qu’elle reprenne sa chanson, peu de temps après la sortie de sa propre version originale.

(12) (Ray Charles, Renald Richard) Elvis Presley-lead vo/Chet Atkins & Scotty Moore-g/Floyd Cramer-p/Bill Black-b/D.J. Fontana-dm/Ben Speer, Brock Speer, Gordon Stoker-bgd vo. Prod. Chet Atkins, Elvis Presler & Stephen Sholes. Nashville, January 10, 1956.

(13) (Ray Charles, Renald Richard) King Curtis-vo&ts/ Ernie Hayes-org/ Paul Griffin-p/ Billy Butler & another-g/ Jimmy Lewis-b/ Ray Lucas-dm. Prod. & arr. Luther Dixon. New York, circa May 1962. From the LP “The Shirelles & King Curtis Give a Twist Party” (Scepter LP 505).

Eng: “King” Curtis [Ousley] was the most in demand saxophone player of the New York studios in the 1950s and 1960s. As evidenced by this track, he also was a great singer, with a voice very close to that of Ray Charles.

Fr: “King” Curtis [Ousley] était le saxophoniste le plus recherché des studios new yorkais des années 1950 et 1960. Comme en témoigne cette interprétation, il était aussi un grand chanteur, avec une voix très proche de celle de Ray Charles.

(14) (Ray Charles, Renald Richard) Jimmy McGriff-org/ Morris Dow-g/ Jackie Mills-dm. Prod. Joe Lederman. 1962.

Eng: Jazz organist Jimmy McGriff had a top 20 hit with his instrumental version of the song, a tune also favored by other famous organists (Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, Papa John DeFrancesco…)

Fr: L’organiste de jazz Jimmy McGriff avait eu un “hit” dans le Top 20 avec sa version instrumentale de cette chanson, un morceau également prisé par d’autres organistes célèbres (Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, Papa John DeFrancesco…)

(15) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p/Joe Bridgewater & Riley Webb-tp/Don Wilkerson-ts/David Newman-bs/ Roosevelt “Whiskey” Sheffield-b/ William Peeples-dm. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. Miami, April 23, 1955. Atlantic 1063.

(16) (D. Bartholomew, P. Ping) Ford Eaglin [Fird Eaglin, a.k.a Snooks Eaglin]-vo,g/probably Frank Fields-b/ prob. Robert French-dm. New Orleans, April 25, 1960. Imperial X5692.

Eng: Briefly tagged as “The New Genius” because of the closeness of their voices at that time (and the fact they were both suffering from the same handicap), guitar virtuoso Snooks Eaglin proved as convicing as a “folk blues”singer as he was as a R&B artist.

Fr: Brièvement étiqueté en tant que “Le Nouveau Génie”, en raison de la ressemblance de leurs voix à cette époque (et le fait qu’ils souffraient tous les deux du même handicap), le guitariste virtuose Snooks Eaglin devait se révèler aussi convaincant en tant que chanteur de “folk blues” qu’il l’était en tant qu’artiste de R&B.

(17) (Bob Gaddy) Bob Gaddy-vo,p/Jimmy Wright-ts/Jimmy Spruill-g/Gene Brooks-dm/possibly Al Hall (b). New York, 1958 or 1959. Old Town.1077

Eng: New York bluesman Bob Gaddy was the regular pianist of Brownie McGhee’s combo.

Fr: Le bluesman de New York Bob Gaddy était le pianiste régulier de la petite formation de Brownie McGhee

(18) (Bobby Peterson) Bobby Peterson vo,p/with prob. Joe Pyatt (sax)/David Butler-b/James “Jamo” Thomas (perc.). Philadelphia, 1961. V-Tone 221.

Eng: Saxophonist and bandleader Joe Pyatt discovered singer and pianist Bobby Peterson in 1958, in their common hometown of Chester, PA, while Peterson was making a living performing in clubs of the Philadelphia suburbs as “Bobby Charles – Ray Charles’s nephew”, wearing sunglasses while he sang Ray Charles songs. The version of Ray’s Swanee River Rock that Bobby Peterson recorded for Atlantic in 1961 remained unreleased.

Fr: Le saxophoniste et chef d’orchestre Joe Pyatt découvrit le chanteur et pianiste Bobby Peterson en 1958, dans leur commune ville de résidence de Chester, PA, quand Peterson gagnait sa vie en se produisant dans des clubs de la banlieue de Philadelphie en tant que “Bobby Charles – le neveu de Ray Charles”, portant des lunettes de soleil pendant qu’il interprétait des chansons de Ray Charles. La version de la chanson de Ray Charles Swanee River Rock que Peterson avait enregistrée pour Atlantic en 1961 est demeurée inédite.

(19) (Ray Charles) Isley Brothers: Ronald Isley, O’Kelly Isley, Rudolph Isley-vo/Ernie Royal-tp/King Curtis, Buddy Lucas-ts/Al Epstein-bs/Mike Stoller-p/Al Casamenti, Allen Hanlon-g/Gordon Micheli-b/Gary Chester-dm/Bobby Rosengarten-perc/dir. Fred Norman. Prod. Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller. New York, June 23, 1960. Atlantic 2122.

(20) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p/Joe Bridgewater & Riley Webb-tp/Don Wilkerson-ts/David Newman-bs/ Roosevelt “Whiskey” Sheffield-b/ William Peeples-dm/Mary Ann Fisher, Davide Newman & Don Wilkerson (background vo). Solo: Don Wilkerson (ts). Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. Miami, April 23, 1955. Atlantic 1063

(21) (Ray Charles) Gloria Lynne-vo/with Fred Norman’s orchestra. 1959. Everest 29441.

Eng: Pop jazz singer Gloria Lynne draws from her own gospel roots to cover this song – one of the many he adapted from religious hymns.

Fr: La chanteuse pop jazz Gloria Lynne s’inspire de ses propres racines gospel pour reprendre cette chanson – l’une des nombreuses que Ray Charles a adaptées d’hymnes religieux.

(22) (Ray Charles) Everly Brothers: Don Everly & Phil Everly-vo,g/unidentified backing musicians.1958. Cadence 1342.

Eng: This very succesful country / R&R duet used to cover Ray Charles’s songs. Ray would return the compliment buy recording their big hit Bye Bye Love.

Fr: Ce duo à succès country / R&R avait pour habitude de reprendre des chansons de Ray Charles. Celui-ci leur avait retourné le compliment en enregistrant leur grand succès Bye Bye Love.

(23) ) (Henry Glover) Ray Charles-vo,p)/Joe Bridgewater & Joshua “Jack” Willis-tp/Don Wilkerson-ts/Cecil Payne-bs/Paul West-b/Panama Francis-dm/fem. choir [“Boo” (high part), unknown (middle part), Mary Ann Fisher (bottom part)]. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, November 30, 1955. Atlantic 1085.

(24) (Henry Glover) Jackie DeShannon-vo/orch. arr. & cond. Bert Keys. Prod Clyde Otis. 1962. Liberty 55425.

Eng: Jackie DeShannon can sing anything, folk, ballads, spirituals, R&B, with the same conviction and talent. She was so fond of Ray Charles’s music that she had even recorded a full album of covers of his songs, “Hits of the Genius” (Liberty LST-7213), which was scheduled for a release on January 5, 1962. But it was eventually cancelled…

Fr: Jackie DeShannon peut tout chanter, folk, ballades, chants religieux, R&B, avec la même conviction et le même talent. Elle aimait tellement la musique de Ray Charles qu’elle avait même enregistré un album complet de reprises de ses chansons, “Hits of the Genius” (Liberty LST-7213), qui devait paraitre le 5 juillet 1962, mais dont la sortie fut annulée…

CD-6

 1 - Ray Charles - Mary Ann

 2 - Lloyd Price - Mary Anne

 3 - Paul Moer - Mary Ann

 4 - Ray Charles - Hallelujah I Love Her So

 5 -
Count Basie & his Orch. feat. Joe Williams - Hallelujah I Love Her So

 6 - Timi Yuro - Hallelujah, I Love Him So

 7 - Eddie Cochran - Hallelujah I Love Her So

 8 - Ella Fitzgerald - Hallelujah I Love Him So

 9 - Ray Charles - Lonely Avenue

10 - Booker T. and the MG’s - Lonely Avenue

11 - Ray Charles - Leave My Woman Alone

12 - Herbie Cox - Leave My Woman Alone

13 - Ray Charles - Sweet Sixteen Bars

14 - Earl Grant - Sweet Sixteen Bars

15 - Ray Charles - It’s All Right

16 - Pete Fountain - It’s All Right

17 - Ray Charles - Ain’t That Love

18 - Brenda Lee - Ain’t That Love

19 - Bill Henderson with the Jimmy Smith trio - Ain’t That Love

20 - “A. Tousan” (Allen Toussaint) - Happy Times

21 - Ray Charles - Rockhouse (Parts 1 & 2)

22 - Perry Lee Blackwell - Rock House

23 - Sandy Nelson - Rock House

24 - Ray Charles - Swanee River Rock
(Talkin’ ‘Bout That River)

25 - Jim Breedlove - Swanee River Rock

26 - Ray Charles - Talkin’ ‘Bout You

27 - Brenda Lee - Talkin’ ‘Bout You

Discography CD6

(1) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p/Joe Bridgewater & Joshua “Jack” Willis-tp/Don Wilkerson-ts/Cecil Payne-bs/Paul West-b/Panama Francis-dm. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, November 30, 1955. Atlantic 1085.

(2) (Ray Charles) Lloyd Price-vo/with orch. arr. & cond. By Don Costa. New York, July 9, 1959. From the LP “Mr. Personality” (ABC-Paramount 297).

Eng: Successful New Orleans R&B singer Lloyd Price had preceded Ray Charles in his foray into pop musical territory and had been signed by the then powerful pop label ABC-Paramount one year before Ray was.

Fr: Lloyd Price, chanteur de R&B à succès de la Nouvelle Orléans, avait précédé Ray Charles dans son incursion dans le territoire de la musique populaire et avait été pris sous contrat par le puissant label pop ABC-Paramount un an avant Ray.

(3) (Ray Charles) Paul Moer-p/Jimmy Bond-b/Frank Butler-dm. Hollywood November 1960. From the LP “The Contemporary Jazz Classics of Paul Moer”, Del Fi DFLP-1212.

Eng: There was a tendency among “modern” jazz musicians, white or black alike, to make a point of ignoring R&B, but fortunately some of them, such as West Coast pianist Paul Moer, knew better and dared breaking this “taboo”.

Fr: Il y avait une tendance, parmi les musiciens de jazz “modernes”, qu’ils soient blancs ou noirs, de s’appliquer à ignorer le R&B, mais heureusement certains d’entre eux, comme le pianiste de la Côte Ouest Paul Moer, osaient briser ce tabou.

(4) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p/Joe Bridgewater & Joshua “Jack” Willis-tp/Don Wilkerson-ts/Cecil Payne-bs/Paul West-b/Panama Francis-dm. Solo: Don Wilkerson. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, November 30, 1955. Atlantic 1096.

(5) (Ray Charles) Joe William-vo/Wendell Culley, Thad Jones, Joe Newman, Snooky Young-tp/Henry Coker, Al Grey, Benny Powell-tb/Marshall Royal, Frank Wess-as/ Frank Foster, Billy Mitchell-ts/Charles Fowlkes-bs/ Count Basie-p/Freddie Green-g/Eddie Jones-b/Sonny Payne-dm. Chicago, March 4, 1958. Roulette GG-70.

(6) (Ray Charles) Timi Yuro-vo/with orchestra arr. & cond. By Bert Keys. Prod. Eddie Silvers.1962. From the LP “What’s a Matter Baby”, Liberty LST-7263.

Eng: Big voiced female singer Timi Yuro was considered as a forerunner of the so-called “blue-eyed soul singers”.

Fr: Dotée d’une voix profonde peu commune, la chanteuse Timi Yuro fut considérée comme une précurseure de ces vocalistes blancs qui furent appelés les “chanteurs/chanteuses soul aux yeux bleus.”

(7) (Ray Charles) Eddie Cochran-vo,g/with unidentified musicians. 1959.Liberty F-55214.

Eng: Early R&R star Eddie Cochran had, strangely enough, chosen a string laden pop approach for his cover of that Ray Charles song.

Fr: C’est curieusement une approche à base de violons que la jeune star du R&R Eddie Cochran avait choisie pour sa reprise de cette chanson de Ray Charles.

(8) (Ray Charles) Ella Fitzgerald-vo/Ray Copeland, Taft Jordan, Ernie Royal, Joe Wilde-tp/Melba Liston, Kai Winding, Britt Woodman-tb/Jerry Dodgion, Phil Woods-as/Carl Davis, Wilmer Shakesnider, Les Taylor-ts/Bill Doggett-org/Hank Jones-p/Mundell Lowe-g/Lucille Dixon-b/Gus Johnson-dm. Arr. & cond. by Bill Doggett. Prod. Norman Granz. 1962. From the LP “Rhythm Is My Business”, Verve V6-4056.

Eng: Supreme jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald and Ray Charles had a mutual admiration.

Fr: La chanteuse de jazz suprême Ella Fitzgerald et Ray Charles professaient une admiration mutuelle.

(9) (Doc Pomus) Ray Charles-vo,p/Joe Bridgewater & John Hunt-tp/David Newman-ts/Emmett Dennis-bs/ Roosevelt Sheffield-b/William Peeples-dm/The Cookies [Margie Hendrix, Dorothy Jones, Darlene McCrea]-bgd vo. Solo: David Newman (ts). Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler.
New York, May 16, 1956. Atlantic 1108.

(10) Booker T. Jones-org/Steve Cropper-g/Lewie Steinberg-el-b/Al Jackson, Jr.-dm. Prod. Jim Stewart

1962. From the LP “Green Onions”, Stax 701.

(11) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p/Joe Bridgewater & John Hunt-tp/David Newman-ts/Emmett Dennis-bs/Roosevelt Sheffield-b/William Peeples-dm/The Cookies [Mary Ann Fisher, Margie Hendrix, Dorothy Jones, Darlene McCrea]-bgd vo. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, May 16, 1956. Atlantic 1108.

(12) (Ray Charles) Herbie Cox-lead vo/The Cleftones-background vo/ with unidentified musicians. Arr. & cond. by Henry Glover. 1961. Rama RR-233 [as by Herbie Cox]. Also on LP “For Sentimental Reasons”, Gee G-707 [as by the Cleftones].

Eng: Herbie Cox was the lead singer of the Cleftones vocal group.

Fr: Herbie Cox était le chanteur soliste du groupe vocal The Cleftones.

(13) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-p/Roosevelt Sheffield-b/William Peeples-dm. Prod. Neshuhi Ertegun & Jerry Wexler.New York, November 20, 1956. From the LP “The Great Ray Charles”, Atlantic 1259.

(14) (Ray Charles) Earl Grant-p&org/with unidentified musicians. 1962. Decca 25574.

Eng: Mainly inspired by Nat King Cole, singer and virtuoso pianist/organist Earl Grant mostly devoted his recordings and appearances to all kinds of pop music. Yet, on occasion, he could convincingly perform R&B and blues material. He liked to tap into Ray Charles’s repertoire, and he even made a R&B and Pop hit out of Ray’s gospel-blues instrumental Sweet Sixteen Bars.

Fr: Surtout inspiré par Nat King Cole, le chanteur et pianiste/organiste virtuose Earl Grant a Essentiellement consacré ses enregistrements et spectacles à toutes sortes de musique pop. Pourtant, à l›occasion, il pouvait, de manière convaincante, interpréter des morceaux R&B et blues. Il aimait puiser dans le répertoire de Ray Charles et il a même décroché un “hit” R&B et Pop avec sa reprise de l’instrument gospel-blues de Ray Charles Sweet Sixteen Bars.

(15) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p/ Joe Bridgewater & John Hunt-tp/David Newman-ts/Emmett Dennis-bs/Roosevelt Sheffield-b/William Peeples-dm/The Raelets-bgd vo. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, November 27, 1956. Atlantic 1143.

(16) (Ray Charles) Pete Fountain-cl/Bob Bain & Bobby Gibbons-g/Stan Wrightsman-p/Morty Corb-b/Jack Sperling or Nick Fatool-dm/The Jubilee Singers: Sue Allen, William Brown, Peggy Clark, Jack Gruberman, Gwenn Johnson, Gene Lanham, Bill Lee, Francis Scott, Sally Sweetland, Ann Terry. Cond. by Charles “Bud” Dant. 1962. From the LP “Let the Good Times Roll”, Coral CRL 57406.

Eng: Popular Dixieland Jazz clarinet player Pete Fountaine is yet another evidence that Ray Charles’s music impacted all kinds of performers.

Fr: Le célèbre clarinettiste de jazz Dixieland Pete Fountain est une preuve de plus que la musique de Ray Charles a touché toutes sortes d’artistes.

(17) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p/Joe Bridgewater & John Hunt-tp/David Newman-ts/Emmett Dennis-bs/Roosevelt Sheffield-b/William Peeples-dm/Jerry Wexler-tamb/The Raelets-bgd vo. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, November 27, 1956. Atlantic 1124.

(18) (Ray Charles) Brenda Lee-vo/with The Anita Kerr Singers and unidentified musicians. Decca 9-30411.

Eng: Child prodigy Brenda Lee, “Little Miss Dynamite”, had a crush on Ray Charles songs. She was 12 when she recorded this one.

Fr: L’enfant prodige Brenda Lee, “Little Miss Dynamite”, avait un faible pour les chansons de Ray Charles. Elle avait 12 ans quand elle a enregistré celle-ci.

(19) (Ray Charles) Bill Henderson-vo/Jimmy Smith-org/Ray Crawford-g/Donald Bailey-dm. Prod. by Alfred Lion. New York, October 14, 1958. Blue Note 45-1728-A.

Eng: Jazz singer Bill Henderson benefits here from the mighty support of leading organist Jimmy Smith (who was a self-proclaimed Ray Charles devotee).

Fr: Le chanteur de jazz Bill Henderson bénéficie ici du puissant soutien du grand organiste Jimmy Smith (qui était un dévot autoproclamé de Ray Charles).

(20) (Allen Toussaint, Alvin Tyler, Cosimo Matassa) Allen Toussaint-p/Nat Perilliat-ts/Alvin “Red” Tyler-bs/Justin Adams or Roy Montrell-g/Frank Fields-b/Charles “Hungry” Williams-dm. New Orleans, January 29, 1958. RCA Victor 47-7192.

Eng: Commenting on this tune of his in the early 1990, Allen Toussaint said: “I definitely can hear some Ray Charles influence.”

Fr: Commentant ce morceau de sa composition, au début des années 1990, Allen Toussaint dit : “J’entends ici à l’évidence l’influence de Ray Charles.”

(21) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-p/Joe Bridgewater & John Hunt-tp/David Newman-ts/Emmett Dennis-bs/Roosevelt Sheffield-b/William Peeples-dm Solo: David Newman. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, November 27, 1956. Atlantic 2006.

(22) (Ray Charles) Perry Lee Blackwell-org/Curtis Amy-ts/Johnny Kirkwood-dm. 1957. From the LP “Presenting Perry Lee Blackwell”, Combo LP600.

Eng: One of the lesser-known female jazz organists, Perry Lee Blackwell’s main claim to fame was a short cameo in the Hollywood movie “Pillow Talk”. Her saxophone player on this record was future Ray Charles band leader Curtis Amy.

Fr: La peu connue organiste de jazz Perry Lee Blackwell s’est surtout illustrée par la brève séquence qui lui est consacrée dans le film hollywoodien “Pillow Talk”. Son saxophoniste

sur ce disque était le futur chef d’orchestre de Ray Charles, Curtis Amy.

(23) (Ray Charles) Sandy Nelson-dm/with unidentified musicians. Los Angeles, 1962. From the LP “Golden Hits”, Imperial12202.

Eng: Sandy Nelson was an in-demand West Coast sessions drummer who abundantly recorded instrumental albums under his own name, often with the famous Johnson brothers (Plas on tenor sax and Ray on piano).

Fr: Sandy Nelson était un batteur très demandé pour les séances d’enregistrement de la Côte Ouest, et il enregistrait parallèlement de nombreux albums instrumentaux sous son propre nom, souvent avec les célèbres frères Johnson (Plas au sax ténor et Ray au piano).

(24) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p/ Joe Bridgewater & Ricky Harper-tp/ David Newman-ts/Emmett Dennis-bs/Edgar Willis-b/William Peeples-dm/Mongo Santamaria-cga/The Raelets: Gwen Berry,Mary Ann Fisher, Margie Hendrix, Pat Moseley Lyles. Solo: David Newman. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, May 26, 1957. Atlantic 1154.

(25) (Ray Charles) Jim Breedlove-vo/with orchestra including Sam “The Man” Taylor-ts/Everett Barksdale-g/Dave Martin-p/Doles Dickens-b/Sticks Evans-dm. 1958. Cond. Dave Martin. From the LP “Jim Breedlove Sings Rock ‘n’ Roll Hits”, Camden 430.

Eng: Former lead singer of the vocal group The Cues, versatile singer Jim Breedlove had arranged himself this singular version of the Ray Charles song.

Fr: Ancien chanteur du groupe vocal The Cues, le chanteur à tout faire Jim Breedlove avait lui-même arrangé cette version singulière de la chanson de Ray Charles.

(26) Ray Charles-vo,p/ Joe Bridgewater & Lee “Ricci” Harper-tp/David Newman-ts/Emmett Dennis-bs/Edgar Willis-b/William Peeples-dm/Mongo Santamaria-cga/Mary Ann Fisher & the Raelets [Margie Hendrix, Pat Lyles, Darlene McCrea]-bgd vo). Solo: David Newman. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, May 26, 1957. Atlantic 1172.

(27) Brenda Lee-vo/with unidentified musicians. 1961. From the LP “All the Ways”, Decca DL 4176.

CD-7

 1 - Ray Charles - Tell All the World About You

 2 - Paula Watson - Tell All the World About You

 3 - Peggy Lee - Tell All the World About You

 4 - Ray Charles - Tell Me How Do You Feel

 5 - Bobby Darin - Tell Me How Do You Feel

 6 - Ray Charles - What’d I Say (Parts 1 & 2)

 7 - Clyde McPhatter - What’d I Say

 8 - Jerry Lee Lewis - What’d I Say

 9 - Sandy Nelson - What’d I Say

10 - The Drivers - High Gear

11 - Ray Charles - I Believe to My Soul

12 - Bobby Parker - Steal Your Heart Away

13 - Ray Charles - Them That Got

14 - Richard “Groove” Holmes - Them That’s Got

15 - Ray Charles - Sticks and Stones

16 - Wanda Jackson - Sticks and Stones

17 - The Mar-Keys - Sticks and Stones

18 - Ray Charles - One Mint Julep

19 - Willie Mitchell - One Mint Julep

20 - Ray Charles - Hit the Road Jack

21 - Nina Simone - Come on Back, Jack

22 - The Chantels - Well, I Told You

23 - Lou Bennett - Hit the road Jack

24 - Lou Bennett - Georgia on my mind

25 - Lou Bennett - One Mint Julep

26 - Lou Bennett - What’d I Say

Bonus track (previously unreleased live recording):

27 - Ray Charles - Georgia on my mind

Discography CD7

(1) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,p/Marcus Belgrave & Ricky Harper-tp/David Newman-ts/Hank Crawford-bs/Edgar Willis-b/Richie Goldberg-dm/ Mary Ann Fisher & the Cookies [Margie Hendrix, Dorothy Jones, Darlene McCrea]-bgd vo. Solo: David Newman. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, February 20, 1958. Atlantic 2010.

(2) (Ray Charles) Paula Watson-vo,p/with the Frank Barber orchestra.1962. From the LP “The Fabulous Paula”, Oriole PS40040.

Eng: Paula Watson had started her career in 1948, in a rowdy Julia Lee tradition. She was a resident in England when she recorded her take of this Ray Charles song.

Fr: Paula Watson avait débuté sa carrière en 1948, dans la tradition “leste” d‘une Julia Lee. Elle résidait en Angleterre lorsqu’elle a enregistré sa version de cette chanson de Ray Charles.

(3) (Ray Charles) Peggy Lee-vo/with orchestra conducted by Benny Carter. From the LP “Sugar ‘n’ Spice”, Capitol ST1772.

Eng: Former Benny Goodman orchestra singer Peggy Lee was a big fan of Ray Charles, and the appreciation was reciprocal (Ray called her “Sister Peggy”).

Fr: L’ancienne chanteuse de l’orchestre de Benny Goodman, Peggy Lee, était une grande fan de Ray Charles, et l’appréciation était réciproque (Ray l’appelait “Sœur Peggy”).

(4) (Ray Charles, Percy Mayfield) Ray Charles-lead vo,org/David Newman-ts/Edgar Willis-b/Milt Turner-dm/Mongo Santamaria-cga/the Raelets: Gwen Berry, Margie Hendrix, Pat Lyles, Darlene McCrea-bgd vo. Solo: David Newman. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, October 28, 1958. Atlantic 2022.

(5) (Ray Charles, Percy Mayfield) Bobby Darin-vo/John Anderson-tp/Plas Johnson & Nino Tempo-sax/Ray Johnson-org/Tony Terran-g/Red Callender-b/Earl Palmer, Richie Frost-dm/Darlene Love & the Blossoms [Gloria Goodson, Nanette Jackson, Fonita James]-bgd vo. Arr. & cond. Jimmy Haskell. Los Angeles, November 7, 1961. From the LP “Bobby Darin Sings Ray Charles”, Atco LP 33-140.

Eng: Successful pop singer, in a Frank Sinatra tradition, Bobby Darin had an itch to pay homage to Ray Charles. Says arranger Jimmy Haskell: “I knew that Bobby admired Ray Charls immensely and wanted to honor him. So, I just followed the arrangements on Ray’s records”.

Fr: Chanteur pop à succès, dans la tradition de Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin avait envie de rendre hommage à Ray Charles. En charge des arrangements, Jimmy Haskell précisa à ce sujet: “Je savais que Bobby admirait énormément Ray Charles et qu’il voulait l’honorer. Donc, j’ai juste suivi les arrangements sur les disques de Ray.”

 (6) (Ray Charles) Ray Charles-vo,el-p/Marcus Belgrave and possibly John Hunt-tp/David Newman-ts/Hank Crawford-bs/Edgar Willis-b/ Milt Turner-dm/the Raelets [Gwen Berry, Margie Hendrix, Pat Lyles, Darlene McCrea]-bgd vo. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, February 18, 1959. Atlantic 2031.

(7) (Ray Charles) Clyde McPhatter-vo/Homer “Boots” Randolph-ts/Hargus “Pig” Robbins-p/Kelso Herston, Jerry Kennedy-g/Murray “Buddy” Harman, Jr.-dm/the Merry Melody Singers [Mildred Kirkham, Neal Matthews, Jr., Margie Singleton, Hugh Gordon Stoker, Raymond C. Walker]-bgd vo. Arr. by Jerry Kennedy. Nashville, July 21 or 22, 1961. From the LP “Golden Blues Hits”, Mercury MG-20655.

Eng: Ex-lead singer of the Dominos and the Drifters vocal groups, Clyde McPhatter turned out this most respectable version of the Ray Charles classic with the unexpected help of a bunch of country music studio players.

Fr: Ex-chanteur soliste des groupes vocaux The Dominos et The Drifters, Clyde McPhatter enregistra cette très respectable version du classique de Ray Charles avec l’aide inattendue d’un groupe de musiciens de studio “country”..

(8) (Ray Charles) Jerry Lee Lewis-vo,p/with unidentified musicians. Memphis, c. May 1961. Sun 356.

Eng: In 1961, R&R pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis (a.k.a. “The Killer”) had revived his career with his cover of that Ray Charles smash, reaching number 26 on the R&B charts of the Billboard magazine, and number 30 on the Pop charts.

Fr: En 1961, le pionnier du R&R Jerry Lee Lewis (alias « The Killer ») avait relancé sa carrière avec sa reprise de ce fracassant succès Ray Charles, sa version atteignant la 26^ème place du classement R&B du magazine Billboard, et la 30^ème du classement Pop.

(9) (Ray Charles) Sandy Nelson-dm/with band possibly including Plas Johnson-ts and Ray Johnson-p. Los Angeles, 1962. From the LP “Golden Hits”, Imperial12202.

(10) (David Clowney) Dave “Baby” Cortez (David Clowney)-p/with unidentified musicians. Ortez production. Prob. New York, 1961. Comet C-2142.

Eng: Keyboards player Dave “Baby” Cortez, of “Happy Organ” fame, came up with this rocking instrumental owing quite a few licks to Brother Ray.

Fr: Le claviériste Dave “Baby” Cortez, auteur du fameux “Happy Organ”, s’était largement inspiré de Brother Ray pour composer son “High Gear”.

(11) (Ray Charles)- Ray Charles-vo,el-p/Marcus Belgrave & John Hunt-tp/David Newman-ts/Hank Crawford-bs/Edgar Willis-b/Teagle Fleming-dm. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Ahmet Ertegun & Jerry Wexler. New York, June 26, 1959. Atlantic 2043.

(12) (Bobby Parker) Bobby Parker-vo,g/Bobby Sanchez-tp/Maurice Robertson-as/Ahmar Rich or Bill Clark-ts/Marvin Warwick-bs/Herbert Casey-b/TNT Tribble-dm. Washington, DC, 1961. V-Tone 223.

Eng: Washington, DC’s own hero bluesman Bobby Parker had admitted having borrowed from Ray Charles to write this song (and he had done the same with his “What’d I Say” inspired “Watch Your Step”.)

Fr: Le bluesman de Washington, DC, Bobby Parker avait admis avoir emprunté à Ray Charles pour écrire cette chanson [et il avait fait la même chose avec son “Watch Your Step”, qui doit beaucoup à “What’d I Say”].

(13) (Ray Charles, Ricci Harper) Ray Charles-vo,p/Marcus Belgrave & John Hunt-tp/Hank Crawford-as/David Newman-ts/Leroy Cooper-bs/Edgar Willis-b/Milt Turner-dm. Solo: David Newman. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Sid Feller. Hollywood, December 29, 1959. ABC-Paramount 10141.

(14) (Ray Charles, Ricci Harper) Richard “Groove” Holmes-org/Lawrence “Tricky” Lofton-tb/Ben Webster-ts/George Freeman-g/Les McCann-p/Ron Jefferson-dm.Prod. by Richard Bock. Los Angeles, March 1961. From the LP “Groove”, Pacific Jazz ST-32.

Eng: Among jazz musicians, organ players were seemingly the most inclined to use Ray Charles songs as a vehicle for improvisations. Master organist Richard “Groove” Holmes tried his hands at this lesser known one.

Fr: Parmi les musiciens de jazz, ce sont les organistes qui semblent avoir été les plus enclins à utiliser des morceaux de Ray Charles comme tremplins à leurs improvisations. C’est sur le peu connu “Them That’s Got” que le maître organiste Richard “Groove” Holmes avait jeté son dévolu.

(15) (Titus Turner) Ray Charles-vo,el-p/Martin Banks & John Hunt-tp/Hank Crawford-as/David Newman-ts/Leroy Cooper-bs/Edgar Willis-b/Milt Turner-dm/the Raelets including Margie Hendrix-bgd vo. Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Sid Feller. New York, April 27, 1960. ABC-Paramount 1118.

(16) (Titus Turner) Wanda Jackson-vo,g/with unidentified musicians. 1961. From the LP “Right or Wrong”, Capitol ST1596.

Eng: With this Ray Charles storming R&B rocker, rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson had found a song suiting her own ferocious style to a tee.

Fr: Avec cet irrésistible “rocker” R&B de Ray Charles, la reine du rockabilly Wanda Jackson avait trouvé une chanson qui convenait parfaitement à son propre style débridé.

(17) (Titus Turner) musicians include Howard Grimes (dm) and probably Gilbert Caple (ts) and Floyd Newman (bs). Memphis, 1961.

(18) (Rudolph Toombs) Ray Charles-Hammond C3 organ/John Frosk, Phil Guilbeau, Jimmy Nottingham, Clark Terry, Joe Wilder-tp/ Jimmy Cleveland, Urbie Green, Keg Johnson, George Matthews-tb/George Dorsey, Earl Warren-as/Budd Johnson, Seldon Powell-ts/Haywood Henry-bs/Sam Herman-g/Joe Benjamin-b/Roy Haynes-dm. Arr.-cond. Quincy Jones. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, December 27, 1960. Impulse 200.

(19) (Rudolph Toombs) Willie Mitchell-tp/Bill Fort, James Mitchell-ts/Fred Ford-bs/Joe Louis Hall-org/Sammy Lawhorn-g/Lewis Steinberg-b/ Al Jackson, Jr.-dm. Memphis 1961. Home of the Blues 119.

Eng: With his cover of “One Mint Julep” – the Clovers vocal group hit – as an organ instrumental, Ray Charles had given that tune a new life, being soon picked up by a bunch of other organ players.

Fr: Avec sa reprise de “One Mint Julep” – le succès du groupe vocal The Clovers – sous la forme d’un instrumental joué à l’orgue, Ray Charles avait donné à cette mélodie une nouvelle vie, inspirant de nombreux organistes à la reprendre à leur tour.

(20) (Percy Mayfield) Ray Charles-vo, p/Phil Guilbeau-tp/John Hunt-flh/Hank Crawford-as/David Newman-ts/Leroy Cooper-bs/Edgar Willis-b/Bruno Carr-dm/the Raelets: Gwen Berry, Margie Hendrix, Pat Lyles, Darlene McCrea-bgd vo/Arr. Ray Charles. Prod. Sid Feller. New York, July 5, 1961. ABC-Paramount 10244.

(21) (Shuman, Carr) Nina Simone-vo,p with unidentified musicians. Prod. by Stu Phillips. New York, 1961. Colpix CP614.

Eng: Nina’s answer song to Ray Charles’ hit.

Fr: La réponse de Nina à ce succès de Ray Charles.

(22) (Barrett) The Chantels: Arlene Smith-lead vo/Sonia Goring, Lois Harris, Jackie Landry Jackson, Renee Minus-bgd vo/Sammy Lowe orchestra. New York, 1961. Carlton 564.

Eng: Yet another answer to the same song.

Fr: Encore une autre réponse à la même chanson.

(23) (Percy Mayfield) Lou Bennett-org with unidentified musicians. Paris, 1961.

(24) (Hoagy Carmichael, Stuart Gorrell) Lou Bennett-org with unidentified musicians. Paris, 1961.

(25) (Rudolph Toombs) Lou Bennett-org with unidentified musicians. Paris, 1961.

(26) (Ray Charles) Lou Bennett-org with unidentified musicians. Paris, 1961.

(27) (Hoagy Carmichael, Stuart Gorrell) Ray Charles-vo,p/David Newman-fl/Marcus Belgrave & Wallace Davenport-tp/John Hunt (flh)/Henderson Chambers, Leon Comegys, Jim Harbert, Keg Johnson-tb/Hank Crawford-as, band leader/Rudy Powell-as/ Don Wilkerson-ts/Leroy Cooper-bs/Sonny Forriest-g/Edgar Willis-b/Bruno Carr-dm/ The Raelets (where heard): Gwen Berry, Margie Hendrix, Pat Lyles, Darlene McCrea. Recorded live at the Olympia Theater, Paris, 1^st concert of May 19, 1962.