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Known to many in the music business as “The Genius”, Ray Charles is credited for inspiring soul music by expanding the sound of rhythm & blues by adding different styles such as jazz, country, and pop. His powerful vocals and fresh form of black pop music prompted his rise to stardom in the early 1950s. Although Charles did not generate any major hits past the 1960s, he continued to promote his music performing many concerts throughout the last draw of his career.

Ray Charles Robinson was born on September 23, 1930 in Albany, Georgia. When he was only a few m Continued...

onths old, his family moved to the small town of Greenville in North Florida. Ray had a younger brother George who suffered a tragic death at the young age of four when he drowned in an outside tub. Around the age of six, Ray slowly began to go blind and was eventually fully sightless a year later. He was sent to the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine, Florida where he learned how to read Braille, write music and play instruments. Both his mother and father passed away while he was at school.

Once he completed his education, he began finding work as a musician in Florida playing in several jazz and country bands. He saved enough of his earnings to move to Seattle at seventeen in 1947. There he recorded his first single “Confession Blues”, under Swingtime Records, which became a hit in 1949. He later released a subsequent sensation, “Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand” in 1951. Even though his music was admirable, it received some criticism due to its lack of originality at the time. Charles was soon discovered by Atlantic Records eventually signing with them in 1952. His name was shortened to Ray Charles in order to avoid confusion with the boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. Soon after joining Atlantic, Ray discovered his signature style and began recording catchy songs “Mess Around”, “It Should Have Been Me”, and “I Got a Woman” which became a number two R&B hit in 1955. In 1959, he appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival where he performed the infamous improvised “What’d I Say” and received incredible praise and attention. The song became number one on the R&B charts and placed in the Top Ten on the pop charts.

Toward the late 1950s he left Atlantic and signed a deal with ABC Records where he was given greater creative control over his recordings. Charles focused on producing pop music hits such as “Unchain My Heart”, “You Are My Sunshine”, as well as the number one Billboard smash successes “Hit the Road Jack” and “Georgia on My Mind”. Both songs earned Grammy Awards while the latter was officially adopted as the Georgia state song on April 24, 1979. In 1962, Charles released Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, an album featuring the hits “I Can’t Stop Loving You” and “You Don’t Know Me” which stunned his pop following with its focus on country and western.

In 1965, the singer was arrested for heroin possession a third time. He avoided imprisonment by entering a rehab clinic to recover from his 17 year addiction. Following his release, Charles committed most of his time performing his hits around the world. He appeared in a few television shows and films in the 1980s such as The Cosby Show and The Blues Brothers. In 1990 he became the official spokesperson for Diet Pepsi dubbing the slogan “You Got The Right One, Baby!”
Charles passed away on June 10, 2004 from liver disease complications two months prior to the release of his final album. Genius Loves Company featured Ray’s duets with other famous recording artists such as B.B. King,