ABSTRACT
American singer, pianist, and composer of popular songs; born Ray Charles Robinson in Albany, Georgia. He began to lose his vision at age six, and eventually became totally blind. Nevertheless, he played the piano and wrote music in the rhythm and blues idiom, later turning to soul music and country styles. Charles first achieved recorded success in the mid-through late 1950s for Atlantic Records, notably with the 1959 single “What’d I Say (Part I),” a number one R&B, number six pop hit (Atlantic 2031). He left Atlantic for ABC-Paramount a year later, where he had a string of hits through the 1960s. Charles’s greatest record is “Georgia on My Mind” (ABC 10135; 1960), one of his nine Grammy winners. Other discs that topped the charts were “Hit the Road Jack” (ABC 10244; 1961), and “I Can’t Stop Loving You” (ABC 10330; 1962), both Grammy winners. ABC also offered Charles the chance to branch out into other styles of music. On its Impulse subsidiary, he released the 1961 album Genius + Soul = Jazz (Impulse AS-2). His 1962 album, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music (ABC 410), was a landmark, and a daring move for the artist; it was so successful that a second volume was issued immediately (ABC 435). He had more than 60 other hit records in the 1960s and 1970s. Charles owned his own recordings, which he leased to ABC through his own TRC company, an unusual arrangement for a pop performer during this era. Charles had fewer hits after the late 1960s, although he continued to be popular as a touring artist. A 1975 single, “Living for the City” (Crossover 981), took the Grammy for R&B vocal. A duet with Chaka Khan won a Grammy in 1990: “I’ll Be Good to You.” Charles has continued to tour and record through the 1990s. He also has holdings in a record label (Crossover Records), music publisher, and recording studio.
