Ray Charles

Source: Gale Research Inc. 1999.

Sept. 23, 1930 - June 10, 2004
Nationality: American
Occupation: singer
Occupation: composer
From the time of his birth in Albany, Georgia, on September 23, 1930, life became an
unending challenge for Ray Charles Robinson. He may have been the love child of
Bailey Robinson and Aretha Robinson. His life was not only defined by grinding poverty,
but also by death, disease, and deprivation. When Charles was only five years old, his
brother George drowned as Charles helplessly watched. Within two years, glaucoma
stripped him of his eyesight but Aretha Robinson never allowed him to wallow in selfpity. Two recurring maternal messages have followed him throughout life. The first was
when well-meaning friends protested her decision to send her son to the State School for
the Blind in St. Augustine, Florida. Charles and David Ritz wrote in Brother Ray that
Aretha's response was: "He's blind, but he ain't stupid. He's lost his sight, but he ain't lost
his mind." The second was her strict moral code: "You do not beg and you do not steal."
The decision to send the young boy away was a sound one because Charles learned to
read Braille, mastered workshop crafts, and learned the rudiments of car mechanics and
typing. He was exposed to classical and big band music, learned to play the piano and
clarinet, and expanded his knowledge of gospel, country, and blues music on his own.
While still a teenager, Charles sat in with Julian "Cannonball" Adderly, then a college
student but later a leading jazz saxophonist. Adderly's college band was Charles' first real
gig and, as he got older, he became more skillful at writing band arrangements by
dictating the notes. It was soon apparent that he was not only musically gifted but also a
quick study in many areas. All the knowledge and experience gained at the school and in
fledgling bands would be needed to prepare the teenager to become an independent adult.
At the age of 15, Charles' world fell apart with the unexpected death of his mother. He
was at school with no one to comfort him. In his autobiography, he wrote: "Nothing had
ever hit me like that. Not George drowning. Not going blind... Mama had raised me, and
now she was gone ... for a while, I went a little crazy." He had to regroup quickly and
focus on surviving in a world where he was now a sightless orphan without even a high
school diploma.
The Apprentice
After leaving school, Charles joined the Musician's Local Union 632 in Jacksonville,
Florida. Although he was still a teenager, he was laying the foundation for a career in
music. In Brother Ray he wrote: "Music's the only way I've ever thought about making a
living. ... I suppose I could have been a mechanic, or a carpenter, or a weaver. But I never
featured those things in those early days when I first hit the streets. It was music that
drove me."

It was rough and he met rejection head on. In 1946, he was turned down by Lucky
Millinder, a prominent black band leader of that era. Charles, while trying to find his
niche in music, even played with the Florida Playboys, a white country-and-western
band. By 1948, there was nothing left for him in Florida and he moved to Seattle,
Washington, where he permanently adopted the name "Ray Charles" and began
developing his own style. Times were still hard and, in a Rolling Stone interview, Charles
related the severity of his plight: "I became very ill a couple of times. I suffered from
malnutrition, you know. I was really messed up ... and I wouldn't beg ... hell, I'd starve
first."
The Seattle stay was notable for three reasons. He cut his first record for the Los Angelesbased Swing Time label and had two minor R&B hits in 1949 and 1951. He also
unknowingly fathered his first child, a fact that came to light years later. Lastly, Charles
discovered the deceptive pleasures of hard drugs, a youthful diversion that would lead to
a 20-year heroin addiction.
When Charles moved to Los Angeles, his biggest break was becoming pianist and
musical director for Lowell Fulson, a big name blues artist in the 1950s. As Charles's own
style began to evolve, major companies began to pay attention, especially Atlantic
Records, which in 1952 bought his Swing Time contract for $2,500. He continued to
travel across the country and, in New Orleans, arranged and produced Guitar Slim's
million-seller single "The Things That I Used to Do." Larkin called the artist an
"impassioned, almost crude blues performer." Guitar Slim was a strong influence on
Charles's increasing use of the gospel-based style of singing. English music critic John
Broven cited this period as the time "when Ray Charles had just started that church
thing."
That "church thing" would prove to be Charles' emancipation from the early dual
influences of Nat "King" Cole and Charles Brown. All the church music he had heard in
the Deep South plus the influence of gospel artists he had heard on the road were being
incorporated into a new, energetic, spirit-filled music that spread like wildfire.
In 1954, Charles had his first big hit, exactly nine years after his mother's death.
According to Silver, this was the time when Charles "gave his earthy voice its freedom,
hammered some gospel chords on the piano, and invented soul music." That hit, "I've Got
a Woman," was quickly followed by many more, all reflecting the same sure-fire formula
that thrilled his fans and infuriated church folk. In his autobiography Charles described it
as "my first real smash. ... This spiritual-and-blues combination of mine was starting to
hit."
Charles responded to the black church that criticized his blues/gospel songs as
blasphemy. He said in Nowhere to Run, "I got a lot of criticism from the churches, and
from musicians, too. They said I must be crazy ... and then ... everybody started doing
it ... it worked, so I was a genius." He was not a gospel singer who defected to the pop
music scene. Since spirituals were not copyrighted, he never stole that music, as claimed
by critics. Charles, to his credit, steadfastly refused to perform religious and popular

music at the same venue. In his autobiography he defended his stance: "I was raised to
believe that you can't serve two gods."
Charles became successful now for other reasons as well. He put together a background
group that became the archetype for "doo-wop girls." The Raeletts came into existence in
1957 for a recording date and then as a permanent fixture for concerts. Charles had long
admired such female gospel soloists as Albertina Walker and gospel groups, in particular
the Davis Sisters of Philadelphia. He stated in his autobiography, "I wanted the flavor
of ... my voice set against women ... that was what I was searching for." After molding
the group totally to his satisfaction, he changed its original name "Cookies" to the
Raeletts and always sought to get the effect he wanted, as further stated: "I liked that
male/female friction and once I had it, I never let it go." The Raelett sound helped define
the major hits, most notably "Hit the Road, Jack," "What'd I Say," "Tell the Truth," and
"The Night Time is the Right Time."
Charles was always determined not to be pigeonholed in any one musical category and
after moving to ABC Records, he branched out and recorded in any musical genre he
chose. According to Piazza in the New York Times, "He turned out to be not merely a
good interpreter of popular standard material but a great one. A series of albums in the
1960s ... earned him a wider, whiter popular market than that of any soul singer of the
time, with the possible exception of Sam Cooke."
This was the era when the term "cross-over" gained a new meaning as Charles, a black
soul singer, conquered and redefined the idiosyncrasies of country-and-western music,
described by Piazza as "Southern white soul music." The best examples of Charles's
country songs are his 1959 version of Hank Snow's "I'm Movin' On" and the 1962
remake of Don Gibson's "I Can't Stop Loving You;" the latter sold 2.5 million copies and
topped the R&B, pop, and C&W charts for 14 weeks.
The Achilles Heel
From 1961 to 1965, Charles was named the top male American vocalist by Downbeat
magazine. Although he spent the mid-1960s touring abroad, Charles also began to exert
his independence from record companies and management agencies. In 1963, he
established RPM International to oversee his own recording, publishing, and management
concerns and, in 1965, he began producing his own records. The control of his
professional life sharply contrasted with his own personal life and the debilitating effects
of his longtime drug habit. Having started with marijuana as a teenager in Seattle, he
soon moved on to heroin despite the efforts of older musicians to dissuade him. Charles
never blamed anyone or any circumstance for his decision to use drugs. In a Blues Revue
article, he said: "Every experience I've had good and bad has taught me something. I was
born a poor boy in the South. I once fooled with drugs, but all of it was like going to
school and I tried to be a good student. I don't regret a damn thing."
Charles labelled himself as being a "junkie" but insisted that he was always in control of
his money, his career, and his life. In 1958 and 1961 he was involved in drug raids. The
first time, charges were dropped due to lack of evidence; the next time, he was actually in

possession of heroin but charges against the officers for illegal entry and search worked
in his favor. In 1964, however, he was arrested in Boston on a charge of heroin
possession by federal narcotics agents. This time, prison was a possibility and Charles
realized the effect this could have on his family. Vowing to kick the habit, he entered a
Los Angeles clinic and went "cold turkey" while rejecting the clinic's regimen. During
that time, he learned to play chess and eventually became an expert player. Because of
positive recommendations from the clinic psychiatrist, sentencing was postponed for a
year while Charles underwent random periodic checks for drug use. The next year, he
received a five-year probated sentence. He was finally free of a harrowing addiction and
the threat of a prison sentence, either of which could have seriously imperilled a brilliant
career.
Mastering Other Musical Styles
Real "Brother Ray" aficionados know that Charles is also a superb jazz musician. His
1960s big bands are still considered, by music critics, to be among the premier jazz bands
of all time. When Charles switched labels, he was accused of becoming too middle-ofthe-road and of having lost his characteristic sharp edge. He began to cover the songs of
such pop composers as Stevie Wonder, Randy Newman, and the Beatles.
As if in refutation of charges of becoming too predictable and mainstream, Charles
became involved in quite diverse musical ventures. He has appeared quite often on
television's Sesame Street with the Muppets and made "It's Not Easy Being Green" his
personal song. He also did the searing vocal on the soundtrack for the movie In the Heat
of the Night. He was a major participant on the USA for Africa release of "We Are the
World," a blockbuster hit engineered by his colleague, Quincy Jones. With a Raelett-like
trio, Charles cut one of the most popular television commercials ever for Pepsi Cola; he
had previously done others for Coca Cola, Olympia Beer, and Scotch recording tape. In
November of 1997 Charles appeared on the television show The Nanny as the fianc of
the main character's Jewish grandmother, Yetta. Some of his finest television appearances
are on video: An Evening with Ray Charles (1981); The Legends of Rock `n' Roll (1989);
and Ray Charles Live (1991).
Charles has definite opinions on the current state of music and the music industry. When
asked if he could begin a music career today, he told Silver for U.S. News and World
Report: "No. When I was coming up, the record people looked at the talent. I made about
four records at Atlantic [Records] before I got a hit. Ain't no way I could be with a big
company today and make four records that was not hits and they'd still keep me."
Commenting on rap music, he said in the same source that "You can't even print what I
think. ... Just to talk to music, I did that years ago on `It Should've Been Me' and
`Greenbacks'."
But Charles has groomed, nurtured, and influenced many outstanding musicians in the
same ways he was helped during his formative years. Quincy Jones, prolific composer
and Hollywood arranger, and Hank Crawford, jazz saxophonist, arranger, and musical
director, were early sidemen, arrangers, and musical directors for the Ray Charles big
bands. In a Rolling Stone article, Wild noted that Charles has influenced singers "from

Joe Cocker and Steve Winwood to Michael Bolton," to which Charles replied. "It's the
ultimate compliment. When I started out, all I wanted to do was sing like Nat King Cole."
Charles has reached the half-century mark of performing, composing, and arranging his
own music and that of anybody else's he chooses. The 101-song, five-CD box set that
commemorated his fiftieth anniversary is testament to a life devoted to music. He told
People magazine: "Music is my life, my bloodstream, my breathing. I'm gonna make
music until the good Lord says to me, `Ray, you've been a good horse. It's time to put you
out to pasture.'"
In the summer of 1996, Charles received an honorary doctorate of music from Occidental
College in Los Angeles. This was the culmination of a succession of public accolades
starting at the beginning of his illustrious career. For example, he won the New Star
Award, Downbeat Critic's Poll (1958, 1961 64). He was named Number One Male
Singer in the International Jazz Critic's Poll (1968) and named to the Playboy Jazz and
Pop Hall of Fame and the Songwriter's Hall of Fame. In 1975, he received the Man of
Distinction Award from the National Association for Sickle Cell Disease. Charles was
named honorary life chairman for the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame and became a
member of Ebony Black Music Hall of Fame. B'Nai Brith named him Man of the Year. In
1983 he received the NAACP Image Award and in 1986 a Kennedy Center Honors
Medal. Charles was named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and received the
Ebony Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. He has also won 11 Grammy
awards.
Charles's feelings about his fame and his musical talents were best expressed to a Rolling
Stone writer in 1993: "When people call me a genius or a legend, they're just showing the
ultimate respect for my music. I know very well that I'm far from a genius. I'm just a guy
who does a lot of things in music pretty well."
March 6, 2004: Charles was inducted into the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) Hall of Fame. Source: USA Today,
www.usatoday.com/life/people/2004-03-08-naacp-awards_x.htm, March 8, 2004.
April 30, 2004: The city of Los Angeles honored the Ray Charles Studios on Washington
Boulevard with an historic landmark designation. Source: CNN.com,
http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/30/ray.charles.reut/index.html, April 30,
2004.
June 10, 2004: Charles died on June 10, 2004, at his home in Beverly Hills, California, of
acute liver disease. He was 73. Source: CNN.com, www.cnn.com, June 10, 2004;
KTVU.com, www.ktvu.com, June 10, 2004; Reuters, www.reuters.com, June 10, 2004.
August 31, 2004: Charles's last album, Genius Loves Company, was released by Concord
Records. The recording features duets with many artists, including B.B. King, Willie
Nelson, Elton John, Norah Jones, and Diana Krall. Source: New York Times,
www.nytimes.com, August 31, 2004.

August 31, 2004: Charles' album, Genius Loves Company, was released posthumously.
Source: All Music Guide, www.allmusic.com, September 2, 2004.
September 8, 2004: Charles' final album, Genius Loves Company, made its debut at No.
2. Source: Reuters, reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6184457,
September 9, 2004.
Further Reading
Broughton, Viv. Black Gospel. Poole, Dorset, England: Blandford Press, 1985.
Broven, John. Rhythm and Blues in New Orleans. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Co.,
1974.
Charles, Ray, and David Ritz. Brother Ray: Ray Charles' Own Story. New York: Dial
Press, 1978.
Cullen, Thomas J., III. The Genius of Soul Talks about the Blues and Nothing But the
Blues Ray Charles. Blues Review (August/September 1996): 2431.
Doctor of Music. Jet 90 (3 June 1996): 27.
FongTorres, Ben. Ray Charles RS 126 (January 18, 1973). Rolling Stone 641 (15
October 1992): 56.
Hirshey, Gerri. Nowhere to Run: The Story of Soul Music. New York: Penguin Books,
1984.
An Individualist Who is Master of All Styles. New York Times, November 9, 1997.
Larkin, Colin, ed. The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Middlesex. England:
Guinness Publishing, 1992.
Paul, Alan. A Half Century of Soul. People 48 (22 September 1997): 31.
Ray Charles Celebrates 50 Years of Music with Greatest Hits Collection. Jet 92 (27
October 1997): 33.
Silver, Marc. Still Soulful after All These Years. U.S. News and World Report 123 (22
September 1997): 76.
Sturkey, Don. A Slice of Time A Carolina's Album 19501990. Asheboro, NC: Down
Home Press, 1990.
Wild, David. Brother Ray At It Again. Rolling Stone 655 (29 August 1993): 23.
Who's Who among African Americans, 199899. 10th ed. Detroit: Gale Research, 1997.