Ray Charles - 'The Atlantic Studio Albums In Mono'

 

As a teenager growing up in Florida, Ray Charles learned to read music using braille and played piano at school dances before graduating to gigging with big bands in Tampa and Orlando.  In 1948, he moved to Seattle, Washington, where he established himself as a star on the juke circuit, where he released around 20 singles and notched a handful of minor R’n’B hits.



At 22 years old, and already an industry veteran, Ray was signed to Atlantic Records.  Ahmet Ertegun (Atlantic Records co-founder and president) gave Ray complete freedom to record whatever and whenever he pleased.  Ray, with his new-found freedom, tinkered with blues, jazz, pop, R’n’B, even country.  He also adapted hymns and old gospel numbers to a nightclub setting, altering the words to extol romantic instead of heavenly love. “I Got A Woman” and “Hallelujah I Love Her So”, which at the time were simultaneously highly controversial and incredibly successful.



‘The Atlantic Years – In Mono’ is a 7LP box that covers his days at the label, shows how Ray built on that modest success through experimentation and uncompromising innovation, not only becoming one of the biggest artists of the decade but exerting an incalculable influence on the next 60 plus years of American popular music.  None of these records have been in print in their original mono for over half a century, which is a shame because they’re much more forceful and insistent in this setting.  These mono versions intensify the interplay between Ray and his backing musicians.



Due to the nature of the recording industry in the 1950s, the chronology of the recordings is skewed.  Atlantic Records was releasing compilations of singles released months and even years apart, but the label continued mining Ray’s sessions even after he had defected to ABC-Paramount.  Although his tenure with Atlantic Records ended in 1959, much of this music wasn’t officially released until the early 1960s, when “Georgia On My Mind” and “Hit The Road Jack” had sent him hurtling up the pop charts.



Even though, some of these recordings are almost 70 years old, they still sound as lively, mischievous, ingenious, innovative, wild and as sophisticated as ever.

For the freeload, What are some of your favorite 1960s top ten hit singles?