Ray Charles is one of the greatest figures in postwar black music. The bold fusion of gospel and blues on his recordings of the late fifties anticipated soul music, the extension of his repertoire to include country songs and pop ballads made him the ‘crossover’ artist supreme. He was blind at the age of seven and learned classical and jazz piano at a special school. He perfected imitations of the vocal styles of Charles Brown and Nat ‘King’ Cole, who were to remain his idols for the  next decade.  After playing in  local dance,  country  and jazz bands in Florida, Charles moved to Seattle in 1948. He made his first

recordings with the McSon Trio for the Los Angeles based Swingtime label. The Cole-styled ‘Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand’ and ‘Kiss Me Baby’ were minor R&B hits. Two years of touring ended when Charles signed to Atlantic records in 1952, and formed his first small group, the line-up consisted of piano, bass, drums, two trumpets and two saxes and became the model for all the great rhythm and blues bands to follow. Five years of almost constant touring followed, along with growing record success in the R & B market, his first Atlantic hit was the song, ‘It Should Have Been Me’. His compositions were essentially gospel songs with secular lyrics, his first success with white listeners was the song ‘Hallelujah I Love Her So’.
   Charles recorded ballads with strings on ‘The Genius of Ray Charles’ and scored a minor hit with a country and western song, ‘I’m Movin’ On’. This mix of secularized gospel, ballads and country music, set the artistic pattern for the next decade. In 1959, however, Charles moved from Atlantic to ABC records who offered him a producer’s royalty and the ultimate ownership of his master tapes, terms which Atlantic could not match. In six years, Charles had over twenty hits including three No. 1’s which reflected the three sides of his work, ‘Hit the Road Jack’, ‘Georgia on My Mind’ and ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’. These hit singles were followed by other songs, including ‘You Don’t Know Me’, ‘Your Cheating Heart’ and ‘One Mint Julep’.
   His last Top Forty singles were ‘Don’t Change on Me’ and the instrumental ‘Booty Butt’. From 1973 to 1977, Charles albums appeared on his Crossover label. The album ‘True to Life’, which covered Johnny Nash’s ‘I Can See Clearly Now’, marked a return to Atlantic records, while from 1982 Charles’s work was distributed by Columbia. The highlights of this period was a recording of ‘Porgy and Bess’ and his first Nashville recording, ‘Wish You Were Here Tonight’. His singing inspired a generation of singers, notably Stevie Winwood, Joe Cocker and David Clayton-Thomas.