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Favorite Ray Charles LPs/45s/Songs...

kitchenknightkitchenknight 4,922 Posts
edited March 2016 in Music Talk
...I been feeling the man's version of "Drown in My Own Tears," a lot lately, and after hearing it on the radio a couple weeks back, "What'd I Say," has been in heavy-ro.What's some of your favorite joints by Mr. Ray Charles?
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  • hcrinkhcrink 8,729 Posts
    Both What'd I Say and Yes Indeed totally and completely rule from an LP perspective. I believe almost all of this stuff was from singles though.
  • kitchenknightkitchenknight 4,922 Posts
    I'll add Yes Indeed to my list...

    J3((, this thread was started in response to your lack of RR post on waxidermy...thanks for coming through with a response. (no ayo.)
  • kitchenknightkitchenknight 4,922 Posts
    i should add...i wouldn't know lupe fiasco if they/he/she peed on me.
  • BamboucheBambouche 1,484 Posts
    The slow, contemplative Ray is really where it's at for me. I can listen to the Crying Time album again and again. That said, his version of "Living for the City" (off Renaissance) can make most funk dudes sit the fuck down. "RATS AND ROACHES!"



    Most dollar bins can turn up a slice of his "Every Saturday Night" 45 which is a staple in our household.



    "Every Saturday night
    I get in my sin
    And as long as I'm able
    I'mma do the same thing again
    My head gets so bad
    It's a doggone shame
    I be so toe down
    I don't even know my name."



    Now for my question: Who remembers the other Ray Charles Appreciation thread from some years ago that spawned the TOE UP v. TOE DOWN thread? I recall Soulstrut intelligentsia was unable to determine whether proper ghetto parlance was "toe down" or "tore down."

    Can I get a witness,
    ~B
  • hcrinkhcrink 8,729 Posts

    J3((, this thread was started in response to your lack of RR post on waxidermy...thanks for coming through with a response. (no ayo.)

    and an excellent topic 'tis. I have not put a Ray Charles record on the turntable in a good long time. Gonna have to correct that.

    I remember hearing "Heartbreaker" in Raging Bull once and being all like "Jesus Christ what is that song?!?!" Sure enough I even had the record. I really gotta listen to music more often that I debate it online...



      

  • cheebahazecheebahaze 235 Posts
    The northern soul standard 'I Don't Need No Doctor' is always
    a good floor filler at just about any club. People hear that
    familiar vocal style combined with an uptempo beat and
    just dig it.


  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    What ever is playing is my current favorite. Mint Julip and that whole Genius Plus Soul lp. Both Modern Sounds In C&W. The last song I heard was Busted, which makes it a favorite. That might be from Bam's Crying Time lp, which is Modern Sounds In C&W vol 3. I'll Cosign on Living For The City and every other song mentioned already, and all the ones that will be mentioned.

    He total tears me up, and never toes me down.
  • peacefulrotationpeacefulrotation 3,481 Posts
    Two faves:

    America The Beautiful



    and

    Your Love Is So Doggone Good


  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    His entire Doing His Thing album, from 1969. I've raved about this album on the Strut before; possibly his only 100% rhythm & blues LP on ABC. No jazz, no country, no middle-of-the-road ballads, just Brother Ray back on the block, proving that he could still knock a straight soul number out of the park when he felt like it.



    Plus these ABC singles (most of these never made it to an album):
    "I Can Make It Through The Days"
    "That's A Lie"/"Go On Home"
    "My Baby Don't Dig Me"
    "That's All I Am To You"
    "Tired Of My Tears"
    "Never Had Enough Of Nothing Yet"
    "At The Club"/"Hide Nor Hair"
    "The Train"
    "Somebody Ought To Write A Book About It"
  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts


    America The Beautiful


    ... uh hey now, wait a minute! I'm talkin' about -

    I love that.


    I Believe to My Soul is probably my jam of jams, at least these days.



    I have a real soft spot though for those early chestnuts Greenbacks
    and It Should Have Been Me - I LOVED those songs when I was a young kid,
    with their funny plots and punchlines ... and it was probably over 20 years
    until I realized that Ray was doing both voices! I would talk about
    them as "those songs where he's doing a duet with another guy, who just
    kinda reads the verses and then Ray comes in all swingin'!" Ha!

    I'll also co-sign for a fourth time on the Living for the City 45 - my man
    OT hipped me to that one only a couple years back ... and add that pretty
    much anything I have picked up on his TANGERINE label has been excellent.
    I own approx 200 copies of Booty Butt - a nice slice of big band funk
    credited to the Raelettes.

    And yeah, it's kinda crazy how Ray was completely with the HB3 on One Mint Julep, and dudes just spent the next 40 years trying
    to match up.
  • The_Hook_UpThe_Hook_Up 8,182 Posts

    Ray Charles and Jimmy Lewis "If it wasnt for Bad Luck" TRC 45 head noddin' funky soul...great!



    Also had a great night being snowed in about 10 years ago with some friends and drinkin' whiskey and listening to the Crying Time LP...
  • peacefulrotationpeacefulrotation 3,481 Posts
    thanks for reminding me of "Should have Been Me"...gonna play that at my oldies night this Thursday!


  • FatbackFatback 6,746 Posts
    EVERYTHING ON ATLANTIC! And in MONO. OMG.

    The Impulse! record is hot too. Very easy to find.



    The ABC stuff becomes spotty with all the choral ish IMO. I like it raw. But I do love the C&W jawn.
  • funky16cornersfunky16corners 7,175 Posts
    Every goddamn note he ever recorded.
  • FlomotionFlomotion 2,391 Posts
    Every goddamn note he ever recorded.

    Yes.
  • 6fran506fran50 266 Posts
    Every goddamn note he ever recorded.

    Yes.

    re: yes
  • Agent45Agent45 451 Posts
    Really, where do you start with Uncle Ray? Damn near the entire Atlantic catalogue, "Genius + Soul = Jazz". And certainly not to discount his other material (cosign funy16corners comment), but here are most of my favorite ABC 45s:

    I Don't Need No Doctor
    Hide Nor Hair / At the Club (Same 45)
    I Chose To Sing the Blues
    The Train
    Something Inside Me
    I Can't Stop Loving You Baby (not to be confused with the country tune I Can't Stop Loving You)
    Tired of My Tears
    I'm Satisfied
    Sweet Young Thing Like You
    That's A Lie / Go On Home (Same 45)
    One Mint Julep
    Sidewinder / Booty Butt (Same 45)
  • kitchenknightkitchenknight 4,922 Posts
    Every goddamn note he ever recorded.

    that made my morning.
  • funky16cornersfunky16corners 7,175 Posts
    Every goddamn note he ever recorded.

    that made my morning.

    My pleasure!
  • holmesholmes 3,532 Posts
    So many of those ABC 45s have a strong soul/R&B cut on the flip, you gotta check both sides before discounting them as syrup. I am feeling the Atlantic 45 of 'Talkin' 'Bout You'/'What Kind Of Man Are You'.



     I also dropped 'You Are My Sunshine' at the soul night on saturday & people were dancing. I also like that 'In The Heat Of The Night' 45. I wouldn't go so far as saying 'every note he recorded' but there is a lot of good stuff.
  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    So many of those ABC 45s have a strong soul/R&B cut on the flip, you gotta check both sides before discounting them as syrup. I am feeling the Atlantic 45 of 'Talkin' 'Bout You'/'What Kind Of Man Are You'. I also dropped 'You Are My Sunshine' at the soul night on saturday & people were dancing. I also like that 'In The Heat Of The Night' 45. I wouldn't go so far as saying 'every note he recorded' but there is a lot of good stuff.

    Let me add to my list these Syrup numbers:
    I Can't stop Loving You
    Porgy And Bess Lp with Cleo Laine
    No Letter Today

    Funk and fast soul are fine, but sometimes you need the real deep down soul that comes from Genius + Orchestra.
  • FlomotionFlomotion 2,391 Posts
    So many of those ABC 45s have a strong soul/R&B cut on the flip, you gotta check both sides before discounting them as syrup. I am feeling the Atlantic 45 of 'Talkin' 'Bout You'/'What Kind Of Man Are You'. I also dropped 'You Are My Sunshine' at the soul night on saturday & people were dancing. I also like that 'In The Heat Of The Night' 45. I wouldn't go so far as saying 'every note he recorded' but there is a lot of good stuff.

    Let me add to my list these Syrup numbers:
    I Can't stop Loving You
    Porgy And Bess Lp with Cleo Laine[/b]
    No Letter Today

    Funk and fast soul are fine, but sometimes you need the real deep down soul that comes from Genius + Orchestra.

    Don't like her voice but Ray is stellar. The instrumental of There's A Boat That's Leaving Soon for NY is a great cut.
  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    So many of those ABC 45s have a strong soul/R&B cut on the flip

    So many of those ABC 45's have a strong soul/R&B cut on the A-sides, as well.

    Most of the time he was with ABC, the singles and album markets were wildly different. I kinda get the impression he cut hard soul on 45's so he'd still be in rotation at teenage house parties...but the albums were aimed at older jazz/blues fans who bought his Atlantic sides in the fifties. Just a guess.

    you gotta check both sides before discounting them as syrup.

    Even better: check the writer's credits. If you see Jimmy Holiday or Jimmy Lewis's names in parentheses, nine times out of ten it's gonna be hard soul. That album I mentioned up there, Doing His Thing? That was ALL Jimmy Lewis songs...all straight soul. (And Jimmy himself duets with Ray on "If It Wasn't For Bad Luck!")

    Look out for "Understanding" (a single that did appear on the Portrait Of Ray album)...it's this hilarious spoken-word thing where Ray talks about the "understanding" that he has with his woman, especially if she cheats on him ("her soul might belong to the Good Lord, but her head is gonna belong to me!").

    Let me add to my list these Syrup numbers:
    I Can't stop Loving You
    Porgy And Bess Lp with Cleo Laine
    No Letter Today

    Funk and fast soul are fine, but sometimes you need the real deep down soul that comes from Genius + Orchestra.

    Yeah, but there's a world of difference between deep-down soul and deep-down schlock! "I Can't Stop Loving You," "No Letter Today," "Tears," and "Crying Time," to name four examples, are real good POP ballads from his ABC years that I listen to a lot. But as far as DEEP DOWN SOUL ballads, where the voices and strings are either minimal or absent, I'd go with:

    "Seems Like I Gotta Do Wrong"
    "I Can Make It Through The Days"
    "Careless Love"
    "Here We Go Again"

    And from Renaissance, one of the albums he did for his own Crossover label, he did a BADASS "Sail Away" (yeah, the Randy Newman song about Africans being conned into slavery).
  • RAJRAJ tenacious local 7,782 Posts
    "Mess Around"


  • ketanketan Warmly booming riffs 3,169 Posts
  • para11axpara11ax No-style-havin' mf'er 399 Posts
    There's a version of "Hit The Road Jack" that's backed by the Ray Charles orchestra (I think?), and a drum'n'bass edit done years ago of siad track that sounded great.

    Curious about the OG. Is there a 45? What LP is it on? Etc.
  • para11axpara11ax No-style-havin' mf'er 399 Posts
    Also, "Every Saturday Night" has 2 versions:

    One with orchestral backing, which slays the vanilla version. I have the vanilla version and wonder if there's a 45 of the orchestral joint.
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