Line #1 Music/RayCharles


1	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ray_charles_photo.jpeg]]
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3	->''"I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me -- like food or water."''
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5	Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American musician. One of the first performers to fuse RAndB and GospelMusic to create the {{Soul}} genre in TheFifties, he also exerted a major influence on the development of the RockAndRoll genre.
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7	Losing his sight to an infection at a young age and educated in music at a school for the blind, Ray became a talented musician and multi-instrumentalist who got his start singing and playing piano and organ with {{country\|Music}} and {{blues}} bands in the [[TheForties 1940s]]. Although he recorded a few minor hits, his big break came when he was signed to Creator/AtlanticRecords in the early 1950s and recorded songs such as "Mess Around" (written by Atlantic co-founder and president Ahmet Ertegun), "I Got A Woman", "Hallelujah, I Love Her So" and "What'd I Say", which combined raw, passionate gospel energy with boogie-influenced music and secular lyrics. While this music provoked some controversy at the time, these songs are now recognised as some of the first soul songs and established Ray as the pioneer of a whole new genre.
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9	Subsequently, he joined a major label ([[Creator/ABCRecords ABC-Paramount]]) and decided to explore new sounds, including {{Jazz}}, {{Pop}} and especially {{Country\|Music}}, which earned him some of his biggest hits, including "Georgia On My Mind", "Hit the Road Jack" and "I Can't Stop Loving You" (a song which is now credited for helping to popularise country outside of its traditional audiences). Although he struggled with drug addiction and sporadic success after the 1960s, interest in his music was renewed thanks to his appearance in ''Film/TheBluesBrothers'' in 1980, reinforced by being the musical spokesperson for a popular TV ad campaign for Diet Pepsi, and he remained popular until his death from cancer in 2004.
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11	Ray's influence on other singers and musicians cannot be understated; Music/FrankSinatra called him "the only true genius" in popular music, Music/BillyJoel was hugely influenced by his piano playing and singing, the members of Music/TheBeatles all expressed their admiration for his achievements, with Music/PaulMcCartney crediting him as his reason for getting into music, and his song "What'd I Say" was allegedly the first song Music/MickJagger performed as a member of Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}}.
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13	His early life, rise to fame, dalliances with drug addiction and involvement in the civil rights movement are chronicled in the UsefulNotes/AcademyAward-winning {{Biopic}} ''Film/{{Ray}}'', released only a few months after his death. He was set to attend the premiere had he lived. As it was, he was still able to attend a private screening with the crew.
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15	Albums by Ray Charles that have their own page:
16	* ''Music/ModernSoundsInCountryAndWesternMusic'' (1962).
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18	----
19	!!Associated Tropes:
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21	* BlindBlackGuy: If a black character is blind, expect them to be a parody of Ray (or possibly Music/StevieWonder, who himself emulated Charles' look in his Little Stevie days).
22	* BlindMusician: In some ways the TropeMaker for blind musicians being thought of as mainly keyboardists, since most of the prominent blind musicians of previous generations (like Blind Lemon Jefferson) were guitarists.
23	* BreakupSong: "Hit the Road, Jack", done with The Raelettes. (Ray didn't write it - that would be Percy Mayfield - but his version is the most well-known.)
24	* TheCameo: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xooi4AJOxWU The opening titles for season 6]] of the sitcom ''Series/DesigningWomen'' was Charles performing "Georgia on My Mind" while the cast sits around his piano.
25	--> '''Ray Charles''': "I thought that was pretty good!"
26	* CoolShades: His IconicItem.
27	* TheCoverChangesTheMeaning: The lyrics to "Georgia on My Mind" were originally written for composer Hoagy Carmichael's sister, despite it being ambiguous enough to refer to the state or a woman. After Ray made it famous as a dedication to the state of Georgia, it became the official state song.
28	* DanceSensation: Everybody's doing the "Mess Around".
29	* EruditeStoner: After kicking his heroin habit, Charles coped by smoking weed '''every day'''.
30	* TheGamblingAddict: "Blackjack" chronicles a man addicted to TabletopGame/{{Blackjack}}, frustrated by losing so much money and feeling only himself to blame.
31	* GreatestHitsAlbum: He has several conventional greatest hits and best of sets, but several of his early albums were effectively hits collections as a result of the record industry practices in the 1950s. For example, his first "studio" album (released in 1957) incorporated hit songs he'd recorded as far back as 1953.
32	* HomesicknessHymn: When Charles, a Georgia native, covered this song of yearning for his home state in 1960, it quickly became one of his signature songs. However, [[TheCoverChangesTheMeaning it took on a new significance and poignance]], especially when Charles performed the song before the Georgia General Assembly as a symbol of reconciliation after years of activism and struggle stemming from the Civil Rights Movement. After the performance, the Assembly adopted the song as the official State Song of Georgia.
33	* {{Improv}}: Ray made up "What'd I Say" ''on the spot'' to fill time at the end of a 1958 performance. His instructions to the Raelettes and the backing musicians were basically "I'm going to fool around; y'all follow me."
34	* IntercourseWithYou: "What'd I Say", with salacious lyrics in the first half and a second half that's basically "ImmodestOrgasm: The Song".
35	-->Hey baby, don't you treat me wrong\
36	Come and love your daddy all night long
37	* LocationSong: "Georgia On My Mind" is a homage to this state and has in fact become its official anthem.
38	* LiveAlbum: 1959's ''Ray Charles at Newport'' stands alongside Music/JamesBrown's ''Music/LiveAtTheApollo'' as one of the best live recordings of the early [=R&B=]/Soul era.
39	* NewSoundAlbum: ''Music/ModernSoundsInCountryAndWesternMusic'' was a considerable departure from his previous musical recordings and made country music acceptable in circles where people originally only liked soul and R&B.
40	* OdeToIntoxication: "Let's Go Get Stoned"
41	* OneManSong: "Hit the Road, Jack".
42	* PatrioticFervor: Known for his version of "America the Beautiful".
43	* ProductPlacement: One well-known commercial he did for Diet Pepsi involved an off-camera practical joker switching his soda with Diet Coke. Of course, Ray can't see the difference, but he can certainly taste it. Pepsi admitted the commercial was taking a risk by potentially being seen as poking fun at a handicap, but it went over very well.
44	* ProductionForeshadowing: His final single for Atlantic was a CoverVersion of Hank Snow's 1951 CountryMusic classic "I'm Movin' On". Pleased with how it turned out, Charles decided to do a [[Music/ModernSoundsInCountryAndWesternMusic whole album]] of country songs, which led to several follow-ups and even a period in TheEighties when he temporarily switched to country full-time (scoring a #1 hit with "Seven Spanish Angels", a duet with Music/WillieNelson).
45	* RiddleForTheAges: The cause of his blindness was never conclusively determined.
46	* SelfBackingVocalist: That's Ray himself doing falsetto harmonies on "I Believe to My Soul", because he wasn't happy with how the Raelettes were singing the backing vocals.
47	* SelfDeprecation: He always had a sense of humor about his blindness. Examples include hanging a poster upside down in ''Film/TheBluesBrothers'', having a cameo in ''Film/SpyHard'' as a bus driver, and doing a radio ad for some fast food sandwich saying that he felt like going out for one "so you might want to stay off the road."
48	** During the "Music/WeAreTheWorld" recording session when the AllStarCast of singers was having trouble learning their parts, he threatened them by saying that if they didn't start shaping up, he and Music/StevieWonder were going to drive them all back home.
49	* SelfTitledAlbum
50	* SesameStreetCred:
51	** His performance of the Muppet classic "It's Not Easy Being Green" may well be the single greatest musical moment in ''Series/SesameStreet'' history.
52	** To a lesser extent, his role as the voice of G-Clef in the ''WesternAnimation/BluesClues'' [[TheMovie movie]] ''WesternAnimation/BluesBigMusicalMovie''.
53	* SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll: Had a serious heroin problem before cleaning up in the 70s. His main vices after that became marijuana and gin, even dropping some in his morning coffee. Liver failure is what ended up killing him.
54	-->"If I'd known I was gonna live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself."
55	* SingerNamedrop:
56	** In "Don't You Know", also mentioning a couple of his earlier songs as well.
57	--->Say, have you heard, baby?\
58	Ray Charles is in town!\
59	Let's mess around till the midnight hour\
60	See what he's puttin' down.
61	** "I Believe to My Soul"
62	--->Last night you were dreaming and I heard you say\
63	"Oh, Johnny" when you know my name is Ray.
64	* StageName: He dropped his last name so as not to be confused with the boxer "Sugar Ray" Robinson.[[note]]Ironically, the boxer's name was also a stage name. He was born Walker Smith, Jr., but when he was 15 he [[ReallySeventeenYearsOld got around]] the Amateur Athletic Union's rule that only people over 18 could have a membership card by borrowing the birth certificate of his older friend Ray Robinson and passing it off as his own[[/note]]
65	* SunglassesAtNight: {{Justified\|Trope}}, considering that he was blind.

Context Music / RayCharles