Ray Charles - What'd I Say

Ray Charles Robinson (1930–2004), better known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings. Ray was the son of Aretha Williams, a sharecropper, and Bailey Robinson, a railroad repair man, mechanic and handyman. When Ray was an infant, his family moved from Albany, GA, where he was born, to the poor black community on the western side of Greenville, FL. Charles started to lose his sight at the age of five. He went completely blind by the age of seven, apparently due to glaucoma. He attended school at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine from 1937 to 1945, where he developed his musical talent. During this time he performed on WFOY radio in St. Augustine. His father died when he was 10 and his mother died five years after. Charles was married twice and fathered 12 children with nine different women. He gave each of his children $1 million (tax-free) in 2002 at a family luncheon. Chess was a hobby of his, using a special board with holes for the pieces and raised squares. Also in 2002, he played American Grandmaster and former U. S. Champion Larry Evans. Evans won but some analysts believe Ray Charles resigned prematurely. Charles died on June 10, 2004 of liver cancer at his home in Beverly Hills, CA, surrounded by family and friends. He was 73 years old.

In honoring Charles, Billy Joel noted: "This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley. I don't know if Ray was the architect of rock & roll, but he was certainly the first guy to do a lot of things . . . Who the hell ever put so many styles together and made it work?"

http://www.raycharles.com

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