Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson, known professionally as Ray Charles, was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He was sometimes referred to as "The Genius", and was also nicknamed "The High Priest of Soul"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSoul Singer
Date of Birth23 September 1930
CityAlbany, GA
CountryUnited States of America
inspiring music heart
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.
cats guys loved record
I loved those cats at Atlantic. They were the only record guys who never told me what to do. Ahmet (Ertegun) let me do what I wanted to do and I loved him for that.
spiritual religious singing
When I started to sing like myself - as opposed to imitating Nat Cole, which I had done for a while - when I started singing like Ray Charles, it had this spiritual and churchy, this religious or gospel sound. It had this holiness and preachy tone to it. It was very controversial. I got a lot of criticism for it.