The Smiley Smile Message Board

Any Ray Charles fans on here? I've always admired a lot of his top hits like Hit the Road Jack, Georgia On My Mind, What'd I Say, Unchain My Heart, that sort of stuff, but never really got into the rest of his work. Does anyone here have any recommendations about what to check out? Are there any good compilation albums you recommend?

Oh yes, great musician. I had the fortune to attend a show he played in Hannover in 2000 (or 2001 iirc).

This is a nice collection imo:

http://www.amazon.com/Blues-Jazz-Ray-Charles/dp/B00000338F

Three words: Hide Nor Hair

My favorite album of his is of course "Modern Sounds in Country And Western Music".  When I was a kid we had it laying around the house and I used to listen to it. 

Plus, it has "That Lucky Old Sun" on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BM9TNa-FV4

My favorite though is the legendary "You Don't Know Me"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNlz5P2pbk8&feature=related

Here's the whole album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyHiSQ1LSFI&feature=related

Keep in mind you're listening to a blind Black Man sing country songs in 1962.

Which of course was very unusual back then on the outside. And it kinda still is now. But of course the black people in the south were listening to country and were influenced by it almost as much as white people were by the blues. Ray though was one of the first blacks to show that influence with this album.
Speaking of that, later on Little Richard did some great Hank Williams covers.

Love the guy.

This came out much, much later but, man is it a fun listen:

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e2/RayCharles_RaySingsBasieSwings.jpg)

I found a NM original copy of that album in Value Village a few years back, cost me all of a dollar. One of the best investments I ever made. Ray Charles could take any genre of music and make it his own - jazz, rhythm and blues, country, pop, whatever, the guy did it all.