Ray Charles – True Genius (Remastered) (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 05:48:09 minutes | 3,99 GB | Genre: R&B
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Tangerine Records
In honor of what would have been Ray Charles’ 90th birthday year, Tangerine Records is releasing the limited edition box set, True Genius, on September 10th. The record label, which the late legend founded in 1962, has remastered 90 of Charles’ most important works for the six-CD box set.
The collection also includes a bonus disc comprising eight previously unreleased songs, which were recorded live in Stockholm in 1972. It includes his hits “What’d I Say,” “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” and “I’ve Got a Woman.”
The digital release will also be widely available on streaming platforms for the first time. “Hit the Road Jack,” “Crying Time,” “Busted, “America the Beautiful, A Song for You,” and “Unchain My Heart” are among Charles’ classics that will return to streaming after more than a decade. “Hit the Road Jack,” one of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, has also received a new animated lyric video.
“We’re extremely proud to present this collection, which maps the breadth and depth of Ray Charles’ music, presented in chronological order so the listener can join Ray on his journey through the most expansive and creative period of his legendary career,” Valeri Ervin, President of Ray Charles Foundation, said in a statement. “I’m also thrilled that this music will be widely available on all streaming services for the very first time, so that new and future audiences will continue to discover the True Genius of Ray Charles.”
In the year of his 90th birthday (which he would have celebrated on the 23rd of September 2020 had he not died in 2004), Ray Charles is honoured with a new 90-track compilation box set. Just another compilation like all the rest? Yes and no. Ray Charles is undoubtedly one of the most-compiled artists in the history of music. Published by Tangerine, the label that the musician set up at the end of the 50s to keep the rights to his songs, this box set starts out like all the others: with the post-Atlantic hits, Georgia On My Mind, Hit The Road Jack, One Mint Julep, Busted… These are timeless treasures of proto-soul, but there doesn’t seem to be much novelty here. The rest is much more interesting, and much rarer: tracks recorded between the second half of the 1960s and the 2000s, many of which were only released on vinyl, never reissued on CD and until now unavailable on digital. This is the first time that Ray Charles’ lesser-known years have been given the compilation treatment in this way, and it is a revelation. In the 90s and 2000s, the production of his songs had a synthetic feel, and they did not age too well. These rarer songs are often hidden gems of southern soul, flavoured with country and wrapped in sumptuous symphonic orchestrations. Whether he is singing the Muppets (It’s Ain’t Easy Being Green) or Gershwin (Summertime, a duet with Cleo Laine), Ray Charles is always deeply moving. Now, the dream is to hear reissues of all these albums in their entirety. – St’ephane Deschamps
Tracklist:
01. Ray Charles – Georgia on My Mind (03:39)
02. Ray Charles – Them That Got (02:49)
03. Ray Charles – Ruby (03:54)
04. Ray Charles – Hardhearted Hannah (03:17)
05. Ray Charles – One Mint Julep (03:06)
06. Ray Charles – I’ve Got News for You (04:32)
07. Ray Charles – I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town (03:44)
08. Ray Charles – Hit the Road Jack (01:59)
09. Ray Charles – Unchain My Heart (02:51)
10. Ray Charles – Baby, It’s Cold Outside (04:10)
11. Ray Charles – Hide Nor Hair (03:11)
12. Ray Charles – I Can’t Stop Loving You (04:15)
13. Ray Charles – You Don’t Know Me (03:16)
14. Ray Charles – You Are My Sunshine (02:59)
15. Ray Charles – Take These Chains from My Heart (02:56)
16. Ray Charles – No One (03:10)
17. Ray Charles – Busted (02:36)
18. Ray Charles – That Lucky Old Sun (04:23)
19. Ray Charles – Baby, Don’t You Cry (02:34)
20. Ray Charles – Smack Dab in the Middle (03:18)
21. Ray Charles – My Heart Cries for You (02:49)
22. Ray Charles – Cry (03:34)
23. Ray Charles – Makin’ Woopie (Live) (06:13)
24. Ray Charles – Hallelujah I Love Her So (Live) (02:59)
25. Ray Charles – I’ve Got A Woman (Live) (06:11)
26. Ray Charles – What’d I Say (Live) (04:32)
27. Ray Charles – I’m a Fool to Care (03:18)
28. Ray Charles – The Cincinnati Kid (02:24)
29. Ray Charles – Crying Time (02:55)
30. Ray Charles – Together Again (02:40)
31. Ray Charles – Let’s Go Get Stoned (02:57)
32. Ray Charles – Please Say You’re Fooling (02:43)
33. Ray Charles – I Don’t Need No Doctor (02:33)
34. Ray Charles – Here We Go Again (03:16)
35. Ray Charles – Somebody Ought to Write a Book About It (03:07)
36. Ray Charles – In the Heat of the Night (02:35)
37. Ray Charles – Yesterday (02:50)
38. Ray Charles – Sweet Young Thing Like You (02:17)
39. Ray Charles – Eleanor Rigby (03:00)
40. Ray Charles – If It Wasn’t for Bad Luck (04:45)
41. Ray Charles – I Didn’t Know What Time It Was (04:52)
42. Ray Charles – Let Me Love You (02:48)
43. Ray Charles – I’m Satisfied (02:30)
44. Ray Charles – We Can Make It (03:42)
45. Ray Charles – Laughin and Clownin (03:23)
46. Ray Charles – If You Were Mine (03:51)
47. Ray Charles – Booty Butt (04:14)
48. Ray Charles – Feel so Bad (03:16)
49. Ray Charles – Your Love Is so Doggone Good (03:03)
50. Ray Charles – Something (04:04)
51. Ray Charles – America the Beautiful (03:36)
52. Ray Charles – Look What They’ve Done to My Song, Ma (03:43)
53. Ray Charles – There’ll Be No Peace Without All Men as One (03:52)
54. Ray Charles – Every Saturday Night (03:22)
55. Ray Charles – Our Suite (08:07)
56. Ray Charles – I Can Make It Through The Days (But Oh Those Lonely Nights) (03:55)
57. Ray Charles – Ring of Fire (03:08)
58. Ray Charles – Come Live with Me (03:24)
59. Ray Charles – Somebody (04:06)
60. Ray Charles – Till There Was You (04:10)
61. Ray Charles – Living for the City (06:04)
62. Ray Charles – It Ain’t Easy Being Green (04:14)
63. Ray Charles – 3/4 of the Time (02:50)
64. Ray Charles – Summertime (06:15)
65. Ray Charles – Take Me Home Country Roads (Live) (04:32)
66. Ray Charles – Am I Blue (Live) (06:57)
67. Ray Charles – I Can See Clearly Now (04:25)
68. Ray Charles – How Long Has This Been Going On (05:21)
69. Ray Charles – Let It Be (03:32)
70. Ray Charles – Is There Anyone Out There? (05:57)
71. Ray Charles – Drift Away (03:46)
72. Ray Charles – Blues in the Night (07:39)
73. Ray Charles – 3/4 Time (04:23)
74. Ray Charles – Compared to What (04:23)
75. Ray Charles – Do I Ever Cross Your Mind (03:50)
76. Ray Charles – Two Old Cats Like Us (02:37)
77. Ray Charles – Seven Spanish Angels (03:50)
78. Ray Charles – Anybody with the Blues Knows (03:30)
79. Ray Charles – Baby Grand (04:05)
80. Ray Charles – Stranger in My Own Home Town (03:20)
81. Ray Charles – Save the Bones for Henry Jones (03:42)
82. Ray Charles – Ellie My Love (04:13)
83. Ray Charles – I’ll Be Good to You (04:57)
84. Ray Charles – A Song for You (04:16)
85. Ray Charles – Still Crazy After All These Years (05:00)
86. Ray Charles – If I Could (04:55)
87. Ray Charles – None of Us Are Free (05:05)
88. Ray Charles – Imagine (04:28)
89. Ray Charles – Here We Go Again (03:58)
90. Ray Charles – The Long and Winding Road (04:03)
