profile image

Ray Charles

Sep 23, 1930 - Jun 10, 2004 (73 years old) in Albany, Georgia USA

Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 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 with Atlantic Records. He also helped racially integrate country and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records, most notably with his Modern Sounds albums. While with ABC, Charles became one of the first African-American musicians to be given artistic control by a mainstream record company. Frank Sinatra called Charles “the only true genius in show business.”

Rolling Stone ranked Charles number 10 on their list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2004, and number two on their November 2008 list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". 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?"

Description above from the Wikipedia article Ray Charles, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia​

Known For

poster
The Nanny
Sammy
poster
Who's the Boss?
poster
The Carol Burnett Show
Self - Guest
poster
Wings
Ray Charles
poster
Cachitos de hierro y cromo
Self (archive footage)
poster
The Dinah Shore Chevy Show
Self
poster
St. Elsewhere
poster
Moonlighting
Ray Charles
poster
Kraft Music Hall
Self
poster
The Kennedy Center Honors
Self

Credits