CELEBRATING THE GENIUS OF RAY CHARLES
The Atlantic Years In Mono LP Boxed Set
Includes Seven Fully Remastered Studio Albums On 180-Gram Vinyl
Seven-LP Collection Will Be Available On September 23 From Rhino
LOS ANGELES - A music legend like no other, Ray Charles earned the nickname "Genius" for recording countless jazz, country, R&B and pop masterpieces during a career that spanned seven decades. Rhino will celebrate what would have been Brother Ray's 86th birthday on September 23, with a new vinyl boxed set that features mono mixes for the seven outstanding solo studio albums he recorded for Atlantic Records.
For this new collection, the following albums have been fully remastered from the original mono analog tapes, echoing the experience of the era, when most fans were hearing music on record players, jukeboxes and radios that played music monaurally: Ray Charles (1957), The Great Ray Charles (1957), Yes, Indeed! (1958), What'd I Say (1959), The Genius Of Ray Charles (1959), The Genius After Hours (1961), and The Genius Sings The Blues (1961).
Presented in an elegant hardbound box, each album is pressed on high-quality, 180-gram vinyl and packaged in sleeves that replicate the original releases in exacting detail. The set also includes a perfect-bound booklet with period photos by Atlantic's in-house photographer at the time, Lee Friedlander, and liner notes by Ray Charles biographer and Grammy®-winning writer David Ritz. RAY CHARLES: THE ATLANTIC YEARS IN MONO will be available from Rhino as a 7-LP boxed set on September 23 for a retail price of $119.98.
The music included in RAY CHARLES: THE ATLANTIC YEARS IN MONO begins with Charles' self-titled debut from 1957 which gathers the #1 R&B hit singles, "I've Got A Woman," "A Fool For You," "Maryann" and "Drown In My Own Tears." The follow-up, The Great Ray Charles, arrived just a few months later. It was the artist's first jazz album and featured "The Ray," a song written by his close friend Quincy Jones. On the 1958 album Yes Indeed!, Charles began to use new eight-track recording technology to record memorable songs like "Blackjack," "Lonely Avenue" and "Leave My Woman Alone."
Charles reached an even wider audience in 1959 with two stone classics: What'd I Say and The Genius of Ray Charles. The title track for the first became the artist's first Top 10 pop hit and his first gold record, getting play on both R&B and mainstream radio stations. Today, it is considered one of the most influential songs in the history of music, with Rolling Stone ranking it as #10 on their list of the "500 Greatest Rock and Roll Songs of All-Time." The follow-up - which won the Grammy® for Best Vocal Performance: Album - features Charles backed by a full orchestra and strings on "It Had To Be You" and "Come Rain Or Come Shine" as well as "Let The Good Times Roll," which won the Grammy® for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance.
The final two albums included with RAY CHARLES: THE ATLANTIC YEARS IN MONO are The Genius After Hours and The Genius Sings the Blues. The former includes unused songs from the 1956 sessions that yielded The Great Ray Charles like "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Charlesville." The latter album is a compilation of songs recorded throughout the artist's first two years at Atlantic, and showcases his artistic development on standout tracks like "(Night Time) Is The Right Time," and "I'm Movin' On."
RAY CHARLES: THE ATLANTIC YEARS – IN MONO
Album and Track Listing
RAY CHARLES (1957)
Side One
1. “Ain’t That Love”
2. “Drown In My Own Tears”
3. “Come Back Baby”
4. “Sinner’s Prayer”
5. “Funny (But I Still Love You)”
6. “Losing Hand”
7. “A Fool For You”
Side Two
1. “Hallelujah I Love Her So”
2. “Mess Around”
3. “This Little Girl Of Mine”
4. “Mary Ann”
5. “Greenbacks”
6. “Don’t You Know”
7. “I Got A Woman”
THE GREAT RAY CHARLES (1957)
Side One
1. “The Ray”
2. “My Melancholy Baby”
3. “Black Coffee”
4. “There's No You”
Side Two
1. “Doodlin’”
2. “Sweet Sixteen Bars”
3. “I Surrender Dear”
4. “Undecided”
YES INDEED! (1958)
Side One
1. “What Would I Do Without You”
2. “It’s All Right”
3. “I Want To Know”
4. “Yes, Indeed!”
5. “Get On The Right Track Baby”
6. “Talkin’ ‘Bout You”
7. “Swanee River Rock (Talkin’ ‘Bout That River)”
Side Two
1. “Lonely Avenue”
2. “Blackjack”
3. “The Sun’s Gonna Shine Again”
4. “I Had A Dream”
5. “I Want A Little Girl”
6. “Heartbreaker”
7. “Leave My Woman Alone”
WHAT’D I SAY (1959)
Side One
1. “What’d I Say – Part I & II”
2. “Jumpin’ In The Mornin’”
3. “You Be My Baby”
4. “Tell Me How Do You Feel”
5. “What Kind Of Man Are You?”
Side Two
1. “Rockhouse – Part I & II”
2. “Roll With My Baby”
3. “Tell All The World About You”
4. “My Bonnie”
5. “That’s Enough”
THE GENIUS OF RAY CHARLES (1959)
Side One
1. “Let The Good Times Roll”
2. “It Had To Be You”
3. “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”
4. “Two Years Of Torture”
5. “When Your Lover Has Gone”
6. “Deed I Do”
Side Two
1. “Just For A Thrill”
2. “You Won’t Let Me Go”
3. “Tell Me You’ll Wait For Me”
4. “Don't Let The Sun Catch You Cryin'”
5. “Am I Blue”
6. “Come Rain Or Come Shine”
THE GENIUS AFTER HOURS (1961)
Side One
1. “The Genius After Hours”
2. “Ain’t Misbehavin’”
3. “Dawn Ray”
4. “Joy Ride”
Side Two
1. “Hornful Soul”
2. “The Man I Love”
3. “Charlesville”
4. “Music, Music, Music”
THE GENIUS SINGS THE BLUES (1961)
Side One
1. “Early In The Mornin’”
2. “Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I)”
3. “The Midnight Hour”
4. “The Right Time”
5. “Feelin’ Sad”
6. “Ray’s Blues”
Side Two
1. “I’m Movin’ On”
2. “I Believe To My Soul”
3. “Nobody Cares”
4. “Mr. Charles’ Blues”
5. “Some Day Baby”
6. “I Wonder Who”
# # #