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God bless you, Ray. |
Posted on 06/10/2004 1:09:01 PM PDT by jazzo
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Ray Charles (news), the Grammy-winning crooner who blended gospel and blues in such crowd-pleasers as "What'd I Say" and heartfelt ballads like "Georgia on My Mind," died Thursday, a spokesman said. He was 73.
Charles died at his Beverly Hills home surrounded by family and friends, said spokesman Jerry Digney.
Charles last public appearance was alongside Clint Eastwood (news) on April 30, when the city of Los Angeles designated the singer's studios, built 40 years ago in central Los Angeles, as a historic landmark.
Blind by age 7 and an orphan at 15, Charles spent his life shattering any notion of musical boundaries and defying easy definition. A gifted pianist and saxophonist, he dabbled in country, jazz, big band and blues, and put his stamp on it all with a deep, warm voice roughened by heartbreak from a hardscrabble childhood in the segregated South.
"His sound was stunning — it was the blues, it was R&B, it was gospel, it was swing — it was all the stuff I was listening to before that but rolled into one amazing, soulful thing," singer Van Morrison (news) told Rolling Stone magazine in April.
Charles won nine of his 12 Grammy Awards between 1960 and 1966, including the best R&B recording three consecutive years ("Hit the Road Jack," "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "Busted").
His versions of other songs are also well known, including "Makin' Whoopee" and a stirring "America the Beautiful." Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell wrote "Georgia on My Mind" in 1931 but it didn't become Georgia's official state song until 1979, long after Charles turned it into an American standard.
God Bless YOu Ray.
I'll miss your voice.
Georgia on My MInd will always be his.
One of the greats. When he did "America the Beautiful," my spine would tingle.
He did that public service annoncement "Please dont Drive Drunk"
All I can say is Ray Baby just dont Drive at all
Ray I loved your Work
Hey Ray Say hi to Ronny for us
this says blind at 7, CNN just said it was 11. Glaucoma. He was a lengend, for sure.
I always liked his song "Hit the road Jack." He was a fine artist.
Ronald Reagan and Ray Charles in one week - sometimes life just hurts.
Oh, God, I will miss Ray. His classy and distinctive style was unique. Ray worked his way up from the literal bottom. He worked hard to make a name for himself and succeeded admirably. God rest a good and decent soul.
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Exactly. He will be playing in the band tonight. I think the words to a song had something to do with "a hell of a band" up there.
He had a genuine modesty and a helluva lot of talent. God bless you and Godspeed Ray Charles.
I will sure miss Ray's music. One fine artist for sure!
Thanks Ray for the great music. Say Hi to Ron for us.
Red
Probate ought to be exciting: he had 11 children by 10 different women.
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God bless you, Ray. |
Thanks for the music and God bless.
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