Ray Charles

Ray Charles

Ray Charles Robinson, also known as Ray Charles, was a pioneer of Soul music. During the 1950’s he fused R&B, gospel and blues to create his music. He also helped integrate country and popular music during the 1960’s. While a part of ABC Records, he became one of the first black artists to have artistic control over his music. This was widely unheard of in the mainstream music industry.

Ray Charles was ranked number 10 in Rolling Stone’s Greatest artist of all time list. At one point frank Sinatra called Ray the only genius in show business. 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?”