Ray Charles Albums Ranked

Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and composer. Among friends and fellow musicians he preferred being called “Brother Ray.” He was often referred to as “The Genius.” Charles was blinded during childhood due to glaucoma. For his musical contributions, Charles received the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Arts, and the Polar Music Prize. He won 17 Grammy Awards, including 5 posthumously.^[10] Charles was honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, and 10 of his recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone ranked Charles No. 10 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and No. 2 on their list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Here are all of Ray Charles albums ranked.

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10. Genius Loves Company (2004)

“The band’s mixing is rather quiet. You can hear the trumpets and saxophones playing these intense licks only to quietly accompany Ray himself. It makes for a weird muffling effect where no one in the room can have more energy than Ray Charles, and he’s pretty chill for the most part. This handicaps the potential of the music by forcing otherwise upbeat tunes to slow down and swing with him. It’s a bad use of the material and undercuts the creative potential of the project.”

9. Genius + Soul = Jazz (1961)

“This is easily Charles best studio album for me. What more is there to like than Ray Charles behind some funky organ jams and the Count Basie big band. Sure the big songs are I’ve Got News for You and One Mint Julep, which are by far the biggest stand outs, but there are others I really enjoy. Moanin’ is a pretty swinging interpretation of Blakey’s standard, and Outskirts is one of the most soulful songs I’ve heard from Charles.”

8. The Genius Hits The Road (1960)

“The reason this album’s worth talking about is that it’s got Ray’s first #1 hit, the immortal version of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia On My Mind”. Call it saccharine or sleepy if you will; I call it sweet and dreamy, like relaxing in a hammock on a sunny afternoon and reminiscing without nostalgia or self-pity. The backing vocals don’t follow every line like they often do through the album’s other tracks, and that’s a good thing; it implies a sense of the undiscovered, like passing little things in a walk through the woods.”

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7. The Great Ray Charles (1957)

“Ray keeps it delicate on these instrumental tracks but occasionally you can hear the gospel and blues inspiration to his future music cutting through. His playing is just great and the album is a treat but you can just about tell even at this stage that he is too funky to be doing this kind of thing long term.”

6. The Genius Sings The Blues (1961)

“The arrangements feel more subtle this time round , and so they should be on a record like this you want the focus to be on rays amazing piano playing and singing. The only time for me that something rivals that on the record is the female voice on “the right time” which is practically orgasmic in joy “

5. At Newport (1958)

“Ray Charles at Newport is half instrumental and a half with vocals, and third jazz, a third soul and a third blues… all mixed together.  No matter what Ray Charles is doing, be it stretching “I Got A Woman” into a six-minute jam or laying down some hard blues with “A Fool For You,” this jazzy Newport audience just laps it up.  The sound and energy of Ray Charles at Newport are full and clear.”

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4. What’d I Say (1959)

“This song, whose original version has never been equaled, exists in several versions. The one I prefer is the longest at 6 ‘. I never knew if it was in the studio or in public, but it almost sounds like a life with the choirs responding to the soloist like in a gospel. Besides, the song is a mixture of blues, gospel, rhythm’n’blues with a hint of rock. It is quite simply one of the foundations of rhythm’n’blues which will become an essential genre in the mid-sixties.”

3. Ray Charles (1957)

“This is a fantastic compilation rounding up the best of the Genius’ pre-1957 work. The famous songs such as “Hallelujah I Love Her So”, “Mess Around” and “I Got a Woman” are all great, but I was hooked by the more unfamiliar numbers, such as “Losing Hand” and “This Little Girl of Mine. ” All are without exception superb.”

2. The Genius Of Ray Charles (1959)

“The arrangements feel more subtle this time round , and so they should be on a record like this you want the focus to be on rays amazing piano playing and singing. The only time for me that something rivals that on the record is the female voice on “the right time” which is practically orgasmic in joy .”

1. Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music (1962)

“It is simply fabulous. The vocals, the instrumentation, and the arrangements are perfect. This album is a five-star album, in the top ten of all albums ever recorded. It’s a different story with cuts 13 through 24, the “Modern Sounds, Vol 2” LP. First, this album pales in comparison when competing against the first album. The songs don’t have the quality or the arrangements the pop that made the first album shine. I’d have left four of the songs off of the album, replacing them with other songs. Second, some A&R person should have convinced Ray that putting all of the upbeat tracks on one side and all of the ballads on the other spelled “Boring.””