Ray Charles was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist who was one of the pioneers of soul music. He was born in Albany, Georgia, on September 23, 1930, and died in Beverly Hills, California, on June 10, 2004.
Table of Contents:
1. Early life
2. Career
3. Personal life
4. Death
5. Legacy
6. Top Ray Charles Quotes
Early Life
Ray Charles was born in Albany, Georgia, on September 23, 1930, the son of a poor sharecropper family. He was blind in his right eye and had poor vision in his left eye. When he was five years old, his family moved to Greenville, Florida. He started playing the piano when he was seven years old. He went to the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine, Florida, where he studied music and learned to play the clarinet and the trumpet.
Career
Ray Charles began his career as a jazz pianist in the early 1950s. He signed with Atlantic Records in 1952 and released his first album, The Genius of Ray Charles, in 1959. He had hits with such songs as “What’d I Say,” “Unchain My Heart,” and “Georgia on My Mind.” He won nine Grammy Awards, including three for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Personal Life
Ray Charles was married twice and had 12 children. He had a long-term relationship with Della Beatrice Howard Robinson, with whom he had three children.
Death
Ray Charles died of liver disease on June 10, 2004, in Beverly Hills, California. He was buried in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.
Legacy
Ray Charles was one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. He was a pioneer of soul music and his music had a profound impact on the Civil Rights Movement.
Top Ray Charles Quotes
“I had to pawn my clothes just to pay my rent.”— Ray Charles
“It’s like Duke Ellington said, there are only two kinds of music – good and bad. And you can tell when something is good.”— Ray Charles
“The important thing is to feel your music, really feel it and believe it.”— Ray Charles
“Music to me is like breathing. I don’t get tired of breathing, I don’t get tired of music.”— Ray Charles
“Drunken talk isn’t meant to be printed in the paper.”— Ray Charles
“Women anchor me. They’re there when I need them. They’re sensitive to me, and I’m sensitive to them. I’m not saying I’ve loved that many women.”— Ray Charles
“Just because you can’t see anything, doesn’t mean you should shut your eyes.”— Ray Charles
“Dreams, if they’re any good, are always a little bit crazy.”— Ray Charles
“I’d like to think that when I sing a song, I can let you know all about the heartbreak, struggle, lies and kicks in the ass I’ve gotten over the years for being black and everything else, without actually saying a word about it.”— Ray Charles
“Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory.”— Ray Charles
“When I was going blind, I didn’t turn to God. It didn’t seem to me then – and it doesn’t seem to me now – that those items were His concern. Early on, I figured I better begin to learn how to count on myself, instead of counting on supernatural forces.”— Ray Charles
“The fact of the matter is, you don’t give up what’s natural. Anything I’ve fantasized about, I’ve done.”— Ray Charles
“I was born with music inside me.”— Ray Charles
“I don’t think any of us really knows why we’re here. But I think we’re supposed to believe we’re here for a purpose.”— Ray Charles
“Music is about the only thing left that people don’t fight over.”— Ray Charles
“Music’s been around a long time, and there’s going to be music long after Ray Charles is dead. I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind. If it’s a big record, that’s the frosting on the cake, but music’s the main meal.”— Ray Charles
“I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water.”— Ray Charles
“Love is a special word, and I use it only when I mean it. You say the word too much and it becomes cheap.”— Ray Charles
“I got a cow that went dry and a hen that won’t lay, a big stack of bills that gets bigger each day.”— Ray Charles
“I don’t sing a song unless I feel it. The song don’t tug at my heart, I pass on it. I have to believe in what I’m doing.”— Ray Charles
“Do it right or don’t do it at all. That comes from my mom. If there’s something I want to do, I’m one of those people that won’t be satisfied until I get it done. If I’m trying to sing something and I can’t get it, I’m going to keep at it until I get where I want it.”— Ray Charles
“Don’t go backwards – you’ve already been there.”— Ray Charles
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder and tears are only rain to make love grow.”— Ray Charles
“The role of the designer is basically that of a good host, anticipating the needs of the guest.”— Ray Charles
“I really feel that if you’re gonna be good, you gotta practice… Practice whatever the hell you do.”— Ray Charles
“Crying’s always been a way for me to get things out which are buried deep, deep down. When I sing, I often cry. Crying is feeling, and feeling is being human.”— Ray Charles
“Sometimes my dreams are so deep that I dream that I’m dreaming.”— Ray Charles
“I don’t know what would have happened to me if I hadn’t been able to hear.”— Ray Charles
“All my life I’ve always been so blue, born to lose, and now I’m losing you.”— Ray Charles
“Just like you can buy grades of silk, you can buy grades of justice.”— Ray Charles
“Music is the chalk to the blackboard of life. Without it everything is a blank slate.”— Ray Charles
“Live each day like it’s your last, ’cause one day you gonna be right.”— Ray Charles
“Other arms reach out to me, Other eyes smile tenderly, Still in peaceful dreams I see, The road leads back to you.”— Ray Charles
“I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great.”— Ray Charles
“My mom taught me a lot. A lot about minding your own business and leaving other people’s business alone. And let them think what they want.”— Ray Charles
“I’m a firm believer in God himself, but that’s as far as I can go. I’m not any denomination. I’m not Catholic or Presbyterian or Baptist or Methodist or Jewish or Muslim. I’m none of those things. And I’m sure that’s just fine with God.”— Ray Charles
“Before I begin, let me say right here and now that I’m a country boy. And, man, I mean the real backwoods! That’s at the start of the start of the thing, and that’s at the heart of the thing.”— Ray Charles
“Music to me is just like breathing. I have to have it. It’s part of me.”— Ray Charles
“Art Tatum – he was a genius. And Einstein, not me.”— Ray Charles
“There’s such a thing as too much happiness and sadness. What I’m after is contentment.”— Ray Charles
“My version of ‘Georgia’ became the state song of Georgia. That was a big thing for me, man. It really touched me. Here is a state that used to lynch people like me suddenly declaring my version of a song as its state song. That is touching.”— Ray Charles
“What I’ve got to live up to, is being myself. If I do that, the rest will take care of itself.”— Ray Charles
“What is a soul? It’s like electricity – we don’t really know what it is, but it’s a force that can light a room.”— Ray Charles
“Now Listen You know I work so hard, all day long Everything I try to do, Seem to always turn out wrong That’s why I wanna stop by on my way home and say Let’s go get stoned.”— Ray Charles
“Hit the road Jack, don’tcha come back no more, no more, no more, no more. Hit the road Jack, don’tcha come back no more.”— Ray Charles
“You got to set your mind right and the rest will come to you naturally. No restrictions, no hang-ups, no stupid rules, no formalities, no forbidden fruit – just everyone getting and giving as much as he and she can.”— Ray Charles
“There are many spokes on the wheel of life. First, we’re here to explore new possibilities.”— Ray Charles
“Affluence separates people. Poverty knits ’em together. You got some sugar and I don’t; I borrow some of yours. Next month you might not have any flour; well, I’ll give you some of mine.”— Ray Charles
“There’s nothing written in the Bible, Old or New testament, that says, ‘If you believe in Me, you ain’t going to have no troubles.’”— Ray Charles
“I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind.”— Ray Charles
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