Ray Charles - Exclusive (2024 Remastered) (2024) Hi-Res

Ray Charles’ recordings spanned every genre of music including Rhythm & Blues, Jazz, Rock & Roll, Gospel and Country & Western. We’re all familiar with such hits like “Georgia On My Mind.” “Hit The Road Jack” and “America The Beautiful.” But Ray’s catalog also includes a huge collection of other “classically Ray” recordings that may not be as well known such as “Come Live With Me,” “A Song For You” and many others.

Ray Charles was a legendary musician often called the "Genius,” who pioneered the genre of soul music during the 1950s. His impressive multi-award winning 50-year career left an indelible mark on contemporary music all over the world.

Born Ray Charles Robinson on September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia, he was raised in Greenville, Florida, and started playing the piano before he was five. At age six, he contracted glaucoma that eventually left him blind. He studied composition (writing music in Braille) and learned to play the alto saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, and organ while attending the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind from 1937 to 1945. His father died when he was 10, his mother five years later, and he left school to work in dance bands around Florida, dropping his last name to avoid confusion with boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. In 1947, with $600 he moved to Seattle and worked as a Nat “King” Cole-style crooner.