Biography
Ray Charles (born Ray Charles Robinson, 1930–2004) was an American pianist, singer, songwriter and composer and one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century. By blending gospel, rhythm and blues, jazz and blues, he became one of the principal pioneers of soul music and helped break down the boundaries between musical genres. He was born on September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia, and grew up in Greenville, Florida, where his family moved while he was still very young. His childhood was marked by poverty and tragedy. When Ray was five, he witnessed the accidental drowning of his younger brother George. Around the same period, he began to lose his eyesight and was completely blind by the age of seven, generally as a result of glaucoma.He attended the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine, where he received an extensive musical education. He learned classical piano, read and wrote music in Braille and also studied several other instruments, including the organ, clarinet and saxophone. Music had already become an important part of his life through the local church and the blues and country music he heard around him. His father died when Ray was still a child, and his mother died when he was fifteen. Soon afterward, he left school and began supporting himself as a professional musician.
During the late 1940s he performed with various bands and eventually moved to Seattle, where he began developing his professional career. His early singing style showed the influence of Nat King Cole and Charles Brown, but during the 1950s he gradually created a distinctive sound of his own. His recording of **“Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand”** became one of his first successes in 1951. Greater recognition followed with songs such as **“I’ve Got a Woman”** (1954), **“A Fool for You”** (1955), **“Drown in My Own Tears”** (1956) and **“What’d I Say”** (1959). By combining the emotional intensity and vocal style of gospel with the rhythms and themes of blues and R&B, Charles helped shape what would become known as soul music.
During the 1960s his music reached an even wider audience. **“Georgia on My Mind”** (1960), **“Hit the Road Jack”** (1961), **“I Can’t Stop Loving You”** (1962) and **“Busted”** (1963) became some of his best-known recordings. His 1962 album *Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music* was particularly important, demonstrating that country music, gospel, blues and soul could be brought together successfully and challenging many of the racial and musical divisions of American popular culture. Charles toured extensively in the United States and abroad and remained a major figure in popular music for more than five decades. His extraordinary versatility allowed him to move freely between soul, R&B, jazz, blues, pop and country. He also appeared frequently on television and in films, including his memorable appearance as himself in *The Blues Brothers* (1980). His career was also marked by a long struggle with heroin addiction, which had begun during his youth. After several arrests for drug possession, he entered treatment in the mid-1960s and successfully ended an addiction that had lasted roughly seventeen years. He subsequently returned to recording and performing and remained free of heroin for the rest of his life.
Ray Charles was married twice and fathered twelve children. Throughout his long career he received numerous honours and became one of the most widely respected figures in American music. He won 17 Grammy Awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and was among the first musicians inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. He continued recording almost until the end of his life. Ray Charles died on June 10, 2004, in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 73, following complications from liver disease. His final album, *Genius Loves Company*, was released shortly after his death and became one of the most successful recordings of his career, earning several posthumous Grammy Awards. Ray Charles left a profound mark on modern popular music. His ability to combine musical traditions that had often been treated as separate helped shape soul music and influenced generations of singers and musicians across R&B, rock, pop, jazz and country.
