1959
LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL * RAY CHARLES * LONDON AMERICAN 9058 * UK
Ray Charles Robinson was born 1930 Albany, Georgia, into a very poor family he lost the use of his eye sight through glaucoma at age 7. He studied music, piano, and Braille at the St. Augustine (Florida) School for the Deaf and Blind, and started touring with a Jazz group, the Maxim trio in the late 1940s. The group was styled on the music of Nat "King" Cole and Charles Brown, and they had a major R&B hit in 1949 with Confession Blues for Swingtime, the same year Ray Charles is said to have started his heroin habit. In 1952 Atlantic purchased his contract from Swingtime, Ray Charles soon hit with It Should Have Been Me sung in a new more personal style, influenced by Gospel and Blues. The above was from the time when his music had crossed the Atlantic, this was his fourth British release, and some of his new found fans would copy his portrait from album covers. For more on the real story of the song Let The Good Times Rol go here.
See also:
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| Let’s Go Get Stoned | I Don’t Need No Doctor |
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| I’m Moving On | You Be My Baby | Talkin’ ‘Bout You |
And: Ray Charles Tribute page.