Singular Genius: The Complete ABC Singles [Box set]

Ray Charles | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 15, 2011)
• Original Release Date: 2011
• Number of Discs: 5
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Concord Records
• ASIN: B005JLNAQ6
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,944 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

With the release of Ray Charles' Singular Genius: The Complete ABC Singles, on November 15, 2011, Concord Records will make available for the first time the artist's collection of ABC-Paramount singles during this prolific period (1960-1972).

The digitally remastered deluxe 106-song collection presents the A and B sides of 53 singles, including 11 #1 hits, such Grammy Award winners "Hit the Road Jack," "Busted," "Georgia on My Mind," "I Can't Stop Loving You," "Crying Time," "America the Beautiful," and many more.

Twenty-one of the songs are making their digital debut, and 30 have never previously been available on CD. Liner notes were written by R&B recording artist and music historian Billy Vera and rare photographs are included.

According to Valerie Ervin, president of the Ray Charles Foundation, "This compilation provides an opportunity to hear Ray's evolution into a full-fledged artist and creative force. The song selection was based upon the interpretation he could bring to the music and not the genre. The ABC singles comprise an epoch of essential Ray Charles music and a window into how his genius evolved."

John Burk, Concord Music Group's Chief Creative Officer stated, "Ray Charles is one of America's most iconic and treasured voices. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to present Ray's historic ABC singles with the reverence and respect they deserve and continue our dynamic partnership and acclaimed reissue program with Valerie Ervin and everyone at the Ray Charles Foundation."

By the time the singer released his first single for his new label affiliation, ABC-Paramount, in January 1960, he had crossed over into the stardom that show biz insiders had long known was his due. After several years of R&B hits on his previous label, Atlantic Records, he'd finally reached the coveted white teen market with his smash, "What'd I Say," the simplest, most basic song of his career.

Charles' contract was coming up for renewal and the Atlantic brass expected an easy negotiation. After all, most entertainers took a passive approach to their business, especially when things were going well. However, his agency, Shaw Artists, wanted to bring Charles to a broader audience, which they felt could be better delivered by a major record company.

One such company was ABC-Paramount, a newer major that had found success with teen idols Paul Anka, Frankie Avalon, and Fabian, while crossing Lloyd Price over into pop. ABC's Larry Newton convinced label president Sam Clark that Ray Charles was the ideal artist to not only make hits but to attract other black acts to the fold. Charles was granted a magnanimous contract that included ownership of his masters after five years. Even Frank Sinatra, as Vera points out, did not have a deal like this.

Sid Feller became Charles' A&R man and producer. Though as Atlantic's Jerry Wexler once said, "You don't produce Ray Charles; you just get out of the way and let him do his thing."

After striking a rich deal, the Ray Charles/ABC relationship had a momentary setback when the first ABC single, "Who You Gonna Love" b/w "My Baby," sold disappointingly. The second single, "Sticks and Stones," a "What'd I Say" knockoff, went to #2 R&B and #540 pop. Finally, the third ABC single, "Georgia on My Mind," culled from the album The Genius Hits the Road, reached #1 on the pop charts.

With the overwhelming popularity of "Georgia on My Mind," Charles was at last a full-fledged mainstream star, right up there with the Nat Coles and Peggy Lees. The company's strategy was to cater to his new market while still releasing singles to serve his R&B base.

Charles in the meantime launched a publishing arm, Tangerine Music, signing one of the greats of West Coast blues, Percy Mayfield. Mayfield brought with him a song he'd pitched to Specialty Records without success, "Hit the Road, Jack." Ray's version rose to #1 on both the pop and R&B charts. It was followed by "Unchain My Heart."

ABC-Paramount celebrated his grand success by giving Charles his own label, Tangerine, which he used to record some of his personal R&B heroes including Mayfield, Louis Jordan, and Little Jimmy Scott. At the same point in time, Charles became enamored of country music and recorded several country sides: "Take These Chains From My heart," "Busted," "That Old Lucky Sun," and from Buck Owens, "Crying Time" and "Together Again."

1966 saw the opening of Ray Charles' own RPM Studios on Washington Blvd. in Los Angeles. The first song he recorded at the facility was "Let's Go Get Stoned," a Coasters cover penned by Nick Ashford, Valerie Simpson, and Jo Armistead.

The ABC-Paramount recordings continued into the late '60s and early '70s. In 1972 Charles cut a version of the New Seekers hit, "Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma," but it was the B-side, "America the Beautiful," that became a runaway hit, Grammy Award winner (one of five on this collection) and to a younger generation unfamiliar with his earlier major works, his signature song.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complete recitation of Ray Charles' fifty-three singles for ABC, November 15, 2011

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Singular Genius: The Complete ABC Singles (Audio CD)

Ray Charles long ago graduated from a hit-seeking artist to an omnipresent musical god. His iconic singles, innovative albums and sizzling live performances are so monumental as to obscure the time before they existed. It's all but impossible to recall the excitement of a new Ray Charles release climbing up the charts to popular acclaim and immortality. But Charles' genius was both artistic and commercial, and his growth and triumphs as a musician were paralleled by success on the charts. Concord's 5-disc set gathers the mono A- and B-sides of all 53 singles that Charles released on the ABC label, starting with 1960's "My Baby (I Love Her Yes I Do)" and concluding with 1973's "I Can Make It Thru the Days (But Oh Those Lonely Nights)." Along the route the set stops at eleven chart-topping hits, numerous lower-charting A-sides and a wealth of terrific B's. Thirty of these tracks are making their first appearance on CD, and twenty-one their digital debut.

By the time Charles joined ABC-Paramount, he'd already begun to translate his success on the R&B charts into broader crossover acclaim with the Atlantic singles "What'd I Say" and "I'm Movin' On." His recordings for ABC included both indelible albums (e.g., Genius + Soul = Jazz and Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music), and an incredible string of charting singles that included "Georgia on My Mind" (his first Pop #1), "Hit the Road Jack," "I Can't Stop Loving You," "You Don't Know Me," "Busted" and "Crying Time." Charles repeatedly showed himself to be a master of blues, soul, jazz, gospel, pop and his own brand of country, and a musician (both as a pianist and vocalist) whose brilliance was amplified just as fully by a small combo as it was by an orchestra.

Charles had first expanded his musical boundaries with Atlantic on 1959's The Genius of Ray Charles, augmenting his R&B band with additional players and strings; ABC capitalized on this by providing the opportunity to record with big bands and orchestras. The through line that links the two eras is the soul Charles poured into each vocal, the personal experience he wrote into his lyrics, and the imagination with which he created definitive interpretations of others' songs. Charles' piano playing - particularly on the electric - was as iconic as his voice, and as a bandleader he surrounded himself with exceptional instrumentalists, including tenor saxophonist David "Fathead" Newman, who developed their own notoriety and followings.

It wasn't until Charles' third single for ABC, 1960's career-defining cover of "Georgia on My Mind," that he topped the pop chart and fully exploited his crossover success. It was a feat he'd repeat with 1961's "Hit the Road Jack," 1962's "I Can't Stop Loving You," and with other titles on the R&B chart. Charles' sessions often turned out enough high-grade material to stock both sides of his singles. 1962's landmark cover of Hank Williams' "Your Cheatin' Heart," for example, was backed by an even higher-charting take on Governor Jimmie Davis' "You Are My Sunshine." But the biggest hits aren't this set's most intriguing material - it's the lower-charting singles and B-sides, overshadowed by Charles' commercial success, that are the biggest surprise.

Lesser-known highlights include Phil Guilbeau's trumpet work on Percy Mayfield's sly blues "But on the Other Hand, Baby," Gerald Wilson's moody arrangements of "Careless Love" and "Something's Wrong," a sizzling two-part live remake of Charles' 1955 hit "I Got a Woman," the Wrecking Crew's Carole Kaye laying down a funky bass line on "The Train," Charles' cooking original version of Ashford & Simpson's "I Don't Need No Doctor," Jimmy Holiday's southern-tinged blue soul "Something Inside Me," Billy Preston's gospel organ on "Here We Go Again," the bittersweet waltz-time "Somebody Ought to Write a Book About It," the gospel testimony of "Understanding," the Stax-styled "Let Me Love You," and the run of Buck Owens tunes ("Love's Gonna Live Here Again," "Crying Time" and "Together Again") Charles covered in 1965-6.

In the Fall of 1965, Charles began recording in his own RPM International studio, and many of the singles from this era sound pinched (Billy Vera's liner notes say they're "drier"), as though they were mixed and EQ'd narrowly for AM radio. As the timeline rolls into 1966 and 1967, the compressed dynamic range and mono mixes become anachronistic. As Charles' fame grew, he became more dependent on interpreting the songs of staff writers and others. The musical invention of the early `60s settled into a comfortable groove, but Charles' blend of soul, blues, jazz, country and pop never failed to offer something unique. Treats in the latter half of the collection include a superbly wrought cover of Sam Cooke's "Laughin' and Cryin'," a subtle double-tracked vocal on the soul B-side "If You Were Mine," a soulful reworking of "America the Beautiful," and a sharp take on "Ring of Fire" that was Charles' last B-side for ABC.

The five discs are housed in individual cardboard folders, with interior reproductions of a label or picture sleeve. The folders are packed in a heavy-duty box with a linen-textured finish and magnetic clasp. The 48-page booklet includes archival photos, detailed musician credits and release data, and new liner notes by Billy Vera. All 106 tracks are mastered in mono. This is a superb way to get acquainted with the range of Ray Charles' recordings of the 1960s and early 1970s, combining his best-loved hits with superb B-sides and lower-charting singles that remain obscure to many listeners. It's not a substitute for hearing his groundbreaking albums of the era, but an equally worthy profile of the Genius of Soul. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As Good As It Gets!, November 20, 2011

By 

Cory Geurts (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Singular Genius: The Complete ABC Singles (Audio CD)

After a few years with Swing Time Records, Ray Charles signed with Atlantic Records in 1953. He had numerous hits while at Atlantic over the next six years, and during that time Ray Charles broke through the charts and had become a household name. In 1959 he signed a generous recording contract with ABC-Paramount Records, the hits continued, and the rest is history.

But what of the Ray Charles catalog? Unlike artists such as Nat King Cole, The Beatles, or Led Zeppelin who have had complete catalogs available in tidy box sets, the Ray Charles catalog has until recently been somewhat scattered, with some songs unavailable on CD. Then in 2005, Atlantic released its comprehensive box set, Pure Genius: Complete Atlantic Recordings 52-59. And now we have this, the next piece: the complete ABC-Paramount singles box set.

This is a collection of all of the ABC singles (A and B sides, 106 tracks total) spanning 1960 through 1972. The sonic quality of the remastering in this box set is astounding. Consistent with the times in which these songs first hit the airwaves, every song is presented in it's original mono single mix. Thankfully, the remastering has been painstakingly done here and the sound is crisp and clean, not muddy. However, as noted elsewhere, the sound quality of a handful of these singles beginning around 1966 is pretty flat. That's the way they were originally produced, and that sound is preserved here.

For those familiar with modern digital remastering, the sound quality here is reminiscent of the thoughtfully remastered The Beatles Mono Box Set or Bob Dylan's The Original Mono Recordings. I am pleased to report that this box set is NOT another casualty of the "loudness wars" that sadly have ruined the sound quality of the catalogs of class-acts such as Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin.

For some folks, the monophonic sound will be a hang-up. To me these original mono mixes are quite a relief. My favorite Ray Charles album, Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music 1 & 2, sounds pretty bad in its original stereo mix, especially when listening through a good set of headphones. Home stereos were still in their infancy in the early 60's, and it was common for stereo mixes to have extreme separation between channels. It took a few years until the technique improved and we started to see a lot more natural, pleasant-sounding stereo. As a collection of original singles from this era, mono is the only option.

The box set is sturdy and attractive, and at the same time eco-friendly and minimalistic. The 5 CDs come in simple folding paper sleeves printed with the track listing. The 48-page booklet includes well-written historical background, scores of photographs and extensive notes for each track.

They've really done it right this time: thorough research, excellent song choice and chronological sequencing, careful remastering, and tasteful packaging, all at a very reasonable price. Even if you already have some of these songs in your collection, I can recommend picking up this box set because the completeness and sound quality will amaze you.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Genius deserves better, December 10, 2011

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P.J. - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Singular Genius: The Complete ABC Singles (Audio CD)

Ray Charles one of the greatest artists of all time deserves a better deal from the custodians of his music.
So many great classics bur unfortuneatly the remastering here is poor.The sound is very thin at times with poor bass and overall far too bright.

If Columbia can get such a great sound from Billie Holidays 30's recordings on their box set I am sure Concord could have done a lot better if they had used one of the remastering engineers who do a lot of the blue note or mosaic reissues. Disappointing