Ray Charles The Genius Sings The Blues

Many musicians possess elements of genius, but it was the great Ray Charles who so fully embodied the term that it was bestowed upon him as a nickname.

The Genius Sings the Blues was Ray Charles' last release for Atlantic, compiling twelve blues songs from various sessions during his tenure for the label. The album showcases Charles's stylistic development with a combination of piano blues, jazz, and southern R&B. The photo for the album cover was taken by renowned photographer Lee Friedlander.

A music legend like no other, Ray Charles earned the nickname "Genius" for recording countless jazz, country, R&B and pop masterpieces during a career that spanned seven decades. This Box Set features mono mixes for the seven outstanding solo studio albums he recorded for Atlantic Records. For this new collection, the following albums have been fully remastered from the original mono analog tapes, echoing the experience of the era, when most fans were hearing music on record players, jukeboxes and radios that played music monaurally: "Ray Charles" (1957), "The Great Ray Charles" (1957), "Yes, Indeed!" (1958), "What'd I Say" (1959), "The Genius Of Ray Charles" (1959), "The Genius After Hours" (1961), and "The Genius Sings The Blues" (1961).

A music legend like no other, Ray Charles earned the nickname "Genius" for recording countless jazz, country, R&B and pop masterpieces during a career that spanned seven decades. This Box Set features mono mixes for the seven outstanding solo studio albums he recorded for Atlantic Records. For this new collection, the following albums have been fully remastered from the original mono analog tapes, echoing the experience of the era, when most fans were hearing music on record players, jukeboxes and radios that played music monaurally: "Ray Charles" (1957), "The Great Ray Charles" (1957), "Yes, Indeed!" (1958), "What'd I Say" (1959), "The Genius Of Ray Charles" (1959), "The Genius After Hours" (1961), and "The Genius Sings The Blues" (1961).

A masterful songwriter whose touching blues ballad "Please Send Me Someone to Love," a multi-layered universal lament, was a number one R&B hit in 1950, Percy Mayfield had the world by the tail until a horrific 1952 auto wreck left him facially disfigured. That didn't stop the poet laureate of the blues from writing in a prolific fashion, though. As Ray Charles' favorite scribe during the '60s, he handed the Genius such gems as "Hit the Road Jack" and "At the Club."

Ray Charles’s Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Volumes 1 & 2 are major landmarks in American culture. Charles demonstrated that great songs with signature performances work in all genres. “I Can’t Stop Loving You” was a standard in country, soul and R&B, as he proved. Modern Sounds also brought America together during the Sixties’ civil rights movement. Charles became one of the first recording artists to have ownership and complete control of the masters. Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music has been listed among the greatest albums of all time, along with the Beatles, Dylan, Motown, Springsteen, Hendrix and the Beach Boys.