Ray Charles Crrying Time

Remastered and rereleased in limited edition to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Atlantic Records, AT NEWPORT features eight of legend Ray Charles's songs recorded at the Newport Jazz Festival. For his appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 5, 1958, Charles pulled out all the stops, performing raucous versions of "The Right Time," "I Got a Woman," and "Talkin' 'Bout You." [This album was reissued in 1973 as a two-record set, packaged with Ray Charles in Person under the title Ray Charles Live (Atlantic SD 2-503).]

James Brown may be "the hardest working man in show business," Aretha Franklin may be the Queen of Soul, but as Ultimate Hits Collection proves, the most apt nickname in all of music may belong to Ray Charles: the Genius. Forget for a moment that fitting all of Charles' hits on a mere two CDs is not remotely possible. Almost any Ray Charles greatest-hits compilation is going to be excellent, and this one is better than most, if only because it's two-discs long. Ultimate Hits Collection follows the path of Charles' work as it cruises through the genres he so richly influenced: R&B, pop, jazz, blues, and country. The standard favorites are here from Charles' repertoire, but what sets this compilation apart are the lesser-known tracks. "Mess Around" and "Hide 'Nor Hair" are certainly not as popular as "Hit the Road Jack," but they are no less enjoyable. The most welcome inclusion is Charles' version of the country classic "You Don't Know Me," which is often left off of other Charles retrospectives.

Dick Cavett made no secret of his tremendous admiration for Ray Charles, and had the trailblazing musician on his ABC talk show three times during its 1969-1973 run, including one appearance in which Charles was Cavett's sole guest for the entire 90 minutes. Charles' three visits to The Dick Cavett Show are collected on this two-DVD set, which takes the unusual task of presenting the complete shows as they were originally broadcast (minus commercials), rather than simply excerpting Ray's musical numbers.

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.