Ray Charles Profile
Name: Ray Charles Robinson
Born: September 23, 1930
Death: June 10, 2004
Birthplace: Albany at Georgia
Best Known As: Singer of "Hit the Road, Jack"
Representative Albums: "Ultimate Hits Collection," "The Best of Ray Charles: The Atlantic Years," "Genius: The Ultimate Collection"
Representative Songs: "Georgia on My Mind," "What'd I Say," "I Got a Woman"
Full Biography of Ray Charles
Ray Charles was born in Albany at Georgia in September 23; 1930. He was singer, composer and pianist. He was making music was sophisticated and spontaneous. He brought up in Greenville at Florida and started playing the piano at age of five. At the age of six he suffer from glaucoma that which he lost his eyes. Then he studied composition with Braille and learned to play alto saxophone, clarinet, trumpet and organ while attending the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind from 1937 to 1945.His father died when he was 10 and then mother died after five year. He left the school because of working in dance band. After his saving $600 he moved to settle New York City.
He started his career with made up by “Confession Blues," at L.A. and recorded for a number of independed West Coast labels until he scored a Top 10 R&B hit in 1951 with "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand" and began a national tour with blues singer Lowell Fulson. "What'd I Say" was wild, gospel and Latin mixes become his first million seller. In 1959 he signed with ABC-Paramount Records and moved into the pop market with "Georgia on My Mind” and "Hit the Road, Jack" after that his popularity rates go ahead and ahead so that he called as a nickname “Genius."
In 1965 Charles was arrested for his possession of heroin and after exposed that he had been using it since he was 16.Then he recovered in a California clinic and spent a year over there and away from performing. He made his motion picture “Ballad in Blue” and playing himself as a blind boy in London. After that he performed two of his best-known songs, "What'd I Say" and "I Got a Woman."
In 1978 he published his autobiography “Brother Ray” it become national bestseller book. He received Grammy award and Life Time Achievement award. His recently song 1993 "A Song for You," named as President Clinton’s favorite song and Clinton presented Charles with a National Medal of the Arts.
Throughout his career Charles was an active with a political and humanitarian cause. He provided financial support for the priest Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement. In 1984 he performed his version of "America the Beautiful" at the Republican National Convention. In 1987 he built the “Robinson Foundation” for hearing disorders with a $ 1 million donation. On June 10th, 2004 Ray Charles passed away by lever disease from two months before the release of his final album “Genius Loves Company”. For more info.click here.
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