Ray Charles is rightly credited with almost single-handedly inventing soul and R&B in the early 1950s. But in the 1960s he surprised his fans, and the whole of the pop world, by turning his hand to country-and-western.
In recording a mixture of country classics and recent hits, he introduced those songs to millions of people who might otherwise never have heard them.
As Willie Nelson once said: “Ray Charles did more for country music than any other artist,” and Loretta Lynn said of these records: “For years a lot of people who listened to country music were ashamed to admit it. What I really think started it booming was Ray Charles and his hit I Can’t Stop Loving You.”
Charles himself said – rightly – that he saw no difference between country and blues songs, pointing out that they drew on the same emotions and had their roots in the same musical traditions.
As obvious as that might seem now, it was a shocking view to express at a time when racial lines were still firmly drawn in music: blues and soul (and R&B) were made by black folk and country by white folk.
Of course, there wasn’t quite the same yee-haw aspect to the way Ray Charles interpreted old country standards; he was not so much interested in the earthier elements but simply saw them as no different from any other songs in the American songbook.
In order to appeal to a crossover audience he grounded them in jazz and soul and dressed them up in arrangements – with strings and backing vocals – suited to a mainstream easy listening demographic. In other words, white people.
His 1962 album Modern Sounds in Country Music went down so well – he topped the singles chart with I Can’t Stop Loving You – that a second volume was recorded immediately and went on sale just six months after the first.
Three years after that he returned to the genre to make another pair of albums, Country & Western Meets Rhythm & Blues – a perfect description of his hybrid sound – and Crying Time, of which this is the title track, written by country legend Buck Owens.
All four albums have just been remastered and re-released, 20 years after his death, on Tangerine Records, the label he founded in 1962, and will be followed next month by a compilation called simply Ray Charles – Best Of Country & Western.