Max Gomez september 25, 2013 public speaking, spc 2608 Professor Grimaldo Ray “l was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water. ” Ray said. Ray Charles Robinson was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles. He was blind. He started to lose his sight at the age of five and went completely blind by the age of seven, apparently ue to glaucoma.
His career started in Jacksonville where he played the piano in the Ritz Theater for 4$ the night. He had always played for other people, but he wanted his own band. So he decide that he should get out of Florida and go to Chicago or New York but those two cities were too big so he moved to Seattle where he met Robert Blackwell. They started recording and they achieved there first hit named “Confession Blues”. This song was in number two of the R&B charts. Then he signed a contract with Atlantic
Records in here he recorded his own composition “l Got A Woman”, and the song became Charles’ first number-one R hit. It was later ranked No. 235 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. This song appears in the album “Ray Charles”. This song begins when Ray was listening “It Must Be Jesus” by the Southern Tones in the bus with his band and then he start writing this song. In 1960 he released a version of “Georgia On My Mind” this song was actually composed by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell in 1930.
But the version of Ray was one of his famous hits. Ray was born in Albany Georgia so with this version dedicated to his homeland. Today Ray’s version is the official state song of the State of Georgia. Concluding Ray Charles Robinson said, “I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great. ” Well he made it. He is one of the greatest artists in all the history of the music. Bibliography: BrainyQuote. Xplore. 25 Sept. 2013 . “Ray Charles. ” Wikipedia. 25 Sept. 2013. Wikimedia Foundation. 25 Sept. 2013 .
