On this day in 1930, the great Ray Charles was born. Charles was born in Georgia and raised in Florida as the son of a sharecropper and a mechanic. He started going blind at age 5, lost his father at age 10, and his mother at age 15. Despite these early tragedies in his life, Ray showed a strong interest in music, especially the piano. This was the beginning of what would become one of the most storied careers in American music. He scored huge hits with songs like I Got a Woman, Whatd I Say, and his famous interpretation of Georgia On My Mind, which became that states official song. He battled racism and drug addiction throughout his career while forming lifelong friendships with artists as diverse as Willie Nelson and James Brown. Ray Charles would make his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in December of 1967. He performed a rendition of the already standard Yesterday by The Beatles. Ray would return to Sullivan a year later, performing another Beatles classic, Eleanor Rigby and Whatd I Say. Charles would also occasionally act in film and television, perhaps most famously in the 1980 comedy The Blues Brothers. He was also portrayed by Jamie Foxx, who won an Oscar for his role, in the biographical film Ray. youtu.be/wfhgQG3VVqo
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 00:03:49 +0000
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