In Memory of Music Legend Ray Charles: Twenty Years After His Tragic Death

Photo byWikipedia.org

A groundbreaking performer on countless levels, Ray Charles delivered his stellar musical talents to the world. He died from liver cancer twenty years ago, and this is his story.

A Closer Look

Ray Charles was born on September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia, and raised in Florida. His family was born and by the time he was 7 years old, Charles was blind. He attended the Saint Augustine School of the Blind and Deaf where he began to study piano, saxophone, and clarinet.

When he was 15, his mother passed away. Two years later, his father died, and Charles started traveling as a musician throughout Florida, and later Washington State.

In 1950, Charles relocated to Los Angeles and, by 1954 had his first hit with Atlantic Records. “I Got A Woman” combined the blues of those such as Guitar Slim with gospel, and benchmarked the term “soul music.”

For the next ten years, Charles was at the top of the charts with songs like “In My Own Tears,” “Unchain My Heart,” “Hit the Road Jack,” and “Georgia on My Mind.”

By the early 1960s, he formed a big band and had a top-ten instrumental hit with “One Mint Julep.” That was followed by additional releases and several successful country albums

The Big ’80s Were Good To Charles

In the 1980s, Ray Charles was a frequent presence on TV and the big screen and recorded several duets with established musical artists like Willie Nelson, and Chaka Khan.

His participation in the 1985 Michael Jackson/Lionel-composed “We Are the World” musical sensation, video, and song brought Charles back to the mainstream view with a renewed vibrancy.

In the End…

In 1992 Ray Charles received the National Medal of Arts bestowed upon by President Bill Clinton.