BORN TO
LOSE
RAY
CHARLES
SONGWRITERS: MICHAEL SCHENKER; PETE WAY & PHIL
MOGG
COUNTRY:
U. S. A.
ALBUM: RAY CHARLES MODERN SOUNDS IN COUNTRY AND
WESTERN MUSIC
LABEL: UNIVERSE REMASTERING
GENRE: SOUL
YEAR: 1962
Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930
– June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most
iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by
contemporaries as "The Genius". Among
friends and fellow musicians he preferred being called "Brother Ray".
Charles was blinded during childhood, possibly due to glaucoma.
Charles pioneered the soul music genre
during the 1950s by combining blues,
jazz, rhythm and blues, and gospel styles into the
music he recorded for Atlantic Records.
He contributed to the integration of country music,
rhythm and blues, and pop music during
the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records,
notably with his two Modern Sounds albums. While
he was with ABC, Charles became one of the first black musicians to be granted
artistic control by a mainstream record company.
Charles's 1960 hit "Georgia On My Mind"
was the first of his three career Nº 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. His
1962 album Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music became his first album to top the Billboard 200. Charles
had multiple singles reach the Top 40 on various Billboard
charts: 44 on the US R&B singles chart, 11 on the Hot 100 singles chart, 2 on the Hot Country singles charts.
Charles cited Nat King Cole as a primary influence, but his music was also influenced by Louis Jordan and Charles Brown.
He had a lifelong friendship and occasional partnership with Quincy Jones. Frank Sinatra called Ray Charles "the only true genius in show
business," although Charles downplayed this notion. Billy Joel said,
"This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important
than Elvis Presley".
For his musical contributions, Charles
received the Kennedy
Center Honors, the National
Medal of Arts, and the Polar Music Prize. He was
one of the inaugural inductees at the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame in 1986. He has won 18 Grammy Awards
(5 posthumously), the Grammy
Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, and 10
of his recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall
of Fame. Rolling Stone ranked Charles Nº 10 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time,
and Nº 2 on their list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. In 2022, he was
inducted into the Country Music
Hall of Fame, as well as the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame
Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music is
a studio album by
American singer and pianist Ray Charles.
It was recorded in February 1962 at Capitol Studios in New York City and United
Western Recorders in Hollywood, and released
in April of that year by ABC-Paramount Records.
The album departed further stylistically from
the rhythm and blues music Charles had recorded for Atlantic Records in the 1950s. It featured country,
folk, and Western music standards reworked
by Charles in popular song forms of the time, including R&B, pop, and jazz. Charles produced the
album with Sid Feller, who
helped the singer select songs to record, and performed alongside saxophonist Hank Crawford, a
string section conducted by Marty Paich,
and a big band arranged
by Gil Fuller and Gerald Wilson.
Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music was
an immediate critical and commercial success. The album and its four hit
singles brought Charles greater mainstream notice and recognition in the pop market, as well as airplay on both
R&B and country radio stations. The album and its lead single, "I Can't Stop
Loving You", were both certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in 1962, as each record had sold at least 500,000 copies in the
United States.
The album's integration of soul and country
challenged racial barriers in
popular music at the height of the Civil Rights
Movement. In the process of recording the album, Charles became one
of the first African-American musicians to exercise complete artistic control
over his own recording career. In retrospect, it has been
considered by critics as his best studio record and a landmark recording in American
music. According to Robert Christgau, the
album "transfigured pop, prefigured soul, and defined modern country &
western music." It has been called one of the greatest albums of all time
by publications such as Rolling Stone and Time.
Born to lose, I've
lived my life in vain
Every dream has only brought me pain
All my life I've always been so blue
Born to lose and now I'm losing you
Born to lose, it
seems so hard to bear
When I wake, and find that you're not there
You've grown tired and now you say we're through
Born to lose and now I'm losing you
All my life I've
always been so blue
Born to lose and now I'm losing you
Born to lose and now I'm losing you.
Postagens
