Tag: Ray Charles

Ray Charles & Barbra Streisand: “Crying Time” (Duet of the Day)

In 1973, Barbra Streisand joined Ray Charles on the Buck Owens classic, “Crying Time.” Although many know that Charles had a hit with the song, not many know that Streisand also recorded her own version.

Buck Owens wrote “Crying Time” and originally released it as a B-side to “I’ve Got a Tiger By the Tail” in 1964. Although Owens’s version of “Crying Time” did not chart, Ray Charles decided to record the song. He released it as the title track for his album Crying Time in 1966.

The song features a typical country and western theme, with the singer focusing on a lost love. The singer’s lover, however, has not left yet. But the singer knows the lover is leaving by the look in her eyes and the way she holds the singer. One may wonder whether the singer’s senses are correct, but late in the song in a key verse, the singer notes, “Now you say you’ve found someone that you love better.” But then, in what may be the song’s most interesting line, the singer adds, “That’s the way it’s happened every time before.”

In other words, it appears that the lover has cheated on the singer more than once before. So, while it is a song about love lost and Charles’s voice captures the aching pain of such loss, the reality is probably that the singer is better off and should find a new lover anyway.

By the time he released “Crying Time,” Ray Charles had already established himself as a wonderful interpreter of country music, including with his 1962 albums Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music and Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Vol 2. Those albums also established his skill in selecting country songs, whether or not they were big hits originally.

Charles’s version of “Crying Time” went on to make the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, the R&B chart, and the easy listening chart. The recording also earned two Grammy Awards.

In 1973, Barbra Streisand hosted her own CBS television special, Barbra Streisand…And Other Musical Instruments. In the special, she and Ray Charles sang “Crying Time” together. Check it out.

Streisand subsequently released an album featuring much of the music from the special. The album, also called Barbra Streisand…And Other Musical Instruments (1973), however, did not include the “Crying Time” duet. Streisand did include the song (without Charles) on her later album Butterfly (1974).

To be honest, I prefer the individual versions, but hearing and seeing the two all-time musical greats together is pretty cool.

What do you think of the duet? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Full Concert of Ray Charles in 1981

    Ray Charles Live

    If you never got to see Ray Charles live, you may find some solace in watching this outstanding complete performance from 1981. Apparently, Charles gave this performance at Edmonton’s Jubilee Auditorium on January 27, 1981. The show features the Edmonton Symphony backing up Charles.

    This video was originally released on laserdisc and videotape and entitled, An Evening With Ray Charles: With Sid Feller conducting the ITV Concert Orchestra.  The orchestra name in the title was another name used by the Edmonton Symphony, and conductor Sid Feller was well-known for his great work with Charles.

    After the opening song, “Riding Thumb,” the setlist includes songs such as “Busted,” “Georgia On My Mind,” “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” and “What’d I Say” before closing with “America the Beautiful.” Check it out.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    “What’d I Say”: The Accidental Hit By Ray Charles

    Ray Charles What'd I Say

    On February 18, 1959, Ray Charles laid down the song “What’d I Say” at the Atlantic Records studio on New York City. Besides being a great song, it is also unique for the way the song went from creation to recording to becoming a major hit.

    The Creation of “What’d I Say”

    One night while touring, Ray Charles was trying to fill the four hours he was contracted to perform at a dance near Pittsburgh (reportedly in Brownsville, Pennsylvania). Charles began on his Wurlitzer electric piano, finding a riff. As the riff began to build, Charles began making up words on the spot in front of the live audience.  And then he found himself asking his female backup singers to repeat after him.

    As illustrated in the movie Ray (2004) with Jamie Foxx, below is the film version of the evening (note that this video has the talking dialogue in Spanish but the singing is in English).

    The audience went wild. Charles continued playing the new song on the road, eventually calling Atlantic to say, “I’m playing a song out here on the road, and I don’t know what it is—it’s just a song I made up, but the people are just going wild every time we play it, and I think we ought to record it.”

    Newport Jazz Festival

    The following year, Charles performed “What’d I Say” at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island as his closing number.  But it left the audience wanting more.  He was called back on stage for an encore as his tenth song of the night, “I Believe to My Soul.”

    During this performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, unknown to those on stage, outside the festival police were clashing with a crowd of up to 12,000 young people.  The angry youths were upset they could not get into see the performances.

    “What’d I Say” Becomes a Hit

    After “What’d I Say” was recorded in the studio in two parts, Atlantic released it as a single in July 1959. Then, it became the lead-off two-part title track for the What’d I Say album released in October 1959.

    The song was a shot in the arm for the music industry.  At the time, Elvis was in the army, Chuck Berry would soon be going to jail, and Buddy Holly had died.

    Although some criticized the song for blending gospel with sounds of sexual bliss, the recording became Charles’s first big crossover hit. It climbed to number one on the R&B charts and to number six on the pop charts.

    “What’d I Say” was Charles’s first gold record, and Charles continued to use it as his closing number, as he did in Newport, throughout his career. While he would have other big hits, it was this little impromptu number that helped launch his career into the stratosphere and give the country a little soul.

    What is your favorite Ray Charles song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Seven Spanish Angels: Happy Birthday Willie

    willie nelson half nelson seven spanish angels Willie Nelson was born in Abbott, Texas on April 29, 1933. In 2012 a statute of Willie was unveiled in Austin, but instead of choosing his birthday, organizers chose the appropriate date of April 20 at 4:20 p.m. for the man who released an album that features a song with Snoop Dogg called, “Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die.” Anyway, today we celebrate with one of his great collaborations, this one with Ray Charles singing “Seven Spanish Angels.”

    The song was released as a single in November 1984 and originally appeared on Nelson’s album, Half Nelson (1985) and on Charles’s album, Friendship (1984). Although Charles had several successful country recordings, this one was his most successful. I was surprised to hear that this song was so successful for Charles, as it is not the first country recording I think of when I think of Charles. But it is an excellent one. In the video below, Nelson explains that Charles brought the song to him and that “it is going to be a phonograph record pretty soon.”

    Like Willie Nelson’s great recording of Townes Van Zandt’s “Pancho & Lefty” with Merle Haggard, “Seven Spanish Angels,” written by Troy Seals and Eddie Setser, recounts the story of an outlaw in Mexico. Instead of being about two men, though “Seven Spanish Angels” tells the story of an outlaw and his girlfriend. After the outlaw is killed in a gunfight with a posse, the woman exclaims, “Father, please forgive me; I can’t make it without my man.” Then she picked up his rifle, knowing it is empty, and points it at the men who then shoot and kill her.
    willow tree angel The Seven Spanish Angels in the song “pray for the lovers in the valley of the guns.” When the smoke cleared, “seven Spanish angels took another angel home.” The line about “another angel” always made me wonder, does that mean they left the woman’s boyfriend behind?

    What do you think happened at the end of “Seven Spanish Angels”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    (Back in the) USSR Established on Today’s Date

    USSR flag On December 30, 1922, following the Russian Revolution, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (“USSR“) was established. The country was created out of a confederation of Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation (which was later divided into the Georgian, Azerbaijan, and Armenian republics).

    Before being dissolved in 1991, the Soviet Union eventually included fifteen republics: Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Belorussia, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

    When any Beatles fan hears “USSR,” the person’s mind wanders to the Beatles classic “Back in the USSR” from the two-disc The Beatles (1968), otherwise known as The White Album.”

    Although the song is about the USSR in the title, underlying the song is a tribute to American rock and roll. The title evokes Chuck Berry’s “Back in the USA.” And in the chorus there is a nod to the Beach Boys’ “California Girls“:

    Well the Ukraine girls really knock me out
    They leave the west behind
    And Moscow girls make me sing and shout. . .

    Another line in the chorus mixes the USSR Georgia and the USA state Georgia to evoke Ray Charles and “Georgia on my Mind.” That song was recorded by Charles in 1960 and written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell in 1930.  As a tribute, the Beatles sing, “That Georgia’s always on my my my my my my my my my mind.”

    Although “Back in the USSR” takes the conflict of the Cold War to make a piece of beautiful music, there was conflict among the band members when the song was recorded. In a precursor to later band troubles, during the making of The White Album, Ringo Star quit the group for a short period. “Back in the USSR” was recorded during this period.

    So, Ringo does not play on the song. Most believe that the drums on the song were a composite of the other band members taking a turn at the skins, although a majority of the drumming may be McCartney, the primary writer of the song. For an earlier version of “Back in the USSR,” check out this Beatles demo:

    Paul McCartney eventually performed the song in Russia in 2003. By then, neither the countries of the USSR nor the men of the Beatles were together.

    Still, it is a good performance. I suspect the people in the crowd know how lucky they are.

    What do you think of Back in the USSR? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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