I have a fairly large library of music and I have it all converted to MP3 format so when I listen to music I set my player to shuffle. Well today Ray Charles song Hit The Road Jack come up in the queue. I just have to say that Ray Charles is awesome so I had to listen to song after song from him after that. When you listen to him there is no doubt in your mind why he was called a genius. The man had a very long career and many artists will continue to try and copy him. The soul that he exuded carried his music to new levels and the talent he had was phenomenal. Born Ray Charles Robinson in Albany, Georgia in 1930 and passing away in 2004 he left a trail of 12 Grammy’s. He was also inducted into the Rock and rock, Rhythm and Blues, and Jazz halls of fame. He had also performed for at least seven presidents. He was not bound to one style of music and may have even been the first to produce music in the soul genre. On top of all of that he was also a generous man establishing the Ray Charles Robinson Foundation for the hearing impaired which is a charity run with no administration overhead. To put that into perspective The United Way averages around a 15% admin overhead per year.

You can get more information on the man and his music at The Ray Charles website.

So if you get a chance check out and want to check out some of his music;
Genius Loves Company
I have this next one and it is awesome;
Pure Genius: The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959)

or the movie that depicted his life;
Ray (Widescreen Edition)
I will leave you with this little video though, enjoy;

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