Ray Charles: "I Got A Woman"

In November 1954, Ray Charles & his band were playing at the Royal Peacock club in Atlanta, Georgia. Through the help of a local disc jockey, Zenas Sears, Brother Ray made arrangements to do a recording session at the WGST radio station studio, then located on the campus of Georgia Tech. (The "GST" in the call letters derives from the college's original name, Georgia School of Technolgy.)

On November 18th, Brother Ray & his seven piece band recorded four songs at WGST, "I Got A Woman", "Come Back Baby", "Greenbacks" and "Blackjack". In January 1955, "I Got A Woman" became the first Ray Charles song to top the national charts, reaching #1 on the Billboard R&B chart. The flip side of the single, "Come Back Baby", also reached the top 5, charting at #4.

It seems fitting that Brother Ray, who was born in Albany, Georgia, recorded his first big hit in that state. With "I Got A Woman", he helped establish his own signature sound, blending the sounds of Saturday night with Sunday morning, in his unique way of singing from deep within his soul. Decades later, the State of Georgia recognized Ray Charles in a very special way by adopting his recording of "Georgia, On My Mind" as the official state song.

In a sad bit of irony, the patriarch of the Atlanta music scene, impresario Bill Lowery, also passed away last week, on Tuesday. Mr. Lowery started out in the music business as a disc jockey at the same Atlanta radio station, WGST, where Brother Ray recorded "I Got A Woman". In 1979, Bill Lowery (in the non-performer category) and Ray Charles became the first two inductees in the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon.

 

Great story ... great song ...

 

David,

Thanks for sharing the story!

This is great sounding track and quite dynamic as well...

Bob

 

Not to in any way diss the recently departed (in fact I played several tracks by Brother Ray the other night in respect for his passing), but the Beatles version of "I've Got a woman" on the "BBC Sessions" -- with a great Lennon lead vocal -- is probably my favorite performance from that set.

 

Yeah, he was writing and performing great stuff long before "What'd I Say" or "Hit the Road Jack".

One of the comments I recently read (I can't remember where) was that his lyrics and style didn't reach for the kids like R'n'R, yet were picked up on by a lot of Rock people because of their quality.

I'd also say his "soul" accent was a lot different than what later became known as "soul" via Motown and Stax.

I know I'd much rather listen to Ray Charles music these days, than revisit Mustang Sally type soul music.

One other comment : his music was so well recorded - good clear sound, good arranging of the instruments. (reminds me of the the thread about : it's 2004, how come so much ill-sounding noise is being recorded these days?)

 

Yeah, you can't keep a great song down. Elvis also did a killer version of that song.

Greenbacks (recorded at the same session) is a rockin' tune too.

-BZync

 

I think many artists had a good formula for working up & recording new material back in those days. Brother Ray & his band were on the road and they'd worked up some great arrangements on a new batch of songs. By taking advantage of the opportunity to record them on the spot, rather than waiting until later when they were off the road, they were able to capture some of the energy & spontaneity of their live performances in the studio.

Even though these four songs were recorded in a radio studio, stations such as WGST were still doing broadcasts of live performances back then and their studio had a room of sufficient size to accomodate a band, along with the necessary microphones, mixing board & related equipment to handle the task at hand.