Ray Charles - Ray Charles (Hybrid SACD)
Ray Charles – vocals, piano [click here to see more Vinyl/SACD featuring Ray Charles]
The Ray Charles Orchestra
Written by Ray Charles, Henry Glover, Lowell Fulson, Charles Calhoun, A. Nugetre, Renald Richard
1 Hybrid SACD
Original analog Master tape : YES
Mono
Studio
Label : Analogue Productions Atlantic 75 Series
Original Label : Atlantic
Recorded May 17, 1953 - November 27, 1956
Produced by Ahmet Ertegün, Jerry Wexler
Mastered by Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering
Originally released in 1957
Reissued in 2024
Tracks :
- Ain't That Love
- Drown in My Own Tears
- Come Back Baby
- Sinner's Prayer
- Funny (But I Still Love You)
- Losing Hand
- A Fool for You
- Hallelujah, I Love Her So
- Mess Around
- This Little Girl of Mine
- Mary Ann
- Greenbacks
- Don't You Know
- I Got a Woman
“One of the first handful of LPs issued by Atlantic, Ray Charles (later retitled Hallelujah I Love Her So) is a bona fide classic of its genre. Weighted about three to one in favor of Charles' own compositions, its raison d'etre was the hits "Hallelujah I Love Her So" and the pounding, soaring "Ain't That Love," which opens the LP. As with other Atlantic albums of the period, its content was determined more by Charles' recent singles than by a real plan for the LP, but even within those limitations it's an amazingly subtle record. Charles does just as well with his interpretations of others' work, most notably the ominous, gospel-focused rendition of "Sinner's Prayer" (which offers a virtuoso piano performance, and comes courtesy of the pen of Charles' former mentor Lowell Fulson) and Henry Glover's wrenching ballad "Drown in My Own Tears," which is topped out on each verse by a gorgeous chorus. "Funny (But I Still Love You)" offers a guitar break played in such an understated fashion that it almost doesn't seem so much a part of R&B as it was usually being offered in 1957 as it does a part of Charles' early career output. The second side of the LP is even better, opening with the title track, a number that is almost too ubiquitous in its various cover versions -- the original has a mix of urgency and playfulness that's absolutely bracing, and the album carries this mood forward with "Mess Around," an Ahmet Ertegun-authored piano- and sax-driven romp with Charles at his most ebullient as a singer. "This Little Girl of Mine" offers him in a surprisingly light, almost acrobatic vocal mode, while "Greenbacks" is a knowing, clever cautionary narrative that is almost a throwback to 1940s-style R&B. "Don't You Know" is as salacious a piece of R&B as one was likely to hear in 1957, and "I Got a Woman" closes the record out on a pounding, driving note.” AllMusic Review by Bruce Eder