Ray Charles - Most Famous Hits: The Album (2001)

Ray Charles was the musician most responsible for developing soul music. Singers like Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson also did a great deal to pioneer the form, but Charles did even more to devise a new form of Black pop by merging '50s R&B with gospel-powered vocals, adding plenty of flavor from contemporary jazz, blues, and (in the '60s) country. Then there was his singing; his style was among the most emotional and easily identifiable of any 20th century performer, up there with the likes of Elvis and Billie Holiday. He was also a superb keyboard player, arranger, and bandleader. The brilliance of his 1950s and '60s work, however, can't obscure the fact that he made few classic tracks after the mid-'60s, though he recorded often and performed until the year before his death.Blind since the age of six (from glaucoma), Charles studied composition and learned many instruments at the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind. His parents had died by his early teens, and he worked as a musician in Florida for a while before using his savings to move to Seattle in 1947. By the late '40s, he was recording in a smooth pop/R&B style derivative of Nat "King" Cole and Charles Brown.

Tracklist
1-1 See See Rider 2:35
1-2 Lonely Boy 2:49
1-3 Hey Now 2:18
1-4 Goin Down Show 2:42
1-5 How Long Blues 2:35
1-6 Guitar Blues 2:33
1-7 Ain't That Fine 2:17
1-8 Why Did You Go 2:49
1-9 This Love Of Mine 3:03
1-10 I Love You, I Love You 2:39
1-11 Kiss Me Baby 3:10
1-12 Let Me Hear You Call 3:33
1-13 She's On The Ball 2:30
1-14 Baby Let Me Hold You 3:01
1-15 Can't You See Darling 2:37
1-16 Someday 3:08

2-1 Walkin' And Talkin' 3:09
2-2 If I Give You My Love 2:37
2-3 What Have I Done 2:33
2-4 Misery In My Heart 3:04
2-5 A Sentimental Blues 2:25
2-6 Honey Honey 2:42
2-7 Blues Before Sunrise 2:49
2-8 I'm Wondering And Wondering 3:19
2-9 You Never Miss 2:48
2-10 Let's Have A Ball 2:32
2-11 Late In The Evening 3:05
2-12 The Snow Is Falling 2:49
2-13 Baby Won't You Please Come Home 2:54
2-14 Don't Put All Your Dreams In A Basket 2:15
2-15 Sittin' On Top Of The World 2:17
2-16 Back Home 2:31