Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He was considered one of the most important and influential musicians of the 20th century and was often called "The Genius" by people who worked with him. Friends and fellow musicians preferred to call him "Brother Ray." He lost his vision as a child, possibly because of a condition called glaucoma, and wore dark glasses as a result.

During the 1950s, Charles helped create the soul music genre by blending elements of blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, and gospel into his music while working with Atlantic Records. In the 1960s, he helped combine country music, rhythm and blues, and pop music through his successful recordings with ABC Records, especially his two albums called Modern Sounds. With ABC Records, Charles became one of the first Black musicians to have full creative control over his music from a major record company.

Charles's 1960s song "Georgia on My Mind" was his first of three songs to reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. His 1962 album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music was his first album to reach the top of the Billboard 200 chart. Many of Charles's songs reached the Top 40 on Billboard charts, including 61 on the US R&B singles chart, 33 on the Hot 100 singles chart, and eight on the Hot Country singles charts.

Charles was influenced by musicians such as Nat King Cole, Art Tatum, Louis Jordan, and Charles Brown. He had a long friendship and sometimes worked with Quincy Jones. Frank Sinatra called Charles "the only true genius in show business," but Charles did not agree with this praise. Billy Joel once said, "This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley."

For his musical achievements, Charles received the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Arts, and the Polar Music Prize. He was one of the first people inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Charles won 17 Grammy Awards (five after his death), the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987, and 10 of his recordings were added to the Grammy Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone ranked Charles No. 10 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" and No. 2 on their list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time." In 2023, he was replaced by Whitney Houston at the No. 2 position on Rolling Stone's revised "200 Greatest Singers of All Time" list and moved to sixth place. In 2022, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame.

Early life and education

Ray Charles Robinson was born on September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia. He was the son of Bailey Robinson, a laborer, and Aretha (or Reatha) Robinson (née Williams), a laundress, from Greenville, Florida. During Aretha's childhood, her mother died, and her father could not care for her. Bailey, a man her father worked with, took her in. The Robinson family—Bailey, his wife Mary Jane, and his mother—informally adopted her, and Aretha took the surname Robinson. A few years later, Bailey abused her, and Aretha became pregnant. During the situation caused by this, she left Greenville late in the summer of 1930 to be with family in Albany. After Charles's birth, she and the infant returned to Greenville. Aretha and Bailey's wife, who had lost a son, shared in Charles's upbringing. The father had left Greenville and married another woman elsewhere. By his first birthday, Charles had a brother, George.

In his early years, Charles showed an interest in mechanical objects and often watched his neighbors work on their cars and farm machinery. Charles's musical curiosity began at Wylie Pitman's Red Wing Cafe when he was three years old, after Pitman played boogie woogie on an old upright piano. Pitman later taught Charles how to play the piano. Charles and his mother were always welcome at the Red Wing Cafe and even lived there when they were in financial trouble. Pitman also cared for Ray's younger brother George, to help ease the burden on their mother. George accidentally drowned in his mother's laundry tub at age four.

Charles started to lose his sight at age four or five and was blind by age seven, likely due to glaucoma. Because of his blindness, Charles wore his famous sunglasses. Destitute, uneducated, and grieving the loss of her younger son, Aretha Robinson used her connections in the local community to find a school that would accept a blind African-American student. Despite his initial protest, Charles attended school at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine from 1937 to 1945. There, he learned to play a variety of instruments, including the piano, alto saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, and organ. He focused mainly on the piano.

Charles further developed his musical talent at school, taking classical piano lessons and learning the music of composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and Sibelius. Charles's music teacher, Mrs. Lawrence, taught him to read and write music using Braille, a difficult process that requires learning the left hand movements by reading Braille with the right hand and the right hand movements by reading Braille with the left hand, then combining the two parts.

Charles's mother died in the spring of 1945, when he was 14. Her death shocked Charles, and he later said the deaths of his brother and mother were "the two great tragedies" of his life. Charles decided not to return to school after the funeral.

Career

After leaving school, Charles moved to Jacksonville to live with Charles Wayne Powell, who had been friends with his late mother. He played the piano for bands at the Ritz Theatre in LaVilla for more than a year, earning $4 each night (equivalent to $48 in 2025). He joined Local 632 of the American Federation of Musicians, hoping it would help him find work. He used the union hall’s piano to practice because he did not have one at home. He learned piano techniques by copying other musicians there. He began gaining a reputation as a talented musician in Jacksonville, but jobs did not come quickly enough for him to build a strong identity. At age 16, he moved to Orlando, where he lived in difficult conditions and sometimes went without food for days. Charles eventually started writing arrangements for a pop music band. In the summer of 1947, he tried out for a job playing piano for Lucky Millinder and his sixteen-piece band but was not chosen.

In 1947, Charles moved to Tampa, where he worked two jobs, including one as a pianist for Charles Brantley’s Honey Dippers. Early in his career, Charles admired Nat King Cole. His first four recordings—"Wondering and Wondering," "Walking and Talking," "Why Did You Go?" and "I Found My Baby There"—were likely made in Tampa, though some records suggest they were recorded in Miami in 1951 or Los Angeles in 1952.

Charles had always played piano for others, but he wanted to lead his own band. He decided to leave Florida for a larger city. Because he found Chicago and New York City too big, he followed his friend Gosady "Garcia" McGee to Seattle, Washington, in March 1948. He believed the biggest radio hits came from northern cities. There, under Robert Blackwell’s guidance, he met and became friends with Quincy Jones, who was 15 years old at the time.

With Charles on piano, McKee on guitar, and Milton Garred on bass, the McSon Trio (named for McKee and Robinson) played the 1–5 A.M. shift at the Rocking Chair. Publicity photos of this trio are some of the earliest known images of Charles. In April 1949, he and his band recorded "Confession Blues," which became his first national hit, reaching the second spot on the Billboard R&B chart. While still working at the Rocking Chair, Charles also arranged songs for other artists, including Cole Porter’s "Ghost of a Chance" and Dizzy Gillespie’s "Emanon." After the success of his first two singles, Charles moved to Los Angeles in 1950 and spent the next few years touring with the blues musician Lowell Fulson as Fulson’s musical director.

In 1950, Charles’s performance in a Miami hotel impressed Henry Stone, who later recorded a Ray Charles Rockin’ record, which did not become popular. During his time in Miami, Charles was required to stay in the segregated but active black community of Overtown. Stone later helped Jerry Wexler find Charles in St. Petersburg.

After signing with Swing Time Records, Charles recorded two more R&B hits under the name Ray Charles: "Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand" (1951), which reached No. 5, and "Kissa Me Baby" (1952), which reached No. 8. Swing Time closed the following year, and Ahmet Ertegun signed Charles to Atlantic Records.

In addition to being a musician, Charles was also a record producer. He produced Guitar Slim’s No. 1 hit, "The Things That I Used to Do."

In June 1952, Atlantic bought Charles’s contract for $2,500 (equivalent to $30,310 in 2025). His first recording session for Atlantic ("The Midnight Hour"/"Roll with My Baby") took place in September 1952, though his last Swing Time release ("Misery in My Heart"/"The Snow Is Falling") was not released until February 1953.

In 1953, "Mess Around" became Charles’s first small hit for Atlantic. The following year, he had hits with "It Should’ve Been Me" and "Don’t You Know." He also recorded "Midnight Hour" and "Sinner’s Prayer" around this time.

Late in 1954, Charles recorded "I’ve Got a Woman." The lyrics were written by bandleader Renald Richard, but Charles claimed the composition. Later, they admitted the song was based on the Southern Tones’ "It Must Be Jesus" (1954). It became one of his most notable hits, reaching No. 2 on the R&B chart. "I’ve Got a Woman" combined gospel, jazz, and blues elements. In 1955, he had hits with "This Little Girl of Mine" and "A Fool for You." Later hits included "Drown in My Own Tears" and "Hallelujah I Love Her So."

Charles also recorded jazz, such as The Great Ray Charles (1957). He worked with vibraphonist Milt Jackson, releasing Soul Brothers in 1958 and Soul Meeting in 1961. By 1958, Charles was performing at major black venues like the Apollo Theater in New York and larger venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Newport Jazz Festival, where his first live album was recorded in 1958. Charles hired a female singing group, the Cookies, and renamed them the Raelettes. In 1958, Charles and the Raelettes performed at the Cavalcade of Jazz concert produced by Leon Hefflin Sr. at the Shrine Auditorium on August 3. Other headliners included Little Willie John, Sam Cooke, Ernie Freeman, and Bo Rhambo. Sammy Davis Jr. was also there to crown the winner of the Miss Cavalcade of Jazz beauty contest. The event featured the top four disc jockeys of Los Angeles.

Charles reached the peak of his success at Atlantic with the release of "What’d I Say," which combined gospel, jazz, blues, and Latin music. Charles said he wrote it spontaneously while performing in clubs with his band. Despite some radio stations banning the song because of its suggestive lyrics, it became his first top-10 pop record, reaching No. 6 on the Billboard Pop chart and No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1959. Later that year, he released his first country song (a cover of Hank Snow’s "I’m Movin’ On")

Legacy

Ray Charles had one of the most famous voices in American music. Musicologist Henry Pleasants said, "Ray Charles is usually described as a baritone, and his speaking voice would suggest as much. However, he struggles to reach and hold the high E and F notes in a popular ballad. But when singing gospel or blues music, his voice changes. He can sing for long periods in the high tenor range, including notes like A, B flat, B, C, C sharp, and D. He sometimes sings in full voice, sometimes in an ecstatic head voice, and sometimes in falsetto. In falsetto, he can reach notes as high as E and F above high C. On one record, 'I'm Going Down to the River,' he sang an extremely high B flat, giving him a total range of at least three octaves."

Ray Charles's style and success in rhythm and blues and jazz influenced many successful artists, including Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Van Morrison, and Billy Joel, as noted by Jon Pareles. Other singers who have acknowledged his influence include James Booker, Steve Winwood, Richard Manuel, and Gregg Allman. Joe Levy, a music editor for Rolling Stone, said, "The hit records he made for Atlantic in the mid-1950s mapped out everything that would happen to rock 'n' roll and soul music in the years that followed." Ray Charles also inspired Pink Floyd member Roger Waters, who told a Turkish newspaper, "I was about 15. In the middle of the night with friends, we were listening to jazz. It was 'Georgia on My Mind,' Ray Charles's version. Then I thought, 'One day, if I make some people feel only one-twentieth of what I am feeling now, it will be quite enough for me.'"

A biopic titled Ray, which portrays his life and career from the mid-1930s to 1979, was released in October 2004. Jamie Foxx played Charles in the film and won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Actor for the role.

In 1975, Ray Charles was inducted into the American Academy of Achievement and received the Golden Plate Award and the Academy of Achievement gold medal. In 1979, he was one of the first musicians born in Georgia to be inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. His version of "Georgia on My Mind" became the official state song of Georgia.

In 1981, Charles received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1986, he was one of the first inductees to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at its inaugural ceremony. He also received the Kennedy Center Honors that year.

Charles won 17 Grammy Awards from 37 nominations. In 1987, he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1990, he received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from the University of South Florida. The following year, he was inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Foundation and received the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement during the 1991 UCLA Spring Sing.

In 1993, Charles was awarded the National Medal of Arts. In 1998, he received the Polar Music Prize in Stockholm, Sweden, along with Ravi Shankar. In 2004, he was inducted into the National Black Sports & Entertainment Hall of Fame. The Grammy Awards of 2005 were dedicated to him.

In 2001, Morehouse College honored Charles with the Candle Award for Lifetime Achievement in Arts and Entertainment and gave him an honorary doctor of humane letters. Charles donated $2 million to Morehouse to fund, educate, and inspire the next generation of musical pioneers.

In 2003, Charles was awarded an honorary degree by Dillard University. After his death, he endowed a professorship of African-American culinary history at the school, the first such chair in the nation.

On September 22, 2004, Charles was honored with a Google Doodle on what would have been his 74th birthday. It was one of the first Doodles for someone's birthday.

In 2010, a $20 million, 76,000-square-foot facility named the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center and Music Academic Building opened at Morehouse.

The United States Postal Service issued a forever stamp honoring Charles as part of its Musical Icons series on September 23, 2013.

In 2015, Charles was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame. In 2016, U.S. President Barack Obama wrote that Ray Charles's version of "America the Beautiful" was "the most patriotic piece of music ever performed."

In 2022, Charles was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, becoming the third African-American inductee after Charley Pride (2000) and Deford Bailey (2005). He was also the 13th person to be inducted into both the Country and Rock Halls of Fame.

On March 15, 1961, shortly after the release of "Georgia on My Mind" (1960), Charles canceled a performance in Augusta, Georgia, after learning that the dance floor at Bell Auditorium was restricted to whites. He left town immediately but was later fined $757 in a court case. In 1963, he performed at a desegregated Bell Auditorium concert with his backup singers, the Raelettes, as shown in the 2004 film Ray. On December 7, 2007, Ray Charles Plaza was opened in Albany, Georgia, with a bronze sculpture of Charles seated at a piano.

Founded in 1986, the Ray Charles Foundation supports research on hearing disorders. Originally named The Robinson Foundation for Hearing Disorders, it was renamed in 2006. The foundation provides financial donations to institutions involved in hearing loss research and education. Recipients include Benedict College, Morehouse College, and other universities. The foundation has taken action against organizations that do not use funds as intended, such as Albany State University, which returned a $3 million donation after not using it for over a decade. The foundation's offices are located at the historic RPM International Building, which also houses the Ray Charles Memorial Library. The library, founded on September 23, 2010 (what would have been Charles's 80th birthday), aims to "provide an avenue for young children to experience music and art in a way that will inspire their creativity and imagination." The library is not open to the public without reservation, as its main goal is to educate underprivileged youth and provide access to art and history resources.

Personal life

Ray Charles wrote in his 1978 autobiography, Brother Ray: Ray Charles' Own Story, that he became very interested in women after losing his virginity at age 12 to a woman who was about 20 years old. He said, "Cigarettes and heroin are the two things I have known that are hard to stop. You might add women." He added, "My focus has always been on women—then when I was young and now. I can't stay away from them."

Ray Charles was married twice. His first marriage lasted less than a year, and his second marriage lasted 22 years. Throughout his life, he had many relationships with women and fathered 12 children.

His first wife, Eileen Williams, married him on July 31, 1951. Their marriage ended sometime in 1952.

He met his second wife, Della Beatrice Howard Robinson (called "Bea" by Ray), in Texas in 1954. They married on April 5, 1955. Their first child, Ray Charles Robinson Jr., was born in 1955. Ray was not present for the birth because he was performing in Texas. The couple had two more sons, David and Robert, and raised their children in View Park, California. Ray said his heroin addiction caused problems for Della during their marriage. Because of his drug use, affairs during tours, and difficult behavior, their marriage ended, and Della filed for divorce in 1977.

Ray had a six-year relationship with Margie Hendrix, a member of the Raelettes, and they had a son, Charles Wayne, in 1959. His relationship with Mae Mosley Lyles, another Raelettes member, resulted in a daughter, Renee, born in 1961. In 1963, he had a daughter, Sheila Raye Charles, with Sandra Jean Betts. Sheila Raye, like her father, was a singer-songwriter; she died of breast cancer on June 15, 2017. In 1977, Ray had a child with Arlette Kotchounian, a woman he had met 10 years earlier in Paris. At the time of his death, his longtime partner was Norma Pinella.

Ray fathered a total of 12 children with nine different women:

• Evelyn Robinson, born in 1949 (daughter with Louise Flowers)
• Ray Charles Robinson Jr., born May 25, 1955 (son with wife Della Bea Robinson)
• David Robinson, born in 1958 (son with wife Della Bea Robinson)
• Charles Wayne Hendricks, born October 1, 1959 (son with Margie Hendricks, a Raelettes member)
• Robert Robinson, born in 1960 (son with wife Della Bea Robinson)
• Renee Robinson, born in 1961 (daughter with Mae Mosley Lyles, a Raelettes member)
• Sheila Robinson, born in 1963 (daughter with Sandra Jean Betts)
• Reatha Butler, born in 1966 (daughter with Mary-Chantal Bertrand)
• Alexandra Bertrand, born in 1968 (daughter with Mary-Chantal Bertrand)
• Vincent Kotchounian, born in 1977 (son with Arlette Kotchounian)
• Robyn Moffett, born in 1978 (daughter with Gloria Moffett)
• Ryan Corey Robinson den Bok, born in 1987 (son with Mary Anne den Bok)

In 2002, Ray held a family luncheon for his 12 children. Ten of them attended. He told them he was terminally ill and that $500,000 had been placed in trusts for each of them. The money would be given to them over the next five years.

At age 18, Ray first tried marijuana while playing in the McSon Trio. He believed it helped musicians create music and be more creative. Later, he became addicted to heroin for 17 years. In 1955, he was arrested with his bandmates for having loose marijuana and drug-related items, such as a burnt spoon, syringe, and needle. This arrest did not stop his drug use, which worsened as he became more successful and earned more money.

In 1958, Ray was arrested in Harlem for possessing narcotics and equipment for using heroin. In 1961, he was arrested in Indiana for a drug-related charge. Detectives found heroin, marijuana, and other items. Ray said he had been a drug addict since age 16. The case was dismissed because the evidence was obtained improperly, but his drug use continued until a few years later.

On Halloween in 1964, Ray was arrested at Boston’s Logan Airport for possessing heroin. He decided to quit heroin and stayed at St. Francis Hospital in Lynwood, California, for four days to stop using drugs suddenly. After leaving the hospital, he pleaded guilty to four drug-related charges. Prosecutors asked for two years in prison and a large fine, but the judge listened to Ray’s psychiatrist, Dr. Hacker, who said Ray was determined to stop using drugs. The judge sent Ray to McLean Hospital in Massachusetts and offered to delay the court decision for a year if Ray agreed to regular checkups by government doctors. When Ray returned to court, he received a five-year suspended sentence, four years of probation, and a $10,000 fine.

Ray wrote songs about his drug use and recovery, including "I Don't Need No Doctor" and "Let's Go Get Stoned." He also released an album called Crying Time, his first since quitting heroin in 1966.

Ray enjoyed playing chess. During his recovery from heroin, he met with psychiatrist Friedrich Hacker, who taught him how to play. He used a special board with raised squares and spaces for the pieces. When asked if people try to cheat against a blind man, Ray joked, "You can't cheat in Chess… I'm gonna see that!" In a 1991 concert, he called Willie Nelson "my chess partner." In 2002, he played against Larry Evans, an American chess grandmaster, and lost. When Evans praised Ray for noticing a tactical move, Ray replied, "Come on man, I play bad, but not that bad!"

Death

In 2003, Charles had successful hip replacement surgery and planned to return to touring. However, he later experienced other health problems. Charles passed away on June 10, 2004, at the age of 73, due to problems caused by liver failure at his home in Beverly Hills, California. His funeral took place eight days later at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles. Many famous musicians attended, including B. B. King, Glen Campbell, Stevie Wonder, and Wynton Marsalis. Each of these musicians performed a tribute during the funeral. Charles was buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery.

Charles's final album, Genius Loves Company, was released two months after his death. The album features songs he sang with other well-known musicians, such as B. B. King, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, James Taylor, Gladys Knight, Michael McDonald, Natalie Cole, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, and Johnny Mathis. The album won eight Grammy Awards, including Best Pop Vocal Album, Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals (for the song "Here We Go Again," performed with Norah Jones). It also won Best Gospel Performance (for "Heaven Help Us All," performed with Gladys Knight). The album received recognition for Charles's duets with Elton John and B. B. King. One song on the album is a version of "Over the Rainbow," originally written by Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg. Charles sang this song as a duet with Johnny Mathis, and it was played during his memorial service.

Discography

Charles's collection of music recordings is very large and complicated. AllMusic lists about 60 original albums and more than 200 compilation albums, while music writer Robert Christgau mentioned there are even more. At least 20 record companies released similar collections of Charles's music from before he signed with Atlantic Records. Many of the original recordings Charles started owning after 1960 were not released in digital format, so the Atlantic sister label Rhino Entertainment focused on re-releasing his music from the mid-to-late 1950s. Christgau described Charles's discography as a "monumental mess" and said "any map of his work must be personal and provisional."