''The Great Ray Charles'' is the second studio album by American musician

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...

, released in 1957 by

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most ...

. An instrumental jazz album, it features cover art designed by

Marvin Israel Marvin Israel (July 3, 1924 – May 7, 1984) was an American artist, photographer, painter, teacher and art director from New York City known for modern/surreal interiors, abstract imagery. Israel created sinister shadowy and exuberant interiors ...

. Later CD re-issues of ''The Great Ray Charles'' often include six out of the eight songs from the 1961 album ''

The Genius After Hours ''The Genius After Hours'' is an album by American musician Ray Charles, released in 1961. The songs featured on the album were taken from the same three studio sessions that created his 1957 album '' The Great Ray Charles'', which featured the ...

'', as bonus tracks.

Release

''The Great Ray Charles'' was released by

in August 1957. Due to frequent

airplay Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...

of two tracks off the album, " Doodlin" and "Sweet Sixteen Bars", Atlantic released those two tracks as an EP later that same year.

Track listing

Original LP release

Note: Some sources list " Ain't Misbehavin" in place of "Black Coffee".

1987 CD reissue

Personnel

* Ray Charles – celesta, piano * Oscar Pettiford, Roosevelt Sheffield – bass * Joe Harris, William Peeples – drums * David "Fathead" Newman – alto and tenor saxophone * Emmot Dennis – baritone saxophone * Joe Bridgewater – trumpet, soloist * John Hunt – trumpet ;Technical * Earle Brown, Tom Dowd – recording engineer *

– design *

Lee Friedlander Lee Friedlander (born July 14, 1934) is an American photographer and artist. In the 1960s and 1970s, Friedlander evolved an influential and often imitated visual language of urban "social landscape," with many of his photographs including fragm ...

– cover photography

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Ray Charles, The 1957 albums Ray Charles albums Albums produced by Jerry Wexler Albums produced by Ahmet Ertegun Atlantic Records albums