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Taylor Hackford on the Ray Charles movie soundtrack: "Musically, this film was a very complicated piece. We were using some 40 different songs throughout the film, and using them to tell a story, so when the music ends, the mood is carried over and vice versa. When a song is on-screen, you're seeing that the song came from the emotion and the drama in his life and that the two are necessarily intertwined and related." Some of the songs on the Ray Charles movie soundtrack include: * I Got a Woman: The song that propelled Ray Charles to fame and forever altered the future of music by melding sacred Gospel to secular R&B and defining a new form called "Soul." The defining song of the Ray Charles movie soundtrack. * Drown in My Own Tears: Ray Charles' 1956 smash hit, which was originally written by Henry Glover for the singer Lula Reed. His downbeat, Spiritual-style version had a heart-wrenching effect that made it a classic ballad. * What'd I Say: The song was at first banned by some radio stations, but in 2003, the Library of Congress chose to preserve this song as one of the most significant American recordings. * Georgia on My Mind: This Hoagy Carmichael standard became Ray Charles' first #1 pop record and later the official Georgia state song. It took Ray in a new direction, using a lush choir and string orchestra instead of the Raelettes to back up his sweet, suave vocal. A classic on the Ray Charles movie soundtrack. * Hit the Road Jack: A #1 across-the-board chart-topper in 1961, this song highlighted Margie Hendricks, whose voice bores a hole in the heart as she begs Ray to get out of town. A must have on the Ray Charles movie soundtrack. * Unchain My Heart: A funky, soulful rendering of a man begging to be released from a one-sided love affair, featuring Latin rhythm, the Raelette's famous three-part harmony and Ray Charles' emotional vocal effects. * I Can't Stop Loving You: Charles brought his own soulful touch to classic country with this first single off Modern Sounds in Country & Western. The soaring ballad wound up on the Billboard R&B charts for 10 straight weeks, selling more than a million copies. The very heart and soul of telling Ray Charles' story had to be his music, which is why Taylor Hackford decided to evoke the emotions and events of Ray's life as much as possible through the power of his songs. All the songs are included in the Ray Charles movie soundtrack. To help with the task of recreating Ray Charles' music with all the vitality and electric vibrancy it had from the get-go, Hackford brought in musical supervisor Curt Sobel, who was drawn to the scope and what he sees as the importance of the Ray Charles movie soundtrack. "I think Ray Charles was crucial to the history of 20th century culture," says Sobel. "He was the first person to succeed in pooling together everything great about our country's music, the feeling of Gospel, the joy of Boogie-Woogie, the depth of Blues, and turning it into something very unique." |
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