Mediagraphy - Discography - Trackography - Videography - Gigography - Biography - Chronology
"Georgia native and music legend Ray Charles sat down behind a studio microphone last week, starring in a series of television and radio commercials for the Georgia Lottery.The spots were followed up by a campaign featuring James Brown (read this).
Created by Atlanta's Austin Kelley Advertising, the new campaign's objective is to increase awareness of the lottery's $3.3 billion contribution to the state's educational system since 1993. Charles completed three 30-second TV ads and one 60-second radio spot in a single day while in Atlanta.
'I can't believe that if a kid studies hard enough, the lottery will help pay for his college,' Charles said. 'That's pretty cool.'
It was also pretty cool for agency executive creative director Jim Spruell, a part-time musician who got to talk with the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Famer.
'It's great when your hero also turns out to be a real sweetheart,' Spruell said. 'It was beautiful.'"
The Ray Charles Video Museum is a research project, documenting live performances by The Genius.
This blog is above all a Mediagraphy. It's also a discography (or, more correctly, a trackography), aggregating all tunes that Ray sang and/or played - including the "canon" of 700 tracks listed on the official Ray Charles website, but also identifying the songs that have never been officially released, and e.g. the recordings of other artists, where Ray backed them on piano. Thirdly, this blog has evolved into a multimedia Chronology (click the years in the panel al the top of this page) of Ray's productive live.
I also try to do some justice to the more than 1,000 great musicians and singers who contributed to Ray's career (1, 2).
The Quotes page lists the wisest, craziest and funniest things that the Genius ever said. If you want to read more about Brother Ray, go here.
The availability of the streaming video and audio content on this blog is constantly under pressure. Some rights owners still think that sharing these videos damages their sales. I'm keeping disfunctional clips as placeholders - to show that the footage exists, and to replace them when new uploads appear on the Web.
The articles in this blog are continuously updated and improved. Your help is more than welcome.
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