Ray Charles received
The Kennedy Center Honors for exemplary lifetime achievement in the performing arts in 1986 from President Ronald Reagan. According to one of my sources, "Staid patrons of the Kennedy Center clapped and sang along as Wonder pounded out a musical tribute to Ray Charles [...]"."Stevie performed
I Just Called To Say I Love You, while 50 children from the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind did
America The Beautiful. The
Columbus Times of 30 December 1986 reported that the children sang
You Light Up My Life and that Stevie Wonder played
America The Beautiful on his harmonica.
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| Montage of all winners, probably distributed as a promotional wire photo. |
A
'complete 2-hour video' of the event is offered on the web, but I'm not sure if Ray's tribute is really part of this (the Columbus Times wrote: "Sorry you will not eye or ear these side events on the tube rebroadcast...").
This was also the only time - as far as I know - that Ray Charles was caught singing the national anthem . Watch a fragment of it
here (don't miss Lucy holding Ray's hand).
There's also a video containing parts of that 1986 event (including a biographic documentary), and an October 2003 performance by Ellis Hall - at the request of the ailing Ray Charles, who had recently been co-producing an Ellis album on Crossover Records.
Watch it here (requires RealPlayer). And don't miss
this photo. Some more fragments of the same '86 event, Ellis' 2003 act, and more promo stuff from Ellis are here (again with a confusing timeline;-):
The 1986 program was announced as "An evening of tribute and entertainment", first from the White House, then the Kennedy Center. It took place on December 7, 1986.
Below is the - seemingly complete - footage of the tribute to Lucille Ball. In Part 1 Walter Cronkite introduces the honorees and shows a recap of their evening at the White House. Ray, sitting right next to Lucy, is on camera a lot in the other parts as well. Reagan's speech can be watched
here; national anthem
here.
Part 1 of tribute show for Lucille Ball:
Part 2:
Part 3:
For a clip of the honorees singing the national anthem, see
this. The same sequence was also filmed by
NBC.
At the time, I was a Doorman at the Ritz-Carlton DC. The hotel was filled with celebrities. Ray Charles, Stevie, Lucille Ball, Walter Mathau. The hotel staff were told that Stevie was a surprise guest at the Kennedy Center Honors and we were not to reveal to Mr. Charles that Stevie was also staying the hotel. There was a moment that I will remember for the rest of my life. Stevie and his crew were walking through the lobby leaving the hotel and Ray and his people were walking into the hotel. As they passed each other, the entourages nodded and smiled at each other as the two legends passed one another. I wish I could find the video of Stevie's performance that night.
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