Anonymous Love

Album: True To Life, Crossover/Atlantic 19142, October 1977.
Single (B): Crossover/Atlantic 3443, November 1977, b/w I Can See Clearly Now

Recorded at RPM International in Los Angeles, with a mix of road musicians from his Orchestra, and studio musicians. Ray sang his own backing vocals.

Tenor sax solo by Clifford Solomon.

Be My Love

Album: True To Life, Crossover/Atlantic 19142, October 1977.

Recorded at RPM International in Los Angeles, with a mix of road musicians from his Orchestra, and strings. An audiotape of a working session where Sid Feller and Ray Charles discussed and worked on the arrangement of the song has survived.

Tenor sax solo by Clifford Solomon.



'99 LC Tulsa

Game Number Nine

Album: True To Life, Crossover/Atlantic 19142, October 1977.
Single (A): Crossover/Atlantic 3473, March 1978, b/w A Peace That We Never Before Could Enjoy.             .

Recorded at RPM International in Los Angeles, with a mix of road musicians from his Orchestra and session cats, and... one girl with a speaking role.

Heavenly Music

Album: True To Life, Crossover/Atlantic 19142, October 1977.

Recorded at RPM International in Los Angeles, with a mix of road musicians from his Orchestra, The Raelettes and studio musicians.

How Long Has This Been Going On

Album: True To Life, Crossover/Atlantic 19142, October 1977.

Recorded at RPM International in Los Angeles, with a mix of road musicians from his Orchestra, The Raelettes and studio musicians. Arranged by Larry Muhoberac. Trumpet intro by Johnny Coles.



Toyohashi 1986:


Live:

'73? LC Germany - Pseudo Basie - Released
'76 LC Antibes
'76 LC Stuttgart
'80 LC Northsea
'85 LC NewHaven
'86 LC Toyohashi
'89 LC Osaka
'92 LC Antibes
'93 LC Newport
'93 LC Leverkusen
'94 LC ValleyForge
'94 LC Moscow
'95 LC Tramps
'95 LC Marciac
'96 LC Montauk
'97 LC Northsea

I Can See Clearly Now

English single (b/w Let It Be).

Album: True To Life, Crossover/Atlantic 19142, October 1977.
Single (A): Crossover/Atlantic 3443, November 1977, b/w Anonymous Love.

Recorded at RPM International in Los Angeles, with a mix of road musicians, The Raelettes and studio musicians. The performance in Stuttgart, in late September of 1976, may imply that the song was already studio-recorded by then.



Gladys 1977 (sorry for the sfx):


Live:
Read this for a story on how a fan in 1977 almost strangled Ray, with the best intentions.

'76 LC Stuttgart
'77 TV Heart
'77 LC Gladys - Released
'77 TV Saturday
'78 LC Montreux - Part of medley
'78 LC Antibes - 2x
'78 LC Boston
'79 TV Douglas NM
'79 LC Antibes
'79 LC Viareggio
'79 LC Austin
'80 LC Northsea
'81 LC Rome
'81 LC Edmonton - Released
'81 LC Prague
'86 LC Lugano
'86 LC Toyohashi
'86 LC Rio
'87 LC Antibes
'88 LC Masson
'89 LC Ghent
'89 LC Osaka
'90 LC Antibes
'91 LC Montreux

Let It Be

Album: True To Life, Crossover/Atlantic 19142, October 1977.

The True To Life-album was recorded at RPM International in Los Angeles, with a mix of road musicians from his Orchestra, some studio musicians, and The Raelettes.

The two known live performances were also brilliant, maybe even more so.* To me it's a miracle why Brother Ray didn't sing it more frequently.

* Calling the 1990 version a live rendition is a bit problematic since it was pre-taped in Ray's LA studio, then to be broadcast in the UK, but you'll see what I mean).



1977 Beatles Forever (starts at 6'30):


1990 tribute to Lennon:


Live:
'77 TV Beatles
'90 TV Lennon

Oh, What A Beautiful Morning

Album: True To Life, Crossover/Atlantic 19142, October 1977.

Recorded at RPM International in Los Angeles, with a mix of road musicians from his Orchestra, The Raelettes, and studio musicians.

Roger Neumann wrote the chart. Bass player Cliff Hugo* remembers: "I did play on Oh ,What A Beautiful Morning [... with] Harold Mason on drums. I did a bunch of sessions for [Ray] - about 4 days, maybe more, of big band [including] a few late night sessions with just him - what a trip!!! I do remember we were doing a session and Ernest [Vantrease] was there. We were hanging and Ray got there and said 'A-A- check this out' and starts playing the Oh thing. I got the impression that it came to him either on the way to RPM or not too long before that. We recorded it a few weeks later."

True To Life:


"Basie"-album, with ridiculous keyboard sounds (I only listened once to the intro, then threw the album away):


1993 (the 3d time Ray played the song at the Tonight Show!):


Live:
'77 LC PseudoBasie - Released*
'77 TV Saturday
'77 TV Sesame
'78 LC Antibes - 2x
'78 LC Boston
'79 LC Antibes
'79 LC Austin
'80 LC Northsea
'81 LC Edmonton
'81 LC Barcelona
'81 LC Sanremo
'82 LC Capital
'82 LC Antibes
'82 LC Washington
'82 LC Japan
'83 DM Montreal
'83 CL Antibes
'84 TV King
'84 LC Viareggio
'84 LC Nancy
'84 LC Warsaw - Released
'84 LC Ithaca
'85 LC NewHaven
'85 LC Antibes
'86 TV TS
'88 LC Oklahoma
'89 LC Ghent
'90 RS Piano
'90 TV TS
'90 LC Caneção
'93 TV TS
'95 LC Tramps - 3x
'96 LC Maribor
'96 LC Montauk
'02 TV Ice

* Hugo worked with the band in circa 1975 and in 1977. One of the other reasons why Concord's dating of the voice track for the Ray Sings, Basie Swings album in 1973 is problematic, and most probably incorrect, is that Oh, What A Beautiful Morning was first released in 1977.

The Jealous Kind

Album: True To Life, Crossover/Atlantic 19142, October 1977.

Recorded at RPM International in Los Angeles, with a mix of road musicians (from his Orchestra), session musicians, and The Raelettes. Arranged by Roger Neumann.



Live:
'78 LC Antibes
'79 LC Antibes
'80 TV TS

True To Life (1977)

1. I Can See Clearly Now
2. The Jealous Kind
3. Oh, What A Beautiful Morning
4. How Long Has This Been Going On (trumpet intro by Johnny Coles)
5. Be My Love (tenor sax solo by Clifford Solomon)
6. Anonymous Love (tenor sax solo by Clifford Solomon)
7. Heavenly Music
8. Game Number Nine
9. Let It Be 

Ray cut a distribution deal with Atlantic for his Crossover releases. As the story goes, Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic pushed Ray to record tracks that would connect with a younger audience, but Ray stood his ground and made the record his way. Ray's cover of the Johnny Nash tune I Can See Clearly Now reached #35 on the R&B charts. His soulful interpretation of Oh, What A Beautiful Morning stayed on his concert set lists until the end.
Ray produced the tracks over a long period of time, working with a mix of road musicians and studio musicians. Cliff Hugo played bass on some of the sessions (most notably #3); Harold Mason played drums on that same taping*, and Clifford Solomon played (overdubbed) tenor sax solos on Be my love and Anonymous love.** Chuck Findley played lead (slide) trumpet on several tunes.*** Johnny Coles played the trumpet intro on #4.****
Recorded with the Ray Charles Orchestra and The Raelettes. Arrangers: Larry Mahoberack, Sid Feller, Roger Neumann, and Ray Charles. The latter also took care of engineering.

Crossover/Atlantic 19142, 1977-10.

* Cliff remembers: "I did play on Oh ,What A Beautiful Morning [... with] Harold Mason on drums. I did a bunch of sessions for [Ray] - about 4 days, maybe more, of big band [including] a few late night sessions with just him - what a trip!!! I do remember we were doing a session and Ernest [Vantrease] was there. We were hanging and Ray got there and said 'A-A- check this out' and starts playing the Oh thing. I got the impression that it came to him either on the way to RPM or not too long before that. We recorded it a few weeks later." ** Info provided by Solomon to Joël Dufour. ***Info provided by Findley to David Hoffman. Jeff Conrad recalls seeing Chuck Findley (slide trumpet), Oscar Brashaer (trumpet), Gary Grant (trumpet), and Charlie Loper (trombone) coming out of the studio while he was waiting to go in. **** Doug Martin: "Ray told me to play it [live] the way Johnny Coles played it [in the studio...]".