An Album That Was Never Released: Ray Charles Sings For You (1964/65)

In the last quarter of 1964 ABC-Paramount made full preparations to release a compilation album titled Ray Charles Sings For You - the liner notes were compiled, the artwork was ordered, the release numbers for the mono and stereo versions (ABC-Paramount #500 A&B) were claimed, and the following tracks - until that date all only released as singles - were selected:*

1. My Baby Don't Dig Me
2. Without Love (There Is Nothing)
3. The Brightest Smile In Town
4. Hide Nor Hair
5. My Baby (I Love Her, Yes I Do)
6. No One
7. Don't Set Me Free
8. Something's Wrong
9. At The Club
10. Worried Life Blues (Someday Baby)
11. Who You Gonna Love
12. My Heart Cries For You

Instead, the September 1964 live concert at the Shrine Auditorium was issued: Ray Charles Live In Concert (ABC-Paramount 500, January 1965).
Ray Charles fans had to wait until the His Greatest Hits (Uh-Huh) anthology (1992, remastered by Steve Hoffman) to collect most of the tracks, or until the Genius & Soul - The 50th Anniversary Collection (1997) to lay their hands on all of them.

Joe Adams (left) and Ray Charles negotiating an improved
contract with ABC's management (March 1965).  Photo by
Steve Schapiro.

Remastering guru Steve Hoffman, who spent many hours with Brother Ray, and the source for this information, also reveals that Ray Charles "hated" the live album.
Hoffman believes that Ray felt the Shrine gig "was an off night for him. He owed ABC an album and couldn't come up with it for reasons we all know. At first ABC was going to issue a compilation of leftover tracks as ABC-500 but ended up doing the [...] live concert thing with the same number."

With "reasons we all know" Hoffman is suggesting that Ray's drugs issues (1965 was the year he kicked heroin) were the cause of the suggested inability to come up with a new album.
That'd be a surprise. First and foremost, the live album was a brilliant release. What was there to hate? In fact, it seems more feasible that "[...] Ray himself decided to record the show"** at the Shrine.
Secondly, in these years Ray simply didn't release compilations of singles; all his new albums contained new work, so he much sooner may have hated the idea of a compilation.
Furthermore, in retrospective, 1965 turned out to be one of Charles' most productive and creative years. This was the year he started producing his records in his own studio. His detox wasn't very time consuming, he didn't tour at all and just took a few TV & film gigs, so he had all the time in the world to work his ass off at RPM.

I suppose the artwork and liner notes for the unreleased album have been archived at RPM. It would be nice if the Ray Charles Foundation publishes them.

* With obvious corrections of erroneous titles. **Michael Lydon in a review of the extended live album.

A Brand New Day (With Stevie Wonder, Patti Austin, James Ingram; Ray Charles On Piano)

Unreleased.

On December 2, 2001 Ray participated (a bit) in the performance of this song, the grand finale of the 24th Kennedy Center Celebration, honoring Quincy Jones.

(Starts at 17:06):

Always A Friend

Unreleased.

In episode 16 of season 3 of the sitcom Who's The Boss, titled Hit the Road, Chad (first aired on Tuesday February 3, 1987), "Samantha's boyfriend Chad writes a song just for her. [T]he tune is heard by legend Ray Charles whom Angela coerces into recording it for her ad agency." The song was "written exclusively for this episode by Dennis Scott".

Baby Please Don't Go

Unreleased (? The Knebworth concert may have been issued on VHS).

It's odd that Ray never recorded this in the studio. For the origin of the song, read this.

Capital Jazz Fest, Knebworth, 1982:


Miami 1999 (partial, just as an intro to I've Got A Woman; starts at 2'07):


Live:
'81 LC Rome
'81 LC Sanremo
'82 LC Capital
'82 LC Antibes
'99 LC Miami - Partial - Released

Bacio (The Ray Charles Orchestra)

Unreleased.

Unfortunately, up till now only an audience taped recording has surfaced, from a 1988 concert in Saratoga Springs.

You can listen to it here (first track).

The orchestra that night: Chuck Parrish, Jeff Helgesen, Ted Murdock, Jeff Kaye - trumpets; Armin Marmolejo, Steve Sigmund, James Romanek, Charlie Shofner - trombones; Chris Lega, Al Jackson, Mike Karn, Rudy Johnson, Scott Frillman - saxophones; Jeff Ballard - drums; Kenny Carr - guitar; Darren Solomon - bass; Ernest Vantrease - keyboards. The tune was penned by trombonist Dan Marcus.

Solo's: Jeff Kaye - tp; Armin Marmolejo - tb.

Live:
88 LC Saratoga

Backseat Baby (Jingle)

Unreleased.

Crash Dummies was a long running campaign, handled by the US Department of Transportation. In 1997 Ray contributed to the 30 second Back-Seat-Ba-By announcement below (campaign theme: "You could learn a lot from a dummy"; catchline: "Buckle Kids In The Backseat, Baby").

At the end Ray adds his most peculiar oneliner ever: "They stay alive even when I drive!".

BBC (The Ray Charles Orchestra)

Unreleased.

The tune was written and arranged by Bob Florence.

Live:
'95 LC Tramps - Streamed
'96 LC Lugano
'96 LC Montauk

'97 LC Philly

Beautiful Heartache (With Michael Ball)

Unreleased.

In July and August 1993 The Michael Ball Show, a six-week music series, was broadcast by ITV. The program featured guests such as Cher, Cliff Richard, Dionne Warwick, Elaine Page, Emmylou Harris, Julio Iglesias, Shirley Bassey, James Brown, Joe Cocker, and Ray Charles - who was featured in the first show, produced and directed by Ian Hamilton.

In the (strange) clip below the duet starts at 2'25:

Behind Closed Doors

Unreleased.

One of Brother Ray's last masterpieces, performed during the CMT 100 Greatest Songs of Country Music Concert, recorded at Nashville's Gaylord Entertainment Center on June 9th, and aired on June 13th, 2003.

Believe In Yourself (With Elmo & Sesame Choir)

Unreleased*.

Ray sang Believe In Yourself on Sesame Street, in episode #3491, aired on April 1, 1996. The central message of this song of encouragement is that you can be or do anything you want if you just believe in yourself - even when other people doubt you.

* On the DVD The Best of Elmo 2, for some reason, Elmo's singing was redubbed (Sesame Street, 4 May 2010).

Between An Old Memory And Me (With Travis Tritt)

Unreleased.

A marvelous duet from CMT Crossroads, taped on 10 September 2002, and first aired on 6 December of that year.

Ray Charles (ep, vo); Travis Tritt (g, vo); Aubrey Haynie (vln); John Jarvis (o); Dan Dugmore (pedal steel g); Brent Mason, Reggie Young (g); Mac (Lyman Corbitt) McAnally, Jr. (ac-g); Glenn Worf (b); Greg Morrow (d); Bob Bailey, Vicki Hampton (vo).

(Track #3):

Big Legged Woman

Unreleased.

The first-ever, slow, raw performance of Big Legged Woman (written by Johnnie Temple) was recorded at the 1976 Stuttgart concert. Just as in the 1978 Boston show it was used as an intro to What'd I Say.
The song is best known in Freddie King's version, but Ray stayed much closer to the slow version of Muddy Waters, giving it exactly the dirty blues-treatment it deserves.

You can listen to both recorded performances here (Stuttgart) and here (Boston). In both cases the audio quality is mediocre at best.

Live:
'76 LC Stuttgart
'78 LC Boston

Bill (The Ray Charles Orchestra)

Unreleased.

Unfortunately, this Onzy Matthews composition was only captured once, on an 'audience tape'...

You can listen to it here (track #3).

Chuck Parrish, Jeff Helgesen, Ted Murdock, Jeff Kaye - trumpets; Armin Marmolejo, Steve Sigmund, James Romanek, Charlie Shofner - trombones; Chris Lega, Al Jackson, Mike Karn, Rudy Johnson, Scott Frillman - saxophones; Jeff Ballard - drums; Kenny Carr - guitar; Darren Solomon - bass; Ernest Vantrease - keyboards.

Tenor solo by Mike Karn.

Live:
'88 LC Saratoga

Blue Stone (The Ray Charles Septet)

Unreleased.

The Ray Charles 'Septet' had recorded this tune in October 1960 for Hank Crawford's album Soul Clinic (Atlantic SD 1372, 1962).
As a "Band Within The Band" they (John Hunt, Phil Guilbeau, Hank Crawford, David Fathead Newman, Leroy Cooper, Edgar Willis, and only Bruno Carr replacing Milt Turner on drums) were taped live three times during the Europe tours in 1961 and 1962.

In 1962, in Paris Ray played along on alto.

Live:
'61 LC Zurich
'61 LC Paris
'62 LC Paris

Blues (With Marian McPartland)

Unreleased.

Played during the Piano Jazz episode on January 9, 1990,  taped at the Manhattan Beach Studios in New York.

You can listen to it here (the improvisation before Things Ain't What They Used To Be).

Blues For Nya Nya (The Ray Charles Orchestra)

Unreleased.

The tune was penned by Gerald Wilson (for his pet cat).

Only one live recording seems to have survived, performed at the Jazz à Juan festival in July 1985, taped for a radio broadcast.

Live:
'85 LC Antibes

C Jam Blues

Unreleased.

Recorded at the Thanksgiving Jazz night on 29 November 1957, at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

With a title like this it can of course refer to anything, but I think there's a good chance that Ray and his sextet shared their take on the Duke Ellington composition a.k.a. Duke's Place.

With David Newman - tenor sax; Leroy Cooper - baritone sax; Walter Miller, Ricky Harper - trumpets; Edgar Willis - bass; Edward Blackwell - drums; Ray Charles - piano and vocals.

Captain Perfect (The Ray Charles Orchestra)

Unreleased.

Band instrumental penned by Alf Clausen.

Madrid personnel: Jeff Conrad, Bob Coassin, Phil Guilbeau, Jack Evans - trumpets; Wally Huff, Ken Tussing, Glen (Champ) Childress, Steve Davis - trombones; Andy Ennis, Clifford Solomon, Ed Pratt, James Clay - saxophones; Leroy Cooper - baritone saxophone, band leader; John Bryant - drums; Joe Harris - bass; Tony Matthews - guitar; Ernest Vantrease - keyboards.

Solos: Phil Guilbeau - trumpet; Ed Pratt - alto.

Madrid, 1975 (tune #3):


Live:
'75 LC Madrid
'76 LC Antibes

Chain Of Fools (With The Raelettes, Ft Estella Yarbrough)

Unreleased.

The first known recording at the Fillmore East in New York City on April 18, 1970 may well have been the best. Estella claimed the tune from the beginning until the end.

.
Ray Charles - piano; Blue Mitchell, Bill King, Herbie Anderson, Marshall Hunt - trumpets; Joe Randazzo, Henry Coker, Glenn Childress, Fred Murell - trombones; Andy Ennis, David Newman, Jay Cloyd Miller, Curtis Peagler, Leroy Cooper - saxophones; Ben Martin - guitar; Edgar Willis - bass; Ernie Elly - drums; Kenny Lupper - piano, organ. Raelettes: Mable John - contralto vocal (lead vocal), Susaye Green - soprano vocal, Estella Yarbrough - alto vocal, Vernita Moss - bass vocal.

Live:
'70 LC FillmoreEast
'71 LC San Carlos
'87 LC Antibes
'88 LC Masson
'88 LC Woody
'90 LC Antibes
'90 LC Tokyo
'91 LC Milan
'93 LC Antibes
'94 LC ValleyForge
'95 LC Tramps
'96 LC London
'97 LC Philly
'99 LC NewOrleans NM
'99 LC Rheingau
'02 LC NewJersey

Cookin’ In Style

Unreleased (lost master).

Ray recorded this Percy Mayfield tune during the first fall session of 1965 at RPM in Los Angeles, but Tangerine master #239 no longer exists...