Ray Charles On The Arthur Godfrey Show (c 1961)

From Billboard, Oct. 15, 1963;
the caption calls Godfrey one of
Ray's "peforming friends".

Photo from same event, watermarked by
Ray Charles Foundation.

Arthur Godfrey (1903 - 1983) was a one-man TV and radio powerhouse in the 1950s. Presenting several popular daily and weekly live show formats for CBS made him about as unavoidable as Ed Sullivan and Johnny Carson in later decades.

In the early 1960s his career was declining, but in 1961 and 1962 he was still presenting The Arthur Godfrey Show. Ray probably guested in one of the episodes of this program.

Who knows more?

Ray Charles Ft In McDonalds Jingles (1976, 1979)

1976
In January 1976 Ray Charles completed the musical portion of a 60-second bicentennial themed commercial for McDonalds. The spot was part of a "Special Black Bicentennial Radio" promotion entitled Soul of a Nation, narrated by Bill Cosby, with free brochures dealing with "the monumental contribution Black Americans have made to our country's overall development", distributed through McDonalds outlets.
In the Los Angeles area the radio campaign was launched on 1580-KDAY, on February 9. The introduction ad reproduced here was published in the Los Angeles Sentinel on February 5.

1979

The Paley Center has a reel (ID: AT88:0997) of McDonalds commercials from 1979. In one of them Ray sings the jingle Nobody Can Do It Like McDonald's Can. The "[...] commercial shows that McDonalds is the best fast-food restaurant for quality, service and value. Scenes of daybreak on a farm are shown in counterpoint to the busy staff preparing breakfast at McDonalds." I haven't found any footage yet, but YouTube has a bunch of variations from the same campaign, with other singers.

In the late '80s McDonalds' agency developed a commercial character, nicknamed Mac Daddy (or McDaddy), that bears a strong resemblance to Ray. If he refused to collaborate on this one, I can see why. If they got away without paying him for this, I want to hire their lawyer.
(As a matter of fact, the Bobby Darin estate sued McDonalds for more than 10 million dollar for the resemblance with Bobby's tuxedo and singing style).

YouTube shows a series of variations, from all corners of the world:

The briefing for the singer of this commercial's theme song may also have been to "sound like Ray":


And McDonalds' marketing department in the Philippines doesn't behave much better (see comments on YouTube page):

Ray Charles In Dinah! (1979)

Copy from a microfilm
of the Daily World article.

The Atlanta Daily World of 19 April 1979 showed a photo of Ray Charles and Dinah Shore sitting together for a studio interview. The TV program was "to be seen in the near future".

From the comments:
"This was an episode of Dinah & Friends, which aired in late May 1979 in most markets. Other guests included Kenny Rogers and Debby Boone. The theme was 'Dinah and the Hitmakers'."

Update 20 February 2019:
It turns out that Dinah seduced Ray into an impromptu musical conversation with Kenny Rogers. Ray hit some notes of Georgia, Take These Chains From My Heart and some boogies, and did a little duet on Crying Time with Kenny.
The TV shows they briefly discussed were this and that one.

Ray Charles Performing In Atlanta PBS Program (1979)

On 8 February 1979 the Atlanta Daily World reported on a week-long series of programs about black culture, aired by the PBS station WETV-Channel 30 (nowadays WPBA TV). On the 10th they televized "a performance by pianist-singer Ray Charles".

Who knows more about the content of that show?

Ray Charles At The Beacon Theatre (1982)

From New York
Times, Oct. 15.

Boycott scene, from
New York Amsterdam
News, Oct. 30, 1982.

One of Ray Charles' two concerts on October 23, 1982 at the Beacon Theatre in New York was partially taped by someone in the audience. The sound quality is bad, but a YouTube user took the trouble to submit a number of tunes, one-by-one.
The string of ten songs starts with this clip. A probable setlist was: Riding Thumb, Busted, Georgia On My Mind, Then We'll Be Home (Sadies Tune), Just Because, Some Enchanted Evening, You Don't Know Me, Intro Raelettes + Love Is What We Need (with The Raelettes), Don't Change On Me (with The Raelettes), and All I Need (ft. Trudy Cohran).
Ray's evergreens I Can't Stop Loving You and What'd I Say are obviously missing.

Ray Charles In Belgrade (1972)

From the
same concert.

This clipping says there
were 4 concerts.

What I understand of this video clip is that it's looking back at Ray Charles life, using a few well known old photos, footage from the biopic Ray, and - here it becomes special - a color film from a concert in Yugoslavia (Serbia) sometime during the early 1970s.
The reporter was Radovan Brankov. The interviewed spokes person, Stevan Vagner, was the concert promoter. Wagner remembered that Ray smoked a lot, drank oceans of (Bols-empowered) coffee, and played chess all of the time. He also thought that Ray was exploited by his entourage: "They were dragging him from country to country, so they could earn money on him" (which, of course, is nonsense).
The clip was broadcast by BN.

My conjecture is that the local (8 or 16 mm?) film was shot at a show late in September, 1972*, at the Pioneer Hall in Belgrade. In the line-up of the band I recognized Edgar Willis on bass, and Ralph Byrd on guitar. The 5 Raelettes are Susaye Greene, Vernita Moss, Dorothy Berry, Mable John, and Estella Yarbrough.

For more on Ray and Belgrade, read the Yugoslavia Concerts blog.

*Prob. the 28th or 29th. The year was confirmed by band member Al 'Sanifu' Hall, Jr.

Ray Charles Guesting In The Glen Campbell Radio Show (1984)

Between 1982 and 1986 Narwood Productions syndicated The Music Makers. A subseries was titled Country Close-Up; a weekly one-hour country music radio program presented by Lon Helton and Glen Campbell. Every week another star guested.
Each show contained from 11 to 13 of the guest's famous tunes, cross cut with a studio interview. The program was broadcast by more than 160 radio stations, and attracted up to 8.5 million listeners.
When Ray appeared in the studio, in the week of March 5, 1984, it was Glen's turn to host (both were represented by booking agency Regency Artists). The show was distributed on vinyl; at least one of the  records with Ray's show has survived, as shown by this Ebay ad.

Ray Charles Ft In This Is My Country (c 1985)

This Is My Country was a 6-minute film, probably sponsored by the United States Department of Commerce.

It shows cliché footage of famous American landmarks, cross cut with scenes of 'ordinary American people' doing ordinary American things.
Ray Charles is heard (and seen for a few seconds) as he performed America The Beautiful. The clip can be watched here.

A 16 mm-copy copy has been archived by the National Archives (#ARC 4478021). BuyoutFootage is offering the clip for licensing.

Ray Charles In Concert In Tampa (1991)

Pic captured from an
interview that was shot 

this same day for WUSF TV

On April 28, 1990, Ray Charles received an honorary doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of South Florida, at the Sun Dome in Tampa. "When Charles, in cap and gown, was officially awarded his degree, the crowd again erupted," a local newspaper wrote. The next year, on February 15, 1991*, Ray came back at the USF Sun Dome, to perform a big show with the USF Jazz Ensemble, the USF Symphony Orchestra conducted by H.B. Barnum and the USF Gospel Choir. He also brought his own rhythm section. "The 1 1/2-hour production was impeccable throughout. Despite such massive accompaniment, Charles remained the focal point, his soulful voice always pushed to the forefront. Much of this was due to a superb sound mix and the deft hand of Charles' conductor [...]" (source).

Drummer David Rokeach shared an interesting story with me, regarding a pro video recording:

Rehearsals.

"It was unique in that Ray wanted to do something nice for the University that gave him [the] honorary degree. There was no money to be made [for him, but we] got paid. Ray donated this performance. He brought H.B. Barnum to conduct, and his rhythm section of me, Kenny Carr, and Ben[oît] Grey. We rehearsed with a student big band, symphony orchestra, and a very young Gospel choir. Then played a show with all three groups. It was the longest Ray Charles show that I ever did. He played a lot of material including Old Man River which he didn't bring out very often.
He paid for the concert (and maybe some rehearsals too) to be videotaped and recorded professionally. He was going to donate the video to the University. I stayed in touch with some University folks for a year or so afterwards. They said, at the time, that they never received the video. I saw Ray a few years later and asked him about it. He said that he might put it out as part of a package."

The tapes most proably still are in the vaults of RPM, at the Ray Charles Foundation in Los Angeles.

* My sources are not entirely clear on the dates mentioned in this article; I have reconstructed the most probable timeline.

Ray Charles Ft. In 19th Annual Music City News Country Awards (1985)

Ray Charles and Willie Nelson were among the 5 nominees for the Duet of the year Award at the 19th Annual Music City News Country Awards, telecast live from the Opry House in Nashville on June 10, 1985, no doubt for their recording of Seven Spanish Angels, as released on Ray's album Friendship (February 1985). They possibly performed that tune during the show, but there's only proof of a performance (see clip below), where Ray sang with other duet partners:

• Friendship (with Ricky Skaggs)
• Rock And Roll Shoes (with B.J. Thomas)
• Who Cares (with Janie Fricke)
• This Old Heart (Is Gonna Rise Again) (with The Oak Ridge Boys)
• Friendship (with Ricky Skaggs, B.J. Thomas, Janie Fricke, The Oak Ridge Boys)

All these tunes were also part of the Friendship album, but on the elpee Ray did the duet on the song "Friendship" with George Jones.
The Music City News was a country music publication. The broadcaster most probably was TNN (The Nashville Network).