February 22, 1968 - RPM Studio, Los Angeles

Session No: Liberty 1426.
Period: The ABC / Tangerine Years (1959 – 1972).
Location: RPM Studio, Los Angeles.
Artist: Clydie King.
Album (compilation): Clydie King ‎- The Imperial & Minit Years.
Label: Liberty Records; Stateside 5099950958122.

Personnel:
Clydie King (vocals); Jimmy Holiday (2nd lead vocals); Bobby Bryant, Mike Akopoff, Melvin Moore, Roy Burrows (trumpet); Bobby Knight, Tommy Shepard, Streamline Ewing, Dick "Slyde" Hyde (trombone); Georgie Auld, Charles Miller (alto saxophone); Plas Johnson, Jay Migliori (tenor saxophone); Leroy Cooper (baritone saxophone); Donald R. Stolz (unid. instrument); Ray Charles (piano); Cecil Womack, Terry Evans (guitar); Ronald Brown (electric bass); Jim Gordon, Teddy Robinson (drums); Unidentified mixed singers (background vocals).

Jim Gordon, Ray Charles (arranger); Dave Pell (producer).

Master #	Titles	Dur.	Writers	Releases
NA	Ode To Billy Joe	(4:31)	Bobbie Gentry	Stateside
NA	(omit piano - RC; add choir - background vocals) Good Kind Of Hurt	(2:16)	Mickey Newbury	Stateside
NA	Something To Remember You By	(2:22)	Arthur Schwarts, Howard Dietz	Stateside
NA	(2nd lead vocals - JH) We Got A Good Thing Goin' On	(2:20)	Jimmy Holiday	Stateside
NA	(omit JH, choir; add piano - RC) If You Love Me Like You Say	(2:40)	Little Johnny Taylor	Stateside

Remarks:

1. Source: AFM (Local 47) recording contract #479705 (dated 26 February; 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM, 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM).
2. Clydie King was a Raelett from March 1966 to July 1968. She was Ray's duet partner when he recorded Sweet Memories, and during concerts she was 2nd lead on Baby, It's Cold Outside, and solo'ed in If You Love Me Like You Say and Ode To Billie Joe. In this session, which was assigned by Liberty records and took place at RPM, she sang two of these songs. In an interview Ray Charles had already declared that the final piano chord on You Love Me Like You Say was his. When these tracks, after almost 40 years, were first issued by Stateside, Clydie said in the liner notes that Ode To Billy Joe had been arranged by Ray Charles. Listening to this recording, it becomes clear that he subtly contributed to it as well. At 0:25 you can vaguely, in the background, hear him respond to Clydie's call (just as he did in the live version that was captured at the Blues Thing concert), and the final piano chord is unmistakably his also: he plays Pop Goes The Weasel!
3. In the line-up above, instruments were inferred based on what these musicians were best known for. Jim Gordon, a multi-instrumentalist, may also have played reeds, flute or clarinet. The attribution of the alto to Charles W. Miller is uncertain. Regrettably, I haven't found anything on Robert L. Stolz. Dick "Slyde" Hyde was credited for "1 Dbl", i.e. he either played a second instrument (in his case that may have been any kind of horn), or he was paid double as a 'first call'-session musician.
4. The Stateside release credited Ike Turner (who recorded it in 1972) for writing the song. Taylor's own original is from 1964. Ray Charles was mentioned in the notes to Taylor's compilation CD The Galaxy Years: "Members of the Ray Charles band are said to be present on some selections and indeed [a few tunes from this period] have a strong Charles flavour". Any contributions by band members (or maybe even the song being recorded - at RPM??) may explain how Ray got to know the song, which wasn't a hit.

Ray Charles In Manchester (1996) - Fragments

In June 1996 Van Morrison and Ray Charles joined forces on a UK tour that brought them to the Wembley Arena in London, on 15 and 19 June, the Nynex Arena in Manchester (June 21), the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham (23) and the Arena in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (24).

A Van Morrison fan* shot a few parts of Ray's Manchester concert from an audience perspective. Here you can listen to parts of Busted, Georgia On My Mind, I Can't Stop Loving You, and What'd I Say:



Reconstructed line-up:
Musicians: Steve Elliott, Al Jackson, Al Waters, Rudy Johnson, and Jim Farnsworth - saxophone; Ted Murdock, Chuck Parrish, John Bailey, Kenny Scharf - trumpet; Steve Sigmund, Michael Guerrier, Sarah Morrow, Jason Jackson - trombone; Kenny Carr - guitar; Curtis Ohlson - bass; Ernest Vantrease - Hammond organ; Peter Turre - drums. Raelettes: Estella Yarbrough, Karen Evans, Cathy Mackey, ?Katrina Harper-Cooke?, Tonette McKinney.

* Woolhall, a Van Morrison/Bob Dylan  archivist, runs this entertaining channel on YouTube.

Take-Off For Ray Charles Big Band's First Europe Tour

The complete Ray Charles troupe on October 17th or 18th, 1961, departing from Idlewild for their first European tour. From Cashbox, Nov. 4, 1961.

Ray Charles Guesting In Venezuelan TV Show

Ray Charles and Renny Ottolina, c. 1970.

Renny Ottolina was a Venezuelan variety TV superstar. In the 70's his major success was Renny Presenta, produced for VTV, where he brought international guests like Charles Aznavour, Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles to the studio. In the clips below, Renny can be seen... disturbing a jazz piano solo by Ray Charles.
In the photo at the right Brother Ray sports another suit jacket than in the YouTube video. Is it from another show?

Who recognizes the tune? Who knows if more footage has survived?

Renny Ottolino, while campaigning for the presidency, died "in a strange air incident" in 1976.

Ray Charles Promoting 音楽マイ・ラブ

In 1991 (or was it 1990?) Ray Charles helped the the tv show 音楽マイ・ラブ (Music My Love) to promote themselves.

Ray Charles Live In Roanoke

Someone in the audience made a (mediocre) recording of Ray Charles' concert at the Grandin Theatre in Roanoke (VA) on September 1, 1984. The setlist went like:

1. Intro + Metamorphosis
2. Let The Good Times Roll (start missing)
3. Georgia On My Mind
4. Then We'll Be Home (Sadies Tune)
5. I've Got News For You
6. Some Enchanted Evening
7. If You Wouldn't Be My Lady
8. Crying Time
9. Eleanor Rigby
10. I Can't Stop Loving You
11. Knock On Wood
12. Baby Please Don't Go
13. What'd I Say
14. Outro

Seeing Ray Charles, despite his blindness, navigate a set of narrow, sharp-turning stairs quicker than a sighted person might, programmer Philip Poff remembered, “Ray came flying down those steps. He shocked us so much that we were almost dumbstruck.”

Ray Charles Ft In Le Spectacle Noir

Le Spectacle Noir was a 45 minute ORTF documentary directed by Armand Ridel, first broadcast by RTF 1 on August 30, 1972. It presented an impressionistic, kaleidoscopic mix of existing films and documentaries with contemporary street scenes, concert footage and interviews with jazz and r&b stars.
With a.o. Ray Charles (contributing a good, but truncated, version of I've Got A Woman, from a concert in circa 1972), Count Basie, Tina Turner, Louis Armstrong, Cecil Taylor, Miriam Makeba, and Jimmy Hendrix (from the Woodstock movie).
The film has been archived by INA, ID: CPF86653022.

The Schiffman Index Cards On Ray Charles At The Apollo, 1957 - 1971

The Schiffmans, owners of the Apollo Theater, kept concise and hugely interesting notes on all acts he booked and re-booked. Each index card tracked the acts through the years, listing the dates of the opening nights (many gigs were for one week), the amounts paid out, and - above all - the Schiffman family's brutally honest comments on the act's quality and cash box success.
Up till now the notes were only known from the Frank Schiffman Apollo Theatre Collection in the Archives Center of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, but recently a few additional cards on the Apollo's top artists (Ray Charles, but e.g. also James Brown and Aretha Franklin) have popped up on Ebay.

How To Raycharlesify A Tune

Ray Charles' studio version from 1964 of A Tear Fell (single: ABC-45-10571; album: ABCS-480-4), as arranged by Sid Feller, was nice enough.
But only in this live version at the Pleyel Room in Paris, in a concert on October 8, 1968, the Genius could share what he really heard in the song, showing how beautiful it really was.
The original tune was written in 1955 by Dorian Burton and Eugene Randolph. Two of their grandchildren recently met in the comments section on YouTube:

We're Gonna Make It (The Raelettes)

Until now* I've confused the description of this Raelettes live-song, which was on the band's repertoire between 1978 and 1984, with the We're Gonna Make It-track from the Renaissance album.

This actual tune was written by Billy Preston. Rene Hall penned the arrangement for the band.

Live:
'78 LC Antibes
'84 LC Viareggio
'84 LC Warsaw - Released**
'86 LC Toyohashi

*Thank you, Steve Sigmund. **Search for Ray, then page-search for Warsaw, then go to ~39:20.