Track Listing

1. It Should've Been Me
2. Don't You Know
3. Blackjack
4. I've Got A Woman
5. What Would I Do Without You
6. Greenbacks
7. Come Back
8. Fool For You
9. This Little Girl Of Mine
10. Hallelujah I Love Her So
11. Lonely Avenue
12. It's Alright
13. Ain't That Love
14. Swanee River Rock (Talkin' 'Bout That River)
15. That's Enough
16. What I'd Say
17. Night Time Is The Right Time
18. Drown In My Own Tears
19. Tell The Truth
20. Just For A Thrill

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40859 in Music
• Released on: 1994-08-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
By the time Ray Charles left Atlantic Records in 1959, he had evolved from an adept follower of Nat Cole and Charles Brown to a leader who'd transformed American music. Best of Ray Charles: The Atlantic Years chronicles his leap from cocktail blues to the edgy, gospel-tinged music that became known as soul. Anyone who doesn't understand why he's called the Genius should hear this. --Rickey Wright

CD Description
This is not just a terrific greatest hits package. It's also a revelatory look at the astonishingly rapid development of Ray Charles' music between 1954 (when he signed with Atlantic after a few previous years as a Nat "King" Cole wannabe)and 1960, when he departed for ABC-Paramount for what was at the time one of the biggest advances any artist had ever received.
The distance between the opening "Should've BeenMe", a charming, if not particularly memorable piece of journeyman R&B, which Charles sings a la Richard Berry, and theconcluding "Just For a Thrill", in which he's recognisably Brother Ray and which pointed the way his music would go in future years, is immense. In between, you'll find the big hits, such as "Hallelujah, I Just Love Her So" and "I Got a Woman", with their revolutionary combination of blues and gospel (the sacred and the profane), as well as fascinating lesser-known tracks like the guitar-driven, bluesy "Blackjack", and a spectacular live version of Lowman Pauling's "Tell theTruth". Great stuff.

Customer Reviews

Not the essential collection
I would strongly recommend anybody to buy instead "The Definitive Ray Charles" as it is not only more complete (including '60 music recorded with another label) but because there are some fantastic tracks of the '50s missing here.
"Mess Around", "Leave my woman alone" "Don't let the sun catch you crying" are some of these, and (worse of all) a collection of Ray Charles cannot be called essential when "What'd I say" is present in its EDITED form (part 1)!
Moreover the sound quality of this CD "Atlantic Years" is nothing special, being a remaster of over 10 years ago. Again "The Definitive" is a much better compilation for quality and track selection.

Twenty choice tracks from Ray Charles' years at Atlantic
Ray Charles died today and that means a lot of people are going to be listening to his music and enjoying the first great American soul singer. For those who do not have a Ray Charles album in their music library they will be looking for a good hits collection and while it seems strange to recommend one that does not have "Hit the Road, Jack" on it, this Rhino album of "The Best of Ray Charles: The Atlantic Years," which brings together twenty of his best songs from his years at Atlantic Records in the late 1950s is still my top recommendation because it represents the crucial and groundbreaking period when he defined soul music, even if the term was not in use when most of these songs were recorded. But from this vantage point there is no other single word that better describes the singing of Ray Charles.

That is not to say that you will not recognize the best of these tracks. If you want to point to a specific song and say this is where soul music begins then it would have to be 1954's "I've Got a Woman," where Charles blends rhythm & blue music with gospel singing. The song, which would be covered by Elvis Presley and countless others over the years, features baritone saxist David "Fathead" Newman, who would play tenor sax on a lot of Charles' best albums. "What Would I Do Without You?" features a great sax solo by Don Wilkerson and exemplifies Charles' ability to merge country and gospel (the piano playing particularly sounds like it is from a church service). There is also a cover of Henry Glover's "Drown in My Own Tears," which became one of Charles' signature songs. For younger listeners the most familiar track will probably be "Night Time Is the Right Time," which was used to great effect on "The Cosby Show," while for the rest of us "What I'd Say, Part 1" is another obvious classic and the song that made Ray Charles a household name (in the right households, anyway).

So, yes, there are more hits out there and better collections of the "best" of Ray Charles if you are going by the Billboard charts. But if you want to listen to the sound of Ray Charles creating the sound of soul music that this is the one album that best accomplishes that goal. What starts off as "jump" blues with "It Should've Been Me" and "Greenback" because pure soul sung as only Ray Charles could sing it on songs like "Hallelujah, I Love Her So," "Lonely Avenue," and "This Little Girl of Mine." This stuff is so good that after "The Best of Ray Charles: The Atlantic Years" you might go back and start picking up his original albums from the Atlantic period instead of picking up a hits collection focusing on his 1960s work.

Twenty truly great tracks from Ray Charles
An album consisting of twenty truly great tracks by the legendary Ray Charles whose bringing together of gospel, jazz, and blues, laid down the foundation for soul music. Listen to the very bluesy 'Black Jack' finding Ray Charles in good vocal form with equally fine piano work. 'I've got a woman way over town that's good to me' sings Charles with big band backing and some very fine sax playing in 'I've Got A woman'. 'What Would I Do Without You' is a great soul ballad including a good little saxaphone break. 'Greenbacks' is a jump jazz/blues partly sung and partly spoken and it really swings. 'Come Back' is a slow blues with slow 'n' lazy brass as Ray Charles begs 'let's talk it over one more time'. Hallelujah I Love Her So' is an all round classic with great vocals and big band backing with a lovely tenor sax solo. 'Baby how could you be so mean' asks Charles in the moody brooding 'It's Alright' an emotive and atmospheric number. 'Ain't That Love' is terrific, a swinging soul/blues with hand-clapping thrown in for good measure, and even more great saxaphone playing. This is an album of very good songs superbly performed throughout and a real pleasure to hear. If you haven't got anything by Ray Charles and are considering buying something by him, then this is a very good place to start. Recommended.