Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Sun's Gonna Shine Again
2. Roll With My Baby
3. Midnight Hour
4. Jumpin' In The Mornin'
5. It Should've Been Me
6. Losing Hand
7. Heartbreaker
8. Sinner's Prayer
9. Mess Around
10. Funny (But I Still Love You)
11. Feelin' Sad
12. I Wonder Who
13. Don't You Know
14. Nobody Cares
15. Ray's Blues
16. I Got A Break Baby
17. Blackjack
18. I've Got A Woman
19. Greenbacks
20. Come Back Baby
21. Fool For You
22. This Little Girl Of Mine
23. Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I)
24. Blues Hangover
25. Mary Ann
26. Drown In My Own Tears
27. Hallelujah I Love Her So
28. What Would I Do Without You

Disc 2:

1. Dawn Ray
2. Man I Love
3. Music Music Music
4. Black Coffee
5. Lonely Avenue
6. I Want To Know
7. Leave My Woman Alone
8. Ray
9. I Surrender Dear
10. Hornful Soul
11. Ain't Misbehavin'
12. Joy Ride
13. Sweet Sixteen Bars
14. Doodlin'
15. There's No You
16. Undecided
17. My Melancholy Baby
18. It's All Right
19. Ain't That Love

Disc 3:

1. Rockhouse
2. Rockhouse
3. Get On The Right Track Baby
4. Swanee River Rock (Talkin' Bout That River)
5. That's Enough
6. Talkin' 'Bout You
7. What Kind Of Man Are You
8. I Want A Little Girl
9. How Long Blues
10. Cosmic Ray
11. Genius After Hours
12. Charlesville
13. Bags Of Blues
14. Deed I Do
15. Blue Funk
16. Soul Brothers

Disc 4:

1. Bag's Guitar Blues
2. Yes Indeed
3. I Had A Dream
4. You Be My Baby
5. Tell All The World About You
6. My Bonnie
7. Soul Meeting
8. Hallelujah I Love Her So
9. Blue Genius
10. X-Ray Blues
11. Love On My Mind
12. Spirit Feel
13. Blues Waltz
14. In A Little Spanish Town
15. Sherry
16. Night Time Is The Right Time
17. Fool For You

Disc 5:

1. I've Got A Woman
2. Talkin' 'Bout You
3. Swanee River Rock (Talkin' 'Bout That River)
4. Yes Indeed (2)
5. Early In The Mornin'
6. Night Time Is The Right Time
7. Carrying That Load
8. Carrying That Load
9. Tell Me How Do You Feel
10. Fathead
11. Tin Tin Deo
12. Bill For Bennie
13. Hard Times
14. Mean To Me
15. Sweet Eyes
16. Weird Beard
17. Willow Weep For Me
18. Tell The Truth
19. What'd I Say
20. What'd I Say

Disc 6:

1. What'd I Say
2. What'd I Say
3. Tell Me You'll Wait For Me
4. Come Rain Or Come Shine
5. Don't Let The Sun Catch You Cryin'
6. Just For A Thrill
7. You Won't Let Me Go
8. Am I Blue
9. Spirit Feel
10. Frenesi
11. Tell The Truth
12. Drown In My Own Tears
13. Night Time Is The Right Time
14. What'd I Say
15. Let The Good Times Roll
16. Alexander's Ragtime Band
17. Deed I Do
18. When Your Lover Has Gone
19. Two Years Of Torture
20. It Had To Be You
21. I'm Movin' On
22. I Believe To My Soul

Disc 7:

1. Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand
2. Unknown Title
3. Piano Improvisation/Dialogue
4. Little Rock Getaway/Dialogue
5. Kentucky Waltz
6. Heartbreaker
7. Heartbreaker/Dialogue
8. Piano Improvisation/Dialogue
9. Heartbreaker
10. Losing Hand/Dialogue
11. Losing Hand
12. Losing Hand/Dialogue
13. Losing Hand/Dialogue
14. Heartbreaker
15. It Should've Been Me/Dialogue
16. Nobody Cares
17. Piano Improvisation/Dialogue
18. Mess Around
19. Funny (But I Still Love You)
20. Sinner's Prayer
21. Piano Improvisation/Dialogue
22. Low Society/Dialogue
23. Worried Life Blues
24. Come Back Baby/Dialogue
25. Low Society
26. Night Time Is The Right Time/Dialogue
27. Night Time Is The Right Time/Dialogue
28. Night Time Is The Right Time/Dialogue
29. Night Time Is The Right Time/Dialogue
30. Night Time Is The Right Time/Dialogue
31. Night Time Is The Right Time/Dialogue
32. Night Time Is The Right Time/Dialogue
33. Tell Me How Do You Feel
34. Dialogue
35. It Had To Be You/Dialogue
36. My Buddy/Dialogue
37. Dialogue
38. When Your Lover Has Gone/Dialogue
39. I'm Beginning To See The Light
40. Let The Good Times Roll/Dialogue

Disc 8:

1. Live Concert/Ahmet Ertegun Interview

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27393 in Music
• Released on: 2005-09-19
• Number of discs: 8
• Format: Box set

Album Description
A stunning eight-disc collection, covering the complete Atlantic recordings of one of music’s most distinctive voices. Presented in unique collectors’ packaging, the set brings together the length and breadth of Ray Charles’ work, and also features a live concert on DVD.

CD Description
A stunning seven-CD/one-DVD box set designed to look like avintage 1950s record player, PURE GENIUS is aptly summed upby its full title--this mammoth collection features the complete '52-'59 Atlantic recording sessions of genre-defying legend Ray Charles. The first six discs encapsulate the Genius's groundbreaking Atlantic LPs, where Charles essentially invented soul music by tapping into unrestrained, gospel-inspired passion and channeling it into the secular sounds of jazz, R&B, and rock & roll. The seventh CD offers up an array of revealing outtakes, studio-dialogue snippets, and other tracks (most of which are previously unreleased), while the DVD presents Charles performing at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival, as well as RAY biopic director Taylor Hackford interviewing Atlantic Records' Ahmet Ertegun, who was crucial in helping the beloved artist find his signature sound.

Customer Reviews

great music - lousy packaging
Ray Charles at Atlantic made beautiful music and it's all here. The problem is the way it is packaged. It comes in a fake 1950s record player box and contains a good hardback book with session info and complete discography. all well and good if a little extravagant but the problem comes with the CDs. It is presented in sesssion order bit is divided into arbitrary 79 minute CDs. A good example is CD4. It begins with one track from "Soul brothers", the collaboration with Milt Jackson - the rest of Soul Brothers is on CD3. There then follows 5 tracks recorded in February 1958. Next is 5 tracks from "Soul meeting" recorded with Milt Jackson - the other track from that LP is on CD3. After this there are 6 tracks from "Live at Newport" and the other 4 tracks from that LP are on CD5.
I'm a little disappointed this great music hasn't been sequenced with as much thought and sympathy as the book and case. After all, which would you prefer - great sequencing and poor packaging or great packaging and poor sequencing?

Fantastic
This box set is fantastic! Even the packaging is worth paying the money for, with the box appearing like an old portable record player.

The music speaks for itself; you would only part with this much cash if you know Ray Charles, and for anyone who does this is a great collection of his music.

WARNING! 'Vinyl' is not the box set
Careful. The vinyl version of this (as listed in Amazon) is for a completely different item. It's not the box set. It's a single picture disc of very early Ray (the stuff you usually find on cheap display in a petrol/gas station).

The music's okay but it ain't no Atlantic standard!

Beware.