BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Ray Charles (news), the Grammy-winning crooner who blended gospel and blues in such crowd-pleasers as "What'd I Say" and heartfelt ballads like "Georgia on My Mind," died Thursday, a spokesman said. He was 73.


Slideshow: Music Legend Ray Charles Dies at 73




Charles died at his Beverly Hills home surrounded by family and friends, said spokesman Jerry Digney.


Charles last public appearance was alongside Clint Eastwood (news) on April 30, when the city of Los Angeles designated the singer's studios, built 40 years ago in central Los Angeles, as a historic landmark.


Blind by age 7 and an orphan at 15, Charles spent his life shattering any notion of musical boundaries and defying easy definition. A gifted pianist and saxophonist, he dabbled in country, jazz, big band and blues, and put his stamp on it all with a deep, warm voice roughened by heartbreak from a hardscrabble childhood in the segregated South.


"His sound was stunning — it was the blues, it was R&B, it was gospel, it was swing — it was all the stuff I was listening to before that but rolled into one amazing, soulful thing," singer Van Morrison (news) told Rolling Stone magazine in April.


Charles won nine of his 12 Grammy Awards between 1960 and 1966, including the best R&B recording three consecutive years ("Hit the Road Jack," "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "Busted").


His versions of other songs are also well known, including "Makin' Whoopee" and a stirring "America the Beautiful." Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell wrote "Georgia on My Mind" in 1931 but it didn't become Georgia's official state song until 1979, long after Charles turned it into an American standard.


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to ray and my grandmama...RIP 06/10/2004

LittlePill beat you to it.

May he be in a better place

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

oh man, that's sad

I absolutely adore his "Modern Sounds In Country Music". One of the absolute essential albums of that era. He will be missed by this family.

sos are you saying your grandma passed too?

(in my best sos voice) wrong forum!!!

r.i.p.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

c'mon now.... this is general deja baby.... he didn't put out a greatest hits album he died.....

R.I.P u got the right one baby... ah ha

Look at that smile he has... ...For some reason I always smiled as well whenever I'd see Ray Charles playing...he just had that effect.

So sad..Ray Charles was so Cool.

JusTinTimE said:

I remember those commercials. They should bring them back, just for the hell of it.

R.I.P., Brother Ray.

I just woke up and heard!!

can't believe it...

RIP

RIP man !

Ray was just beautiful. There'll be no one like him ever.

met him once...cool dude

Ray Charles... what a wonderful life. If he could talk, he'd be telling people to party in lieu of mourning. He was not only a musical genius, but a role model for all of us and how we deal with limitations -- he simply ignored them. Ray Charles was blind but as a kid that didn't stop him from riding a bicycle. As a young musician, he showed unusual determination even in the face of drug addiction and obvious mobility challenges. Then came all these classic songs and all these accolades, then an arrest that changed his life (for drug possession). Of course he flirted with a bunch of genres, most notably country, though like Prince he never considered he was "doing the style" but rather he was getting the style to do HIM. Forget Stevie Wonder... Ray Charles is Prince's closest immediate predecessor, and as such, his passing should have a special meaning for us purpleheads.

Ray Charles was a wonderful musician.

He will be missed

I wonder if he was able to SEE the light ?????

He alway's made me smile as well, It was hillarious to watch him.....

God bless his soul.

I'll always remember how he won the cold war.

he was such an amazing musician and an amazing person. he will truly be missed.

Amazing guy Ray Charles... RIP. I won't mourn him though, he lives on forever in my record collection. Thanks for the tunes Ray, all the best.

RIP Ray Charles. Something tells me your catalog won't . You know they will release a tacky "Definitive Greatest Hits/Best Of" like they did the Beatles but since I don't have any of his music and enjoy what I've heard from him, I would pick it up. The man was talented.

Y'all wanna know where Rock & Roll came from? Listen to Ray Charles. It didn't begin with Elvis Presley.


Rest in Peace, soul man!!!!!

i pronounce this the official Ray Charles emoticon...



see you in the resurrection, Mr. Charles...