I definitely consider myself a casual Ray Charles fan. I've got the Birth of Soul box set and His Best vols. 1 & 2 and that's it. I'm looking to get into some of his '60s recordings but very little of it seems to be in print. The Atlantic years were treated to a lavish box set several years back but his ABC recordings haven't been treated with much care. For the most part you just get the same 25-30 songs on various compilation albums. Was this era really that bad? It seems incomprehensible to me that whoever owns this material is not cashing in on it. At the very least how about a box set collecting the best of this era or maybe a series of twofer reissues? I thought for certain that after his passing there would have been an extensive reissue campaign but that doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon. Is there some legal reason that these recordings are being kept out of print?

Didn't Ray own his ABC masters? If so, he (or his estate now) was in charge of leasing them out to labels. ABC Records was bought out by MCA in the late 1970's.

Hmm, I do know that some of his ABC era albums were recently reissued (Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music vols. 1 & 2 are now available on a single disc) and I think Rhino released some of them in the early-mid '90s but they may be out of print. It seems funny that since Ray passed that there hasn't been a comprehensive reissue program. Then again James Brown's catalog hasn't been reissued yet either so maybe it is not so surprising. Maybe there isn't a huge demand for those recordings but surely a limited run would sell out and be profitable?

If Ray's estate owns the recordings, maybe they just don't want to release them and just choose to release the popular hits. Aretha Franklin owns the masters to some of her Atlantic albums, and has refused to re-release them (or any of the individual songs for compilations) because she wasn't offered the amount of money she wants.

Grabbed this box set

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Ray Charles owns all of his recording from 1960 ownward. The reason why you keep getting the

same reissues, is because Charles set a high price on this work. That's one reason the reissue giant Rhino, part of the same corporation as Atlantic, has leaned heavily on the R&B-jazz Charles of the mid- to late Fifties. A lot of Charles best work in my opinion was in the 60's and a lot of it is out of print. At that, my brother bought a 5 CD box-set in '97 ( I can't recall the title or the years covered) that sounded soooooooooo bad he returned it. A lot of what I've heard hasn't been mixed well, hell Charles's vinyl recording had a lot of flaws.

These are amongst my favorites.... a few .

From the 60's

Ray Charles in Person

The Genius Sings the Blues

Soul Meeting (with Milt Jackson)

The Genius After Hours

The Genius Hits the Road

Modern Sounds in Country Western Music Vol.1& 2

Dedicated to You

Ray Charles and Betty Carter

Genius + Soul = Jazz

Ingredients in a Recipe of Soul

Sweet and Sour Tears

Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul

Have A Smile On Me

Crying Time

Rays Moods

A Portrait of Ray

You can check to see if they've been reissued, I've sorta given up and just play my vinyl records.

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[Edited 6/26/11 20:21pm]

Ray's deal with Rhino ended a few years back (but they still have the rights to his Atlantic recordings). It appears as if his estate has a recent deal with Concord records, as a few of his ABC albums have been reissued through them in the past year or so. A few months back they re-released his excllent "Live in Concert" album from 1964