Ray Charles Quotes

• Live each day like it’s your last, ’cause one day you gonna be right.

  Ray Charles

  Topics in Life

• What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.

  Ray Charles

  Topics in Country

  Tags in Music, Different

• I did it to myself. It wasn’t society… it wasn’t a pusher, it wasn’t being blind or being black or being poor. It was all my doing.

  Ray Charles

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Did, Being, Poor

• Affluence separates people. Poverty knits ’em together. You got some sugar and I don’t; I borrow some of yours. Next month you might not have any flour; well, I’ll give you some of mine. .

  Ray Charles

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Affluence

• I don’t know what would have happened to me if I hadn’t been able to hear.

  Ray Charles

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Happened, Hear

• Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory.

  Ray Charles

  Topics in Memory

  Tags in Learning, Music, Develop

• Music’s been around a long time, and there’s going to be music long after Ray Charles is dead. I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind. If it’s a big record, that’s the frosting on the cake, but music’s the main meal.

  Ray Charles

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music, Dead, Leave, Record

• I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great.

  Ray Charles

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Wanted, Famous, Great

• Music is my life, professionally, for nearly 60 years. To be recognized by the academy is still the highest honor.

  Ray Charles

  Topics in Life

  Tags in Music

• My version of “Georgia” became the state song of Georgia. That was a big thing for me, man. It really touched me. Here is a state that used to lynch people like me suddenly declaring my version of a song as its state song. That is touching.

  Ray Charles

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Big, Here, Used

• There are many spokes on the wheel of life. First, we’re here to explore new possibilities.

  Ray Charles

  Topics in Life

  Tags in Explore, Possibilities

• The fact of the matter is, you don’t give up what’s natural. Anything I’ve fantasized about, I’ve done.

  Ray Charles

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Fact, Fantasia

• There’s nothing written in the Bible, Old or New testament, that says, “If you believe in Me, you ain’t going to have no troubles.”

  Ray Charles

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Believe, Nothing

• What is a soul? It’s like electricity – we don’t really know what it is, but it’s a force that can light a room.

  Ray Charles

  Topics in Soul

  Tags in Child, Force

• My music had roots which I’d dug up from my own childhood, musical roots buried in the darkest soil.

  Ray Charles

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music, Childhood, Musical

• I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water.

  Ray Charles

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Heart, Music, Food

Ray Charles (16)

Birth:	23rd September, 1930
Death:	10th June, 2004
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Musician

About

Ray Charles Robinson was an American musician known as Ray Charles He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records.He also helped racially integrate country and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records, most notably with his Modern Sounds albums.While with ABC, Charles became one of the first African-American musicians to be given artistic control by a mainstream record company. Frank Sinatra called Charles “the only true genius in show business.”

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Today's Anniversary - 13th December

Births

• 1948 - Ted Nugent
• 1983 - Otylia Jedrzejczak
• 1835 - Phillips Brooks
• 1910 - Van Heflin
• 1950 - Tom Vilsack

Deaths

• 1944 - Wassily Kandinsky
• 1983 - Mary Renault
• 2011 - Russell Hoban
• 1784 - Samuel Johnson
• 2009 - Paul Samuelson