Monday 8 December 2014

Necessity

"It Had To Be You" as sung by Ray Charles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEoV0ShyvRE
Why aren't there any schools or holidays or places of worship dedicated to Ray Charles? Why no Ray Charles Institute, no Ray Charles Day, no Church of Ray the Redeemer? There would be, I'm sure, if a lot more people listened to him singing this old chestnut, accompanied here by a big horn band's velvety, slowly swinging textures, which almost steal the show. (The singer's piano ain't shabby, either.) But this is Ray Charles we're talking about here, and even if he didn't mean it to, his voice, and how it shapes this silly little pretty song into a gemmy, two-minute brilliance, won't be pushed aside (his concluding, perfect falsetto stretches -- rises, even! -- right to the very end). I'd go to church every day if all the songs were sung by Ray Charles. 

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