Why you'd want to limit yourself to owning just one Ray Charles album is a question only you can answer, but if that's the case, 'The Genius' is a strong contender for the slot. Half big-band settings of tunes as diverse as 'Let the Good Times Roll', 'When Your Lover Has Gone', and 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' and half string-drenched ballads like 'Just for a Thrill' and 'Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin', this 1959 disc lives up to its title in more ways than there's room here to count. Suffice it to say that the album finds Charles at a peak of musical and emotional energy, working in thoroughly sympathetic settings with perfectly matched soloists like tenor men Paul Gonsalves and David 'Fathead' Newman and arrangers on the order of Quincy Jones and Ralph Burns. And the closing cut, 'Come Rain or Come Shine', may be Charles's single greatest performance.
Track Listing:
1. Let the Good Times Roll - Ray Charles
2. It Had to Be You - Ray Charles
3. Alexander's Ragtime Band - Ray Charles
4. Two Years of Torture - Ray Charles
5. When Your Lover Has Gone - Ray Charles
6. Deed I Do - Ray Charles
7. Just for a Thrill - Ray Charles
8. You Won't Let Me Go - Ray Charles
9. Tell Me You'll Wait for Me - Ray Charles
10. Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin' - Ray Charles
11. Am I Blue - Ray Charles
12. Come Rain Or Come Shine - Ray Charles
Year of Production: 1959
