Ray Charles

Ray Charles was born in Albany, Georgia, and began recording in the 1940s. After R&B hits on Atlantic, he released Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music in 1962, with versions of country songs like “I Can’t Stop Loving You”; the record topped the charts and widened the genre’s audience.

He recorded a second volume the same year and kept alternating country, soul, blues and pop until his death in 2004.