#111 "I Got A Woman" by Ray Charles

Whenever we have family or friends over to the house, I usually load the cd player with a rotation of Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Norah Jones, a Chess Records compilation, and Ray Charles. When I'm not playing jazz music and Frank Sinatra in an attempt to make my house sound like Maggiano's, the standard mix from above always does the trick.

Honestly, I'm not a huge Ray Charles fan. I guess that's almost un-American to say, being that Ray was like our nation's god-father or something, but I can give Ray Charles his due. The guy was massively talented and played a part in one of my favorite movies when I was a kid, "The Blues Brothers."

When "Ray" came out a while back, Ray Charles was everywhere. We'd always been familiar with the music, but now we found out about the life behind the genius. It was odd to hear about this old blind guy being a heroin addict and womanizer back in the 50's and 60's. That was like envisioning my grandfather doing the same thing!?!

I play Ray Charles in the house because even though he's not my favorite, he is a significant part of American culture. I'm not content to let my sons listen to KidzBop all day long. I've got two boys who can name the members of The Beatles, a band who broke up thirty years before they were born, who like The Clash, Elvis, Led Zeppelin, and more recently Burl Ives. Yes, unfortunately they occasionally watch Big Time Rush on Nickelodeon, but they are also familiar with the songs that formed the soundtrack of The United States for the past sixty years are so. I'm pretty proud of that.

"I Got a Woman" can be found on any number of Ray Charles compilations. To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.