Ray Charles

Ray Charles Robinson was one of the most groundbreaking and genre-defying musicians in American history, the artist who most audaciously fused blues, gospel, jazz, and country into the new form called soul music. Blinded by glaucoma at age seven, he attended the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, where he received formal musical training. After early recordings in a Nat King Cole-influenced style, Charles revolutionized popular music in the mid-1950s by combining the fervor of gospel with the earthiness of the blues on records like 'I Got a Woman,' 'What'd I Say,' and 'Hallelujah I Love Her So' for Atlantic Records. His subsequent move to ABC-Paramount produced the landmark 'Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music' album, which shattered racial and genre boundaries. Frank Sinatra called him 'the only true genius in show business.' He won 17 Grammy Awards.