The 500 - #105 - Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music, Volumes 1 & 2 - Ray Charles

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by New York-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

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Album: #105

Album Title: Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music, Volumes 1 &2

Artist: Ray Charles

Genre: Country reimagined as soul, gospel, R&B, Countrypolitan

Recorded: Capital Studios, New York City, and United Western, Hollywood U.S.A.

Released: March, 1962

My age at release: I was not born

How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all, although I did know many songs as country standards.

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #127, dropping 22 spots

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: You Are My Sunshine

This week’s post may be shorter than most, though not for lack of material. If anything, it’s the opposite. June has arrived in that familiar blur that every teacher recognizes, bringing with it the convergence of deadlines, celebrations, and the steady hum of unfinished work. It is an annual rite as the school year ends with a torrent of urgency and anxiety that need to be dealt with. Report cards are being finalized, major projects are arriving in quick succession, and my desk has become an archaeological site of rubrics, feedback sheets, and half-drunk coffees.

My workspace - captured Saturday, June 6 at 1:40 pm.

In Science, my Grade 7s have been building cardboard arcade games as part of our Form and Function unit. The Makerspace is filled with ramps, levers, targets, and the constant classroom  negotiation over design ambition and structural reality.

One of the cardboard arcade games.

Upstairs, my Grade 6s have been writing standardized tests set by the provincial government of Ontario. When students get downtime from these mandatory assessments, I keep them busy with a unit based on Star Wars. It connects to their Science unit on the principles of flight. All of this in preparation for our year-end trip to see The Mandalorian and Grogu.

Poster for The Mandalorian and Grogu.

At the same time, the class has zig-zagged across the globe through Season 35 of The Amazing Race, using each leg of the reality show race as a springboard into geography and social studies. The Grade 6's, in particular, have been digging into Canada’s trading partners, trying to make sense of how goods  and resources move across borders, building international relationships. Balancing two curriculums simultaneously is always a challenge at this time of year. It feels like trying to keep multiple spinning plates on sticks while someone adds more.

Promotional poster for The Amazing Race.

In the middle of all this, life beyond school continues. This weekend,  my dad and his wife visited  to attend my nephew’s wedding. The pace was different, with the usual domestic routines subjugated to conversation, shared meals, car juggling and the small rituals that come with having family nearby. In that environment, It’s in that space, somewhere between a cluttered table of school reports, assignment marking,  blog writing, and formal wear preparation, that this week’s album found its place to shine.

Album cover for Modern Sounds - Volume 1.

Ray Charles’ Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music played in the background throughout the weekend, fitting this moment in a way that last week’s record could not. As much as I appreciated Rocket to Russia, it’s not exactly built for easy conversation over dinner. Ray Charles, on the other hand, perfectly suited the mood. It’s the kind of music that doesn’t demand your full attention, but satisfies it when you give it. More importantly, it’s the kind of record my dad and his wife genuinely seemed to enjoy.

Album cover for Modern Sounds - Volume 2.

Released six months apart, but now available as a single album set, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, falls into a category that was new to me: "Countrypolitan". It’s a style that sits at the intersection of country and pop.

Poster for a Countrypolitan Radio Station
Orlando, Florida, 1965.

A helpful overview on Wikipedia traces this shift back to the early 1960s, when the polished Nashville sound began to face serious competition from two very different directions. On the country side, the raw, stripped-down Bakersfield sound pushed back against established country music's slickness, while on the pop front, the British Invasion reshaped music tastes entirely. These developments were deeply affected by the tragic deaths of two of Nashville’s leading voices -- Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves, both lost in separate plane crashes.

Record cover for Nashville Sound, featuring Cline and Reeves.

In response, Nashville doubled down on refinement. This new sound evolved into countrypolitan, a smoother, more commercially minded style characterized by lush string arrangements, full orchestras, and frequent adornment of  rich background vocals often provided by choirs. The goal was clearly to appeal to mainstream audiences.

A Countrypolitan Record from 1966.

Enter Ray Charles, who prized these Country and Western music standards for their melody and directness of their lyrics. However, it is important to note that Charles was not asked to create a Countrypolitan sound. He chose to reimagine these songs by replacing "fiddle and steel" arrangements by adding strings, horns and backing vocals. He also infused elements of gospel, R&B and soul into these orchestrations. It was textbook Countrypolitan, but Charles got there independently.

Ray Charles performing live with an orchestra.

Listening to Charles' Modern Country now, in the middle of a chaotic June weekend, it’s striking how effortless it feels. One wouldn't think this was a record that was challenging expectations. It sounds natural and comfortable; as if it has always belonged.  It is another reminder that makes working through The 500 so compelling. I came into this project thinking I’d be revisiting familier and discovering new artists. What I didn’t expect was how often I’d be reframing what I thought I already knew. An album I had never listened to before this week turns out to be a bridge, between country and soul, between markets, between generations, and, in a small way, between my classroom chaos and a weekend spent with family.

I guess the post wasn't that short after all. Regardless, it is back to report cards and family visits.

The 500 - #118 - Late Registration - Kanye West

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by New York-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

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Album #:118
Album Title: Late Registration
Artist: Kanye West
Genre: Hip Hop, Pop Rap, Progressive Rap
Recorded: Three Studios in Hollywood, One in New York

Released: August, 2005
My age at release: 40
How familiar was I with it before this week: A couple songs
Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #117, rising one spot
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Gold Digger

I love the way music transforms. How a melody can slip out of one era and reappear in another wearing a completely different outfit. How something sacred can become secular, and then become something else entirely. I think of it as sonic alchemy (although I suspect I'm not the first to use that term). For me, it defines the way one artist melts down an old sound and recasts it into something new. Eventually, a new creation exists that is unrecognizable from the original source material.

It reminds me of the way my classroom lessons evolve over the years, and how each new cohort of students finds inventive ways to remix the challenges I give them. I often call these “low floor, high ceiling” activities because the entry point is accessible to everyone, but the possibilities stretch as far as their imagination. One of my favourites, a simple rock‑blaster coding game, has been reimagined for more than a decade in ways that still surprise me.

Gold Digger, the second single released from Kanye West's sophomore studio release, Late Registration, is a fascinating tale of sonic alchemy that takes place over more than a century. It is also a musical odyssey that continues today and, I suspect, will keep going beyond my lifetime.

It all started in 1901 when American gospel songwriter William Lamartin Thompson penned the Christian hymnal Jesus Is All The World To Me. Thompson, born in East Liverpool, Ohio, in 1847, studied at the New England Conservatory of Music in his early twenties. After facing rejection from commercial publishers in New York, he founded The W. L. Thompson Music Company in 1875. It soon became a prominent gospel publishing house and allowed Thompson to retain the rights to his music -- a rarity at the time.

William Lamartin Thompson

Fast forward 50 years and the gospel quartet The Southern Tones borrowed the hymn's melodic structure and transformed it into the song It Must Be Jesus. The reworked piece became a modest hit, mainly on Southern gospel radio stations where, one afternoon in 1954, singer Ray Charles was listening to it.

It Must Be Jesus - by The Southern Tones.

Charles secularized the gospel groove, a decision that shocked some church communities at the time, and wrote the soul song I Got A Woman. Charles kept the melodic contour of the song, as well as its rhythmic bounce. He also made use of the "call and response" lyrics, a technique that he would return to with his biggest hit, What I'd Say, in 1959.

Album jacket for the single, I Got A Woman (1954).

Fast‑forward another 50 years and Kanye West is in the studio, zeroing in on a tiny slice of Ray Charles’s I Got a Woman, the moment where Charles belts out that unmistakable line, "She gives me money, when I'm in need". Kanye lifts that fragment, reshapes it, and drops it into the foundation of his beat, building a new melodic world on top of Ray’s groove before laying down his rap.

To strengthen the Ray Charles connection, West recruited actor, comedian and singer Jamie Foxx to sing the a capella (vocal) introduction to the song. Foxx had won the Academy Award a year before for his portrayal of Charles in the biopic Ray.

Movie poster for Ray, starring Jamie Foxx.

So, a Christian hymn from 1901 informed a gospel hit from 1954 which was reworked into a R&B hit for Ray Charles, which, 50 years later, was sampled in a platinum selling hip-hop classic. That sonic alchemy continues today. In 2025, American rapper Freddie Gibbs partnered with DJ/producer The Alchemist (real name Alan Maman) to release the song I Still Love H.E.R. which samples West's Gold Digger. The beat, indeed, goes on.

The 500 - #265 - The Genius Of Ray Charles - Ray Charles

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #265

Album Title: The Genius Of Ray Charles

Artist: Ray Charles

Genre: Swingin' Pop, Rhythm & Blues, Traditional Pop

Recorded: 6 West Recording Studios, New York, New York

Released: October, 1959

My age at release: Not Born

How familiar was I with it before this week: Some songs

Is it on the 2020 list? No (Two other Ray Charles records remain)

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Alexander’s Ragtime Band

The Genius Of Ray Charles is a 1959 record released by singer, songwriter, pianist, saxophonist and arranger Ray Charles (born Ray Charles Robinson). It was Charles' second album of 1959 and his seventh release within a two-year span -- a prolific run. It also marked his departure from traditional rhythm and blues into a wider range of music styles. The album was divided into two parts. The first side contains swinging pop music, backed by a big band, while the second features string-backed ballads. It produced two hits, both Louis Jordan covers, Let The Good Times Roll and Don't Let The Sun Catch You Cryin'.

The record was the first of three with the word "Genius" in the title – a fitting accolade.  Charles was often referred to as "The Genius" by his musical contemporaries, although he preferred to be called "Brother Ray". He is a legend in the world of music and trying to summarize his biography in a short blog post like this would be a disservice to his remarkable career. Instead, I recommend the 2004 biopic, Ray, featuring an Academy Award winning performance by Jamie Foxx in the titular role.

About the same time that his biopic was filming, Ray Charles performed in my hometown of London, Ontario. It was June 20, 2003, and the show took place at the newly built John Labatt Centre (now Budweiser Gardens). Although I debated purchasing tickets, I chose against it for financial reasons. The new arena and concert facility was an entertainment windfall for London. Prior to its construction, big music acts avoided The Forest City because it lacked a large enough venue with adequate technical facilities. Looking back, I regret not having taken in the legend’s performance, having already maxed out my budget on concert and hockey tickets.

However, a few of my friends bought tickets  and others worked backstage. Their assessment: marvelously entertaining even though, at 72, Charles’ health was in decline. The large, talented band that accompanied him performed for 15 minutes before the artist, blind since he was eight due to untreated glaucoma, was led to the stage.  Clearly showing signs of his age, Charles struggled with his mobility, leaving his band to carry large sections of the show.

It is a sad fact that even monumental talents lose their lustre and face the R word – retirement. Some jump at the opportunity excited about new opportunities while others hesitate, uncertain about their future. For my own part, retirement seems to be rapidly approaching and I venture to say I have misgivings leaving a profession that I love. After 26 years in front of hundreds of young students, I feel as if I am at my peak, having kept up  with changes in technology and teaching practices. However, I sometimes worry that a time will come when I am past my prime -- a dinosaur in a profession that has evolved beyond me.

Perhaps I am experiencing the same things Ray Charles was when he touring in his seventies:

• I want to keep doing the thing I love,

• I am still experiencing growth and success,

• I seem to be good at what I do,

• I have a strong support network around me.

• I am not sure I would be happier if I stopped.

It turns out that the 2003 appearance in London would be Ray Charles' final performance in Canada. His tour was suspended 30 days later for health reasons. He underwent successful hip surgery later that year and, according to his management team, he planned to continue touring in 2004. However, his health declined precipitously and he died in his home in Beverly Hills California on June 10, 2004.

It seems he went out on his own terms, doing what he loved until it became impossible. He also left behind an incredible legacy and contributions that are still felt today. 

Wouldn't we all like to say that at the end?

You bet. As another legendary musician crooned: "I did it my way."

Ray Charles sure did. I think I am too.

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