Hallelujah, We Love Him So! We're doing the Mess Around back to the earliest days of soul music with The Genius, Ray Charles, and his self-titled 1957 debut LP! After a childhood marked by tragedy, Ray Charles learned to read braille sheet music and arrange songs. After moving from coast to coast and back again to find work, Ray's intuition for melody and his passionate vocals finally started to land him on the charts and earn record deals. His eponymous album (later reissued as "Hallelujah, I Love Her So) features fourteen of his biggest early hits, from the wailing Drown In My Own Tears to the zip and pep of I've Got A Woman! He would change the course of music as we know it... but how does this early record compare?

After learning all about Charles' past, we invite The Mixtaper back for some Fact Or Spin! He'll teach us about Ray's affinity for chess, an improvised scramble that turned into a crossover pop hit, and we'll explore the fascinating world of limited edition postage stamps. Then we break down the album track by track and discover what exactly about his music makes him a legend. We'll talk nostalgia, famous covers, and anagrams as we learn to Care Rashly about Ray Charles this week!

Are any of these tracks sleeper hits for you? Did you look up all the interesting new stamps after the episode (like we did)? Had you ever heard the word "philatelic" before? Be honest. Like, subscribe, rate, comment, follow... do all the things and we'll see you next week for another album!

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Thanks for listening!

0:00 Intro

3:17 About Ray Charles

11:34 About Hallelujah I Love Her So

18:40 Awards & Accolades

20:20 Fact Or Spin

21:13 He's A Chess Grandmaster

30:54 He Ran Out Of Songs

35:05 He Has Memory Expansion

37:58 He Has A Unique Stamp

47:44 Album Art

50:49 Ain't That Love

52:29 Drown In My Own Tears

55:12 Come Back Baby

56:57 Sinner's Prayer

58:12 Funny (But I Still Love You)

59:44 Losing Hand

1:01:05 A Fool For You

1:02:02 Hallelujah, I Love Her So

1:04:08 Mess Around

1:06:06 This Little Girl Of Mine

1:07:09 Mary Ann

1:08:16 Greenbacks

1:10:09 Don't You Know

1:11:15 I've Got A Woman

1:13:38 Final Spin

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