“I started to sing like myself — as opposed to imitating Nat Cole, which I had done for a while — when I started singing like Ray Charles, it had this spiritual and churchy, this religious or gospel sound. It had this holiness and preachy tone to it. It was very controversial. I got a lot of criticism for it.”

— Ray Charles

San Jose Mercury News (1994)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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American musician 1930–2004

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