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The blind singer, pianist, and composer
Ray Charles Robinson, b. Albany, Ga., Sept. 23, 1930, has
been a major figure in American popular music since the 1950s,
when he recorded two of his most influential hits--"I
Got a Woman" (1955) and "What'd I Say" (1959).
Charles, nicknamed the "Genius" by his peers, was
one of the first to blend gospel vocal styles with blues and
rock music to create the sound called soul. Although in the
1970s and 1980s his music turned increasingly toward both
country and western and the sentimental, Charles and his lavish
stage productions continued to attract large European as well
as U.S. audiences.
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