[CD] SACD Ray Charles - Ray Charles

Analogue Productions (Atlantic 75 Series) CAPA 007 SA, 0753088750762 - R&B/Soul Hybrid Mono SACD - Analogue Productions (Atlantic Series) Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Atlantic Records! Iconic musician and singer Ray Charles' classic 1957 album! Includes the hits "Hallelujah I Love Her So," "Ain't That Love" and "I Got a Woman" Hybrid Mono SACD Mastered directly from the original master tape by Bernie Grundman "Sometimes erroneously called Rock & Roll thanks to the huge genre logo on the sleeve, Brother Ray's eponymous debut for Atlantic in 1957 is actually a compilation of 14 tracks dating back to 1953, probably culled from 78s. And what tracks! 'Drown In My Own Tears,' 'I Got A Woman,' 'Mess Around,' 'Hallelujah I Love Her So' — from anyone else it would be a greatest hits package. If you're wondering whether or not a mono album deserves the hypersonic SACD treatment, this will answer you with an emphatic 'Yes.' Note that this was also issued on vinyl as part of the label's 'Atlantic 75' anniversary series." — Ken Kessler, "CD Roundup ," Hi Fi News , July 2025 Ray Charles' self-titled 1957 album was one of the first handful of albums issued by Atlantic (and was later retitled Hallelujah I Love Her So ). As AllMusic reviewer Bruce Elder notes, the album is weighted about three to one in favor of Charles' own compositions, with the hits "Hallelujah I Love Her So" and the pounding, soaring "Ain't That Love," which opens the record, its raison d'etre. Charles does just as well with his interpretations of others' work, most notably the ominous, gospel-focused rendition of "Sinner's Prayer" (which offers a virtuoso piano performance, and comes courtesy of the pen of Charles' former mentor Lowell Fulson) and Henry Glover's wrenching ballad "Drown in My Own Tears," which is topped out on each verse by a gorgeous chorus. "Funny (But I Still Love You)" offers a guitar break played in such an understated fashion that it almost doesn't seem so much a part of R&B as it was usually being offered in 1957 as it does a part of Charles' early career output. The second side of the album is even better, opening with the title track, a number that is almost too ubiquitous in its various cover versions — the original has a mix of urgency and playfulness that's absolutely bracing, and the album carries this mood forward with "Mess Around," an Ahmet Ertegun-authored piano- and sax-driven romp with Charles at his most ebullient as a singer. "This Little Girl of Mine" offers him in a surprisingly light, almost acrobatic vocal mode, while "Greenbacks" is a knowing, clever cautionary narrative that is almost a throwback to 1940s-style R&B. "Don't You Know" is as salacious a piece of R&B as one was likely to hear in 1957, and "I Got a Woman" closes the record out on a pounding, driving note.