"Telling me Ray Charles died is the equivalent of telling me Martin Luther King died." — Wyclef Jean
Jerry Wexler, a producer and former vice president of Atlantic Records, described Charles as taking the "music of the church [and putting] the devil's words to it." The influence of Charles' trademark rasp is undoubtedly heard in the singing styles of Van Morrison and Joe Cocker. In the 1960s, the Beatles, the Who, the Animals and other bands of the British Invasion worshipped him, but simply copying his style was a losing proposition given that true soul just can't be knocked off so easily. Charles died at 11:35 a.m. (2:35 p.m. ET), in Beverly Hills, California, his publicist said. The cause was of complications from liver disease.
Charles was a towering figure in pop music history. The term "genius" came from Frank Sinatra -- no slouch in the singing department himself -- and others called him "the greatest pop singer of his generation" and "a true American musical original."
We certainly are losing a lot of one of a kind people lately, usually it seems like the famous die in three's...
I will just try to be grateful that we knew them for a time.
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