Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
Encyclopedia
Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music is a studio album
by American R&B
and soul
musician Ray Charles
, released in April 1962 on ABC-Paramount Records
. Recording sessions for the album took place in early to mid-February 1962 at Capitol Studios in New York City
and at United Recording Studios in Hollywood, California. Production was handled entirely by Charles and renowned conductor Sid Feller
. A departure from Charles's previous work, the album features country
, folk
, and Western music
standard
s covered and redone by Charles in popular song forms of the time, including R&B, pop
, and jazz
.
As his fifth LP release for ABC-Paramount, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music became a rapid critical and commercial success as it brought Ray Charles further mainstream
notice, following his tenure for Atlantic Records
. With the help of the album's four charting singles, Charles earned recognition in the pop market, as well as airplay on both R&B and country radio stations. Modern Sounds and its lead single, "I Can't Stop Loving You
", were both certified gold
by the Recording Industry Association of America
in 1962, as each record had shipped 500,000 copies in the United States.
Regarded by many critics as Charles's best studio album, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music has been considered by several music writers to be a landmark album in American music
. The album's integration of soul and country music bent racial barriers in popular music, amid the height of the African-American civil rights struggle. In the process of recording the album, Charles became one of the first African-American musicians to exercise complete artistic control over his own recording career. In 2003, the album was ranked number 104 on Rolling Stone
magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
.
contract had ended, Ray Charles signed with ABC-Paramount Records
in November 1959, obtaining a much more liberal contract than other artists had at the time. Following his commercial and pop
crossover
breakthrough with the hit single "What'd I Say" earlier that year, ABC offered Charles a $
50,000 annual advance, higher royalties
than previously offered and eventual ownership of his masters — a very valuable and lucrative deal at the time. Composed by Charles himself, the single furthered Charles's mainstream
appeal, while becoming a Top 10 pop hit and selling a million copies in the United States, despite the ban placed on the record by some radio stations, in response to the song's sexually-suggestive lyrics. However, by the time of the release of the instrumental jazz LP Genius + Soul = Jazz
(1960) for ABC's subsidiary label Impulse!
, Charles had virtually given up on writing original material and had begun to follow his eclectic impulses as an interpreter.
With his first hit single for ABC-Paramount, Charles received national acclaim and a Grammy Award
for the Sid Feller
-produced "Georgia on My Mind
", originally written by composers Stuart Gorrell
and Hoagy Carmichael
, released as a single by Charles in 1960. The song served as Charles's first work with Feller, who arranged and conducted the recording. Charles also earned another Grammy for the follow-up "Hit the Road Jack
", written by R&B singer Percy Mayfield
. By late 1961, Charles had expanded his small road ensemble
to a full-scale big band
, partly as a response to increasing royalties and touring fees, becoming one of the few black artists to crossover into mainstream pop with such a level of creative control. This success, however, came to a momentary halt in November 1961, as a police search of Charles's hotel room in Indianapolis, Indiana during a concert tour led to the discovery of heroin in his medicine cabinet. The case was eventually dropped, as the search lacked a proper warrant
by the police, and Charles soon returned his focus on music and recording.
fusion
with gospel
and jazz
influences on his earlier Atlantic material, which had brought him much fame and controversy, Charles sought to experiment with country music
. As noted by himself in the liner notes for What'd I Say
(1959), Charles was influenced by the genre in his youth, stating that he "used to play piano in a hillbilly
band" and that he believed that he "could do a good job with the right hillbilly song today." At Atlantic, he attempted to incorporate this style and influence with his cover of country singer Hank Snow
's "I'm Movin' On
". Charles later said about the song, "When I heard Hank Snow sing 'Moving On', I loved it. And the lyrics. Keep in mind, I’m a singer, so I like lyrics. Those lyrics are great, so that’s what made me want to do it." The "I'm Movin' On" sessions were his last for Atlantic. Charles's recording of his acclaimed studio effort The Genius of Ray Charles
(1959) brought him closer to expressing his jazz and pop crossover ambitions. Described by one music critic as "the most important of his albums for Atlantic", the record was the first to introduce Charles's musical approach of blending his brassy R&B sound with the more middle of the road, pop-oriented style, while performing in the presence of a big band ensemble. Recording of the album, as well his ABC-Paramount debut, The Genius Hits the Road
(1960), a collection of place-name songs devoted to parts of the United States, expanded on Charles's thematic and conceptually-organized approach to albums rather than commercially successful singles production. Inspired by this approach and his recording of "I'm Movin' On", Charles originally made plans for a single-less concept album.
When Charles had announced that he wanted to work on an album of country music in 1961, during a period of racial segregation
and tension in the United States, he received generally negative commentary and feedback from his peers, including fellow R&B musicians and ABC-Paramount executives. The country album concept, however, meant more to Charles as a test of his record label's faith and respect to his artistic freedom rather than a test of social tolerance among listeners amid racial distinctions of country and R&B. Fueled by his esteem for creative control, Charles pitched the idea of a country album to ABC representatives. Following the successful lobby of the concept and a contract renewal in early 1962, which was linked to the launching of his own Tangerine label
, Charles prepared his band for the recording sessions that produced Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music.
(Artists and Repertoire) man and record producer Sid Feller to research top country standard
s through major country music publishers. By canvassing premier country publishing companies, such as Acuff-Rose Publishing (which featured the Hank Williams catalog) and Hill & Range
Songs, most of which were located in Nashville, Tennessee
, Feller amassed around 250 songs on tape for Charles to consider recording for Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. From New York City, Feller sent the recordings to Charles, who was living in California at the time, for him to choose and later recalled the experience:
While his selections provided the album's country and western foundation, the musical arrangement
s represented its contemporary influence. Eager to display his big band ensemble in studio, Charles enlisted premier jazz arrangers Gerald Wilson
and Gil Fuller
, while Marty Paich
, who was active in the West Coast jazz
scene, was hired to arrange the lush strings
and chorus
numbers. Despite enlisting a roster of professional arrangers and musicians, Charles intended to control the artistic direction of the recordings. To indicate specific lick
s he wanted emphasized for certain songs, Charles would put together voice-and-piano demos and pass them along to the arrangers, informing them of what he wanted to do with specific sounds. According to Feller, at one point during recording, Charles rewrote an entire botched arrangement and dictated the parts to each of the 18 backing musicians. Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music was his 18th overall LP release. According to Charles, the title of the album was conceived by producer Sid Feller and ABC-Paramount's executives and management people.
The album's themes are about heartbreak and love, while most of the material chosen by Charles were ballads as well. The concept which had originally attracted the interest of Charles to this style of music was the strength he admired in writing such a ballad's somber or melancholy lyrics and then performing the ballad beautifully and with emotional stability; an element he had found to be common in even the most diverse musical genres. Writer Daniel Cooper later wrote on the similarity of most of the album's material, in terms of theme and style, stating "His country forays play like a series of intricate variations or like one long meditation on the expansive qualities of music commonly described as the white man's blues."
Despite the racial and social implications of R&B and country at the time, Charles did not agree with contemporary views of race record
s and other genres, including pop and country, as essentially different. In an interview with Ben Fong-Torres
of Rolling Stone
, Charles said of the similarities between the blues and country music, "[T]he words to country songs are very earthy like the blues, see, very down. They're not as dressed up, and the people are very honest and say, 'Look, I miss you, darlin', so I went out and I got drunk in this bar.' That's the way you say it. Where in Tin Pan Alley
will say, 'Oh, I missed you darling, so I went to this restaurant and I sat down and I had dinner for one.' That's cleaned up now, you see? But country songs and the blues is like it is."
In an interview with music historian Peter Guralnick
, Charles further elaborated on his understanding, stating "You take country music, you take black music, you got the same goddamn thing exactly." While Modern Sounds features mostly covers of country and western music standards, its sound and musical style are marked by the heavy rhythm and blues influence of Charles's playing. A considerable amount of the material's melancholy lyrics and words are backed by piano and orchestral arrangements that are rooted in jazz, as well as West Coast
and Charles's style of piano blues
.
-tune written by country musicians Eddy Arnold
and Cindy Walker
in 1955, features a bittersweet melody, while the folk song "Careless Love
" features Charles slightly augmenting the lyrics. The former became a great success when it was released as a single and Charles's version of the song has been noted as the best by many critics. Music writer Bill Janovitz later wrote of Charles's cover of "You Don't Know Me":
Both composed by Hank Williams, "You Win Again
" and "Hey, Good Lookin'
" are derived from Williams's different emotional perspective. The difference is further accentuated by Charles's interpretations of the songs. "I Can't Stop Loving You
", a countrypolitan ballad with lush, cushioned arrangements, was placed at the 11th spot in the track listing, assumed by Sid Feller to be the album's weakest song, after which becoming the album's top-selling single. Charles was disappointed with him, as Feller was in charge of sequencing for the album. A component of Modern Sounds is creative reliance on honky tonk
musician Floyd Tillman
's songwriting, covering the heartbreak ballads "It Makes No Difference Now" and "I Love You So Much It Hurts". The Ted Daffan
-penned "Worried Mind" and "Born to Lose" expand his take on country balladry and feature a blend of piano blues
with string arrangements.
s; at the time, often referred to as white and black markets during the period.
Upon the album's release in early April 1962 in both mono and stereo format, a reviewer for Billboard magazine claimed that "In addition to being powerful dealer material, this package will fracture knowledgeable jockeys who will find in it a wealth of material to talk about as well as play." By mid-April, reports of the album's sales and radio airplay had started coming in from cities such as Dallas and Philadelphia. On June 23, 1962, the mono issue of Modern Sounds replaced the West Side Story soundtrack album
as the number one album in the United States, knocking it off the top of the Billboard Pop Albums
chart. The album spawned four charting singles, "Born to Lose", "Careless Love", "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "You Don't Know Me", the latter two of which went number one on the Adult Contemporary chart. The hit singles quickly gained a significant amount of radio airplay on both country and R&B stations. By mid-May, the album's lead single, "I Can't Stop Loving You", had sold 700,000 copies within its first four weeks of release. Record dealers began describing the album as "equal in sales action to some of the early Presley
disks" and, after moving 400,000 copies of the single, influential Atlanta record distributor Gwen Kestler told Billboard magazine that "the record is so hot in her district that people who don't even own record players are buying it." "I Can't Stop Loving You" hit number one on the Billboard Pop Singles chart on June 2, spending five consecutive weeks at the top of the chart. By the time it fell off the top, the single was reported to have reached nearly a million-and-a-half sales, moving over 100,000 copies per week.
While Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music and its hit singles were earning massive sales in the United States, Ray Charles was touring Europe with his big band and the Raelettes. Charles performed both his signature R&B and jazz material at such venues as Paris Olympia
and the Hot Club de France, where he was hailed as "a true jazz artist in the tradition of Louis Armstrong
and Duke Ellington
." Upon his return to the United States at the end of the summer, ABC-Paramount had officially recognized his achievements, presenting Charles with two gold records — one for "I Can't Stop Loving You", the other for his Modern Sounds album — during a live concert performance at the Convention Hall in Asbury Park, New Jersey
. Through his ventures into country music and the European jazz scene, Charles's white audience grew significantly at concerts. The album was quickly followed by another recording of country, western and pop standards covered by Charles, and recorded in September 1962. Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Vol. 2 was released six months after the first volume and proved to be equally successful, while also earning a gold certification by the following year. Following his tenure with ABC-Paramount, Charles later went on to achieve more commercial success recording country music under Warner Bros. Records
throughout most of the 1970s and 1980s.
s of both rhythm & blues and country music. "I Can't Stop Loving You" later earned Charles a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording at the 1963 Grammy Awards, while the album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year
.
In the years leading up to the reissue of Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music in 1988, the album's legacy and reputation continued to build, as did Charles's reputation in country music. The album has received retrospective praise from critics for Charles's style and manner of interpreting country music into his R&B musical language. In a review for Allmusic, critic Stephen Cook called the album a "fine store of inimitable interpretations", and stated, "Less modern for its country-R&B blend and lushly produced C&W tone than for its place as a high-profile crossover hit, Modern Sounds in Country and Western fit right in with Ray Charles's expansive musical ways while on the Atlantic label in the '50s [...] Charles's intones the sleepy-blue nuances of country crooners while still giving the songs a needed kick with his gospel outbursts." Chris Neal of Country Weekly
gave the album five out of five stars and commented that Charles "recast 12 country favorites in big-band and orchestrated settings with a visionary’s easy grace", adding that he "gets to the heart of each [song] in a way that remains thoroughly modern." Music journalist John Morthland wrote of the musical significance of Modern Sounds, describing it as a "landmark LP of transcendent vocals set against kitschy orchestrations that (along with early rock 'n' roll) illuminated black-white roots connections for a popular audience."
"I Can't Stop Loving You" was ranked number 49 on Country Music Television
s list of the 100 Greatest Songs of Country Music. Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music was ranked number 97 on VH1
's 2001 list of the 100 Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Albums and number 16 on Blender
magazine's 2002 publication of The 100 Greatest American Albums of All Time. The album was also ranked number two on Country Music Television' s list of the 40 Greatest Albums. In 1999, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame
, as was "I Can't Stop Loving You" in 2001. Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music was cited by The Recording Academy as a recording of "historical significance". In the November 2003 issue of Rolling Stone
magazine, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music was ranked number 104 on the magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, one of Charles's two entries and his highest ranking on the list; it is accompanied only by his The Genius of Ray Charles
at number 263.
Following the massive commercial success and notice of Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, country music experienced an immediate increase in popularity. According to music writer Daniel Cooper, "the album raised the genre's profile", specifically Nashville sound
, which Charles had covered. Benefiting from this were songwriters, music publishers and country singers who covered the subgenre's material. As noted by Cooper, by the end of 1962, Nashville country publishers were being held as "the hottest source of music material in the record business these days."
Ray Charles's success with the stylistic fusion of country and soul on Modern Sounds later lead to country soul efforts from performers, such as Candi Staton
and Solomon Burke
who were both greatly influenced by Charles's Modern Sounds recordings. Many country music artists, such as Willie Nelson
and Buck Owens
, have cited Charles's take on country music and Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music as their major influences. In an interview for Country Music Television
, Nelson said of Modern Soundss influence that the album "did more for country music than any one artist has ever done." Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music has also been perceived by many critics and writers as a landmark album in American music, as the record was the first to blend the two racially distinct genres of country and soul. On the legacy of country soul and Modern Sounds, columnist Doug Freeman of the Austin Chronicle
wrote of Charles's influence through the album, stating:
Summing up on the impact Modern Sounds had on country music and listeners, writer Daniel Cooper later wrote, "There is no telling how many people, who perhaps never paid much attention to country music or even had professed to dislike it, listened anew based on the impact of having heard what Ray Charles was capable of doing with that music." Charles eventually earned a country music repertoire and reputation following the success of the Modern Sounds records, later country hit singles for Warner Bros. Records, and various appearances at country music events, including The Johnny Cash Show
in 1970 and the Grand Ole Opry
's 58th anniversary in 1983, the program to which he listened to as a youth.
acknowledged the album's influence, calling it "one of the most important records of our time, not only because of its content, but also due to its social and political ramifications." In a July 8, 2004 article for Rolling Stone
magazine, music journalist Robert Christgau
praised the impact and influence that the Modern Sounds recordings had on music, stating "In the world it created, not only could a black person sing the American songbook Ella Fitzgerald
owned by then, but a country black person could take it over. Soon Charles's down-home diction, cotton-field grit, corn-pone humor and overstated shows of emotion were standard operating procedure in American music
, black and white."
In addition to its social implications, the musical integration of soul and country into popular format by Charles changed and revolutionized racial boundaries and restraints in music, and contributed to the historical Civil Rights Movement. Robert Fontenot of About.com
was one of several writers to praise the album's musical and social implications, stating "Arguably one of the most brilliant interpretive albums ever released, it did more to integrate modern American music than almost any other LP in history." In paying tribute to the magazine's selection of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, which had selected Charles at #2, singer-songwriter Billy Joel
noted the album's racial and social impact in an article for Rolling Stone, stating "here is a black man giving you the whitest possible music in the blackest possible way, while all hell is breaking loose with the civil rights movement." Another article for Rolling Stone, written in honor of Charles and his achievements, later stated that through his Modern Sounds recordings, Ray Charles "made it acceptable for black people to sing country & western music, in the process doing almost as much to break down racial barriers as did the civil-rights movement."
stated that "Numerous artists followed Charles's lead, but it must be said that Charles himself repeated the trick much too often." The period of releases following Modern Sounds, which includes the musician's later recording years as well, has been recognized by music writers and critics as a "critical slide" and the weakest in his recording career. Several of the LP albums from this period have yet to be reissued and have remained rare among record collectors, if not out of print
. Charles's final studio album Genius Loves Company
(2004) would later be released shortly after his death, and proved to be a comeback success, in terms of sales and critical response, as it quickly became Charles's first top-10 album in forty years and the best-selling record of his career.
On October 27, 1998, Rhino Entertainment
issued a four-disc
box set entitled The Complete Country & Western Recordings: 1959–1986, which chronicles Charles's country and western recordings. The collection features the two volumes of Modern Sounds, as well as his later country singles for the Warner Bros.. Included in the set is a hardcover booklet of essays by producer Sid Feller, writer Daniel Cooper, and Ray Charles, along with liner photography by Howard Morehead and Les Leverett. On June 2, 2009, both volumes of Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music were reissued as a single package by Concord Music. The reissue was also included as a download
in the iTunes Store
.
Side one
Side two
d on compact disc
by the specialty record label Rhino Entertainment
in October 1988. This re-release of Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music featured photography from the Michael Ochs Archives and bonus material recorded by Ray Charles for the ABC-Paramount label.
(*) designates lists that are unordered.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by American R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
and soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
musician Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, released in April 1962 on ABC-Paramount Records
ABC Records
ABC Records was an American record label, founded in New York City in 1955 as ABC-Paramount Records. It originated as the main popular music label operated the Am-Par Record Corporation, the music subsidiary of the American Broadcasting Company . ABC-Paramount Records' first president was Samuel H....
. Recording sessions for the album took place in early to mid-February 1962 at Capitol Studios in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and at United Recording Studios in Hollywood, California. Production was handled entirely by Charles and renowned conductor Sid Feller
Sid Feller
Sidney "Sid" Feller was an American conductor and arranger, best known for his work with Ray Charles. He worked with Charles on hundreds of songs including Georgia on My Mind and worked as Charles' conductor while on tour...
. A departure from Charles's previous work, the album features country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, and Western music
Western music (North America)
Western music originated as a form of American folk music. Originally composed by and about the people who settled and worked throughout the Western United States and Western Canada. Directly related musically to old English, Scottish, and Irish folk ballads, Western music celebrates the life of...
standard
Standard (music)
In music, a standard is a tune or song of established popularity.-See also:* Blues standard* Jazz standard* Pop standard* Great American Songbook-Further reading:* Greatest Rock Standards, published by Hal Leonard ISBN 0793588391...
s covered and redone by Charles in popular song forms of the time, including R&B, pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
.
As his fifth LP release for ABC-Paramount, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music became a rapid critical and commercial success as it brought Ray Charles further mainstream
Mainstream
Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of the majority. However, the mainstream is far from cohesive; rather the concept is often considered a cultural construct....
notice, following his tenure for Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
. With the help of the album's four charting singles, Charles earned recognition in the pop market, as well as airplay on both R&B and country radio stations. Modern Sounds and its lead single, "I Can't Stop Loving You
I Can't Stop Loving You
"I Can't Stop Loving You" is a popular song written and composed by country singer, songwriter and musician Don Gibson, who first recorded it on December 30, 1957, for RCA Victor Records...
", were both certified gold
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
in 1962, as each record had shipped 500,000 copies in the United States.
Regarded by many critics as Charles's best studio album, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music has been considered by several music writers to be a landmark album in American music
Music of the United States
The music of the United States reflects the country's multi-ethnic population through a diverse array of styles. Among the country's most internationally-renowned genres are hip hop, blues, country, rhythm and blues, jazz, barbershop, pop, techno, and rock and roll. The United States has the...
. The album's integration of soul and country music bent racial barriers in popular music, amid the height of the African-American civil rights struggle. In the process of recording the album, Charles became one of the first African-American musicians to exercise complete artistic control over his own recording career. In 2003, the album was ranked number 104 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...
.
Background
After his Atlantic RecordsAtlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
contract had ended, Ray Charles signed with ABC-Paramount Records
ABC Records
ABC Records was an American record label, founded in New York City in 1955 as ABC-Paramount Records. It originated as the main popular music label operated the Am-Par Record Corporation, the music subsidiary of the American Broadcasting Company . ABC-Paramount Records' first president was Samuel H....
in November 1959, obtaining a much more liberal contract than other artists had at the time. Following his commercial and pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
crossover
Crossover (music)
Crossover is a term applied to musical works or performers appearing on two or more of the record charts which track differing musical tastes, or genres...
breakthrough with the hit single "What'd I Say" earlier that year, ABC offered Charles a $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
50,000 annual advance, higher royalties
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
than previously offered and eventual ownership of his masters — a very valuable and lucrative deal at the time. Composed by Charles himself, the single furthered Charles's mainstream
Mainstream
Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of the majority. However, the mainstream is far from cohesive; rather the concept is often considered a cultural construct....
appeal, while becoming a Top 10 pop hit and selling a million copies in the United States, despite the ban placed on the record by some radio stations, in response to the song's sexually-suggestive lyrics. However, by the time of the release of the instrumental jazz LP Genius + Soul = Jazz
Genius + Soul = Jazz
Genius + Soul = Jazz is a 1961 album by Ray Charles.Featuring arrangements by Quincy Jones and Ralph Burns, Charles is accompanied by members of The Count Basie Band...
(1960) for ABC's subsidiary label Impulse!
Impulse! Records
Impulse! Records was an American jazz record label, originally established in 1960 by producer Creed Taylor as a subsidiary of ABC-Paramount Records, based in New York City...
, Charles had virtually given up on writing original material and had begun to follow his eclectic impulses as an interpreter.
With his first hit single for ABC-Paramount, Charles received national acclaim and a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for the Sid Feller
Sid Feller
Sidney "Sid" Feller was an American conductor and arranger, best known for his work with Ray Charles. He worked with Charles on hundreds of songs including Georgia on My Mind and worked as Charles' conductor while on tour...
-produced "Georgia on My Mind
Georgia on My Mind
"Georgia on My Mind" is a song written in 1930 by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell . It is the official state song of the U.S. state of Georgia. Gorrell wrote the lyrics for Hoagy's sister, Georgia Carmichael. However, the lyrics of the song are ambiguous enough to refer either to the state or...
", originally written by composers Stuart Gorrell
Stuart Gorrell
Stuart Graham Steven Gorrell is best known for writing the lyrics for the song Georgia on My Mind.Gorrell attended Indiana University; there he became friends with fellow student Hoagy Carmichael...
and Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagy Carmichael
Howard Hoagland "Hoagy" Carmichael was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. He is best known for writing "Stardust", "Georgia On My Mind", "The Nearness of You", and "Heart and Soul", four of the most-recorded American songs of all time.Alec Wilder, in his study of the...
, released as a single by Charles in 1960. The song served as Charles's first work with Feller, who arranged and conducted the recording. Charles also earned another Grammy for the follow-up "Hit the Road Jack
Hit the Road Jack
"Hit the Road Jack" is a song written by rhythm and bluesman Percy Mayfield and first recorded in 1960 as an a capella demo sent to Art Rupe, available on the Memory Pain CD vol. 2, Specialty Records SPCD-7027-2. It became famous after it was recorded by singer-pianist Ray Charles. It hit number...
", written by R&B singer Percy Mayfield
Percy Mayfield
Percy Mayfield was an American songwriter famous for the songs "Hit the Road Jack" and "Please Send Me Someone to Love", as well as a successful rhythm and blues artist known for his smooth vocal style.-Career:...
. By late 1961, Charles had expanded his small road ensemble
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
to a full-scale big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
, partly as a response to increasing royalties and touring fees, becoming one of the few black artists to crossover into mainstream pop with such a level of creative control. This success, however, came to a momentary halt in November 1961, as a police search of Charles's hotel room in Indianapolis, Indiana during a concert tour led to the discovery of heroin in his medicine cabinet. The case was eventually dropped, as the search lacked a proper warrant
Warrant (law)
Most often, the term warrant refers to a specific type of authorization; a writ issued by a competent officer, usually a judge or magistrate, which permits an otherwise illegal act that would violate individual rights and affords the person executing the writ protection from damages if the act is...
by the police, and Charles soon returned his focus on music and recording.
Concept
Following his bluesBlues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
fusion
Fusion (music)
A fusion genre is music that combines two or more styles. For example, rock and roll originally developed as a fusion of blues, gospel and country music. The main characteristics of fusion genres are variations in tempo, rhythm, i a sometimes the use of long musical "journeys" that can be divided...
with gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
influences on his earlier Atlantic material, which had brought him much fame and controversy, Charles sought to experiment with country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
. As noted by himself in the liner notes for What'd I Say
What'd I Say (album)
What'd I Say is a studio album recorded by Ray Charles in New York City and released in 1959.What'd I Say peaked at #20 on the Billboard "Pop Albums" chart in 1962...
(1959), Charles was influenced by the genre in his youth, stating that he "used to play piano in a hillbilly
Hillbilly
Hillbilly is a term referring to certain people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas of the United States, primarily Appalachia but also the Ozarks. Owing to its strongly stereotypical connotations, the term is frequently considered derogatory, and so is usually offensive to those Americans of...
band" and that he believed that he "could do a good job with the right hillbilly song today." At Atlantic, he attempted to incorporate this style and influence with his cover of country singer Hank Snow
Hank Snow
Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow was a Canadian-American country music artist. He charted more than 70 singles on the Billboard country charts from 1950 until 1980...
's "I'm Movin' On
I'm Movin' On (Hank Snow song)
"I'm Moving On" is a 1950 country standard written by Hank Snow. The song, a 12-bar blues, reached #1 on the Billboard country singles chart and stayed there for 21 weeks, tying the record...
". Charles later said about the song, "When I heard Hank Snow sing 'Moving On', I loved it. And the lyrics. Keep in mind, I’m a singer, so I like lyrics. Those lyrics are great, so that’s what made me want to do it." The "I'm Movin' On" sessions were his last for Atlantic. Charles's recording of his acclaimed studio effort The Genius of Ray Charles
The Genius of Ray Charles
The Genius of Ray Charles is a 1959 album by Ray Charles. In 2003, the album was ranked number 263 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time....
(1959) brought him closer to expressing his jazz and pop crossover ambitions. Described by one music critic as "the most important of his albums for Atlantic", the record was the first to introduce Charles's musical approach of blending his brassy R&B sound with the more middle of the road, pop-oriented style, while performing in the presence of a big band ensemble. Recording of the album, as well his ABC-Paramount debut, The Genius Hits the Road
The Genius Hits the Road
The Genius Hits the Road is a 1960 album by Ray Charles. It is a concept album of sorts with the theme revolving around various parts of the U.S...
(1960), a collection of place-name songs devoted to parts of the United States, expanded on Charles's thematic and conceptually-organized approach to albums rather than commercially successful singles production. Inspired by this approach and his recording of "I'm Movin' On", Charles originally made plans for a single-less concept album.
When Charles had announced that he wanted to work on an album of country music in 1961, during a period of racial segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
and tension in the United States, he received generally negative commentary and feedback from his peers, including fellow R&B musicians and ABC-Paramount executives. The country album concept, however, meant more to Charles as a test of his record label's faith and respect to his artistic freedom rather than a test of social tolerance among listeners amid racial distinctions of country and R&B. Fueled by his esteem for creative control, Charles pitched the idea of a country album to ABC representatives. Following the successful lobby of the concept and a contract renewal in early 1962, which was linked to the launching of his own Tangerine label
Tangerine Records (1963)
Tangerine Records was a record label owned by Ray Charles between 1962 and 1973. In 1962, he founded his own record label, Tangerine Records which ABC-Paramount Records promoted and distributed. In 1973 Charles left ABC and he closed Tangerine and started Crossover records. Early singles labels...
, Charles prepared his band for the recording sessions that produced Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music.
Recording
The recording sessions for Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music took place at three sessions in mid-February 1962. The first two sessions were set on February 5 and 7 at Capitol Studios in New York, New York, at which one half of the album was recorded and produced. The other half was recorded on February 15 of that same year at United Recording Studios in Hollywood, California. Instead of drawing what he should record from memory and his knowledge of country music, Charles asked his newly appointed A&RA&R
Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
(Artists and Repertoire) man and record producer Sid Feller to research top country standard
Standard (music)
In music, a standard is a tune or song of established popularity.-See also:* Blues standard* Jazz standard* Pop standard* Great American Songbook-Further reading:* Greatest Rock Standards, published by Hal Leonard ISBN 0793588391...
s through major country music publishers. By canvassing premier country publishing companies, such as Acuff-Rose Publishing (which featured the Hank Williams catalog) and Hill & Range
Hill & Range
Hill & Range is a music publishing company which was particularly responsible for much of the country music produced in the 1950s and 1960s, and had control over the material recorded by Elvis Presley over that period....
Songs, most of which were located in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, Feller amassed around 250 songs on tape for Charles to consider recording for Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. From New York City, Feller sent the recordings to Charles, who was living in California at the time, for him to choose and later recalled the experience:
While his selections provided the album's country and western foundation, the musical arrangement
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
s represented its contemporary influence. Eager to display his big band ensemble in studio, Charles enlisted premier jazz arrangers Gerald Wilson
Gerald Wilson
Gerald Stanley Wilson is an American jazz trumpeter, big band bandleader, composer/arranger, 8 time Grammy nominee, and educator. He has been based in Los Angeles since the early 1940s....
and Gil Fuller
Gil Fuller
Walter Gilbert "Gil" Fuller was an American jazz arranger. He is no relation to the jazz trumpeter and vocalist Walter "Rosetta" Fuller....
, while Marty Paich
Marty Paich
Martin Louis "Marty" Paich was an American pianist, composer, arranger, producer, music director and conductor....
, who was active in the West Coast jazz
West coast jazz
West Coast jazz refers to various styles of jazz music that developed around Los Angeles and San Francisco during the 1950s. West Coast jazz is often seen as a sub-genre of cool jazz, which featured a less frenetic, calmer style than bebop or hard bop. The music tended to be more heavily arranged,...
scene, was hired to arrange the lush strings
Strings (music)
A string is the vibrating element that produces sound in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family. Strings are lengths of a flexible material kept under tension so that they may vibrate freely, but controllably. Strings may be "plain"...
and chorus
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
numbers. Despite enlisting a roster of professional arrangers and musicians, Charles intended to control the artistic direction of the recordings. To indicate specific lick
Lick (music)
In popular music genres such as rock or jazz music, a lick is "a stock pattern or phrase" consisting of a short series of notes that is used in solos and melodic lines...
s he wanted emphasized for certain songs, Charles would put together voice-and-piano demos and pass them along to the arrangers, informing them of what he wanted to do with specific sounds. According to Feller, at one point during recording, Charles rewrote an entire botched arrangement and dictated the parts to each of the 18 backing musicians. Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music was his 18th overall LP release. According to Charles, the title of the album was conceived by producer Sid Feller and ABC-Paramount's executives and management people.
Music and lyrics
The album's themes are about heartbreak and love, while most of the material chosen by Charles were ballads as well. The concept which had originally attracted the interest of Charles to this style of music was the strength he admired in writing such a ballad's somber or melancholy lyrics and then performing the ballad beautifully and with emotional stability; an element he had found to be common in even the most diverse musical genres. Writer Daniel Cooper later wrote on the similarity of most of the album's material, in terms of theme and style, stating "His country forays play like a series of intricate variations or like one long meditation on the expansive qualities of music commonly described as the white man's blues."
Despite the racial and social implications of R&B and country at the time, Charles did not agree with contemporary views of race record
Race record
Race records were 78 rpm phonograph records marketed to African Americans during the early 20th century, particularly during the 1920s and 1930s. They primarily contained race music, comprising a variety of African American musical genres including blues, jazz, and gospel music, though comedy...
s and other genres, including pop and country, as essentially different. In an interview with Ben Fong-Torres
Ben Fong-Torres
Benjamin Fong-Torres is an American rock journalist, author, and broadcaster best known for his association with Rolling Stone magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle .-Biography:Due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, Fong-Torres' father, Ricardo Fong-Torres Benjamin Fong-Torres (方振豪; Cantonese:...
of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, Charles said of the similarities between the blues and country music, "[T]he words to country songs are very earthy like the blues, see, very down. They're not as dressed up, and the people are very honest and say, 'Look, I miss you, darlin', so I went out and I got drunk in this bar.' That's the way you say it. Where in Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...
will say, 'Oh, I missed you darling, so I went to this restaurant and I sat down and I had dinner for one.' That's cleaned up now, you see? But country songs and the blues is like it is."
In an interview with music historian Peter Guralnick
Peter Guralnick
Peter Guralnick is an American music critic, writer on music, and historian of US American popular music, who is also active as an author and screenwriter. He has been married for over 45 years to Alexandra...
, Charles further elaborated on his understanding, stating "You take country music, you take black music, you got the same goddamn thing exactly." While Modern Sounds features mostly covers of country and western music standards, its sound and musical style are marked by the heavy rhythm and blues influence of Charles's playing. A considerable amount of the material's melancholy lyrics and words are backed by piano and orchestral arrangements that are rooted in jazz, as well as West Coast
West Coast blues
The West Coast blues is a type of blues music characterized by jazz and jump blues influences, strong piano-dominated sounds and jazzy guitar solos, which originated from Texas blues players relocated to California in the 1940s...
and Charles's style of piano blues
Piano blues
Piano blues refers to a variety of blues styles, sharing only the characteristic that they use the piano as the primary musical instrument. Boogie woogie is the best known kind of piano blues, though barrelhouse, swing, R&B, rock and roll and jazz are strongly influenced by early pianists who...
.
Content
The opening track on Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, "Bye Bye Love", originally a hit for the Everly Brothers in 1957, was reinvented by Charles with the accompaniment of Gerald Wilson's brassy arrangement. "You Don't Know Me", a Nashville SoundNashville sound
The Nashville sound originated during the late 1950s as a sub-genre of American country music, replacing the chart dominance of honky tonk music which was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s...
-tune written by country musicians Eddy Arnold
Eddy Arnold
Richard Edward Arnold , known professionally as Eddy Arnold, was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a so-called Nashville sound innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts, second only to George Jones. He sold more...
and Cindy Walker
Cindy Walker
Cindy Walker was a prolific American songwriter, as well as a country music singer and dancer. As a songwriter Walker was responsible for a large number of popular and enduring songs recorded by many different artists. She adopted a craftsman-like approach to her songwriting, often tailoring...
in 1955, features a bittersweet melody, while the folk song "Careless Love
Careless Love
"Careless Love" is a traditional song of obscure origins.Blues versions are popular; the lyrics change from version to version, but usually speak of the heartbreak brought on by "careless love." Frequently, the narrator threatens to kill his or her wayward lover.The song's melody also is used in...
" features Charles slightly augmenting the lyrics. The former became a great success when it was released as a single and Charles's version of the song has been noted as the best by many critics. Music writer Bill Janovitz later wrote of Charles's cover of "You Don't Know Me":
Both composed by Hank Williams, "You Win Again
You Win Again (Hank Williams song)
"You Win Again" is a 1952 song by Hank Williams. In style, the song is a blues ballad and deals with the singer's dispair with his partner. "You Win Again" would peak at number ten on the Most Played in C&W Juke Boxes chart, where it remained for a single week .-Cover versions:* Late in 1957,...
" and "Hey, Good Lookin'
Hey Good Lookin' (song)
"Hey Good Lookin" is a 1951 song written and recorded by Hank Williams, and his version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001. Since its original 1951 recording it has been covered by a variety of artists.-Chart performance:...
" are derived from Williams's different emotional perspective. The difference is further accentuated by Charles's interpretations of the songs. "I Can't Stop Loving You
I Can't Stop Loving You
"I Can't Stop Loving You" is a popular song written and composed by country singer, songwriter and musician Don Gibson, who first recorded it on December 30, 1957, for RCA Victor Records...
", a countrypolitan ballad with lush, cushioned arrangements, was placed at the 11th spot in the track listing, assumed by Sid Feller to be the album's weakest song, after which becoming the album's top-selling single. Charles was disappointed with him, as Feller was in charge of sequencing for the album. A component of Modern Sounds is creative reliance on honky tonk
Honky tonk
A honky-tonk is a type of bar that provides musical entertainment to its patrons...
musician Floyd Tillman
Floyd Tillman
Floyd Tillman was an American country musician who, in the 1930s and 1940s, helped create the Western swing and honky tonk genres. Tillman was inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 1970 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1984.-Early life:Tillman grew up in the cotton-mill town of Post,...
's songwriting, covering the heartbreak ballads "It Makes No Difference Now" and "I Love You So Much It Hurts". The Ted Daffan
Ted Daffan
Theron Eugene "Ted" Daffan was an American country musician noted for composing the seminal Truck Driver's Blues and the much covered Country anthem Born to Lose.-Early years:...
-penned "Worried Mind" and "Born to Lose" expand his take on country balladry and feature a blend of piano blues
Piano blues
Piano blues refers to a variety of blues styles, sharing only the characteristic that they use the piano as the primary musical instrument. Boogie woogie is the best known kind of piano blues, though barrelhouse, swing, R&B, rock and roll and jazz are strongly influenced by early pianists who...
with string arrangements.
Commercial performance
Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music became one of the best-selling albums recorded by a black musician of the time, as well as one of the best-selling country albums, shipping at least 500,000 copies in its first three months of release. This achievement was due in part to the mainstream promotional efforts Modern Sounds had received from ABC prior to and following release. The album proved to be a crossover hit as well, as distributors claimed the record had been selling in pop, R&B and country music marketMarket
A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...
s; at the time, often referred to as white and black markets during the period.
Upon the album's release in early April 1962 in both mono and stereo format, a reviewer for Billboard magazine claimed that "In addition to being powerful dealer material, this package will fracture knowledgeable jockeys who will find in it a wealth of material to talk about as well as play." By mid-April, reports of the album's sales and radio airplay had started coming in from cities such as Dallas and Philadelphia. On June 23, 1962, the mono issue of Modern Sounds replaced the West Side Story soundtrack album
West Side Story (soundtrack)
West Side Story is the soundtrack to the 1961 film West Side Story. Released in 1961, the soundtrack spent 54 weeks at #1 on Billboard's album charts, giving it the longest run at #1 of any album in history, although some lists instead credit Michael Jackson's Thriller, on the grounds that West...
as the number one album in the United States, knocking it off the top of the Billboard Pop Albums
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart. The album spawned four charting singles, "Born to Lose", "Careless Love", "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "You Don't Know Me", the latter two of which went number one on the Adult Contemporary chart. The hit singles quickly gained a significant amount of radio airplay on both country and R&B stations. By mid-May, the album's lead single, "I Can't Stop Loving You", had sold 700,000 copies within its first four weeks of release. Record dealers began describing the album as "equal in sales action to some of the early Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
disks" and, after moving 400,000 copies of the single, influential Atlanta record distributor Gwen Kestler told Billboard magazine that "the record is so hot in her district that people who don't even own record players are buying it." "I Can't Stop Loving You" hit number one on the Billboard Pop Singles chart on June 2, spending five consecutive weeks at the top of the chart. By the time it fell off the top, the single was reported to have reached nearly a million-and-a-half sales, moving over 100,000 copies per week.
While Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music and its hit singles were earning massive sales in the United States, Ray Charles was touring Europe with his big band and the Raelettes. Charles performed both his signature R&B and jazz material at such venues as Paris Olympia
Paris Olympia
The Olympia is a music hall in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Located at No. 28, Boulevard des Capucines, its closest métro/RER stations are Madeleine, Opéra, Havre – Caumartin and Auber....
and the Hot Club de France, where he was hailed as "a true jazz artist in the tradition of Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
and Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
." Upon his return to the United States at the end of the summer, ABC-Paramount had officially recognized his achievements, presenting Charles with two gold records — one for "I Can't Stop Loving You", the other for his Modern Sounds album — during a live concert performance at the Convention Hall in Asbury Park, New Jersey
Asbury Park, New Jersey
Asbury Park is a city in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States, located on the Jersey Shore and part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 16,116. The city is known for its rich musical history, including its association with...
. Through his ventures into country music and the European jazz scene, Charles's white audience grew significantly at concerts. The album was quickly followed by another recording of country, western and pop standards covered by Charles, and recorded in September 1962. Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Vol. 2 was released six months after the first volume and proved to be equally successful, while also earning a gold certification by the following year. Following his tenure with ABC-Paramount, Charles later went on to achieve more commercial success recording country music under Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
throughout most of the 1970s and 1980s.
Critical response
Upon its release, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music received generally positive reviews from music criticMusic criticism
See also Music journalism for reporting on classical and popular music in the media.The Oxford Companion to Music defines music criticism as 'the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres'. In this...
s of both rhythm & blues and country music. "I Can't Stop Loving You" later earned Charles a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording at the 1963 Grammy Awards, while the album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year
Grammy Award for Album of the Year
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys. It has been awarded since 1959 and though it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer...
.
In the years leading up to the reissue of Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music in 1988, the album's legacy and reputation continued to build, as did Charles's reputation in country music. The album has received retrospective praise from critics for Charles's style and manner of interpreting country music into his R&B musical language. In a review for Allmusic, critic Stephen Cook called the album a "fine store of inimitable interpretations", and stated, "Less modern for its country-R&B blend and lushly produced C&W tone than for its place as a high-profile crossover hit, Modern Sounds in Country and Western fit right in with Ray Charles's expansive musical ways while on the Atlantic label in the '50s [...] Charles's intones the sleepy-blue nuances of country crooners while still giving the songs a needed kick with his gospel outbursts." Chris Neal of Country Weekly
Country Weekly
Country Weekly is an American tabloid style weekly magazine established in 1994. The magazine focuses on country music stars and events, and regularly features exclusive interviews with recording artists and country music news...
gave the album five out of five stars and commented that Charles "recast 12 country favorites in big-band and orchestrated settings with a visionary’s easy grace", adding that he "gets to the heart of each [song] in a way that remains thoroughly modern." Music journalist John Morthland wrote of the musical significance of Modern Sounds, describing it as a "landmark LP of transcendent vocals set against kitschy orchestrations that (along with early rock 'n' roll) illuminated black-white roots connections for a popular audience."
"I Can't Stop Loving You" was ranked number 49 on Country Music Television
Country Music Television
Country Music Television, or CMT, is an American country music-oriented cable television network. Programming includes music videos, taped concerts, movies, biographies of country music stars, game shows, and reality programs...
s list of the 100 Greatest Songs of Country Music. Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music was ranked number 97 on VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
's 2001 list of the 100 Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Albums and number 16 on Blender
Blender (magazine)
Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities....
magazine's 2002 publication of The 100 Greatest American Albums of All Time. The album was also ranked number two on Country Music Television
Grammy Hall of Fame Award
The Grammy Hall of Fame Award is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance"...
, as was "I Can't Stop Loving You" in 2001. Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music was cited by The Recording Academy as a recording of "historical significance". In the November 2003 issue of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music was ranked number 104 on the magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, one of Charles's two entries and his highest ranking on the list; it is accompanied only by his The Genius of Ray Charles
The Genius of Ray Charles
The Genius of Ray Charles is a 1959 album by Ray Charles. In 2003, the album was ranked number 263 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time....
at number 263.
Country music
Nashville sound
The Nashville sound originated during the late 1950s as a sub-genre of American country music, replacing the chart dominance of honky tonk music which was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s...
, which Charles had covered. Benefiting from this were songwriters, music publishers and country singers who covered the subgenre's material. As noted by Cooper, by the end of 1962, Nashville country publishers were being held as "the hottest source of music material in the record business these days."
Ray Charles's success with the stylistic fusion of country and soul on Modern Sounds later lead to country soul efforts from performers, such as Candi Staton
Candi Staton
Candi Staton is an American soul and gospel singer, best known for her 1970 remake of Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" and her 1976 disco hit "Young Hearts Run Free". In 2007, Staton was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame.-Early years:...
and Solomon Burke
Solomon Burke
Solomon Burke was an American singer-songwriter, entrepreneur, mortician, and an archbishop of the United House of Prayer For All People. Burke was known as "King Solomon", the "King of Rock 'n' Soul", and as the "Bishop of Soul", and described as "the Muhammad Ali of soul", and as "the most...
who were both greatly influenced by Charles's Modern Sounds recordings. Many country music artists, such as Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
and Buck Owens
Buck Owens
Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. , better known as Buck Owens, was an American singer and guitarist who had 21 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country music charts with his band, the Buckaroos...
, have cited Charles's take on country music and Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music as their major influences. In an interview for Country Music Television
Country Music Television
Country Music Television, or CMT, is an American country music-oriented cable television network. Programming includes music videos, taped concerts, movies, biographies of country music stars, game shows, and reality programs...
, Nelson said of Modern Soundss influence that the album "did more for country music than any one artist has ever done." Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music has also been perceived by many critics and writers as a landmark album in American music, as the record was the first to blend the two racially distinct genres of country and soul. On the legacy of country soul and Modern Sounds, columnist Doug Freeman of the Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle
The Austin Chronicle is an alternative weekly, tabloid-style newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demographic...
wrote of Charles's influence through the album, stating:
Summing up on the impact Modern Sounds had on country music and listeners, writer Daniel Cooper later wrote, "There is no telling how many people, who perhaps never paid much attention to country music or even had professed to dislike it, listened anew based on the impact of having heard what Ray Charles was capable of doing with that music." Charles eventually earned a country music repertoire and reputation following the success of the Modern Sounds records, later country hit singles for Warner Bros. Records, and various appearances at country music events, including The Johnny Cash Show
The Johnny Cash Show (TV series)
The Johnny Cash Show was an American television music variety show hosted by Johnny Cash. The Screen Gems 58-episode series ran from June 7, 1969 to March 31, 1971 on ABC; it was taped at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The show reached No...
in 1970 and the Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...
's 58th anniversary in 1983, the program to which he listened to as a youth.
Social impact
Following the album's release, Charles quickly earned an influx of white listeners and audiences at concert venues, without experiencing a fall-out from his predominantly black audience. Writer Daniel Cooper later said of the album's effect, "It's an idea as corny as any country song you can think of, and one that Charles knew to be true; music unites people. It just really does." Throughout the years following its initial reception, Modern Sounds gained further acknowledgment of its impact on the music industry and society. Through conceiving and recording the album, Charles became one of the first African-American musicians to receive and practice artistic control bestowed upon by a mainstream record company. In a 1998 interview, country musician Raul MaloRaul Malo
Raúl Francisco Martínez-Malo Jr. , known professionally as Raúl Malo, is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer. He was the lead singer of country music band The Mavericks and the co-writer of many of their singles, as well as Rick Trevino's 2003 single "In My Dreams"...
acknowledged the album's influence, calling it "one of the most important records of our time, not only because of its content, but also due to its social and political ramifications." In a July 8, 2004 article for Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine, music journalist Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
praised the impact and influence that the Modern Sounds recordings had on music, stating "In the world it created, not only could a black person sing the American songbook Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
owned by then, but a country black person could take it over. Soon Charles's down-home diction, cotton-field grit, corn-pone humor and overstated shows of emotion were standard operating procedure in American music
Music of the United States
The music of the United States reflects the country's multi-ethnic population through a diverse array of styles. Among the country's most internationally-renowned genres are hip hop, blues, country, rhythm and blues, jazz, barbershop, pop, techno, and rock and roll. The United States has the...
, black and white."
In addition to its social implications, the musical integration of soul and country into popular format by Charles changed and revolutionized racial boundaries and restraints in music, and contributed to the historical Civil Rights Movement. Robert Fontenot of About.com
About.com
About.com is an online source for original information and advice. It is written in English, and is aimed primarily at North Americans. It is owned by The New York Times Company....
was one of several writers to praise the album's musical and social implications, stating "Arguably one of the most brilliant interpretive albums ever released, it did more to integrate modern American music than almost any other LP in history." In paying tribute to the magazine's selection of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, which had selected Charles at #2, singer-songwriter Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
noted the album's racial and social impact in an article for Rolling Stone, stating "here is a black man giving you the whitest possible music in the blackest possible way, while all hell is breaking loose with the civil rights movement." Another article for Rolling Stone, written in honor of Charles and his achievements, later stated that through his Modern Sounds recordings, Ray Charles "made it acceptable for black people to sing country & western music, in the process doing almost as much to break down racial barriers as did the civil-rights movement."
Subsequent work by Charles
In addition to the album's legacy as one of the most influential recordings of all time, Modern Sounds also had an effect on Charles's later work. According to writer Nate Guidry, the recording marked the zenith of Charles's popularity and success. By the mid-1960s and continuing into the 1970s and 1980s, the majority of his musical output was focused onto more middle of the road and pop releases, featuring less of his recognizable, trademark soul and R&B, and more of the crossover and fusion tendencies of Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. On the album's influence, columnist Spencer Leigh of The IndependentThe Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
stated that "Numerous artists followed Charles's lead, but it must be said that Charles himself repeated the trick much too often." The period of releases following Modern Sounds, which includes the musician's later recording years as well, has been recognized by music writers and critics as a "critical slide" and the weakest in his recording career. Several of the LP albums from this period have yet to be reissued and have remained rare among record collectors, if not out of print
Out of print
Out of print refers to an item, typically a book , but can include any print or visual media or sound recording, that is in the state of no longer being published....
. Charles's final studio album Genius Loves Company
Genius Loves Company
Genius Loves Company is the final studio album by rhythm and blues and soul musician Ray Charles, posthumously released August 31, 2004 on Concord Records. Recording sessions for the album took place between June 2003 and March 2004...
(2004) would later be released shortly after his death, and proved to be a comeback success, in terms of sales and critical response, as it quickly became Charles's first top-10 album in forty years and the best-selling record of his career.
On October 27, 1998, Rhino Entertainment
Rhino Entertainment
Rhino Entertainment Company is an American specialty record label and production company. It is owned by Warner Music Group.-History:Rhino was originally a novelty song and reissue company during the 1970s and 1980s, releasing compilation albums of pop, rock & roll, and rhythm & blues successes...
issued a four-disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
box set entitled The Complete Country & Western Recordings: 1959–1986, which chronicles Charles's country and western recordings. The collection features the two volumes of Modern Sounds, as well as his later country singles for the Warner Bros.. Included in the set is a hardcover booklet of essays by producer Sid Feller, writer Daniel Cooper, and Ray Charles, along with liner photography by Howard Morehead and Les Leverett. On June 2, 2009, both volumes of Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music were reissued as a single package by Concord Music. The reissue was also included as a download
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
in the iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
.
Original LP
All tracks produced by Ray Charles and Sid Feller.Side one
- "Bye Bye Love" (F. Bryant, B. Bryant) – 2:09
- "You Don't Know Me" (ArnoldEddy ArnoldRichard Edward Arnold , known professionally as Eddy Arnold, was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a so-called Nashville sound innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts, second only to George Jones. He sold more...
, WalkerCindy WalkerCindy Walker was a prolific American songwriter, as well as a country music singer and dancer. As a songwriter Walker was responsible for a large number of popular and enduring songs recorded by many different artists. She adopted a craftsman-like approach to her songwriting, often tailoring...
) – 3:14 - "Half as MuchHalf as Much"Half as Much" is an American pop standard written by Curley Williams in 1951. It was first recorded by country music singer Hank Williams in 1952 and reached #2 on the Billboard Country Singles chart. The same year, Rosemary Clooney recorded a hit version for Top 40 markets and Alma Cogan in the...
" (C. Williams) – 3:24 - "I Love You So Much It HurtsI Love You So Much It Hurts"I Love You So Much It Hurts" is a song written and recorded by Floyd Tillman in 1948. His version reached number six on the Folk Best Seller charts and spent a total of nineteen weeks on the chart.-Notable cover versions:...
" (TillmanFloyd TillmanFloyd Tillman was an American country musician who, in the 1930s and 1940s, helped create the Western swing and honky tonk genres. Tillman was inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 1970 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1984.-Early life:Tillman grew up in the cotton-mill town of Post,...
) – 3:33 - "Just a Little Lovin' (Will Go a Long Way)" (Arnold, Clements) – 3:26
- "Born to Lose" (Brown) – 3:15
Side two
- "Worried Mind" (Daffan, DavisJimmie DavisJames Houston Davis , better known as Jimmie Davis, was a noted singer of both sacred and popular songs who served two nonconsecutive terms as the 47th Governor of Louisiana...
) – 2:54 - "It Makes No Difference Now" (Tillman, Davis) – 3:30
- "You Win AgainYou Win Again (Hank Williams song)"You Win Again" is a 1952 song by Hank Williams. In style, the song is a blues ballad and deals with the singer's dispair with his partner. "You Win Again" would peak at number ten on the Most Played in C&W Juke Boxes chart, where it remained for a single week .-Cover versions:* Late in 1957,...
" (H. WilliamsHank Williams, Sr.Hank Williams , born Hiram King Williams, was an American singer-songwriter and musician regarded as one of the most important country music artists of all time...
) – 3:29 - "Careless LoveCareless Love"Careless Love" is a traditional song of obscure origins.Blues versions are popular; the lyrics change from version to version, but usually speak of the heartbreak brought on by "careless love." Frequently, the narrator threatens to kill his or her wayward lover.The song's melody also is used in...
" (Traditional, CharlesRay CharlesRay Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
) – 3:56 - "I Can't Stop Loving YouI Can't Stop Loving You"I Can't Stop Loving You" is a popular song written and composed by country singer, songwriter and musician Don Gibson, who first recorded it on December 30, 1957, for RCA Victor Records...
" (GibsonDon GibsonDonald Eugene "Don" Gibson was an American songwriter and country musician. A Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, Gibson penned such country standards as "Sweet Dreams" and "I Can't Stop Loving You", and enjoyed a string of country hits from 1957 into the early 1970s.-Biography:Don Gibson was...
) – 4:13 - "Hey, Good Lookin'Hey Good Lookin' (song)"Hey Good Lookin" is a 1951 song written and recorded by Hank Williams, and his version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001. Since its original 1951 recording it has been covered by a variety of artists.-Chart performance:...
" (H. Williams) – 2:10
CD reissue
The album was later reissueReissue
A reissue is the repeated issue of a published work. In common usage, it refers to an album which has been released at least once before and is released again, sometimes with alterations or additions....
d on compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
by the specialty record label Rhino Entertainment
Rhino Entertainment
Rhino Entertainment Company is an American specialty record label and production company. It is owned by Warner Music Group.-History:Rhino was originally a novelty song and reissue company during the 1970s and 1980s, releasing compilation albums of pop, rock & roll, and rhythm & blues successes...
in October 1988. This re-release of Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music featured photography from the Michael Ochs Archives and bonus material recorded by Ray Charles for the ABC-Paramount label.
- "Bye Bye Love" – 2:12
- "You Don't Know Me" – 3:16
- "Half as Much" – 3:28
- "I Love You So Much It Hurts" – 3:35
- "Just a Little Lovin' (Will Go a Long Way)" – 3:29
- "Born to Lose" – 3:18
- "Worried Mind" – 2:57
- "It Makes No Difference Now" – 3:36
- "You Win Again" – 3:31
- "Careless Love" – 4:01
- "I Can't Stop Loving You" – 4:14
- "Hey, Good Lookin'" – 2:14
Bonus tracks - "You Are My SunshineYou Are My Sunshine"You Are My Sunshine" is a popular song first recorded in 1939. It has been declared one of the state songs of Louisiana as a result of its association with former state governor and country music singer Jimmie Davis. The song is copyright 1940 Peer International Corporation, words and music by...
" (Davis, MitchellCharles Mitchell (songwriter)Charles Mitchell is a songwriter, best known as a collaborator with Jimmie Davis. Davis's best known composition, "You Are My Sunshine", was co-written by Mitchell.- References :...
) – 3:01 - "Here We Go AgainHere We Go Again (Ray Charles song)"Here We Go Again" is a country music standard written by Don Lanier and Red Steagall that first became notable as a rhythm and blues single by Ray Charles from his 1967 album Ray Charles Invites You to Listen. Its most notable cover version is the rhythm and blues music duet by Charles and Norah...
" (Lanier, SteagallRed SteagallRussell Steagall is a multitalented showbusiness personality whose career has covered a period of 35 years and has spanned the globe...
) – 3:18 - "That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven)That Lucky Old Sun"That Lucky Old Sun" is a 1949 popular song with music by Beasley Smith and words by Haven Gillespie. Like "Ol' Man River", its lyrics contrast the toil and intense hardship of the singer's life with the obliviousness of the natural world.-1949 recordings:...
" (GillespieHaven GillespieJames Lamont "Haven" Gillespie was an American Tin Pan Alley composer and lyricist. He was the writer of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" as well as "You Go to My Head", "Honey", "By the Sycamore Tree", "That Lucky Old Sun", "Breezin' Along With The Breeze", "Right or Wrong," "Beautiful Love",...
) – 4:21
Musicians
- Ray CharlesRay CharlesRay Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
– pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, vocals, producerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music... - Hank CrawfordHank CrawfordBennie Ross "Hank" Crawford, Jr. was an American R&B, hard bop, jazz-funk, soul jazz alto saxophonist, arranger and songwriter...
– alto saxophoneAlto saxophoneThe alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions... - Gil FullerGil FullerWalter Gilbert "Gil" Fuller was an American jazz arranger. He is no relation to the jazz trumpeter and vocalist Walter "Rosetta" Fuller....
, Gerald WilsonGerald WilsonGerald Stanley Wilson is an American jazz trumpeter, big band bandleader, composer/arranger, 8 time Grammy nominee, and educator. He has been based in Los Angeles since the early 1940s....
– arrangementArrangementThe American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
s (big bandBig bandA big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
) - Marty PaichMarty PaichMartin Louis "Marty" Paich was an American pianist, composer, arranger, producer, music director and conductor....
– arrangements (stringsString sectionThe string section is the largest body of the standard orchestra and consists of bowed string instruments of the violin family.It normally comprises five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the double basses...
)
Production
- Engineers:
- Frank Abbey (tracks: 1, 3, 5, 8 ,10, 12)
- Bill PutnamBill PutnamMilton Tasker "Bill" Putnam was a renowned American audio engineer, songwriter, producer, studio designer and businessman who has been described as "the father of modern recording"...
(tracks: 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 15) - Gene Thompson (tracks: 1, 3, 5, 8 ,10, 12)
- Bob Arnold (tracks: 15), Johnny Cue (tracks: 13)
- Joe Adams – producer (tracks: 14)
- Sid FellerSid FellerSidney "Sid" Feller was an American conductor and arranger, best known for his work with Ray Charles. He worked with Charles on hundreds of songs including Georgia on My Mind and worked as Charles' conductor while on tour...
– producer (tracks: 1 to 13, 15) - Todd Everett – liner notesLiner notesLiner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
- Bill Inglot, Ken Perry – remasterRemasterRemaster is a word marketed mostly in the digital audio age, although the remastering process has existed since recording began...
ing - Hugh Bell, Michael Ochs Archives – photography (album coverAlbum coverAn album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10" and 12" 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12" LPs, sets of 45 rpm records , or the front-facing...
, liner notes)
Album
| Year | Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| 1962 | U.S. Pop Albums Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... chart |
#1 (14 weeks) |
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak positions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pop Singles Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
Black Singles Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,... |
Easy Listening | ||||
| 1962 | "Born to Lose" | 41 | — | — | ||
| "Careless Love" | 60 | — | — | |||
| "I Can't Stop Loving You" | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| "You Don't Know Me" | 2 | 5 | 1 | |||
| "—" denotes a release that did not chart. | ||||||
Accolades
The information regarding accolades attributed to Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music is adapted from AcclaimedMusic.net.| Publication | Country | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blender Blender (magazine) Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities.... |
United States | The 100 Greatest American Albums of All time | 2002 | 16 |
| Blender | U.S. | 500 CDs You Must Own Before You Die | 2003 | * |
| CMT CMT - Medicine :* California mastitis test* Certified Massage Therapist* Cervical motion tenderness, a sign of pelvic inflammatory disease* Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease* Chemically modified tetracyclines* Circus Movement Tachycardia... |
U.S. | 40 Greatest Albums in Country Music | 2006 | 2 |
| Elvis Costello Elvis Costello Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader... (Vanity Fair Vanity Fair (magazine) Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935... , Issue No. 483) |
U.S. | 500 Albums You Need | 2005 | * |
| Fast 'n' Bulbous | U.S. | The Best Albums from 1949–64 | 2005 | 85 |
| Greil Marcus Greil Marcus Greil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism.-Life and career:Marcus was born in San Francisco... |
U.S. | STRANDED: "Treasure Island" Albums | 1979 | * |
| Pause & Play | U.S. | Albums Inducted into a Time Capsule, One Album per Week | 2008 | * |
| The Recording Academy | U.S. | Grammy Hall of Fame Albums and Songs | 1999 | * |
| The Review (University of Delaware University of Delaware The university is organized into seven colleges:* College of Agriculture and Natural Resources* College of Arts and Sciences* Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics* College of Earth, Ocean and Environment* College of Education and Human Development... ) |
U.S. | 100 Greatest Albums of All Time | 2001 | 88 |
| Robert Dimery | U.S. | 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a musical reference book edited by Robert Dimery, first published in 2005. The most recent edition consists of a list of albums released between 1955 and 2010, part of a series from Quintessence Editions Ltd... |
2005 | * |
| Rolling Stone Rolling Stone Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J... |
U.S. | The Essential 200 Rock Records | 1997 | * |
| Rolling Stone | U.S. | The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:... |
2003 | 104 |
| Stereophile Stereophile Stereophile is a monthly magazine that focuses on high end audio equipment, such as loudspeakers and amplifiers, and audio-related news, such as online audio streaming. It was founded in 1962 by J. Gordon Holt.... |
U.S. | 40 Years of Stereophile: The 40 Essential Albums | 2002 | * |
| Time Time (magazine) Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong... |
U.S. | Top 100 Albums of All Time | 2006 | * |
| VH1 VH1 VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly... |
U.S. | The 100 Greatest Albums of R 'N' R | 2001 | 97 |
| Various writers | U.S. | Albums: 50 Years of Great Recordings | 2005 | * |
| John Tobler John Tobler John Hugen Tobler is a British rock music journalist, writer, occasional broadcaster, and record company executive.With Pete Frame, he was one of the founders of ZigZag magazine in April 1969... |
United Kingdom | 100 Great Albums of the Sixties | 1994 | * |
| Paul Morley | U.K. | Words and Music: 100 Greatest Albums of All Time | 2003 | * |
| Exposure | Canada | 50 Greatest Albums not to make the Greatest Albums lists | 2005 | 10 |
(*) designates lists that are unordered.
External links
- Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
- Album Review at Postmodern Sounds in Country and Western Music
- The Hidden Faces of Country at The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
- In Praise of Brother Ray at Metroactive
- Album analysis at Everything2.com
- On the Fence: Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music — by dkpresents