Thursday, June 15, 2017

I've Got A Woman - Ray Charles

A Tune Worth Reworking Over and Over
Do you guys ever find yourselves rabbit holing into the internet finding all sorts of crazy information about one specific thing? While I was researching this song, I learned a lot, so let me give you a quick history lesson. From gospel tunes to Kanye West, this song has made quite the journey.

In 1954, "It Must Be Jesus" was a gospel song by the band The Southern Tones, a popular tune that everyone loved. Ray Charles and a few others re-worked it to be more upbeat song and sound about a woman. Elvis covered it and changed it up a little. The Beatles then covered Elvis' version years later. Jumping to the 21st century, Jamie Foxx was in a biographical movie called Ray and covered a number of Charles' other songs too in the film. Lastly, in this journey of the song, Kanye West took the song ans switched up the words a little with Jamie Foxx to create the popular song, "Gold Digger." 

Crazy right?! I love finding how music evolves, anyways, back to the review of Charles' version of "I've Got A Woman." This song is amazing for a few reasons, but the main reason is the man himself, Ray. Ray's voice is undeniably wonderful, rich and powerful. His control over his voice, authenticity and sincerity can be heard in in every word of the song, it is really what makes his version so perfect. The music in the background and saxophone solo is good and keep the fast tempo refreshing, but it does fall in the background as Ray sings, which isn't a terrible thing.

With all this said, I'm glad to have stumbled onto this song recently, and it is now an eternal part of my music collection.

Originality: 9
Instruments: 7
Vocals: 10
Longevity: 9
Red Score: 8.75


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