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Hybrid Mono SACD!
Classic 1957 Album Includes the Hits "Hallelujah I Love Her So," "Ain't That Love" & "I Got a Woman"!
Mastered Directly from the Original Master Tape by Bernie Grundman!
Plays in All CD and SACD Players!
Atlantic 75 Historic Reissue Series from Analogue Productions!
Ray Charles' self-titled 1957 album was one of the first handful of LPs issued by Atlantic (and was later retitled Hallelujah I Love Her So). As AllMusic reviewer Bruce Elder notes, the album is weighted about three to one in favor of Charles' own compositions, with the hits "Hallelujah I Love Her So" and the pounding, soaring "Ain't That Love," which opens the LP, its raison d'etre.
Charles does just as well with his interpretations of others' work, most notably the ominous, gospel-focused rendition of "Sinner's Prayer" (which offers a virtuoso piano performance, and comes courtesy of the pen of Charles' former mentor Lowell Fulson) and Henry Glover's wrenching ballad "Drown in My Own Tears," which is topped out on each verse by a gorgeous chorus. "Funny (But I Still Love You)" offers a guitar break played in such an understated fashion that it almost doesn't seem so much a part of R&B as it was usually being offered in 1957 as it does a part of Charles' early career output.
The second side of the album is even better, opening with the title track, a number that is almost too ubiquitous in its various cover versions — the original has a mix of urgency and playfulness that's absolutely bracing, and the album carries this mood forward with "Mess Around," an Ahmet Ertegun-authored piano- and sax-driven romp with Charles at his most ebullient as a singer. "This Little Girl of Mine" offers him in a surprisingly light, almost acrobatic vocal mode, while "Greenbacks" is a knowing, clever cautionary narrative that is almost a throwback to 1940s-style R&B. "Don't You Know" is as salacious a piece of R&B as one was likely to hear in 1957, and "I Got a Woman" closes the record out on a pounding, driving note.
The 75th Anniversary of Atlantic Records
"75 for 75" is a series of 75 vinyl releases from Atlantic Records' storied catalog to celebrate the label's 75th Anniversary. This great label includes some of the best artists and records of all time.
Features
- Atlantic 75 Series
- Super Audio CD
- Mono
- This Hybrid SACD contains a 'Red Book' CD Layer which is playable on most conventional CD Players!
- Mastered Drectly from the Original Master Tape by Bernie Grundman
Selections
- Ain't That Love
- Drown in My Own Tears
- Come Back Baby
- Sinner's Prayer
- Funny (But I Still Love You)
- Losing Hand
- A Fool for You
- Hallelujah I Love Her So
- Mess Around
- This Little Girl of Mine
- Mary Ann
- Greenbacks
- Don't You Know
- I Got a Woman
