Ray Charles (composer)
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Ray Charles, born Charles Raymond Offenberg, September 13, 1918 in Chicago, Illinois is an American musician, singer, songwriter, vocal arranger and conductor who is best- known as organizer and leader of The Ray Charles Singers. The Ray Charles Singers were featured on Perry Como's records, radio shows and television shows for 35 years.[citation needed] The Ray Charles Singers are also known for a series of 30 choral record albums produced in the 1950s and 1960s for Essex, MGM, Decca and Command labels.
As a vocalist, Charles, along with Julia Rinker Miller, is known for singing the theme song to the television series Three's Company ("Come and Knock on Our Door"). As a songwriter, Charles is known for "Letters, We Get Letters,"[citation needed] originally written for thePerry Como Show and later used on The Late Show with David Letterman. At the age of 88 years, he continues to serve as a musical consultant to television programs, most notably for the last 24 years on The Kennedy Center Honors. Charles is acknowledged as an authority on American popular music.
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[edit] Biography
At the age of 13, Chuck Offenberg (as he was known then), won a contest to sing on the radio in Chicago. At 16, while still at Hyde Park High School, he had his own 15 minute radio program on WENR and won a vocal scholarship to the Chicago Musical College.
After graduation, he attended Central YMCA College, where he met fellow future choral director Norman Luboff, who was to become a lifelong friend. In 1936, Offenberg joined theFederal Theater show "O Say Can You Sing", sharing a dressing room with the young Buddy Rich. In 1942, Offenberg, with his wife, Bernice and son, Michael, came to New York City and he started getting work, singing on the radio for Lyn Murray, Ray Bloch and other choral directors. By 1944, he was doing 10 radio shows a week. In May of 1944, Chuck Offenberg changed his name to Ray Charles. It would be 10 more years until the "other" Ray Charles changed his name from "Ray Charles Robinson" to Ray Charles.
Close harmony was all the rage and Charles became the arranger and tenor for the "Double Daters," a quartet featured on "Million Dollar Band".
Drafted into the Navy in 1944, Charles was assigned to Hunter College, where he created an entire new music library for the WAVE choruses and trained the "Singing Platoons", three choruses of 80 WAVES each, on six week training cycles that sang on the radio, bond rallies and at local veterans hospitals. He also conducted the band on their two CBS weekly shows.
Discharged in 1946 Charles sang on New York radio ("Um Um Good" for Campbell’s soups[citation needed], among other gigs) and on many record dates. In 1947, he was the conductor for the Broadway hit “Finian’s Rainbow”, and conducted the original cast recording. From 1949 to 1951, he was choral arranger-conductor on "The Big Show", the last big radio variety show with Tallulah Bankhead and Meredith Willson.
[edit] Early Television
Before the war, he had been a singer on The Hit Parade. In 1950, when the show came back to New York, he became the arranger and conductor of the Hit Paraders, the choral group on the show, first on radio and later when it went to television, for seven years. Simultaneously, the Ray Charles Singers became a fixture on The Perry Como television show for the next 35 years. It was a busy time with television’s top variety shows, records and commercial jingle]]s. In 1955, the 15 minute Perry Como Show became an hour and Charles had an opportunity to work with and write special material for some of the great entertainers of the age: Ethel Merman, Kay Thompson, Lena Horne, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, as well as composers Richard Rogers, Harold Arlen, Harry Warren and others. Charles also worked with Nick Vanoff, Gary Smith, Dwight Hemion, Peter Matz, and Peter Gennaro. The talent that worked on thePerry Como Show at one time or another in its long history is remarkable. Charles also wrote special material and did the choral work on Caesar's Hour with Sid Caesar, the successor to "Your Show of Shows". In 1959, Charles produced the summer replacement for the Perry Como Show. Alan Sherman("Hello Mudda"), a friend of Charles', was the head writer. Also on the staff was Andy Rooney. The stars were Tony Bennett(his first series), Teresa Brewer and The Four Lads.
[edit] The Ray Charles Singers
The Ray Charles Singers- a name bestowed on them by Perry Como, began recording a series of albums. Due to advances in recording technology, they were able to create a softer sound than had been heard before and this was the birth of what has been called "easy listening". In 1964, on a cruise, Charles heard a Mexican song called "Quando Caliente del Sol." He liked it, recorded it and his recording became a hit, riding to #3 on Billboard, #2 on Cashbox. This was followed by "Al Di La", also a very popular recording. The Ray Charles Singers were not one group of vocalists. They were different combinations of singers on records, tours and tv shows. What made them the Ray Charles Singers was the conducting and arranging of Ray Charles.
[edit] Memories of a Middle-Aged Movie Fan
While Charles has always sung, he has only recorded one solo album, “Memories of a Middle-Aged Movie Fan” on Atlantic Records. It composed of songs from movies released in 1936. He gathered a group of his musican friends together: Nick Perito on accordion, Tony Mottola on guitar, Bob Haggart on bass, Dick Hyman on keyboards, Toots Theilemans, Doc Severensen, Phil Bodner and his brother-in-law Bobby Rosengarden on drums. A labor of love for all, Charles' tenor voice does justice to "You’d Be So Easy To Love", "Did I Remember", "Pennies From Heaven" and the other classics from that year.
[edit] West Coast Television
After years of television, hundreds of jingles and countless record dates, Charles started going out to the West Coast for work. The television industry was changing, migrating to Los Angeles. After a couple of years commuting, in 1968, Charles and his family relocated to Los Angeles, where he produced a Bing Crosby Special and worked on "The Hollywood Palace" . By 1968, The Perry Como Show was now doing specials, so Charles could continue with Como while located in California. Then Charles wrote and arranged for two seasons of the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour. Charles worked on the first Julie Andrews TV special, with Andrews and Gene Kelly.
Charles became the musical guru to "Sha Na Na" and guided that show through three seasons.[citation needed]
[edit] The Muppets and Kennedy Center
Charles eventually went to London to help on "The Muppet Show". Writing special material for Carol Burnett and Brooke Shields, among others and working with Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog, Charles shared an office with Jim Henson, who Charles considered ”a genius”.
In 1982, Charles became the musical consultant of the "Kennedy Center Honors" and later performed the same function for the "Fourth of July" and "Memorial Day" concerts on PBS for 14 years.
Ray Charles has won two Emmy Awards for special musical material, music and lyrics for two comedy specials: The Funny Side of Marriage and The First Nine Months. His choral anthem, "Fifty Nifty United States," in which he set the names of the states to music in alphabetical order, is now a staple of school choirs.[citation needed]
He self-deprecatingly now bills himself as "The other Ray Charles" in a humorous tribute to the blues singer with whom he worked on several occasions.[citation needed]
Ray Charles (1918-present) Wife: Bernice (1916-2002) Son: Michael (1941-present) Son: Jonathan (1946-present) Daughter: Wendy (1950-2004)
