Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004 Albany, GA), known professionally as Ray Charles, was an American singer-songwriter, musician, and composer. Among friends and fellow musicians he preferred being called “Brother Ray”. He was often referred to as “The Genius”.Charles was blind from the age of seven.

He pioneered the soul music genre during the 1950s by combining blues, rhythm and blues, and gospel styles into the music he recorded for Atlantic Records. He also contributed to the integration of country music, rhythm and blues, and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records, most notably with his two Modern Sounds albums. While he was with ABC, Charles became one of the first black musicians to be granted artistic control by a mainstream record company.

Charles cited Nat King Cole as a primary influence, but his music was also influenced by country, jazz, blues, and rhythm and blues artists of the day, including Louis Jordan and Charles Brown. He became friends with Quincy Jones. Their friendship lasted until the end of Charles’s life. Frank Sinatra called Ray Charles “the only true genius in show business”, although Charles downplayed this notion.

In 2002, Rolling Stone ranked Charles number ten on its list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time“, and number two on their November 2008 list of the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time”. Billy Joel observed, “This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley”