Ray Charles - Ray Charles [FLAC] [Vinyl - Mono]-akman

Artist(s): Ray Charles
Album: Ray Charles
Label: Japanese
Label Info: LP P-4580A
Media Info: Original released as Atlantic 8006 | Dual-Mono
Mastered: -
Thanks to: aksman
Kind: Vinyl 24-Bit/96kHz
Source: Vinyl
Sound: Mono
Bit / kHz: 24/96
Genre: Soul, Blues, R&B
Year: 1957
Artwork: Yes
Fileformat: .flac


Allmusic.com rating: 4.5 / 5

One of the first handful of LPs issued by Atlantic, Ray Charles (later retitled Hallelujah I Love Her So) is a bona fide classic of its genre.

One of the first handful of LPs issued by Atlantic, Ray Charles (later retitled Hallelujah I Love Her So) is a bona fide classic of its genre. Weighted about three to one in favor of Charles' own compositions, its raison d'etre was the hits "Hallelujah I Love Her So" and the pounding, soaring "Ain't That Love," which opens the LP. As with other Atlantic albums of the period, its content was determined more by Charles' recent singles than by a real plan for the LP, but even within those limitations it's an amazingly subtle record. 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 LP is even better, opening with the title track, a number that is almost too ubiquitous in its various cover versions ΓΓé¼ΓÇ¥ 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.

Track listing
All songs written by Ray Charles except as indicated.

Side A
Ain't That Love 2:51
Drown in My Own Tears (Henry Glover) 3:21
Come Back Baby 3:06
Sinner's Prayer (Lloyd Glenn, Lowell Fulson) 3:24
Funny (But I Still Love You) 3:15
Losing Hand (Charles E. Calhoun) 3:14
A Fool for You 3:03

Side B
Hallelujah I Love Her So 2:35
Mess Around" (A. Nugetre) 2:42
This Little Girl of Mine 2:33
Mary Ann 2:48
Greenbacks (Renald Richard) 2:52
Don't You Know 2:57
I Got a Woman (Charles, Richard) 2:54



Technical Log
RCM Hannl limited with "Rotating Brush"
Music Hall MMF 9.1 Turntable
Tonearm: Pro-Ject 9cc evo with Pure Silver Wires
Cartridge: Nagaoka MP-500
Brocksieper Phonomax (Tube Phono PreAmp)
E-MU 0404 external USB 2.0 Audiointerface
Interconnections : Silent Wire NF5
WaveLab 6 recording software
iZotope RX Advanced 1.21 for resampling and dithering

Vacuum cleaning - TT - Brocksieper Phonomax - E-MU 0404 - WaveLab 6 (24/192) - manual click removal - analyze (no clipping, no DC Bias offset) - converted to 24/96 with iZotope RX Advanced 1.21 - split into individual Tracks - FLAC encoded (Vers. 1.21)

No silence been removed, please burn gapless to match original tracklayout.

Personal Note
With my vinyl transfers, I try to catch the whole beauty of vinyl records; therefore I don't use any post-processing or any sound improvement. What you get is a clear and flat transfer. For getting a clear sound, I'll do an extended washing of each record with my RCM, which can take up to 30 minutes brushing on each side. Resistant ticks and clicks I try to remove as good as possible, but the priority is not to lose any musical information in the process. Surface noises, as long they are not too high, are left in place. Only on bad pressings or on records recorded at extremely low levels do I use a fade in-/-out. As John Peel said, "Life is full of surface noises." In some cases this means that I have to make a compromise.... The result has to pass my personal quality criteria, which is IMO quite high.