Ray Charles Pure Genius: The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959); 75th Birthday Package: Packed with 164 Tracks and Almost Nine Hours of Music, Box Set Features Charles'' Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-59) on Seven CDs, a DVD Featuring 1960  Newport Jazz Festival Performance  Classics, Rarities, Live Performances, Studio Dialog, and Nearly an Hour of Previously Unreleased Music Is Available from Rhino September 20 LOS ANGELES - This is where the legend begins. Ray Charles signed with Atlantic Records in 1952 as an unknown and left seven years later as The Genius. At the time, Atlantic co-founder Ahmet Ertegun called Charles, "The best singer I ever heard."

Rhino Records documents the 21-time GRAMMY winner's historic period of creativity with PURE GENIUS-THE COMPLETE ATLANTIC RECORDINGS (1952-1959). As exhaustive as it is inspiring, the box set includes seven CDs and a DVD, and is available September 20-three days before Charles would have turned 75 years-old-at all retail outlets.

This compelling 164-track collection (155 on CD and 9 on DVD) follows Charles as he evolves from an unknown performer into a chart-topping icon.  Featuring nearly 9 hours of music, PURE GENIUS includes Charles'' signature hits‹"It Should''ve Been Me," "Hallelujah I Love Her So," "Rockhouse Parts 1 & 2," "Blackjack," "Greenbacks," and "Come Back Baby" along with songs that reached #1 on Billboard's R&B chart‹"I''ve Got A Woman," "Drown In My Own Tears," "A Fool For You," and "What''d I Say Parts I & II."   "I loved those cats at Atlantic," Charles said not long before his death in 2004. "They were the only record guys who never told me what to do. Ahmet let me do, what I wanted to do and I loved him for that."  Alongside Charles'' classics, PURE GENIUS also includes almost an hour of previously unreleased music, dialog, and improvisations. A 1953 rehearsal session featuring Charles and Ertegun offers an extraordinary opportunity to eavesdrop on a legendary artist's creative process. Sitting at the piano together, Charles and Ertegun deliver a spirited run through of "Mess Around" (written by Ertegun)-a moment immortalized in director Taylor Hackford's 2004 dramatic, musical biography, Ray. Other previously unreleased music includes session outtakes from 1958 plus Charles'' arrangement suggestions for The Genius Of Ray Charles album from 1959.  PURE GENIUS also features Charles'' musical collaborations including songs he recorded with renowned jazz vibraphonist Milt Jackson. Also included is music Charles recorded with his longtime saxophonist David "Fathead" Newman, which originally appeared on Newman's 1959 solo album.  More than a dozen live tracks capture Charles and his band at the peak of their prowess, including 10 songs recorded at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958 and six songs recorded during an exciting 1959 performance at Atlanta's Herndon Stadium.

The DVD features a previously unreleased performance of Charles at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 2, 1960, backed by an octet of horns and his back-up singers, The Raeletts. Recorded shortly after Charles left Atlantic Records for ABC, the historic black and white footage, licensed for the box from Historic Films, is a bridge between two major periods of Charles'' fabled career. In addition, the DVD also includes an interview with Ertegun recorded in February 2005 and conducted by Hackford, who directed Ray, which has grossed more than $75 million since its release in October 2004.  PURE GENIUS is beautifully packaged in a ''50s-inspired record player case with an 80-page linen-bound booklet featuring liner notes by David Ritz, who cowrote Brother Ray: Ray Charles'' Own Story, and vintage liner notes from Nat Hentoff, Bill Randle, Guy Remark, Bill Taylor, Leonard Feather and more. "Ray Charles was a man of movement," Ritz writes. "But there is no period when that sense of dramatic motion is more compelling that the years documented on his recordings-1952 through 1959-made for Atlantic Records."

Ray Charles E-Card:

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Pure Genius: The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959) Box Set:

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Tracklistings:

Disc 1

1. "The Sun's Gonna Shine Again"

2. "Roll With My Baby"

3. "The Midnight Hour"

4. "Jumpin'' In The Mornin''"

5. "It Should''ve Been Me"

6. "Losing Hand"

7. "Heartbreaker"

8. "Sinner's Prayer"

9. "Mess Around"

10. "Funny (But I Still Love You)"

11. "Feelin'' Sad"

12. "I Wonder Who"

13. "Don''t You Know"

14. "Nobody Cares"

15. "Ray's Blues"

16. "I Got A Break Baby"

17. "Blackjack"

18. "I''ve Got A Woman"

19. "Greenbacks"

20. "Come Back Baby"

21. "A Fool For You"

22. "This Little Girl Of Mine"

23. "Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I)"

24. "Blues Hangover"

25. "Mary Ann"

26. "Drown In My Own Tears"

27. "Hallelujah I Love Her So"

28. "What Would I Do Without You"

Disc 2

1. "Dawn Ray"

2. "The Man I Love"

3. "Music, Music, Music"

4. "Black Coffee"

5. "Lonely Avenue"

6. "I Want To Know"

7. "Leave My Woman Alone"

8. "The Ray"

9. "I Surrender Dear"

10. "Hornful Soul"

11. "Ain''t Misbehavin''"

12. "Joy Ride"

13. "Sweet Sixteen Bars"

14. "Doodlin''"

15. "There's No You"

16. "Undecided"

17. "My Melancholy Baby"

18. "It's All Right"

19. "Ain''t That Love"

Disc 3

1. "Rockhouse Parts 1 & 2"

2. "Get On The Right Track Baby"

3. "Swanee River Rock (Talkin'' ''Bout That River)"

4. "That's Enough"

5. "Talkin'' ''Bout You"

6. "What Kind Of Man Are You"

7. "I Want A Little Girl"

8. "How Long Blues" Milt Jackson and Ray Charles

9. "Cosmic Ray" Milt Jackson and Ray Charles

10. "The Genius After Hours"

11. "Charlesville"

12. "Bags Of Blues" Milt Jackson and Ray Charles

13. "Deed I Do" Milt Jackson and Ray Charles

14. "Blue Funk" Milt Jackson and Ray Charles

15. "Soul Brothers" Milt Jackson and Ray Charles

Disc 4

1. "Bag's Guitar Blues Milt Jackson and Ray Charles

2. "Yes Indeed!"

3. "I Had A Dream"

4. "You Be My Baby"

5. "Tell All The World About You"

6. "My Bonnie"

7. "Soul Meeting" Ray Charles and Milt Jackson

8. "Hallelujah I Love Her So" Ray Charles and Milt Jackson

9. "Blue Genius" Ray Charles and Milt Jackson

10. "X-Ray Blues" Ray Charles and Milt Jackson

11. "Love On My Mind" Ray Charles and Milt Jackson

12. "The Spirit-Feel" Live 1958

13. "Blues Waltz" Live 1958

14. "In A Little Spanish Town" Live 1958

15. "Sherry" Live 1958

16. "(Night Time Is) The Right Time" Live 1958

17. "A Fool For You" Live 1958

Disc 5

1. "I''ve Got A Woman" Live 1958

2. "Talkin'' ''Bout You" Live 1958

3. "Swanee River Rock (Talkin'' ''Bout That River)" Live 1958

4. "Yes Indeed!" Live 1958

5. "Early In The Mornin''"

6. "(Night Time Is) The Right Time)"

7. "Carry That Load" Single Version

8. "Carry That Load" LP Version

9. "Tell Me How You Feel"

10. "Fathead" David Newman

11. "Tin Tin Deo" David Newman

12. "Bill For Bennie" David Newman

13. "Hard Times" David Newman

14. "Mean To Me" David Newman

15. "Sweet Eyes" David Newman

16. "Weird Beard" David Newman

17. "Willow Weep For Me" David Newman

18. "Tell The Truth"

19. "What''d I Say Parts I & II" Mono LP Version

Disc 6

1. "What''d I Say Parts I & II" Stereo LP Version

2. "Tell Me You''ll Wait For Me"

3. "Come Rain Or Come Shine"

4. "Don''t Let The Sun Catch You Cryin''"

5. "Just For A Thrill"

6. "You Won''t Let Me Go"

7. "Am I Blue"

8. "The Spirit-Feel" Live 1959

9. "Frenesi" Live 1959

10. "Tell The Truth" Live 1959

11. "Drown In My Own Tears" Live 1959

12. "(Night Time Is) The Right Time Live 1959

13. "What''d I Say" Live 1959

14. "Let The Good Times Roll"

15. "Alexander's Ragtime Band"

16. "Deed I Do"

17. "When Your Lover Has Gone"

18. "Two Years of Torture"

19. "It Had To Be You"

20. "I''m Movin'' On"

21. "I Believe To My Soul"

Disc 7

1. "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand" *

2. Unknown Title *

3. Piano Improvisation And Dialog #1 *

4. "Losing Hand" And Dialog #1*

5. "Little Rock Getaway" And Dialog

6. "Kentucky Waltz" *

7. "Heartbreaker" Instrumental Version *

8. "Heartbreaker" And Dialog *

9. Piano Improvisation And Dialog #2 *

10. "Heartbreaker" False Starts 1-2 *

11. "Losing Hand" And Dialog #2 *

12. "Losing Hand" And Dialog #3 (with reverb) *

13. "Losing Hand" And Dialog #4 (with reverb) *

14. "Heartbreaker" *

15. "It Should Have Been Me" And Dialog *

16. "Nobody Cares" *

17. Piano Improvisation And Dialog #3 *

18. "Mess Around" *

19. "Funny (But I Still Love You)" *

20. "Sinner's Prayer" *

21. Piano Improvisation and Dialog #4 *

22. "Low Society" And Dialog #1 *

23. "Boogie Woogie" *

24. "Low Society" And Dialog #2 *

25. "Worried Life Blues"

26. "Come Back Baby" (Walter Davis Version) And Dialog *

27. "Low Society"

28. "(Night Time Is) The Right Time" (Takes 1-7) And Dialog *

29. "Tell Me How You Feel" (Take 1) *

30. Dialog *

31. "It Had To Be You" And Dialog *

32. "My Buddy" And Dialog *

33. Dialog *

34. "When Your Lover Has Gone" And Dialog *

35. "I''m Beginning To See The Light" *

36. "Let The Good Times Roll" And Dialog *

DVD RAY CHARLES ON VOICE OF AMERICA, 1960 (LIVE AT THE NEWPORT JAZZ

FESTIVAL)

1. "Lil'' Darlin''"

2. "Blues Waltz"

3. "Let The Good Times Roll"

4. "Don''t Let The Sun Catch You Cryin''"

5. "Sticks And Stones"

6. "My Baby! (I Love Her, Yes I Do)"

7. "Drown In My Own Tears"

8. "What''d I Say"

9. "I Believe To My Soul"

10. Interview with Ahmet Ertegun

* previously unissued