Ray Charles's Real Name: Ray Charles Robinson

Quick answer: Ray Charles's documented full name is Ray Charles Robinson. Encyclopaedia Britannica records that form, along with the billing "the Genius," and gives his birth date as September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia. The Kennedy Center also gives September 23, 1930, in Albany, and the death date June 10, 2004 (Encyclopaedia Britannica; Kennedy Center).

Real name and early life

Britannica lists Ray Charles Robinson and says that when he was an infant his family moved to Greenville, Florida. He began playing piano at about age five in a neighborhood café. Both sources record that he started to lose his sight at six (the Kennedy Center says at five, as a result of glaucoma) and was completely blind by about age seven. He attended the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine, concentrating on music, then left school at 15 after his mother died; Britannica says his father had died when the boy was 10.

Career highlights

After early work as a pianist indebted to Nat King Cole, he recorded "Mess Around" and, in the mid-1950s, merged gospel and blues on records such as "I've Got a Woman" (the Kennedy Center gives the title as "I Got a Woman") after signing with Atlantic Records, Britannica says. "What'd I Say" was a million-selling R&B hit in 1959. He later reached a wide pop audience with "Georgia on My Mind," which Britannica dates to 1960 and the Kennedy Center to 1959, and with "Hit the Road, Jack" (1961). The album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music (1962) and its single "I Can't Stop Loving You" were million-sellers. Other hits included "Busted," "Crying Time," and "America the Beautiful." He toured with his own band and the backup group the Raelettes, appeared in films including The Blues Brothers (1980), and received 13 Grammy Awards, including a lifetime achievement award in 1987. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, received a Kennedy Center Honor the same year, and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1993. His autobiography, Brother Ray, written with David Ritz, appeared in 1978.

Death

He died on June 10, 2004, in Beverly Hills, California, Britannica records. The Kennedy Center gives the same date.

Name notes for searchers

Ray Charles Robinson is the documented full name; he was known professionally as Ray Charles and billed as "the Genius." Searchers looking for the singer of "Georgia on My Mind," "What'd I Say," or Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music are usually aiming at the same person.