Ray Charles has the distinction of being both a national treasure and an international phenomenon. By the early 1960s Ray Charles had accomplished his dream. Hed come of age musically. Hed made it to Carnegie Hall. The hit records "Georgia" "Born to Lose" successively kept climbing to the top of the charts. Hed made his first triumphant European concert tour in 1960 (a feat which except for 1965 hes repeated at least once a year ever since). He had taken virtually every form of popular music and broken through its boundaries with such awe inspiring achievements as the LPs "Genius Plus Soul Equals Jazz" and "Modern Sounds in Country Western." Rhythm blues (or "race music" as it had been called) became universally respectable through his efforts. Jazz found a mainstream audience it had never previously enjoyed. And country western music began to chart an unexpected course to general acceptance.   ... >>