Dedicated To You

On Dedicated To You (ABC 355), Ray Charles and his team present twelve songs whose titles feature women’s names. It’s a gimmick, of the type that didn’t quite hold up on his previous album, The Genius Hits The Road, but it works well this time: with the perfectly beautiful “Ruby”, the fun, energetic take on “Sweet Georgia Brown” (whose title gives this album a sort of clever link to its predecessor), and the yearning “Stella By Starlight”, Ray achieves his most stately, profound music yet.

The album was released in January 1961, and its thick, syrupy instrumentation continued to surprise fans of his early, sweaty R&B performances. But there can be no question as to whether Ray makes it work: his voice just sounds so emotional, drawing in the listener, that one begins inevitably – happily – to see things his way. The arrangements are a major reason that Dedicated To You manages to enrapture the listener, who is invited into the mysterious and sonorous world of Ray Charles’ soul.

Dedicated To You is a remarkable album, and one that showed the way for Ray’s early 1960s ABC output.

Recent reissues

Dedicated To You was re-released on vinyl in 2012 by Waxtime and in 2013 by DOL, but these are not recommended since the manufacturers apparently did not have access to the original tapes, and may have pressed these up from copies of commercial CDs. Look for an original ABC pressing.

Record covers

Record labels

Singles with songs from Dedicated To You

ABC 10164
November 1960

“Ruby”
b/w
“Hardhearted Hannah”

Track listing

Side A
1. “Hardhearted Hannah”
2. “Nancy”
3. “Margie”
4. “Ruby”
5. “Rosetta”
6. “Stella By Starlight”

Side B
1. “Cherry”
2. “Josephine”
3. “Candy”
4. “Marie”
5. “Diane”
6. “Sweet Georgia Brown”

Listen to Dedicated To You

Get your own Dedicated To You on LP, CD or MP3 from Amazon.