Back in the Saddle Again!

Ray Charles - I Told You So

After a nice vacation in L.A., it's back to "bidness" for your ever-lovin' Stepfather of Soul, and today's selection comes from the album that formerly appeared in the blog's "official picture." As I've mentioned several times in past posts, Ray Charles' Doing His Thing LP from 1968 is probably the only album of Ray's ABC discography that you can truly call a complete soul album. That status probably comes in part from the fact that every track on the album was either written or co-written by Jimmy Lewis, who at the time was a Tangerine artist and one of the two Jimmys plying Ray with material (the other was Jimmy Holiday). The entire album really showcases the Ray Charles "soul sound" and Ray scored big with "We Can Make It" and he charted with the duet "If It Wasn't For Bad Luck," which he performed with Lewis. "I Told You So" is the album's final cut and it's a great ballad. Charles and the Raelettes do their usual "church" thing over a sparse backing, and the tune's "revenge" motif (a la "Ain't Nobody Home") is given a great reading by Ray.