Ray Charles

Ray Charles was profiled in “The Soul Reformation” section of John Gilliland’s “The Pop Chronicles,” a radio documentary series that was originally broadcast between 1969-71 on KRLA (Pasadena, Calif.). The episodes featured clips of Charles’ music interspersed with excerpts of a March 8, 1968, interview conducted with Gilliland.

“You’ve got to feel it yourself,” he said, “or you can’t project nothing to another person … I won’t even attempt to sing a song unless I can get something out of it myself. I think you’d know right away it was fake. But now if I can wrap myself up in that song, and when that song gets to be a part of me, and affects me emotionally, then the emotions that I go through, chances are I’ll be able to communicate to you. Make the people out there become a part of the life of this song that you’re singing about. That’s soul when you can do that.”

Part I
Part II
Charles appeared briefly in four other episodes of the series.

Additional Interviews With Ray Charles
Ray Charles sat down with NBC’s Rona Elliott in 1986 and reflected on his life in music. He spoke about his process of making music, the meaning of the blues, and his influence on other musicians. The video also includes a clip of a 1987 interview featuring Charles and Joe Cocker.

Charles was interviewed by Tavis Smiley for NPR in 2002.

To learn more about Ray Charles, read his profile on findingDulcinea.