Ray Charles

He married Eileen Williams in 1951 but divorced her the following year.

In 1955, he married Della Beatrice Howard Robinson. The marriage lasted for two decades.

Apart from his two marriages, he was in a relationship with Norma Pinella, who stayed with him until his death. He had 12 children in total with ten different women.

Ray Charles Robinson was born to Aretha and Bailey Robinson in Albany, Georgia.

He was diagnosed with glaucoma at a very young age and by the age of seven he had become completely blind. He studied at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind from 1937 to 1945, during which time, he honed his musical skills.

By the time he was 15 years old, both his parents were dead and he was orphaned, but he did not let these personal losses deter him from pursuing a musical career.

In school, he had shown great interest in learning jazz and blues music as he was taught only classical music. He later worked as a register boy under the direction of a girl at a drug store, in Tallahassee.

He joined a number of local bands at Tallahassee, which further heightened his interest in music such as the ‘Florida A&M University Student Band’ and the ‘Adderley Brothers’. He was soon noticed for his musical talent and he began performing in a number of clubs and was even invited for the Governor’s Ball.

He moved to Seattle in 1947 and became a member of the ‘Maxin Trio’ along with Milton Garrett and G.D. McKee. The trio recorded their first song together under the ‘Down Beat Label’ titled, ‘Confession Blues’. The song went on to become an R&B hit.

In 1951, he signed a deal with ‘Swing Time Records’ and recorded another hit single, ‘Let Me Hold Your Hand’ followed by ‘Kissa Me Baby’ the subsequent year. After the success of these two singles, he was signed on by Atlantic Records.

His first hit with Atlantic Records came in 1953 when he recorded, ‘Mess Around’. He then recorded a number of other singles including ‘It Should Have Been Me’ and ‘Don’t You Know’.

In 1954, he recorded his own composition, ‘I Got a Woman’ and the song went on to become his first No. 1 hit the next year, which got him noticed nationally. He continued to record singles like, ‘This Little Girl of Mine’, ‘Drown in my Own Tears’, ‘Lonely Avenue’ and ‘The Night Time (Is the Right Time)’.

In 1956, he formed his own ‘female-singing group’ called ‘Cookies’ who later came to be known as ‘The Raelettes’.

‘Georgia on my Mind’ is a single that was released for his 1960 album, ‘The Genius Hits the Road’. After this record was released, it became extremely successful and was covered by a number of artistes including Billie Holiday, Coldplay and Van Morrison to name a few. The song also became the state song of Georgia in 1979.

‘Hit the Road Jack’, another one of his singles released in 1960 went on to become one of his greatest works. It stayed at the No. 1 position for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and also earned him a Grammy Award. The song is regarded as one of ‘The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time’ by the ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine.