Ray Charles: What'd I Say - 1959
As well as the highly recommended The Ray Charles Ultimate Collection, I also own this 1959 Ray Charles album and a fair few of the tracks from which are contained in that compilation.
Albums weren't really the thing in those days - it was all about singles, but this album is packed full of them, so it makes no difference really - it is like listening to an early greatest hits.
A lot of the best tracks from The Ultimate Collection are on there and I also have to say that the sound on the album, for 1959, is absolutely stunning. In many respects, soul music started around here, didn't it? Yes, there had been stuff from the early-mid fifties as well, but this was when it really started to take off.