Steve Tyrell - Shades of Ray: The Songs of Ray Charles (2021) [Official Digital Download]

Ray Charles’ long-lost duet “Curiosity” with jazz singer Steve Tyrell has been released over 30 years after the track was recorded. The song features on Tyrell’s new covers album Shades of Ray.

“Ray Charles sits on a permanent pedestal in my life. He’s been there since I was in high school, singing in a band with my buddies, trying to sound just a fraction as soulful as he always did,” Tyrell said of the collaboration in a statement.

Tyrell was recruited to pen “Curiosity” as the theme song for the short-lived 1989 TV series Snoops. “When it came to recording it, there was only one person I wanted. Aim high, right? So I called Ray Charles,” Tyrell said. “Miraculously and graciously he agreed to sing my song. This was the one and only time he ever sang a television theme song.”

Tyrell continued, “When we went in to record it, some of the lyrics had been changed. Ray didn’t get the memo and didn’t have his braille machine with him. He told me not to worry and said I could sing him a line and he’d sing it back a few times until we got what we needed. For years, it has been my private secret that I got to sing a duet with Ray Charles, live. When he heard me sing, he said ‘Beautiful man, beautiful, not bad!’ My idol thought I was ‘not bad,’ and for me, that was pretty damn good!”

“Sometimes when you meet your idols, they don’t turn out to be what you expected,” Tyrell said in a statement. “But my experiences with Ray were everything I could have hoped for and more. Hearing our voices together and producing and writing some songs for him was a thrill of a lifetime.”

Recorded in New York and LA, the collection honors the late soul icon’s towering legacy. Tyrell’s interpretations of the classics are both deeply reverent and boldly original, with sweeping, cinematic arrangements that land somewhere between the lush orchestration of the Great American Songbook and the old school rhythm and blues the Houston native cut his teeth on growing up. The result is a singular, wide-ranging take on one of the most revelatory artists of the 20th century, a joyful, exuberant celebration not only of Charles’ well-established place in the American pantheon, but of his profoundly personal impact on Tyrell’s own life and work.

Tracklist:
1. Let the Good Times Roll (02:55)
2. I Got a Woman (03:21)
3. Georgia on My Mind (03:32)
4. Hallelujah, I Love Her So (03:18)
5. Ruby (04:00)
6. I Can't Stop Loving You (05:07)
7. You Don't Know Me (03:26)
8. What'd I Say (03:29)
9. Hit the Road Jack (feat. Sharlotte Gibson) (03:05)
10. Am I Blue (03:31)
11. Born to Lose (03:17)
12. Big Bad Love (feat. Nita Whitaker) (03:46)
13. Cry (03:58)
14. Bye Bye Love (03:49)
15. Crying Time (03:27)
16. Curiosity (feat. Ray Charles) (01:59)


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