Come Live With Me (2025 Remaster) Ray Charles

• 1 Till There Was You (2025 Remaster) 04:12
• 2 If You Go Away (2025 Remaster) 05:17
• 3 It Takes So Little Time (2025 Remaster) 03:47
• 4 Come Live With Me (2025 Remaster) 03:25
• 5 Somebody (2025 Remaster) 04:10
• 6 Problems, Problems (2025 Remaster) 03:01
• 7 Where Was He (2025 Remaster) 02:54
• 8 Louise (2025 Remaster) 03:09
• 9 Everybody Sing (2025 Remaster) 04:08
• Total Runtime 34:03

Info for Come Live With Me (2025 Remaster)

Come Live With Me showcases Charles in full '70s crossover mode - embracing string-laden arrangements, country-tinged ballads, and soulful soft rock. With a blend of pop and gospel-infused soul, Ray demonstrates his unmatched versatility. The album plays like Two Sides of a Saturday Night - elegant and introspective at the start, loose and electrifying by the end. Side A, arranged by longtime collaborator and conductor Sid Feller, features lush, orchestrated ballads such as Till There Was You and If You Go Away, highlighting Charles's emotive vocal delivery. In contrast, Side B shifts to a more upbeat, R&B - driven sound with tracks like Somebody and Problems, Problems, showcasing his dynamic range and adaptability. At a time when music was defined by the politically charged, genre-blending work of Funkadelic, Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield, and Stevie Wonder and the singer-songwriter boom was in full swing. Ray Charles didn't chase trends. Instead, he carved his own path, doing something entirely his own.

Ray Charles didn’t follow trends. He built his own world. Now, Tangerine Records, the label he founded to do just that, is throwing open the vaults with the Tangerine Master Series, a lovingly remastered reissue campaign that reframes the genius of a man who changed the shape of American music on his own terms.

It all begins with the return of Come Live With Me, Charles’ 1974 blend of string-drenched soul, country balladry, and low-simmer funk, appearing on vinyl for the first time in more than 50 years. Restored under the guidance of The Ray Charles Foundation and remastered by Grammy-winning engineers Michael Graves and Jeff Powell, this is a deep dive into the artistry of an icon still impossible to pin down.

Released during a period when R&B was erupting with revolution — think Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder — Charles took a quieter route. Come Live With Me sounds like Saturday night melting into Sunday morning. Side A glows with cinematic soul and heartbreak laments like the title track and “Till There Was You,” arranged by longtime collaborator Sid Feller. But flip it over and you’re hit with the bounce of “Somebody” and the subtle funk grit of “Problems, Problems,” proof Charles could slip into the zeitgeist without breaking stride.

As Marcus J. Moore writes in the exclusive liner notes: “Protest can look like that, too — navigating the path one turn at a time, not knowing where you’ll end up, still believing that everything’s going to be fine.”

Charles’ legacy with Tangerine was more than musical, it was radical. In the early ’60s, he negotiated complete control of his recordings, started his own studio and publishing operation, and built a business where he answered to no one. That fearless independence runs through the Master Series, which will continue with reissues of 1963’s Ingredients In A Recipe For Soul (featuring the Grammy-winning hit “Busted”), the long out-of-print Love Country Style (1970), and No One Does It Like… Ray Charles!, a never-before-compiled set of singles from 1962–1965.

“If I like it, I’m gonna sing it,” Charles once said. The result is a catalog that resists categories and rewards rediscovery. With this new series, we’re reminded not just of Ray Charles the icon, but Ray Charles the architect of his own empire, still miles ahead of the curve.

Ray Charles

Digitally remastered

Ray Charles
The name Ray Charles is on a Star on Hollywood Boulevard’s Walk of Fame. The name Ray Charles designates a superstar worldwide. His bronze bust is enshrined in the Playboy Jazz Hall of Fame. There is the bronze medallion that was cast and presented to him by the French Republic on behalf of the French people. In just about every Hall of Fame that has anything to do with music, be it Rhythm & Blues, Jazz, Rock & Roll, Gospel or Country & Western, Ray’s name is very prominently displayed. There are many awards given to him in the foregoing categories as proof.

Probably the strongest element in Ray Charles’ life, and the most concentrated driving force, was music. Ray often said, “I was born with music inside me. That’s the only explanation I know.”

Ray Charles was not born blind. In fact, it took almost seven years for him to lose his sight in its entirety, which means he had seven years to see the joy and sadness of this big wonderful world – a world he would never see again. As a seven year old child, in searching for light, he stared at the sun continuously, thereby eliminating all chances of the modern-day miracle, cornea transplants – a surgery unheard of in 1937.

Perhaps the reason that Ray Charles made music his mistress and fell madly in love with the lady is that music was a natural to him. Ray sat at a piano and the music began; he opened his mouth and the lyrics began. He was in absolute control.

But the rest of his life was not quite so simple. Ray was born at the very beginning of the Great Depression – a depression that affected every civilized country in the world. Ray was born in 1930 in Albany, Georgia, the same year that another Georgia native by the name of Hoagy Carmichael, was already making his mark on the world. In 1930, the year of Ray’s birth, Hoagy recorded a song that became an all-time classic and remains so to this day; a song titled “Stardust.” It’s ironic that these two Georgia natives would someday cross paths again, as they did 30 years later when Ray Charles was asked by the State of Georgia to perform, in the Georgia Legislative Chambers, the song they had selected as their state song. That song was Ray’s version of “Georgia,” written by Hoagy Carmichael. Hoagy, who unfortunately was too ill to attend the event, was listening via telephone/satellite tie-up.

Ray’s mother and father, Aretha and Bailey, were “no-nonsense” parents. Even after Ray lost his sight, his mother continued to give him chores at home, in the rural area in which they lived, such as chopping wood for the wood burning stove in the kitchen in order for them to prepare their meals. Chores such as this often brought complaints from the neighbors, which were met with stern words from Mrs. Robinson. She told them her son was blind, not stupid, and he must continue to learn to do things, not only for himself, but for others as well. Unfortunately, Ray lost the guidance of his mother and the counseling of his father at a very young age. At 15 years old, Ray Charles was an orphan, but he still managed to make his way in this world under very trying conditions; living in the South and being of African-American heritage, plus being blind and an orphan.

Ray refused to roll over and play dead. Instead he continued his education in St. Augustine, at Florida’s State School for the Deaf and Blind. A few years later, Ray decided to move. His choice was Seattle, Washington. It was in Seattle that Ray recorded his first record. It was also in Seattle that the seed was planted for a lifelong friendship with Quincy Jones. More information please visit the Ray Charles homepage.

This album contains no booklet.