Ray Charles - I'm All Yours-Baby!

I’m a big Ray Charles fan so I’m always happy to add a “new” old album of his to my collection. I’m All Yours Baby was released in 1969 on Tangerine Records, a record label that Ray Charles himself owned from 1962 to 1973 (It was promoted and distributed by ABC Records).

The first thing that jumped out at me with this LP was the super cheesy cover, which I LOVE! For me, the cheesier the album cover, the better when it comes to these old 60’s albums. It features a picture of Ray relaxing on a couch with an attractive woman lying on his lap holding a glass of wine and touching his face…. and what’s with the statue in the background? And the icing on the cake, of course, the title of the album “I’m All Yours-Baby” is above the photo, as if it wasn’t corny enough.

But, as always, Ray’s music speaks for itself. It’s a great, slow jazzy album by the genius of soul. The string orchestra is accompanying him, but it’s not the full blown Disney movie type orchestra that overtakes his music in some of his albums, instead it’s tasteful and not overpowering at all. Moderation! Most of the songs on this album are ‘popular’ songs released between the 1920’s and 1940’s. Many of them were recorded by other well-known artists in this era, such as Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan as well as Ray Charles, so you may discover a familiar song or two on this album.

A big bonus is that this album features one of my favourite traits about Ray, when he breaks out of singing and starts shouting out lines in the middle of songs. There is lots of it in this album, like in the second number I Didn’t Know What Time It Was with lines such as: “Ohhhhh. You’re looking good baby!” Seriously can this album get any cheesier?

Overall, a great Ray Charles album filled with slow tempo jazzy songs, perhaps the type of music you’d play if your girl wants to lay on your lap with a glass of wine and touch your face.