Tangerine Records, the long-defunct label established by Ray Charles shortly after his departure from Atlantic Records, has reemerged with a few vinyl reissues of Charles’ albums from the 1960s and ’70s. They are Come Live with Me, Love Country Style, Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul, and No One Does It Like…Ray Charles, all pressed on, you guessed it, tangerine colored vinyl. All four are available now. We give them proper consideration below.
It feels right to tackle Tangerine Records’ recent reissues in reverse order of release. No One Does It Like… Ray Charles, which hit stores on November 21, rounds up mid-’60s non-album singles and stray tracks into an enjoyably cohesive whole and with considerable depth through Charles’ natural stylistic range. There’s a wide variety across the dozen tracks, from large band swingers to the smaller group “Worried Life Blues” to selections that lean toward Latin and country.
The proceedings hang together in part due to the relatively tight time frame, the overall sharpness of the bands, and the sass of the Raelettes, plus Charles in strong voice, hitting the keys with panache. There are a few lesser tracks, such as the Middle of the Road-ish closer “My Heart Cries for You,” but there is a preponderance of soul throughout, and the set rolls like it was cut as an actual album.
Love Country Style was released on October 24 and moves us ahead to 1970. As per the title, Charles undertakes a return engagement with the country genre, which proved an extremely fruitful endeavor both commercially and artistically through his two iconic Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music volumes.
Although Sid Feller returns as arranger-conductor from the Modern Sounds sets, Love Country Style is perhaps better assessed as a then-contempo MOR-pop spin on country source material. There’s surely some Countrypolitan syrup, but a lot of the strings are appropriately tagged as simply Easy Listening.
There’s also Carol Keye of the Wrecking Crew on bass, along with a few other session ringers, so some studio-pro funky flavor mingles with the soulfulness of Charles’ voice to appealing effect. The album goes down very easily overall, with opener “If You Were Mine” and closer “Show Me the Sunshine” both strong, but there is still the feeling of an opportunity missed. As in, they should’ve ditched Feller and headed for Tony Joe White’s neighborhood.
Jumping back to 1963, Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul opens with the classic single “Busted.” Although the songs chosen are typically wide-ranging and, in fact, are a bit too broad, there are other great tracks, including an outstanding version of Leroy Carr’s “In the Evening (When the Sun Goes Down).”
Overall, Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul’s focus is on casting a bright spotlight on Charles’ collaboration with a handful of skilled arrangers, including Feller, Benny Carter, Marty Paich, and Johnny Parker. By 1963, with Charles’s genius long established, attempts to mainstream his brilliance were well underway. Another way of putting it: this album is burdened with the Jack Halloran Singers as Charles sings “Old Man River” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Still, the low points in the album’s scheme do hold aspects of interest.
By 1974 and the release of Come Live with Me for Charles’ Crossover label (Tangerine having folded), one would expect the choral backing, the string arrangements, the nods in the direction of Sinatra, and the general MOR-isms. And that’s indeed a substantial portion of the album’s overall thrust, as Feller is back in the arranger’s seat.
But these reissues establish the commercialization of Charles as a long-term project. By ’74, the Adult Contemporary mainstream would seem an expected and uninspiring fit for Charles, and yet with Come Live with Me (which hit stores in late August), he avoids the saccharine, even when the strings sweep big. Charles’s electric piano throughout is a treat. The record gathers momentum as it spins and ends strongly.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
No One Does It Like… Ray Charles
B+
Love Country Style
B
Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul
B+
Come Live with Me
B+
