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Ray Charles, 'What'd I Say'

Writer: Charles

Producers:Ahmet Ertegun, Jerry Wexler

Released:June '59, Atlantic

15 weeks; No. 6

"The people just went crazy, and they loved that little ummmmh, unnnnh,"Ray CharlestoldRolling

Stonein 1978, describing the instant genesis of "What'd I Say," his first Top 10 pop single and the

greatest feel-good song in rock & roll. "Later on, people said it was vulgar," Charles continued, referring

to that irresistible, sexually heated vocal bridge. "But, hell, let's face it, everybody knows about

the ummmmh, unnnnh. That's how we all got here."

The man they called "The Genius" literally wrote "What'd I Say" in front of an audience, in late 1958 or

early '59. He and his crack R&B orchestra, newly supplemented by a female vocal group, the Raelettes,

were playing a marathon dance show in a small town near Pittsburgh. When Charles ran out of repertoire

late in the second set, he kicked into an uphill bass-note arpeggio on the piano, told the band to follow

along and instructed the Raelettes, "Whatever I say, just repeat after me." Afterward, Charles said,

dancers rushed up to him and asked, "Where can I buy that record?"

"What'd I Say" may not have been much of a song a handful of short, unconnected verses, the chorus

and that bridge when Charles cut it on February 18th, 1959, at Atlantic's New York studio. (The six-

and-a-half-minute rave-up was masterfully edited and re-sequenced by the label's visionary engineer,

Tom Dowd, from an even longer studio performance.) But out of necessity, that night on the bandstand

Charles had turned to the black gospel experience he knew so well, the shared, mounting ecstasy of call-

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and-response. "Church was simple," he said in his autobiographyBrother Ray. "Preacher sang or recited,

and the congregation sang right back at him."

That is exactly how Charles recorded "What'd I Say," with a torrid secular spin heightened by the metallic

attack of his Wurlitzer electric piano. Charles' grunt-'n'-groan exchanges with the Raelettes were the

closest you could get to the sound of orgasm on Top 40 radio during the Eisenhower era. Forty-five yearslater, they still give sweet release.

Appears on: The Ultimate Hits Collection(Rhino)

RELATED:

The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time: Ray Charles

Read more:http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-500-greatest-songs-of-

all-time-20110407/smokey-robinson-and-the-miracles-the-tracks-of-my-tears-

20110526#ixzz3j5f8zyzW

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