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Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
Cover album by Ray Charles
Released	1962
Recorded	1962
Genre	Soul
Length	N/A
Label	ABC-Paramount
Producer(s)	Ray Charles
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link warr.org link
Ray Charles chronology
Dedicated To You (1961)	Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music (1962)	Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Vol. 2 (1962)

Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music is a 1962 album by Ray Charles. It has been named one of the best albums of all time by VH1 (#97), Rolling Stone (#104) and CMT (#2).

The album features country, folk and western standards and original songs redone in popular song forms of that time, such as jazz, rock music, and R&B. Such artists covered by Charles include The Everly Brothers, Hank Williams, and The Mills Brothers.

When Charles announced he wanted to work on an album of country music, he got comments like "you're nuts" and "it'll never work". Fueled by his esteem for artistic and creative control and his power, Charles ignored the comments and recorded what became Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music with arrangements by jazz composer Gerald Wilson. Released in 1962, the album became an unlikely smash eventually reaching #1 on the Billboard pop album charts where it would stay for 12 weeks. Three of the songs ("I Can't Stop Loving You", "Born to Lose" and "You Don't Know Me") would become Top Ten hits on the pop, R&B and adult contemporary charts with the former becoming the most successful, reaching #1 and winning Charles a Grammy Award for Best R&B Male Vocal Performance.

The album would give birth to a sequel, which was equally successful, and would lead to country-soul efforts from the likes of Candi Staton and Solomon Burke. Charles will go on to record country music for Warner Bros. Records throughout most of the 1980s scoring a #1 hit on the country charts with Willie Nelson on the 1984 single, "Seven Spanish Angels" but it will be Charles' volumes of his 1962 Modern Sounds albums that is forever remembered.

1. "Bye Bye Love" (Felice and Boudleaux Bryant)
2. "You Don't Know Me" (Eddy Arnold & Cindy Walker)
3. "Half as Much" (Curley Williams)
4. "I Love You So Much It Hurts" (Floyd Tillman)
5. "Just a Little Lovin' (Will Go a Long Way)" (Eddy Arnold & Zeke Clements)
6. "Born to Lose" (Frankie Brown)
7. "Worried Mind" (Ted Daffan & Jimmie Davis)
8. "It Makes No Difference Now" (Floyd Tillman & Jimmie Davis)
9. "You Win Again" (Hank Williams, Sr.)
10. "Careless Love" (Ray Charles)
11. "I Can't Stop Loving You" (Don Gibson)
12. "Hey, Good Lookin'" (Hank Williams, Sr.)

• Album summary