Ray Charles celebrates 50 years of music with greatest hits collection

Jet, Oct 27, 1997

Ray Charles is celebrating his 50th anniversary in music and says he has no plans to slow down.

"I'm going to be like Duke Ellington or Count Basie," Charles, 67, recently told USA Today. "I'll stop when the good Lord says, `Hey, Ray, you've been a good horse. Now, I'm going to take you out of the pasture.'"

Charles is marking his 50 years of music with the new five-CD boxed set of his greatest hits Genius & Soul: The Fiftieth Anniversary Collection on Rhino Records. The collection features such classics as What I'd Say, Georgia On My Mind and his soulful rendition of America the Beautiful.

Charles still tours widely, averages about 200 concert engagements a year and says he never performs his songs the same way twice.

Charles is the father of nine children and has been married twice, the paper reported, but he says he does not plan to marry again. "Marriage is a beautiful institution," he said. "But I look at marriage the same way I look at milk or cabbage. Milk is a good food, but everybody can't drink it. Cabbage is perfectly good food, but everybody can't eat cabbage."