Song · Ray Charles
“America The Beautiful” by Ray Charles
Released 1972
“America The Beautiful” by Ray Charles appears on 2 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 2001 and 2020. It was first released in 1972. Its best result is #408 on the WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #2,773 indie & aaa song of all time.
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Ray Charles produced his own "America the Beautiful" in 1972, taking Katharine Lee Bates's words and Samuel Augustus Ward's music and giving them to Quincy Jones to arrange. Then he claimed every keyboard in sight: Charles sings it and plays organ, piano and electric piano himself, with the Raelettes on backing vocals.
The supporting cast is a small army. There are strings, trumpets from Freddie Hubbard, Joe Newman and Ernie Royal, reeds from Hubert Laws and Jerome Richardson, and guitars from Eric Gale, Jim Hall and Toots Thielemans. Ray Brown, Bob Cranshaw and Chuck Rainey share the bass credit, and Grady Tate mans the drums. That's a lot of muscle for one song, and all of it answers to the man at the organ.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 1696 | WFPK | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2000 |
| 2020 | 408 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
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