Ray Charles and Paul Newman are a pair of guys that when they passed away, I had an influx of people tell me how big a genius each guy was in their own medium.Before their deaths? Crickets. Nobody was touting Ray Charles before he died. The guy's heart stops beating and suddenly he's everyone's favorite all-time musician.
Charles is just OK. He had his moments. "Modern Sounds," however, isn't one of them. First, he bastardizes the Everly Brothers' "Bye Bye Love," ends it by butchering Hank Williams' "Hey Good Lookin'" and then records a watered-down, commercial pop album in between.
Charles biggest accomplishment toward selling records was dying. It came right when the film with Jamie Foxx was about to be released and his "Genius Loves Company" album was yet to be released, but would be soon. Few have benefited as much with death as Charles and that list famously included Tupac Shukar, who's tripled his discography after getting shot to death.
What many people didn't know, chose to forget or ignore is that Charles was kind of an asshole. A womanizer who had 12 children with 10 different women. Sounds like a swell guy. If he was an athlete, he'd be demonized.
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