Roots of R&B: Charles Brown & Ray Charles

Fresh Air

NPR

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.4 • 34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

All week we're revisiting archival interviews with key figures in early rock and roll, rockabilly and R&B. We listen back to a 1989 interview with singer and pianist Charles Brown. Brown is credited with creating an expressive style of music that blended rough Texas blues with the soft glamour of Hollywood. And we revisit a 1998 interview with soul singer Ray Charles, who helped shape American music, beginning with his 1955 hit, “I Got a Woman.”

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Transcript

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0:17.5	From W.HYY in Philadelphia, I'm Terry Gross with Fresh Air Weekend. Today we continue our R&B,
0:25.9	rockabilly, and early rock and roll week with two interviews from our archive. We'll hear from
0:30.8	R&B, singer and pianist Charles Brown.
0:42.4	In the 1940s, his sound was inspired by Nat King Cole's trio.
0:50.3	His popularity continued into the early 1960s when Merry Christmas Baby and Please Come Home for Christmas topped the charts.
0:56.9	Brown style influenced many musicians, including... See the girl with the diamond ring.
0:59.8	She knows how to shake that thing.
1:05.7	Ray Charles, who will hear from later in a 1998 interview.
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1:15.9	Tell you, Mama, tell you, Paul, I'm going to send you back to Arkansas.
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