Ray Charles records What’d I Say at Atlantic Records
The phone call that Ray Charles placed to Atlantic Records in early 1959 went something like this Im playing a song out here on the road and I dont know what it isits just a song I made up but the people are just going wild every time we play it and I think we ought to record it.The song Ray Charles was referring to was Whatd I Say which went on to become one of the greatest rhythm-and-blues records ever made.Composed spontaneously out of sheer showbiz necessity Whatd I Say was laid down on tape on this day in 1959 at the Atlantic Records studios in New York City.The necessity that drove Ray Charles to invent Whatd I Say was simple the need to fill time.
Ten or 12 minutes before the end of a contractually required four-hour performance at a dance in Pittsburgh one night Charles and his band ran completely out of songs to play.So I began noodlingjust a little riff that floated into my head Charles explained many years later.One thing led to another and I found myself singing and wanting the girls to repeat after me.Then I could feel the whole room bouncing and shaking and carrying on something fierce.What was it about Whatd I Say that so captivated the audience at the Pittsburgh dance that night and the rest of humanity ever since then Charles always thought it was the sound of his Wurlitzer electric piano a very unfamiliar instrument at the time.
Others would say it was the call-and-response in the songs bridgeall unnnhs and ooohs and other sounds not typically found on the average pop record of 1959.Whatever it was it worked well enough to become Charles closing number from that night in Pittsburgh until his final show.You start em off you get em just first tapping their feet.Next thing they got their hands goin and next thing they got their mouth open and theyre yelling and theyre singin and theyre screamin.
Its a great feeling when you got your audience involved with you.
