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The Birth of Soul
Box set by Ray Charles
Released	October 1, 1991 (1991-10-01)
Recorded	1952–1959
Genre	Rhythm and blues
Length	148:48
Label	Atlantic
Producer	Herb Abramson, Ahmet Ertegün, and Jerry Wexler
Ray Charles chronology
Rhythm & Blues: Ray Charles – 1954–1966 (1991) The Birth of Soul (1991) His Greatest Hits (1992)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Down Beat
The Rolling Stone Album Guide

The Birth of Soul: The Complete Atlantic Rhythm and Blues Recordings is a 3-CD box set compilation by Ray Charles, released in 1991.

Critical reception

In a contemporary review, Peter Watrous of The New York Times said that the box set "tracks the progress of a figure who profoundly changed what was possible in American music." He ranked it as the twelfth best album of 1991. The Birth of Soul was voted the third best reissue of the year in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 1991.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 54 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list, then dropping to number 210 in a 2020 reboot of the list. In a retrospective article for the magazine, Robert Christgau wrote that, despite "caveats" such as material repeated on more "economic" releases, The Birth of Soul is "the rockingest Charles long-form you can buy" and remarked on the legacy of its recordings:

Although Charles' fabled blues-gospel synthesis is on display from 'I Got a Woman' to 'I Believe to My Soul,' 'birth of soul' gets the emphasis wrong. Seldom conventionally catchy, this Robert Palmer-annotated collection epitomizes a world-historic catchall of a genre that Charles could only describe as 'genuine down-to-earth Negro music' — namely, rhythm & blues. Crack bands, first Atlantic's and then his own, underpin his rich, gravelly vocals with hard-hitting grooves of deceptive rhythmic and harmonic complexity. Halfway in, a female backup group soon to be known as the Raelettes starts shoring up his male voice and egging it on, an innovation that became a cliche so fast people think it was always there.

Christgau recommended Rhino Entertainment's 1994 compilation album The Best of Ray Charles: The Atlantic Years as a cheaper alternative to the box set.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Ray Charles, unless otherwise noted

References

1. ^ Christgau, Robert (July 8, 2004). "The Genius at Work". Rolling Stone. New York. Retrieved March 16, 2013.
2. Allmusic review
3. "Review: The Birth of Soul". Down Beat. Chicago: 36. March 1992.
4. Considine, J. D.; Matos, Michaelangelo; et al. (2004). Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 154. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
5. Watrous, Peter (December 15, 1991). "POP MUSIC; Already Boxed and Suitable for Wrapping". The New York Times. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
6. Watrous, Peter (January 1, 1992). "The Pop Life; Top 12's, or So". The New York Times. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
7. "The 1991 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. New York. March 3, 1992. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
8. "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. New York. December 11, 2003. p. 112.
9. "500 Greatest Albums of All Time Rolling Stone's definitive list of the 500 greatest albums of all time". Rolling Stone. 2012. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
10. "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2021-09-06.

External links

• Archived RayCharles.com album page at the Wayback Machine (archived February 3, 2009)

• Albums produced by Jerry Wexler
• Albums produced by Ahmet Ertegun
• Ray Charles compilation albums
• 1991 compilation albums
• Atlantic Records compilation albums