| Net Worth | $100 Million |
|---|---|
| Born: | September 23, 1930 |
| Ethnicity: | Afro-American |
| Income Source: | Singer, Composer, Pianist |
Ray Charles is a popular American gospel singer, Pianist and a music composer. His nickname is widely known as “Brother Ray”. He is also a father of 11 children from different women that he has met during his singing career. Charles’s first wife was Eileen Williams but their married life didn’t go well. Later on, he married Della Beatrice Howard Robinson. Ray Charles net worth is estimated at $100 Million.
The singer is blind from his childhood due to glaucoma an optical nerves disorder in his eyes. He never let his dream to wave off; rather he put all his passion into improving his singing career. Today we all aspire his songs like” Hit the Road”, “I can’t stop loving you” with the Raelettes girl’s group founded by Margie Hendrix.
Early Life
Ray Charles Robinson was born on September 23, 1930, in Greenville, Florida. His father was Bailey Robinson and mother was Aretha Williams. They were living in poverty working as a labourer. His lust for music sparked when he saw Wylie Pitman (owner of a café) playing boogie-woogie on a piano. Pitman was the first person to teach Ray how to play the piano.
At the age of four, Charles started to lose his eyesight and was completely blind. His mother Aretha seeks help from the local community to enrol his blind son to get a proper education. He attended Florida School of Deaf and the blind in Saint Augustine for nine years. There got an opportunity to learn “Braille music “from Mrs Lawrence.
When Ray was 14 years old, his mother and his brother George passed away. He then never returns back to his school after their funeral.
Career
After the tragic incident, Charles moved to Jacksonville to stay with his mother friend Powell. There he joined with a band and played the piano at the Ritz Theatre for almost a year making $4 every single night.
In 1950, Charles impressed Henry stone (an American music producer) in a Miami hotel, who went to record Ray Charles songs but they weren’t so popular. In 1953 after signing with Atlantic Record, he releases “Mess Around” that literally pop out to be Charles’s biggest hits.
The Rolling Stone also titled Ray Charles as “100 Greatest Artist in American History”. Ray Charles Robinson Jr. (eldest son of Ray Charles) published book” You don’t know me” entirely about his father.
Ray Charles’s net worth is estimated to be $100 Million, when he died
Highlight
Here are the some of the biggest highlights of Ray Charles’s Career;
- Charles first recording session with Atlantic Record ( 1952)
- Release “Mess Around” his biggest Hit song(1953)
- Crossover success(1959)
- Sandra Jean Betts filed a lawsuit against Ray.
- He received a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame(1981)
- Charles was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award(1987)
- He was also awarded Polar Music Prize (1998)
Famous Quotes from Ray Charles
“I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great”
“Music is my life, professionally, for nearly 60 years. To be recognized by the academy is still the highest honour”
