In 2004, Concord Records/Starbucks Hear Music released Rays last Album, Genius Loves Company, which took home a stunning eight Awards at the Grammys, including Best Album of the Year and Best Record of the Year (Here We Go Again with Norah Jones). Genius Loves Company is the best selling recording of Charles 50-year plus career. During his lifetime, Charles received 12 GRAMMY® Awards, all of which have been restored. In all, Charles received a remarkable 17 GRAMMY® Awards.
He received Lifetime Achievement and the President's Merit Award; he is one of the original inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; and he is a recipient of the Presidential Medal for the Arts, France's Legion of Honor and the Kennedy Center Honors. He also received the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame Award on March 6. Ray has been inducted into numerous other music Halls of Fame, including those for Jazz and Rhythm and Blues, a testament to his enormous influence.
During a career that has spanned some 58 years, Charles starred on over 250 albums, many of them top sellers in a variety of musical genres and he performed in a total of more than 10,000 concerts.
Charles appeared in movies, such as The Blues Brothers, and starred in commercials for Pepsi and California Raisins, among numerous others. In 2004, the bio-pic Ray was released for the world to see the historic life and times of the Genius. The movie garnered 6 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and Jamie Foxx took home the Best Actor award for his portrayal of Ray. Charles last public performance was on July 20, 2003, in Alexandria, VA.
Charles once told an interviewer from USA Today, Music to me is just like breathing. I have to have it. Its part of me.
