Ray Charles hated labels. He avoided calling the music he created any certain genre. He was pulling from gospel, jazz, rhythm & blues, pop, blues, country and western, soul, and boogie-woogie. Brother Ray was playing with some of the best musicians of his time: Oscar Pettiford, Skeeter Best, Billy Mitchell, Connie Kay, Kenny Burrell, Percy Heath, Milt Jackson, and Don Wilkerson.
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During his years with Atlantic Records, Charles was selling mostly to the Black market. He placed consistently high on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues chart but routinely failed to make a showing on the pop chart. When rock ‘n’ roll exploded across the country, it enabled white listeners to experience Black music in a way they never had before. Charles never considered himself a rock ‘n’ roller, but he certainly benefitted from the new phenomenon, and he influenced quite a few people who would go on to record his music and expose it to the masses. Let’s take a look at the story behind “Hallelujah, I Love Her So” by Ray Charles.
Let me tell you ’bout a girl I know
She is my baby, and she lives next door
Every mornin” fore the sun comes up
She brings me coffee in my favorite cup
That’s why I know, yes, I know
Hallelujah, I just love her so
A Career Turning Point
As the song begins with the gospel-style piano, it pivots into new territory when the horns enter. Arranger/saxophonist Don Wilkerson brought “Hallelujah, I Love Her So” into a whole different realm. Charles wrote in his autobiography, Brother Ray: “As far as I was concerned, it was just another number I had written. I didn’t ascribe any great importance to it, and actually, the lyrics were a little more light-hearted than the ones I usually wrote. When I was writing songs, I concentrated on problems or feelings everyone could understand. I wouldn’t call the tunes biographical. I just made them up, but I always tried to stick to common themes: love heartaches, money heartaches, pleasures of the flesh, and pleasures of the soul.
“‘Hallelujah, I Love Her So’ clicked. It sold big among Blacks, and I guess it was my first record to enjoy some popularity among whites. If these early hits sold 200,000 copies, I was pleased. That was almost in one market, the Black market. And 200,000 were a lot of records in those days. Oh, sure, there’d be whites who’d buy my sides, even sneak and buy ’em if they had to. But up until ‘Hallelujah,’ the overwhelming majority of those listening to me were Black.”
When I’m in trouble, and I have no friend
I know she’ll go with me until the end
Everybody asks me how I know
I smile at them and say, “She told me so”
That’s why I know, oh, I know
Hallelujah, I just love her so
The Crossover
Charles continued, “When I stopped imitating Nat Cole and slid into my own voice, I saw that my successes were exclusively at Black clubs and Black dances. My music had roots which I dug up from my own childhood. Musical roots buried in the darkest soil. Naturally, it was music Blacks could immediately take to heart.
“Little by little, though, beginning around 1956, I saw that my music had appeal beyond my own people. I saw it breaking through to other markets. Now and then, there would be a date in a city auditorium where whites would come along with Blacks. It probably took me longer to digest this gradual change than it would have taken anyone else. I couldn’t see the increasing amount of white faces. It meant more work and more money. But it wasn’t going to change my music, and it wasn’t going to change me. The more people there were who liked my stuff, the happier I was. But at this point in my life, that only convinced me to stick to my guns and follow my program.”
Now, if I call her on the telephone
And tell her that I’m all alone
By the time I count from one to four
I hear her (KNOCK) on my door
Don Wilkerson
It has been stated that Charles based “Hallelujah, I Love Her So” on “Get It Over Baby” by Ike Turner. While there are similarities, the arrangement and delivery are all Ray. Charles shared his ideas on genres, “There are hundreds of versions of the same blues, the same changes, the same patterns. Just as there are hundreds of versions of the same spirituals. The music is simple, but the feeling, the lowdown, gutbucket feeling, has to be there, or it’s all for nothing. My cats could always play serious jazz. Donald Wilkerson, for example, could kick the ass of almost any tenor player in the country. For my money, he’s one of the best saxophonists of the century.”
In the evening, when the sun goes down
When there is nobody else around
She kisses me, and she holds me tight
And tells me, “Daddy, everything’s all right”
That’s why I know, whoa, I know
Hallelujah, I just love her so
Rock ‘n’ Roll
As other artists reached across racial lines, Charles’ music benefitted. He wrote about the subtle differences between his music and the new fad taking over the country.
“Fats Domino had huge hits in the white market—’Blueberry Hill’ and ‘Ain’t It A Shame’—and I wasn’t even in the same league,” he wrote. “Rock and roll was also music that teenagers were able to play themselves. Little Richard’s and Jerry Lee Lewis’ piano style, takin’ the thumb and scrapin’ it all the way up the keyboard, have a flair and a sound that the kids loved and which they could duplicate. I sang some happy songs, and I sang songs with tempos that moved. … My music is more serious, filled with more despair than anything you’d associate with rock ‘n’ roll.”
Now, if I call her on the telephone
And tell her that I’m all alone
By the time I count from one to four
I hear her (KNOCK) on my door
Influences
Many people have recorded the song through the years, including Eddie Cochran, Peggy Lee, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Beatles, The Animals, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Frank Sinatra, and Jerry Reed, to name just a few.
In the evening, when the sun goes down
When there is nobody else around
She kisses me, and she holds me tight
And tells me, “Daddy, everything’s all right”
That’s why I know, yes, I know
Hallelujah, I just love her so
Oh, hallelujah
Don’t you know, I just love her so
She’s my little woman, waitin’ all this time
Babe, I’m a little fool for you, little girl…
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Photo by David Redfern/Redferns
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