Concord Music Group To Reissue Ray Charles’ Post-1960 Catalog

Concord Music Group announced an exclusive agreement with the Ray Charles Foundation to release his post-1960 catalog, which includes recordings made for the ABC and Tangerine labels. The masters for classics like “Georgia On My Mind,” “Hit The Road Jack,” “Crying Time,” and well as many others will be available digitally for the first time.

Concord Music Group announced an exclusive agreement with the Ray Charles Foundation to release his post-1960 catalog, which includes recordings made for the ABC and Tangerine labels. The masters for classics like “Georgia On My Mind,” “Hit The Road Jack,” “Crying Time,” and well as many others will be available digitally for the first time. The first release of the multi-album rollout is a digital-only version of Charles’ 1985 album The Spirit of Christmas, available now. In addition to the original listing of holiday standards like “What Child is This?” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” the reissue has a bonus track: “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” a duet with Betty Carter, recorded in 1961.

Throughout 2009, Concord will roll out more Ray Charles albums, beginning in March with a 21-song definitive (if there can be such a thing) retrospective. Other planned releases are the Starbucks Opus Anthology, to be available at Starbucks (CMG includes the coffee chain’s Hear Music label), Modern Sounds in Country Western Music, Vol. 1 & 2, The Genius Hits the Road, Genius + Soul = Jazz, and Berlin, 1962. The 2009 holiday season will see the physical release of The Spirit of Christmas. There will also be some digital only exclusives, though release dates and song titles have yet to be revealed. Concord was the label behind 2004’s multiple-Grammy-winning album, Genius Loves Company, as well as 2006’s Ray Sings, Basie Swings.