17 June 2021

I've acted out my life in stages with 10,000 people watching

Thursday music corner: written by Leon Russell for his self-titled debut album in 1970, A Song For You (not to be confused with Elton John's Your Song from the same year) was first recorded by Ray Charles for his 1993 album My World. Released as a single, it won Charles a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, one of the 12 he won during his life and 17 in total, with five Grammys being awarded posthumously after his 2004 death. I love the keyboard settings Charles uses in this 1997 Montreux Jazz Festival performance, which are so pleasingly idiosyncratic. Charles also performed the song at New York's Beacon Theatre in April 2003, as part of Willie Nelson's 70th birthday tribute. 

Ray Charles – A Song For You (Live at Montreux, 1997)

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