Appearances
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December 8, 2010
Ray Charles Closes Olympic Summer Games (1996)
Read moreOn 4 August 1996 Ray Charles took 8 minutes (source: here) to perform America The Beautiful at Woodruff Arts Center in the closing ceremonies of the Atlanta Olympic Summer Games. The New York Times TV critic wrote: “Constant replays of Ray Charles singing America have accomplished the unthinkable: never wanting to hear him sing it […]
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December 8, 2010
Ray Charles Guests At The Danny Kaye International Children’s Awards (1991)
Read moreOn 1 September 1991 Ray Charles contributed to Unicef 1991; The Danny Kaye International Children’s Awards, taped at the Congresgebouw in The Hague. The show was hosted by Roger Moore and Audrey Hepburn, and directed by Dwight Hemion. Other guest artists were Luciano Pavarotti, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, Cher, Gregory Peck, Whoopi Goldberg, and Arnold […]
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December 8, 2010
Ray Charles Live In Sitges (1976)
Read moreFrom La Vanguardia, Aug. 8. On 26 July 1976 Ray Charles gave a concert in Sitges, as a closing act of the Primer Festival de Jazz. The show was broadcast live by TVE 1. As yet, no footage has surfaced. From Spanish newspaper articles it becomes clear that after the cameras stopped, Ray’s manager, Joe […]
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December 7, 2010
Ray Charles Starring In Portofino Porto D’Arte (1995) And A Song That Was Never Released
Read moreOn 14 July 1995 Ray Charles played with his Orchestra and The Raelettes at the Piazzetta, part of the local harbor’s quay, in Portofino. The (voice over) comments were delivered by Amii Stewart and Ezio Guaitamacchi, both taking the liberty to sometimes speak through the music. One source specified that Amii Stewart also did a […]
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December 7, 2010
Ray Charles Sings Georgia With Giorgia (1995)
Read moreOn 27 April 1995 Canale 5 aired a big live show from the Palasport di Casalecchio in Reno (Bologna) to celebrate Alberto Tomba’s world championship in alpine skiing. Ray Charles invited Giorgia (Todrani) on stage to sing Georgia On My Mind (her father named her Giorgia after the song). Among the other stars of the […]
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December 6, 2010
Ray Charles In A Foul Mood In Positano (1996)
Read moreOn 7 July 1996 both Corriere della Sera and La Stampa had big stories on a concert given the night before by Ray Charles and Renzo Arbore (also see this article), at Castelvetrano in Positano. My Italian is sketchy, but this is my reconstruction (to the Italian readers of this blog: please correct me if […]
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December 6, 2010
Ray Charles Ft. In Festa Azzura (With Renzo Arbore) (1994)
Read moreDuring the 1994 Soccer World Cup, held in the USA, Rai Uno produced the show Festa Azzurra at Madison Square Garden in New York. The show was broadcast in Italy via satellite. The evening was hosted by clarinetist and orchestra leader Renzo Arbore. His The Italian Orchestra performed together with a number of American guests, including […]
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December 6, 2010
Ray Charles Part Of Oral History Project At USF (1977 – 1978)
Read moreIn the summer of 1947, 16 years old, Ray Charles tried to make a living in Tampa, partly succeeding by playing piano (“for a few days”) with a C&W band, The Florida Playboys). In 1977 and 1978 Otis Anthony interviewed about ninety civil rights pioneers and members of Tampa’s black community for the Tampa Urban […]
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December 5, 2010
Ray Charles On Rock & Roll Remember Radio Show (1983)
Read moreAccording to this contract, Ray performed at two broadcasts of Dick Clark’s NBC (American) Bandstand, on 10 and 12 April 1957. [There’s always some reason to doubt the authenticity of this kind of documents, but this one looks genuine; it was recently sold for $216]. The contract above was signed by “the other” Ray Charles Offenberg. […]
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December 5, 2010
Ray Charles Ft. In Romeo Und Julia 70 (1969) + Amazing Photo Find
Read moreRomeo Und Julia 70 was a lavishly produced 2-part tv mini-series directed and written by Michael Pfleghar (1933 – 1991), at the time Germany’s most famous TV director. Its first episode was aired, in German, by ZDF (who also coughed up the $2 million dollar budget) on 14 May 1969, the second on May 18th, […]
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December 2, 2010
Ray Charles In Alta Classa (1992)
Read moreAlta Classa was a series of twelve 2-hour programs broadcast by RAI Uno in 1991 – 1992. It had a dual format: the first part was a show, the second part a portrait based on interviews with the star, and with people who knew the protagonist well. On 7 January 1992 Ray Charles was the […]
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December 2, 2010
Ray Charles – A Man And His Soul (1983)
Read moreRay Charles – A Man And His Soul, A 40th Anniversary Celebration was a 2-hour special television tribute, celebrating Ray’s 40 years in show business, taped at the Cocoanut Grove club in LA in the early summer of 1983, produced for national syndication by The Dick Clark Company for Multimedia Entertainment. The show was directed […]