Come Rain Or Come Shine

Album: The Genius Of Ray Charles, Atlantic 1312, October 1959.
Single (B) [edited version]: Atlantic 2084, November 1960 b/w Tell Me You’ll Wait For Me.
Single (A) [edited version]: Atlantic 2470, December 1967 b/w  Tell Me You’ll Wait For Me.

Recorded on 6 May 1959 in New York with Bob Brookmeyer – tb; Ted Sommer – ds; Allen Hanlon – g; Wendell Marshall – b; unidentified woodwinds and strings. Ralph Burns – arranger, director.

Palais des Sports, Paris, 1961 (solo: Don Wilkerson):
Update 01.02.2021: the video of this performance is no longer available on YouTube, please let me know in the comments below if you have any footage, thanks — Cyd

Live:
In live concerts, the tune would become 100% associated with Don Wilkerson, who was a notorious heroin addict. Right until the end of the band, the most memorable piece in the entire book of the Ray Charles Orchestra was the tenor part to Come Rain Or Come Shine, which was – literally – stained with Don’s blood. This happened in 1979, when, as Dan Marcus recalls it, “Don got up to take a solo at Kimball’s and walked right through his stand. He cut his hand on it, and his blood was ORANGE […]. Still played his ass off that day, though he could barely stand. That’s leaving a mark…”

’61 LC Zurich
’61 LC Paris – 2x – Released
’68 LC Fresno
’78 LC Antibes
’83 LC Antibes
’84 LC Nancy
’88 LC Oklahoma
’88 LC Saratoga
’91 LC BlueNote
’95 LC Tramps – 2x – Streams available
’96 LC Lugano