Ray Charles In New Haven (1985)

Source: Topfoto.

On 8 June 1985 Ray Charles and his group gave a concert at the Shubert Performing Arts Center in New Haven. The show was taped from the audience. The audio quality is a little less than mediocre.

The setlist was:

1. Project S (Ray Charles Orchestra)

2. Intro

3. Let the Good Times Roll

4. Georgia On My Mind

5. Oh, What A Beautiful Morning

6. How Long Has This Been Going On

7. Intro Raelettes

8. I Want Your Love (with The Raelettes)

9. Anyway You Want To

10. I Can’t Stop Loving You

11. I’m Gonna Keep On Singin’ + What’d I Say

12. Outro

13. America The Beautiful

14. Walk-off

From Project S (#1) only one other live version (Madrid, 1975) has survived. #13 is a double surprise:  America The Beautiful was only part of the Ray Charles Orchestra’s repertoire on and around the 4th of July (he also sang it frequently in his symphony gigs), and Ray ‘never’ (i.e. hardly ever) did encores.