On November 14, 1960, a 30-year-old Ray Charles topped the Billboard Hot 100 with a song that didn’t just redefine his career: it eventually became an official state song.
The 1930 song “Georgia on My Mind,” by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell connected with Charles. A Georgia native, he loved the song and frequently hummed it backstage. However, he initially hesitated to record it out of concern that audiences wouldn’t embrace a standard from a different era.
For years, a popular piece of music trivia claimed the song was a tribute to composer Hoagy Carmichael’s sister, Georgia, per the website Rise Up Singing. In reality, the tune started as a casual suggestion from a fellow musician Frankie Trumbauer.
As Carmichael later recalled in his memoir Sometimes I Wonder, the saxophonist pitched the idea of writing a track dedicated to the Peach State, playfully singing the opening words to get the ball rolling. Carmichael ran with the concept alongside his roommate, Stuart Gorrell, who put the rest of the words on paper.
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Therefore, Charles hesitated to record “Georgia on My Mind,” fearing listeners would think a decades-old standard sounded too dated for modern pop and R&B audiences. However, at the urging of his driver and longtime friend, Tommy Brown, he decided to take the leap and record it, according to Songfacts.
The song landed on Charles’ landmark 1960 album, The Genius Hits the Road, and was recorded in only four takes. Songfacts reported that, typically, Charles sang a song a dozen times before he was satisfied with a recording.
Recording “Georgia on My Mind” cemented the entertainer’s crossover appeal to mainstream pop audiences. The song ushered in a wave of success for Charles, who hit No. 1 in both 1961 and 1962 with “Hit The Road Jack,” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You.”
“Georgia On My Mind” won Grammy awards for Best Male Vocal Performance and Best Pop Song Performance. The album also won Best Male Vocal Performance Album, and a second song, “Let the Good Times Roll,” won Best R&B Performance. The song ultimately changed his career forever, propelling Charles from an R&B trailblazer into a mainstream pop phenomenon.
Much ado has been made about whether or not, in Charles’ version, Georgia is a person or a place. In the book Brother Ray, Charles was quoted as saying, “I wasn’t dreaming of the state when I recorded the song, even though I was born there.” He added, “I’ve never known a lady named Georgia.”
“Georgia on My Mind” was officially designated as the state song of Georgia on April 24, 1979, when Governor George Busbee signed a joint resolution passed by the Georgia General Assembly.
Related: How a 1962 Country Hit Broke Barriers and Became an All-Time Great Love Song
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