Sweet & Sour Tears

by Ray Charles

Product Description:

Personnel includes: Ray Charles (vocals, piano); Sonny Forrest (guitar); Harold Minerve, Dan Turner (alto saxophone); James Clay, David "Fathead" Newman, Don Wilkerson (tenor saxophone); Leroy Cooper, Cecil Payne (baritone

saxophone); Oliver Beener, Burgess Gardner, Philip Guilbeau, John Hunt, Floyd Jones, Curtis Miller, Joe Bridgewater, Joshua Willis (trumpet); Henderson Chambers, Jim Herbert, Keg Johnson, Julian Priester, Fred Morden (trombone); Edgar Willis, Paul West (bass); Wilbur Hogan, Bob Thompson, Panama Francis (drums); The Gene Lowell Singers, The Raelettes, The Cookies, The Jack Halloran Singers (background vocals).

Producers: Sid Feller, Joe Adams, Ahmet Ertegun, Jerry Wexler.

Reissue producers: James Austin, Michael Johnson.

Engineers include: Phil Macy, Bill Putnam, Al Schmitt.

Originally released on ABC-Paramount (480). Includes liner notes by Eddie Gorodetsky.

Digitally remastered by Bill Inglott & Dan Hersch.

Wrapped in lush string arrangements and the swooning background vocals of the Gene Lowell Singers, 1964's SWEET & SOUR TEARS is a concept album in which Ray Charles interprets material dealing with loss and heartbreak. Songs such as Johnnie Ray's "Cry" and "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry" share the same neighborhood as anything on Frank Sinatra's IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS. Charles' voice often cracks with emotion as his piano forlornly pushes on, particularly in the loping country waltz "A Tear Fell" and "You've Got Me Crying Again," providing the soundtrack for heartbreak the world over.

The other half of the original album found Charles using Calvin Jackson's punchy horn charts on songs such as "Teardrops From My Eyes" and a much livelier reading of "Cry Me A River" than Julie London's more subdued version. The horn section also provides excellent accompaniment on the samba-flavored "Baby, Don't You Cry" and on an arrangement of "I Cried For You" that either Sinatra or Bobby Darin would have been wise to borrow. Throw in seven bonus tracks that include "Crying Time" and "No Use Crying," and you're all set for another round of drinking and despair.