Golden Classics

I read the reviews before buying this CD. I had heard off the Caprice Records CD four of his tracks. All of his material is very good. It is too bad this guy had to die so young and didn't quite receive the success his voice should have had. There are too many artists that don't even get a second thought and are totally missed by the public. If you like soul give this guy a listen to. He may have had contemporary orchestra music backing him but the voice is unmistakably soulful in the delivery. I'm glad I did because if it weren't for the only song from a tape recorded off a radio back in 1973 was his only top 40 song heard once by myself - "If You Gotta Make a Fool Of Somebody" from an Oldies station I wouldn't have know him at all!

I was standing in a used cd store when they started playing this album and couldn't help but listen closer. At times it sounds like something straight out of the 60s and other times it sounds like a modern take on newer songs. Since it's not uncommon to redo songs that are only a decade old, when I heard George Harrison's hit "I've Got My Mind Set On You" off this, I assumed this was a newer remake. But no, it's here in it's original form. Bottom line, if you're a fan of 60s R&B pick this up.

I bought this for two songs, Got My Mind Set On You and If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody, and wound up liking most of the songs.

That's the reaction you're apt to get if you bring up Ray's name in any discussion about early 1960s recording artists. And given that he had all of two nationally-charting singles, I suppose that's to be expected. Born James Ray Raymond in Washington, D.C. in 1941, he first recorded in 1959 for the small New York City-based Gallant Records where, due to his diminutive size (he stood just 5' feet tall), he was billed as Little Jimmy Ray. The lone disc, You Need To Fall In Love/Make Her Mine on Gallant 1001 failed to chart (and remain impossible to find on CD).After that he more or less disappeared from the recording studio and, although continuing to plug away in local NYC dives, was literally living on someone's rooftop when discovered by Gerry Granahan, now owner of Caprice Records, and previously a recording star on his own and with the groups Dicky Doo & The Don'ts and The Fireflies. Signed to a contract, in late 1961 he recorded If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody - penned by New York letter carrier Rudy Clark who would also write The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss) - and took it to # 10 R&B and # 22 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in January 1962 on Caprice 110 b/w It's Been A Drag, backed by the Hutch Davie orchestra (Maxine Brown would later take the hit back to the Hot 100 charts at # 63 in 1966).The Davie band was also present on his next, and only other hit, Itty Bitty Pieces, which just missed the Hot 100 Top 40 by peaking at # 41 in May 1962 b/w You Remember The Face on Caprice 114, although it made no impact at all on the R&B charts. That same year his only album "James Ray" (Caprice 1002) was released, an indication that Granahan believed in him, but while it sold moderately well, the subsequent singles all fizzled. That included the hopefully-titled Things Are Gonna Be Different b/w A Miracle (also culled from the LP) on Caprice 117 in 1962 and then these singles on his Congress label into 1964: Marie/The Old Man And The Mule (another culled from his album) - Congress 109 late in 1962; Do The Monkey/Put Me In Your Diary on Congress 201, and The Masquerade Is Over/One By One on Congress 203, both in 1963.That same year Granahan chose another Clark tune, I've Got My Mind Set On You Parts 1 & 2 from his album and released that on another of his labels, Dynamic Sound 503, again with the Hutch Davie orchestra. It too failed to chart, but in 1987 George Harrison, ex of The Beatles, would have a # 1 with it as Got My Mind Set On You. In 1964, We Got A Good Thing Goin' On/On That Day came out on Congress 218, but by that time the British Invasion had arrived and only the very best North American recording artists would find room on the Hot 100 charts for the next couple of years, and for some reason Ray wasn't clicking with the R&B audience.One thing that might have contributed to his inability to develop a firm fan base and more commercial success was the flip-flopping from R&B-tinged songs to supper-club fare. In any event, he reportedly died in 1964 right where Granahan found him - back living on the streets and a victim of a drug overdose.What you get here from Collectables is that lone album containing the following tracks which, in retrospect, would have pleased completist hits collectors had they included, as a "bonus" track, the missing B-side to his second and last hit, You Remember The Face because I doubt very much we'll ever see another quality James Ray CD compilation:1. The Old Man And The Mule; 2. Lazy Bones; 3. I've Got My Mind Set On You (Pts. 1 & 2); 4. St. James Infirmary; 5. Come Rain Or Come Shine; 6. If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody; 7. Without A Song; 8. Teach Me Tonight; 9. A Miracle; 10. It's Been A Drag; 11. Welcome To The Floor; 12. Itty Bitty Pieces.

That's the reaction you're apt to get if you bring up Ray's name in any discussion about early 1960s recording artists. And given that he had all of two nationally-charting singles, I suppose that's to be expected. Born James Ray Raymond in Washington, D.C. in 1941, he first recorded in 1959 for the small New York City-based Gallant Records where, due to his diminutive size (he stood just 5' feet tall), he was billed as Little Jimmy Ray. The lone disc, You Need To Fall In Love/Make Her Mine on Gallant 1001 failed to chart (and remain impossible to find on CD).After that he more or less disappeared from the recording studio and, although continuing to plug away in local NYC dives, was literally living on someone's rooftop when discovered by Gerry Granahan, now owner of Caprice Records, and previously a recording star on his own and with the groups Dicky Doo & The Don'ts and The Fireflies. Signed to a contract, in late 1961 he recorded If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody - penned by New York letter carrier Rudy Clark who would also write The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss) - and took it to # 10 R&B and # 22 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in January 1962 on Caprice 110 b/w It's Been A Drag, backed by the Hutch Davie orchestra (Maxine Brown would later take the hit back to the Hot 100 charts at # 63 in 1966).The Davie band was also present on his next, and only other hit, Itty Bitty Pieces, which just missed the Hot 100 Top 40 by peaking at # 41 in May 1962 b/w You Remember The Face on Caprice 114, although it made no impact at all on the R&B charts. That same year his only album "James Ray" (Caprice 1002) was released, an indication that Granahan believed in him, but while it sold moderately well, the subsequent singles all fizzled. That included the hopefully-titled Things Are Gonna Be Different b/w A Miracle (also culled from the LP) on Caprice 117 in 1962 and then these singles on his Congress label into 1964: Marie/The Old Man And The Mule (another culled from his album) - Congress 109 late in 1962; Do The Monkey/Put Me In Your Diary on Congress 201, and The Masquerade Is Over/One By One on Congress 203, both in 1963.That same year Granahan chose another Clark tune, I've Got My Mind Set On You Parts 1 & 2 from his album and released that on another of his labels, Dynamic Sound 503, again with the Hutch Davie orchestra. It too failed to chart, but in 1987 George Harrison, ex of The Beatles, would have a # 1 with it as Got My Mind Set On You. In 1964, We Got A Good Thing Goin' On/On That Day came out on Congress 218, but by that time the British Invasion had arrived and only the very best North American recording artists would find room on the Hot 100 charts for the next couple of years, and for some reason Ray wasn't clicking with the R&B audience.One thing that might have contributed to his inability to develop a firm fan base and more commercial success was the flip-flopping from R&B-tinged songs to supper-club fare. In any event, he reportedly died in 1964 right where Granahan found him - back living on the streets and a victim of a drug overdose.What you get here from Collectables is that lone album which, in retrospect, would have pleased completist hits collectors had they included, as a "bonus" track, the missing B-side to his second and last hit, You Remember The Face because I doubt very much we'll ever see another quality James Ray CD compilation

I love this LP, and decades ago used to have a vinyl copy, but though the music sounds good, the CD presentation by the always-cheap "Collectables' label is awful. A single sheet insert, no annotation, no credits - nothing. This company is known for just bunging music out with no care, The "Golden Classics" on the 1-sheet cover must be ironic. The sad thing is that nobody seems to really care - James Ray died in the 1960s, and producer Hutch Davie is in his late 80s - but "Collectables" always do things this way. Noteworthy for the original cuts of the laughable Freddie & Dreamers "If You Got To Make A Fool of Somebody" with a tuba playing the bassline, and the original of George Harrison's Got My Mind Set On You". I've therefore deducted 1 star for Collectables insulting and rank presentation, on the basis that the music is at least here.

This CD is worth buying JUST for the 'Got my mind set on you ' track (recorded by George Harrison many years later - he did not write it as we previously thought!)Ray's gravelly voice, and superb, gutsy, early soul (1961-2) arrangements (by the Hutch Davie Orchestra) incorporate brass, gospel, and even banjo, and it works ! Ray's early death in '62 or '63 deprived us of a talent equal to Marvin Gaye or Otis ReddingThe CD includes some traditional soul/blues songs from the 50s and also "If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody" - 'murdered' by Freddie and the Dreamers (who had a hit with in the UK) but here you can hear how it was MEANT to sound!

Great listening from start to finish and again, and again...........

Someone who disappeared in strange circumstances. You are left thinking what could have been.