Crying Time

Crying Time is a studio album by Ray Charles, released in January 1966 on ABC-Paramount Records and produced by Joe Adams, the album that won Charles the Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording (for the title track) and Best R&B Solo Vocal Performance in 1967, and one of the most consistently praised R&B albums of his mid-1960s work. Charles wrote some original material; the album includes 'Crying Time' (Buck Owens's original, which Charles transformed from a country song into a soul ballad), 'Let's Go Get Stoned' (Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson's composition that became one of Charles's biggest singles of the decade, reaching number one on the R&B chart), and 'Drifting Blues.' The album reached number six on the Billboard Pop Albums chart and its combination of country covers, soul originals, and gospel-influenced material reflected the full range of Charles's multi-genre approach that had defined his ABC-Paramount period. 'Crying Time' reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and 'Let's Go Get Stoned' remains one of the most celebrated recordings of the mid-1960s soul era. The album demonstrates Charles's consistent commercial and artistic productivity across multiple genre contexts and his ability to transform material from any tradition into his own particular synthesis.