The Genius Hits the Road

The Genius Hits the Road is the first studio album by Ray Charles on ABC-Paramount Records, released in October 1960 and produced by Sid Feller, a concept album organized around American geography, with Charles interpreting songs associated with specific states and cities, drawing on the same American place-based songwriting tradition that Johnny Cash was exploring simultaneously from a country perspective. Charles did not write the songs; the concept was organized around the geographic catalog of American popular music, 'Georgia on My Mind' (Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell), 'California, Here I Come,' 'Moonlight in Vermont,' 'Deep in the Heart of Texas,' 'Basin Street Blues,' 'Back Home Again in Indiana,' and others, demonstrating that the geography of American music was extensive enough to sustain a full album. 'Georgia on My Mind' was released as a single and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, Charles's first number-one pop single, and went on to become his signature song and the official state song of Georgia. The album itself reached number nine on the Billboard Pop Albums chart and demonstrated that the ABC-Paramount move had expanded rather than compromised Charles's commercial reach. The Genius Hits the Road stands as the album that made Charles a pop mainstream artist in addition to his existing R&B and jazz audiences, and 'Georgia on My Mind' remains the most universally recognized recording of his career.