The Genius Of Ray Charles
by Ray Charles

The Genius Of Ray Charles by Ray Charles
Year: 1959
Overall rank: 1,005th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
77/100 (from 225 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top 10 albums of 1959 (8th)
Award Top 50 albums of of the 1950s (24th)
Award Best albums of all time (1,005th)

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Ray Charles bestography

The Genius Of Ray Charles is ranked as the best album by Ray Charles.

Ray Charles album bestography « Higher ranked
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This album (1,005th)
The Genius Of Ray Charles
Lower ranked (1,159th) »
Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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The Genius Of Ray Charles rankings

The Genius Of Ray Charles rankings summary
Overall rank: 1,005th | 1950s rank: 24th | 1959 rank: 8th  Overall chart history
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings).Help Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 4 hours ago)

The Genius Of Ray Charles collection

The Genius Of Ray Charles ratings

Average Rating: 
77/100 (from 225 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 3 ratings for this album.  | Show all 225 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
55/100
 !
08/27/2026 22:28 ecocruzr  Ratings distribution  16269/100
 
100/100
 !
08/15/2026 08:19 Olli  Ratings distribution  7,91262/100
 
85/100
 !
03/13/2026 17:38 wadwicz5  Ratings distribution  90186/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album is rated in the top 3% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 77.2/100, a mean average of 76.4/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 77.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.9.


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The Genius Of Ray Charles favourites

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Forum mentions

This album has been referenced 18 times on the forums, Explore the wider forum discussion to see what members have said about it.
From BestEverAlbums 3 days ago in Monthly overall chart movements
The overall chart is ever changing, and it's difficult to keep up with the detail of what's happening. So, for those people who are interested, this post attempts to show the latest movements - biggest climbers, movers, new entries and leavers for the top 100, 250, 500 & 1000 over the past month,…
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From BestEverAlbums 08/01/2026 16:00 in Monthly overall chart movements
The overall chart is ever changing, and it's difficult to keep up with the detail of what's happening. So, for those people who are interested, this post attempts to show the latest movements - biggest climbers, movers, new entries and leavers for the top 100, 250, 500 & 1000 over the past month,…
View forum post →

From BestEverAlbums 07/01/2026 16:00 in Monthly overall chart movements
The overall chart is ever changing, and it's difficult to keep up with the detail of what's happening. So, for those people who are interested, this post attempts to show the latest movements - biggest climbers, movers, new entries and leavers for the top 100, 250, 500 & 1000 over the past month,…
View forum post →

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The Genius Of Ray Charles comments

Showing latest 5 comments | Show all 14 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)
Rating:  
90/100
From 02/07/2026 19:26 | #313063
The title should, by rights, have given rise to an album containing more of his own great compositions. His genius was deeply entailed in his own songwriting. Despite that, his covers are great and this is a superb record. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
65/100
There are a lot of enjoyable songs on this album and I like the way he evenly distributes his song types onto each side. Side 1 is a much more band led and jazz influenced side making it more to my preference and side 2 is a lot more ballad heavy. The feel of the first six songs is just so energetic and fun and his voice sounds even better when backed by a big jazz band. This leads to fantastic songs such as Deed I Do, It Has To Be You and Let The Good Times Roll. The second side is quite dull in comparison but has its moments when it shines such as the closing track. If you love his vocal it really does shine on side 2 and carries the songs even when the music is a bit dull. Overall, if side 1 made up the whole album this could be sensational but the slower second half lets the record down on the whole for me.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 11/11/2021 17:15 | #276169
Solid, but better Ray was coming later.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
25/100
From 01/21/2021 20:47 | #264802
big band - side one
ballads - side two
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 07/08/2020 17:32 | #255255
Really good album I hear very good R and B.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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