# Ray Charles sings "America the Beautiful"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-charles-sings-america-the-beautiful/83097>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 21, 2001, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-charles-sings-america-the-beautiful/83097 "2001-09-21T21:29:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![straykat23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@straykat23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straykat23)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-charles-sings-america-the-beautiful/83097/1 "2001-09-21T21:29:26Z")

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Tragically beautiful.

Turn the sound up - your cube mates shouldn’t mind.

[http://www.doubtlessdesigns.net/](http://www.doubtlessdesigns.net/)

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**Author:** ![DAVEW0071](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19b73/32.png) [@DAVEW0071](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DAVEW0071)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2001, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-charles-sings-america-the-beautiful/83097/2 "2001-09-22T11:11:10Z")

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Obviously, a master artist such as Ray Charles could sing the Alphabet Song and make it sound good. But the way he sings “America The Beautiful” is like nothing on earth. To give a blues flavoring to a song about the nation and culture which gave birth to the blues and jazz is genius. I’ve always gotten chills listening to his rendition. No matter how many times I hear it.

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**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2001, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ray-charles-sings-america-the-beautiful/83097/3 "2001-09-22T20:04:12Z")

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The man is, simply, a national treasure.