"I Got a Woman" | ||||
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Single by Ray Charles | ||||
from the album Ray Charles | ||||
A-side | "I've Got a Woman" | |||
B-side | "Come Back Baby" | |||
Released | 1954 | |||
Format | 7" single | |||
Recorded | Atlanta, Georgia, 1954 | |||
Genre | Jump blues, rhythm and blues | |||
Length | 2:31 | |||
Label | Atlantic 45-1050 | |||
Writer(s) | Ray Charles and Renald Richard | |||
Producer(s) | Jerry Wexler | |||
Ray Charles singles chronology | ||||
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"I Got a Woman" | |
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Song by The Beatles from the album Live at the BBC and On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2 | |
Released | 30 November 1994 (Live at the BBC) 11 November 2013 (On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2) |
Recorded | 16 July 1963 (Live at the BBC) 31 March 1964 (On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2) |
Length | 2:48 (Live at the BBC) 2:36 (On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2) |
Label | Apple |
Writer(s) | Ray Charles |
Producer(s) | Terry Henebery |
"I Got a Woman" (originally titled "I've Got a Woman") is a song co-written and recorded by American R&B/soul musician Ray Charles and released as a single in December 1954 on the Atlantic label as Atlantic 45-1050 b/w "Come Back Baby." Both sides later appeared on his 1957 album Ray Charles (subsequently reissued as Hallelujah I Love Her So).
The song builds on "It Must Be Jesus" by the Southern Tones, which Ray Charles was listening to on the radio while on the road with his band in the summer of 1954. He and a member of his band, trumpeter Renald Richard, penned a song that was built along a gospel-frenetic pace with secular lyrics and a jazz-inspired rhythm and blues (R&B) background. The song would be one of the prototypes for what later became termed as "soul music" after Charles released "What'd I Say" nearly five years later.
The song was recorded late 1954 in the Atlanta studios of Georgia Tech radio station WGST. It was a hit—Charles' first—climbing quickly to #1 R&B in January 1955. Charles told the Pop Chronicles that he performed this song for about a year before he recorded it on November 18, 1954. The song would lead to more hits for Charles during this period when he was on Atlantic. It was later ranked No. 239 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, one of Charles' five songs on the list. A re-recorded version by Ray Charles, entitled "I Gotta Woman" (ABC-Paramount 10649) reached No. 79 on the Billboard pop chart in 1965.