Ray Charles Video Museum: Crying Time (With The Raelettes, Ft Lillie Fort)

14 November 2014

Crying Time (With The Raelettes, Ft Lillie Fort)

Single (A): ABC/Paramount 10739, October 1965, b/w When My Dream Boat Comes Home.
Album: Crying Time, ABC/Paramount/Tangerine 544, January 1966.

Recorded on June 23, 1965 at RPM Studios in Hollywood.

Ray Charles (vocals, piano); John Audino, Conte Candoli (trumpet); Milton Bernhart, Frank D. Strong (trombone); Bill Perkins (tenor saxophone); Bill Carson (alto saxophone); Jewel Grant (baritone saxophone); Red Callender (tuba); René Hall (guitar); Joe Comfort (bass); Jack Sperling (drums); Sid Sharp, Jerome V. Fisher, Leonard Malarsky, Ralph Schaeffer, William Kurasch, Arnold Belnick, Jimmy Getzoff, Victor Arno, Tibor Zelig, Israel Baker (violin); Al Neiman, Joe DiFiore (viola); Jesse Ehrlich, Joseph Saxon (cello); The Raeletts (Lillie Fort, Gwen Berry, two unidentified girls), The Jack Halloran Singers (unidentified members) (background vocals)
Lillie Fort sang lead.
Don Peake remembers playing guitar, but only the distinct sound of Rene Hall can be heard. Earl Palmer has been credited for the drums parts, but only Jack Sperling was mentioned on the studio contract.

The version on Greatest Country & Western Hits has about five seconds of studio chatter ("rolling nine..." etc) between Ray and Joe Adams. Ray, working on the compilation with remastering engineer Steve Hoffman, wanted Joe's voice on the disk. When Joe found out about it, he claimed extra royalties.

Steve Hoffman also wrote that:

"[...] later country Ray Charles songs like Crying Time were recorded [sic?! BS] at Bell Sound in New York" and "that there are two different stereo mixes of Crying Time, the first version mixed at Bell Sound and the second mixed at RPM International, both vintage mixes.

The Bell Sound stereo mix is on the Greatest Country & Western Hits DCC Gold CD and the RPM mix is on the DCC/Sandstone Ray Charles - His Greatest Hits two disk set (SAN 2 5002.) The RPM mix is also on the old ABC-Paramount LP ABC-544, Crying Time.

The way to tell the difference between the two mixes? At the end, the 'choir' singing on the left channel is 'wet' on the Bell Sound mix (properly) and on the RPM mix a few months later they are dead dry on the same channel. Ray liked both mixes and used them equally when we worked together. He didn't remember why the song was remixed at his studio but then realized it was because he felt like it. Heh."