Why Don Henley calls Ray Charles his all-time favourite: “The album changed my life”
While Don Henley started out as a drummer, his deep love for the history of incredible singers he admired quickly saw him come out from behind his kit and take to the mic. Loving music beyond simply loving his instrument, his broad admiration for music makers and their songs also meant that he was a fan of all genres, seeing everything as one great mass of talent and artistry. So when discussing his favourite country songs, he had no issue revealing that his favourite singer wasn’t country at all.
‘Country’ is a loose term that Henley’s own music falls under. While the Eagles certainly have a country twang, Henley knows better than anyone that the genre label is more about feeling and spirit than any actual definitions or requirements. There is no list to tick off, meeting a quota of demands to be allowed to use the label. There is no one set sound or way of making music to match up to. Instead, it’s simply about music that hits at the heart and tells a story that touches people.
Sometimes, that’s done through acoustic guitars. Sometimes, that’s done through narrative lyrics that tell the tale of a cast of characters or personalities. And sometimes, in this instance, it is simply done through a beautiful voice that is so moving that no genre label could ever hold it down.
That’s why Henley was more than happy to reveal that his favourite singer worked in a very different style of music to his own as he declared Ray Charles and his song ‘Can’t Stop Loving You’ to be his top.
“This man is my favourite singer of all time,” he declared about the man who is most commonly associated with R&B or soul. Henley was aware of that, but he argued his point anyway, explaining that “he has never been known necessarily as a country artist, but he did a groundbreaking album back in the 1960s called Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music.”
Out of all the most defining and influential records in Henley’s life, this is a key one. “That album changed my life,” he said, which is no minor praise. Listening on repeat as he became hooked on Charles’ voice, he continued, “I wore out at least two vinyl copies of it. It had some wonderful songs on it.”
First written by Don Gibson for his own 1958 album, the song was swiftly adopted as a kind of country standard that several artists had a go at singing. Roy Orbison released a cover of it in 1961, Paul Anka in 1963, Frank Sinatra turned it into a swing song in 1964, and even names like Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton sang it during live shows.
But out of all of them, it was Ray Charles’ 1962 version that captured Henley’s heart as he said, “This is, in my opinion, the definitive version of this song.” Not only putting him onto this classic country song, Charles’ cover also put Henley onto the singer who would endure as his all time favourite voice in music, despite the genre divide between them and their very different vocal energies.
