Ray Charles: 17 Original Albums

Now that music downloads have surpassed CD sales, we are seeing more and more album compilations like this and I love it. It's a great way to get an artists major work at an insane price! This Ray Charles set fits the bill on all levels. You get 10 albums, covering his debut album in 1957 through work in 1961. You just can't beat that. One of the things I worry about with these purchases is the quality of the recordings. No issue here! The sound quality is excellent! If you have the time and love for music like I do, I suggest you rip your music and create each album along with its album cover art. Note: (Mp3tag) is an excellent free download for this purpose. The one thing you do lose with these type of box sets is album information (musicians names and back stories). That is a trade off, but the money you save is well worth it and you can always go to Wikipedia to get relevant information. Ray Charles was a national treasure and true genius! This is a must buy for music enthusiast everywhere.

I'm very pleased with this 10 cd collection. There are many options for collectors of Ray's Atlantic and ABC/Dunhil recordings. I bought this partially for the great selection of songs as well as for the price. I have owned several of these albums on vinyl, cassette and cd over the years (I started collecting him back in '75 when I was 19). I forgot how good some of this stuff is. Thought I'm no audiophile, the quality is quite good. The packaging is nice too. Now that I've had this for a couple of weeks, I thought I'd add that recording dates, personnel and a few other notes would be nice, but considering the price, it's not really a complaint. There are other places to find that information.

I'm absolutely a Ray Charles fan! I have purchased a number of his anthology albums just to get one or two of his hard-to-find recordings. This one has so many of them. Since it a collection of many of his past albums, your will find a lot of the songs are duplicated. Basically, Ray re-recorded a number of songs and that's the reason for the repeats. I was skeptical when first saw this offering because of the low price, but it is just as it claims. If yyou are looking for a compilation, this is the one to buy.

Great music, unbelievable bargain! Sound quality is decent, CD packaging is nice (box with CD sleeves). Best value music purchase I have probably ever made.

Got this as a Christmas gift and was delighted when it arrived. Only one dislike was that some of the songs are duplicated, but met expectations none the less.

I purchased as a gift and listened to a couple of the CD's and was very satisfied. Really good price!

Ray Charles is one of my favorites! Some songs on these CD’s I hadn’t heard!! Hard to believe!

The quality is excellent in terms of editing (good track separation) and audio. Also a great price.

J ai fait ce cadeau et la personne adoré

Great buy

Excelente recopilación de los álbumes más emblemáticos de Ray, buen sonido teniendo en cuenta la antigüedad de algunos de ellos.

What can you say about Ray Charles that hasn't already been said. Well this is the only box set you will need to buy, Because all the real classic tracks that Ray Charles Recorded over a very short period of time are here for you to marvel at.17 albums on 10 C.Ds. In this set are all his Atlantic Records output and all his A.B.C Records output. This is the ultimate set and at a brilliant price as well. If I was to give marks out of 100,I would give 95. And that is because there is no booklet with this collection, And I for one like to know the ins and outs of a recording session, Things like, who played this and who played that, Where it was recorded, A recording date ,And who produced the tracks. I personally think that being that history is being made with the recording of these great tracks, The people who play on them and produce them deserve to me mentioned. I rest my case. Whoever is putting this box set out ,Need to include a booklet.

You can't really go wrong with Ray and this collection is great value, but it's a mixed bag. Many of the hits from his best years are here along with great live sets and some of his jazz albums. I loved hearing his country albums because they are often overlooked. He was truly a giant, one of the very few.