Ray Charles
was one of the best and most versatile American artists of his generation, a singer, composer, and instrumentalist who refused to be hemmed in by genre or convention, but he also loved to collaborate with others, and on his 1984 album
Friendship
,
Charles
recorded duets with ten major country music stars, including
Johnny Cash
George Jones
Merle Haggard
Ricky Skaggs
, and
Mickey Gilley
.
Playlist: The Very Best Ray Charles Duets
repackages the
album, including all ten tracks in full, and adds three more duets, in which
Ray
shares vocals with
Tony Bennett
Billy Joel
Willie Nelson
. Nothing here is quite up to the level of
' classic recordings of the '50s and '60s, but
is in fine voice on these performances, sounding robust and playful while trying not to show up his duet partners, and if this isn't the definitive look at
' work as a vocal partner, it's at very least a solid expanded version of
, which was one of his most popular albums of the '80s. ~ Mark Deming