"What'd I Say" (or "What I Say") is an American rhythm and blues song by Ray Charles, released in June 1959. As a single divided into two parts, it was one of the first soul songs. The composition was improvised one evening late in 1958 when Charles, his orchestra, and backup singers had played their entire set list at a show and still had time left; the response from many audiences was so enthusiastic that Charles announced to his producer that he was going to record it.
After his run of R&B hits, this song finally broke Charles into mainstream pop music and itself sparked a new sub-genre of R&B titled soul, finally putting together all the elements that Charles had been creating since he recorded "I Got a Woman" in 1954. The gospel and rhumba influences combined with the sexual innuendo in the song made it not only widely popular but very controversial to both white and black audiences. It earned Ray Charles his first gold record and has been one of the most influential songs in R&B and rock and roll history. For the rest of his career, Charles closed every concert with the song. It was added to the National Recording Registry in 2002 and appeared in the 2003 and 2021 versions of Rolling Stones "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list: at number 10 in 2003 and at number 80 in 2021.
Background Ray Charles was 28 years old in 1958, with 10 years of experience recording primarily rhythm and blues music in a style similar to that of Nat King Cole and Charles Brown. He signed with Atlantic Records in 1952 where producers Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler encouraged him to broaden his repertoire. Wexler would later remember that Atlantic Records' success came not from the artists' experience, but the enthusiasm for the music: "We didn't know shit about making records, but we were having fun".Jackson, Blair (October 2004). "Recording Notes: Classic Tracks: Ray Charles' 'What'd I Say , Mix, 28 (11), pp. 130, 132 Ertegun and Wexler found that a hands-off approach was the best way of encouraging Charles. Wexler later said, "I realized the best thing I could do with Ray was leave him alone".Creswell, p. 722.
During Charles' heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, he toured for 300 days a year with a seven-piece orchestra. He employed another Atlantic singing trio named the Cookies and renamed them the Raelettes when they backed him up on the road. In 1954, Charles began merging gospel sounds and instruments with lyrics that addressed more secular issues. His first attempt was in the song "I Got a Woman", based either on the melodies from the gospel songs, The Southern Tones "It Must Be Jesus" or an uptempo, "I Got a Savior (Way Across Jordan)". It was Charles' first record that received attention from white audiences, but made some black audiences uncomfortable with its black gospel derivatives; Charles later stated that the joining of gospel and R&B was not a conscious decision.Evans, p. 71.
In December 1958, he had a hit on the R&B charts with "Night Time Is the Right Time", an ode to carnality that was sung between Charles and one of the Raelettes, Margie Hendricks, with whom Charles was having an affair. Since 1956, Charles had also included a Wurlitzer electric piano on tour because he did not trust the tuning and quality of the pianos provided to him at every venue. On the occasions he would play it, he was derided by other musicians.Evans, p. 109.
Composition and recording
According to Charles' autobiography, "What'd I Say" was accidental when he improvised it to fill time at the end of a concert in December 1958.Charles and Ritz, p. 189.Lydon, p. 153. He asserted that he never tested songs on audiences before recording them, but "What'd I Say" was an exception. Charles himself did not recall where the concert took place, but Mike Evans in Ray Charles: The Birth of Soul placed the show in Brownsville, Pennsylvania.Evans, p. 107. Shows were played at "meal dances" which typically ran four hours with a half-hour break, and would end around 1 or 2 in the morning. Charles and his orchestra had exhausted their set list after midnight, but had 12 minutes left to fill. He told the Raelettes, "Listen, I'm going to fool around and y'all just follow me".Charles and Ritz, p. 191.
Starting on the electric piano, Charles played what felt right: a series of riffs, switching then to a regular piano for four choruses backed up by a unique Latin conga tumbao rhythm on drums. The song changed when Charles began singing simple, improvised unconnected verses ("Hey Mama don't you treat me wrong / Come and love your daddy all night long / All right now / Hey hey / All right"). Charles used gospel elements in a twelve-bar blues structure.Stewart, Alexander (October 2000). Funky Drummer': New Orleans, James Brown and the Rhythmic Transformation of American Popular Music", Popular Music, 19 (3) pp. 293–318. Some of the first lines ("See the gal with the red dress on / She can do the Birdland all night long") are influenced by a boogie-woogie style that Ahmet Ertegun attributes to Clarence "Pinetop" Smith, who used to call out to dancers on the dance floor, telling them what to do through his lyrics. In the middle of the song, however, Charles indicated that the Raelettes should repeat what he was doing, and the song transformed into a call and response between Charles, the Raelettes, and the horn section in the orchestra as they called out to each other in ecstatic shouts and moans and blasts from the horns.
The audience reacted immediately; Charles could feel the room shaking and bouncing as the crowd was dancing. Many audience members approached Charles at the end of the show to ask where they could purchase the record. Charles and the orchestra performed it again several nights in a row with the same reaction at each show. He called Jerry Wexler to say he had something new to record, later writing, "I don't believe in giving myself advance notices, but I figured this song merited it".
The Atlantic Records studio had just purchased an 8-track recorder, and recording engineer Tom Dowd was familiarizing himself with how it worked. On February 18, 1959,Schinder & Schwartz, p. 51. Charles and his orchestra finally recorded "What'd I Say" at Atlantic's small studio. Dowd recalled that it did not seem special at the time of recording. It was second of two songs during the session and Charles, the producers, and the band were more impressed with the first one at the session, "Tell the Truth": "We made it like we made all the others. Ray, the gals, and the band live in the small studio, no overdubs. Three or four takes, and it was done. Next!"Lydon, p. 157. In retrospect, Ahmet Ertegun's brother Nesuhi credits the extraordinary sound of the song to the restricted size of the studio and the technologically advanced recording equipment used; the sound quality is clear enough to hear Charles slapping his leg in time with the song when the music stops during the calls and responses. The song was recorded in only a few takes because Charles and the orchestra had perfected it while touring.Ertegun, p. 118.
Dowd, however, had two problems during the recording. "What'd I Say" lasted over seven and a half minutes when the normal length of radio-played songs was around two and a half minutes. Furthermore, although the lyrics were not obscene, the sounds Charles and the Raelettes made in their calls and responses during the song worried Dowd and the producers. A previous recording called "Money Honey" by Clyde McPhatter had been banned in Georgia and Ahmet Ertegun and Wexler released McPhatter's song despite the ban, risking arrest.Evans, p. 110. Ray Charles was aware of the controversy in "What'd I Say": "I'm not one to interpret my own songs, but if you can't figure out 'What I Say', then something's wrong. Either that, or you're not accustomed to the sweet sounds of love."
Dowd solved the recording issues by mixing three versions of the song. Some call-outs of "Shake that thing!" were removed, and the song was split into two three-and-a-half minute sides of a single record, titling the song "What'd I Say Part I" and "What'd I Say Part II". The recorded version divides the parts with a false ending where the orchestra stops and the Raelettes and orchestra members beg Charles to continue, then goes on to a frenzied finale. Dowd later stated after hearing the final recording that not releasing the record was never an option: "we knew it was going to be a hit record, no question."Creswell, p. 721. It was held for the summer and released in June 1959.Lydon, p. 158.
Personnel The following musicians played on the session for "What'd I Say".Peter Grendysa and Robert Pruter, Atlantic Rhythm and Blues 1947-1974 booklet notes (CD edition), Atlantic Records, 1991 Ray Charles – piano, Wurlitzer electronic piano, lead vocals David Newman – tenor saxophone, alto saxophone Bennie Crawford – alto saxophone, baritone saxophone Edgar Willis – double bass Milt Turner – drums The Raelettes – backing vocals
Reception
Billboard magazine initially gave "What'd I Say" a tepid review: "He shouts out in percussive style ... Side two is the same."Lydon, p. 164. The secretary at Atlantic Records started getting calls from distributors, however. Radio stations refused to play it because it was too sexually charged, but Atlantic refused to take the records back from stores. A slightly sanitized version was released in July 1959 in response to the complaints, and the song hit number 82. A week later it was at 43, then 26. In contrast to their earlier review, Billboard several weeks later wrote that the song was "the strongest pop record that the artist has done to date". Within weeks "What'd I Say" topped out at number one on Billboard'''s R&B singles chart, number six on the Billboard Hot 100. "What'd I Say" was Ray Charles' first gold record.Fong-Torres, Ben (January 18, 1973). The Rolling Stone Interview: Ray Charles Rolling Stone. Retrieved on May 11, 2009. It also became Atlantic Records' best-selling song at the time.
"What'd I Say" was banned by many black and white radio stations because of, as one critic noted, "the dialogue between himself and his backing singers that started in church and ended up in the bedroom". The erotic nature was obvious to listeners, but a deeper aspect of the fusion between black gospel music and R&B troubled many black audiences. Music, as was much of American society, was also segregated, and some critics complained that gospel was not only being appropriated by secular musicians, but it was being marketed to white listeners.Evans, p. 111. During several concerts in the 1960s, the crowds became so frenetic and the shows so resembled revival meetings while Charles performed "What'd I Say" that the police were called in, when the organizers became worried that riots might break out.Lydon, pp. 195, 204. The moral controversy surrounding the song has been attributed to its popularity; Charles later acknowledged in an interview that the beat was catchy, but it was the suggestive lyrics that attracted listeners: " 'See the girl with the diamond ring. She knows how to shake that thing.' It wasn't the diamond ring that got 'em."
"What'd I Say" was Ray Charles' first crossover hit into the growing genre of rock and roll. He seized the opportunity of his immense newfound success and announced to Ertegun and Wexler that he was considering signing with ABC-Paramount Records (later renamed ABC Records) later in 1959.Charles and Ritz, pp. 194–195. While he was in negotiations with ABC-Paramount, Atlantic Records released an album of his hits, titled What'd I Say.
Legacy