Ray Charles – Hit The Road Jack

Ray Charles – Hit The Road Jack – Sung Live On Stage At Austin City Limit – 1980.

“Hit the Road Jack” – Single by Ray Charles
B-side: “The Danger Zone”
Released: August 1961
Songwriter: Percy Mayfield

The song was written by Percy Mayfield, who first recorded it in 1960 as an a cappella demo sent to music executive Art Rupe. It became famous after it was recorded by the singer-songwriter-pianist Ray Charles, with The Raelettes vocalist Margie Hendrix.

Charles’s recording hit number one for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, beginning on Monday, October 9, 1961. “Hit the Road Jack” won a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording. The song was number one on the R&B Sides chart for five weeks, thereby becoming Charles’s sixth number-one on that chart. The song was ranked number 387 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2010 list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”; it had ranked at number 377 on the original 2004 list.

The solo backing vocals are by Margie Hendricks, who was one of Ray’s backup singers, The Raelettes. They were lovers for a time, but the song is not about their relationship.

This was the winner of the 1961 Grammy for Best Male Rhythm and Blues Recording. He picked up for awards the previous year for “Let The Good Times Roll” and “Georgia On My Mind.”