The Ray Charles Marketing Group

“We’ve planned a series of events and a rollout of new products designed to draw attention to, and celebrate, this historic anniversary.  The RAY 80 logo will be used on all product packaging and at all authorized Ray Charles 80th Birthday Celebration events,” stated Janet Macoska, Brand Manager for the Ray Charles Marketing Group.  “The RAY 80 campaign is about us connecting to Ray’s worldwide legion of fans and creating opportunities for them to connect to each other,” added Macoska.

The logo was designed by Abbey Anna and Jeffrey Spector of Concord Music Group, and utilizes one of the many inconic Ray Charles portraits by legendary photographer Norman Seeff.  Another of Mr. Seeff’s photos of Ray Charles, from this same session,  graced the cover of Mr. Charles’ best-selling album, “Genius Loves Company.”

The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of the first Grammy award winning recording for Ray Charles for his 1959 recording of “Let The Good Times Roll”. Mr. Charles would go on to win 16 other Grammy Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award. In addition, Ray Charles was the only vocalist to record a Grammy award winning work in every decade from the 1950’s through the 2000’s.

January 28th is the 20th anniversary of Ray’s first Super Bowl commercial for Diet Pepsi. In 1999 TV Guide ranked this commercial from the 1990 game on its list of “50 Best Television Commercials of All Time”. Pepsi’s “You’ve Got The Right One Baby, Uh-Huh!” series of commercials remains one of the longest running and most successful campaigns in the history of the Diet Pepsi brand.

March 7^th commemorates the 25^th Anniversary of the release of the single, “We Are The World”, the fastest selling American pop single in music history. This song, recorded by Ray Charles with many other music industry icons, went on to raise over $60,000,000 for humanitarian aid in Africa.

March 25th is the 50th anniversary of the recording session for Ray’s definitive version of the Hoagy Carmichael/Stuart Gorrell classic song “Georgia On My Mind”. This recording earned Ray Charles two Grammy awards, was his first Billboard #1 Pop Chart Single and was the first commercial recording to become an official state song.

June 20th marks the 30th anniversary of the theatrical release of Universal Pictures’ “The Blues Brothers”. Ray’s portrayal as the owner of “Ray’s Music Store” proved to be an audience favorite as did his musical performance of “Shake Your Tailfeather”.