Template talk:Ray Charles

see Talk:Fathead (album)#Ray Charles Sextet vs. Fathead, Ray Charles Presents David 'Fathead' Newman

Pugetbill (talk) 20:16, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I noticed that there were some increasing differences in albums / categorizations listed in this template compared to those listed in the Ray Charles discography article. I made a few changes today to try to better align the information in this template with the discography.

1. Replaced the "Other" section with a "Live albums" section and a "Notable compilations" section in the template
2. Added a "Posthumous studio creations" section
3. Moved The Best of Ray Charles from the studio albums section to the compilation section. However I kept Ray Charles Greatest Hits as a "studio album" because, despite the title, the contents are mostly previously unreleased-on-any-album tracks so this album doesn't really fit the generally understood (?) definition of a "compilation".
4. Removed completely, the albums Blue, Spotlight on Ray and I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now (see NOTE below).
5. Added a few missing "Live" albums
6. Moved Ray Charles Sextet to the "see also" section as this is not really a Ray Charles-led album but a "David Newman" album (see previous discussion reference above).

NOTE: These three albums, Blue, Spotlight on Ray and I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now, are compilations of some pre-Atlantic singles recorded for Down Beat and Swing Time records in 1949 - 1952. Dozens and dozens and dozens of such re-issue / compilation albums have been released in the last 50+ years and more keep turning up yearly. I don't think it is useful to try to list them all in this template or even in the Ray Charles discography article. (just my opinion). If anyone disagrees, you might consider creating a "Re-issues of Down Beat / Swing Time tracks" section in the discography/template but I would suggest putting it at the bottom of the article because it will likely dwarf all other sections and will continue to grow as the same ~40 tracks are endlessly recycled in release after release. There is a similar danger in listing compilation albums of which there are probably hundreds already. This is why the compilation section is labeled "notable compilations" - to prevent every Ray Charles compilation album ever released from being included. Of course getting agreement on the definition of "notable" may be a problem but at least I think this "compilation" list should not try to be comprehensive as there would be no end to it. Pugetbill (talk) 20:11, 12 March 2009 (UTC).[reply]

An editor added a link to List of awards and nominations received by Ray to this template but I have removed it. I presume this is not controversial. Since this is a template for Ray Charles, I believe readers would expect an "awards" link to refer to awards won by the man, Ray Charles (Grammy's etc.), not awards won by the film Ray. There is already a link to the film Ray in the template and readers will there find the above mentioned link in its more relevant context. Pugetbill (talk) 19:28, 7 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]