Sid Feller, Ray Charles’s ‘Einstein’ dies at 95
The Independent Online
Sidney Harold Feller, arranger and record producer: born New York 24 December 1916; married 1941 Gertrude Hager (one son, three daughters): died Beachwood, Ohio 15 February 2006.
The arranger and record producer Sid Feller was best known for his 30-year association with Ray Charles; their work together included “Georgia on My Mind”, “Hit the Road Jack” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You”. Charles would say, “If they call me a genius, then Sid Feller is Einstein.”
In 1955, Feller moved to the new ABC Records and worked with the jazz musicians Charlie Byrd and Woody Herman. For Don Costa and the Freeloaders he arranged the album Music to Break a Lease By (1956). In 1959, the rhythm and blues artist Ray Charles moved to ABC from Atlantic. Both Charles and his new label wanted to stress his versatility and, hence, his crossover appeal. The classic first album, The Genius Hits the Road, included “Georgia on My Mind”, which Charles recorded with tears streaming down his face; his impassioned vocal worked brilliantly with the conventional choir which Feller had hired. Charles, although he was suspicious by nature, realised that he could trust Feller and they went on to work on one intriguing project after another.
For several years, Charles had wanted to record an album of country songs and he and Feller sifted through 100 possible titles for Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. It does not sound radical today but, in 1962, it was highly innovative to hear a soulful singer performing country ballads with strings. Numerous artists followed Charles’s lead, but it must be said that Charles himself repeated the trick much too often. Also with Feller, Charles recorded radical reworkings of the Beatles songs “Yesterday” (1967) and “Eleanor Rigby” (1968).
Although Feller sometimes conducted for Charles on the road, he had many other commitments, including Steve Lawrence’s album Come Waltz with Me (1962) and Doris Day’s The Love Album (1967). He wrote a dire song, “You Can’t Say No in Acapulco”, for the Elvis Presley film Fun in Acapulco (1963). He also scored the Osmonds’ Christmas Album (1976) and was the musical arranger for several television series, including The Flip Wilson Show (1969-74)
Technorati Tags: Sid Feller, Ray Charles
February 24th, 2006 at 9:18 am
I love the obits passing swipe — “It must be said that Charles himself repeated the trick much too often. …”
February 24th, 2006 at 10:22 am
Ya, it makes you wonder if the writer realy wanted to take that one step further…something akin to “…he repeated it much too often much like Sinéad O’Connor releasing any other albums after her first.”