"Georgia on My Mind" is a 1930 song written by
Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagland Howard Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor and lawyer. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s, and was among the first ...
and
Stuart Gorrell and first recorded that same year by
Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagland Howard Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor and lawyer. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s, and was among the first ...
. However, the song has been most often associated with soul singer
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...
, who was a native of the
U.S. state of Georgia and recorded it for his 1960 album ''
The Genius Hits the Road''.
In 1979, the State of Georgia designated Ray Charles' version the official
state song
Forty-eight of the fifty U.S. states have one or more state songs, a type of regional anthem, which are selected by each state legislature as a symbol (or emblem) of that particular U.S. state.
Some U.S. states have more than one official state ...
.
The song has become part of the
Great American Songbook
The Great American Songbook is the loosely defined canon of significant early-20th-century American jazz standards, popular songs, and show tunes.
Definition
According to the Great American Songbook Foundation: The "Great American Songbook" i ...
tradition.
Background and original recording
It has been asserted that
Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagland Howard Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor and lawyer. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s, and was among the first ...
wrote the song about his sister, Georgia.
But Carmichael wrote in his second autobiography ''Sometimes I Wonder'' that saxophonist
Frankie Trumbauer
Orie Frank Trumbauer (May 30, 1901 – June 11, 1956) was an American jazz saxophonist of the 1920s and 1930s. His main instrument was the C-melody saxophone, a now-uncommon instrument between an alto and tenor saxophone in size and pitch. He a ...
told him he should write a song about the state of Georgia. He jokingly volunteered the first two words, "Georgia, Georgia...", which Carmichael ended up using while working on the song with his roommate,
Stuart Gorrell, who wrote the lyrics.
Gorrell's name was absent from the copyright, but Carmichael sent him royalty checks anyway.
Carmichael recorded "Georgia on My Mind", with
Bix Beiderbecke
Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist, pianist and composer.
Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s, a cornet player noted for an inventive lyrical app ...
on cornet, in New York City on September 15, 1930.
Ray Charles version
In 1960, Ray Charles, a native of Georgia, recorded a version of the song that went to No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' magazine
Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...
.
Charles' hit rendition would become the most widely-known version of the tune from this time on.
It would also be the song most associated with his musical career.
In 1977,
Robert Grossman
Robert Grossman (March 1, 1940 – March 15, 2018) was an American painter, sculptor, filmmaker, comics artist, illustrator and author.
In a career spanning fifty years, Grossman's illustrations have appeared over 500 times on the covers of var ...
, James Picker and Craig Whitaker created a
clay animation
Clay animation or claymation, sometimes plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay.
Tra ...
short, ''
Jimmy the C'', in which U.S. President
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
sings in Ray Charles' version of the song.
In 1979, the song was designated the State Song of Georgia, and Charles was invited to perform it at the state capitol.
The TV series ''
Designing Women
''Designing Women'' is an American television sitcom created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason that aired on CBS from September 29, 1986, to May 24, 1993, producing seven seasons and 163 episodes. It was a joint production of Bloodworth/Thomason M ...
'' used an instrumental version of "Georgia on My Mind" as its opening theme. During the opening credits of the show's
sixth season in 1991, Charles performed his version of the song live on piano while the show's cast looked as the opening credits.
In 2003, ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' magazine named the Ray Charles version of "Georgia on My Mind" the
44th greatest song of all time.
Chart
Ella Fitzgerald version
In 1962, famed jazz singer
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...
released a rendition of the song, produced by
Norman Granz
Norman Granz (August 6, 1918 – November 22, 2001) was an American jazz record producer and concert promoter. He founded the record labels Clef, Norgran, Down Home, Verve, and Pablo. Granz was acknowledged as "the most successful impres ...
, on the album ''Ella Swings Gently with Nelson.''
The Hawks/The Band version
The song was a standard at performances by
Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks,
where it was sung by pianist
Richard Manuel
Richard George Manuel (April 3, 1943 – March 4, 1986) was a Canadian singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter, best known as a pianist and one of three lead singers in The Band, for which he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and ...
after 1964. When The Hawks broke up and formed
The Band, they kept the song in their repertoire. They recorded a studio version of the song for
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
's presidential bid in 1976. It was released as a single that year as well as on their 1977 album ''
Islands
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
''.
Willie Nelson version
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album ''Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of ''Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and ''Stardust'' (1978 ...
recorded the song on ''
Stardust
Stardust may refer to:
* A type of cosmic dust, composed of particles in space
Entertainment Songs
* “Stardust” (1927 song), by Hoagy Carmichael
* “Stardust” (David Essex song), 1974
* “Stardust” (Lena Meyer-Landrut song), 2012
* ...
'', his 1978 album of standards.
It was released as single, peaked at No. 1 for a single week, and ranked for sixteen weeks on a country chart.
The original lyrics, including the commonly excised introductory verse, are in the
Georgia Code under license.
[
]
Chart activity
See also
* List of 1930s jazz standards
* Spirit of Atlanta Drum and Bugle Corps
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Georgia On My Mind
1930 songs
1930s jazz standards
Songs with music by Hoagy Carmichael
Ray Charles songs
Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles
Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients
Songs about Georgia (U.S. state)
United States state songs
ABC Records singles
Columbia Records singles
EMI Records singles
Victor Records singles
Pop standards