"Georgia on My Mind"

Sometimes a Song

I’ve been holding a place for today’s Sometimes a Song for a very long time. And when we were discussing a choice for our Word of the Week, I mentioned to Tony that someday he’d have to give me an chance to use “Georgia on My Mind.” So, he immediately piped up with the word, farmer! I’ll take that challenge (but I do think that Tony should have offered me our occasional alternate “word” category, What’s In a Name). Well, he did throw in a mention of St. George, from the Greek word for “farmer.” And so here we go.

How long have you known this song? I’m sure that I first heard it as a child in the unsurpassable recording made by Ray Charles, which earned him two Grammy Awards in 1961 and one of his four Number 1 Billboard hits. And it was the biggest hit of his career. Before recording this song, Ray Charles was well known, but more for his work in the R&B vein, with some cross-over C&W songs, and for his part in developing the musical style called Soul. Yet Ray Charles brought fans from across the musical spectrum together with his rendition of a 30-year-old song which was then becoming an “Easy Listening” standard. “Georgia on My Mind” was inducted into the Gramma Hall of Fame twice, once in in 1993 for that 1960 Ray Charles cover, and again in 2014 for the original 1930 recording by the composer himself, Hoagy Carmichael. Rolling Stone placed it at the #44 spot in their list of top American songs.

I’ve written about Hoagy before, for another of his super-hits which became immediate standards, “Stardust.” In fact, four of the best-selling and most-frequently-covered American songs of all time were written by Hoagy Carmichael. The estimate is that he composed about 500 songs in his musical career, and that 50 of them were bona fide hits, for him and for a string of singers for the bulk of the 20th century and beyond. Even spread over a period of nearly 100 years, 1100 recordings is astounding. (Not to knock our song this week, Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust” has been recorded almost 1300 times.)

The story about “Georgia on My Mind” is just a small one today. The question that naturally arises about the song is whether it’s about Georgia, the place, or Georgia, a woman? When I was a little girl and heard this song, I assumed that it was about a lady named Georgia. What did I know? I was from New Jersey. I had an Aunt Georgia who was a very pretty redhead. Why wouldn’t someone sing a song about her? Well, it turns out that Hoagy Carmichael did have a younger sister named Georgia. Where did the idea for the song come from? Evidently Hoagy and his lyricist partner at the time, Stuart Gorrell, had gotten a suggestion from sax-player Frankie Trumbauer that they write a song about Georgia, the state. He jokingly suggested that it could being with the words, “Georgia! Georgia!” Of course Hoagy and his friend, Stuart worked on the song together. Gorrell insisted that he wrote the song with Hoagy’s sister in mind, and Hoagy said he couldn’t hear the words “Georgia, Georgia” without think of his sister while he was composing the tune. So there’s a little confusion about the original intent, but then, Stuard did know Hoagy’s sister personally, because he and Hoagy had been friends since college days. And they were both from Indiana.

Still .. people do think of places they love in this kind of longing way, when they are looking back with nostalgia from a distance of years and miles. And guess what? Ray Charles WAS indeed a Georgia boy. When he sang the song, who knows what it meant to him, but it could be taken as a yearning for home. However it came about, “Georgia on My Mind” is a mighty American song and one of the biggest hits of the mid-century. And in 1979 the Georgia legislature decided to make it their own, and they adopted it as the state song. Ray Charles, of course, was invited to perform the song at the State House that year. And I am sure that they had Hoagy’s permission to do that.

For today I’m including the best version of “Georgia on My Mind” ever recorded, by Ray Charles, who truly made it his own. And for some added sweetness, I give you an appearance Hoagy Carmichael made on the Tennessee Ernie Ford television show, playing piano for Ernie’s very fine performance of the song. And last, I give you Hoagy’s original recording from 1930 — to let you experience the song in its original form. Hoagy was no singer, you will hear, but what a gift to American music he was.