Ray Charles’s signature song “Georgia on My Mind” celebrates the U.S. state of Georgia. Charles recorded his famous version for the 1960 album The Genius Hits the Road, and the performance became closely linked with the state.
The song itself predates Charles by three decades. Hoagy Carmichael composed the music and Stuart Gorrell wrote the lyrics in 1930. Although the original lyrics have sometimes inspired speculation about whether “Georgia” referred to a person, the song became firmly associated with the state through Charles’s recording and his connection to Georgia.
Charles was born in Albany, Georgia, and his version reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960. In 1979, Georgia officially designated Charles’s rendition as the state song.
A common mistake is assuming Ray Charles wrote the song. He made the best-known recording, but the composition belongs to Carmichael and Gorrell. The song is also sometimes confused with a general Southern standard; officially, it represents Georgia.