DUTC#112 May 25, 2025

Feature Song: “Georgia On My Mind”

Much like the last DUTC installment, “Georgia on my Mind” is a song that many remember as a Ray Charles classic. While this time I knew that his version was a cover of the Hoagy Carmichael original, I did not know about the first cover by Django Reinhart and Stéphane Grappelli. So yah, I’m still learning!

Hoagland Howard “Hoagy” Carmichael (1899-1981) was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor, author and lawyer. He was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s and 1940s and was among the first singer-songwriters in the age of mass media to utilize new communication technologies such as old-time radio broadcasts, television, microphones, and sound recordings. He composed several hundred songs over the years, with 50 of them becoming hits. He is best known for composing four of the most-recorded American songs of all time: “Stardust” (1927), with lyrics by Mitchel Parish, “Georgia on my Mind” (1930), with lyrics by Stuart Gorrell, “The Nearness of You” (1937), with lyrics by Ned Washington, and “Heart and Soul” (1938), with lyrics by Frank Loesser.

“Georgia on my Mind” was first recorded in 1930 by Carmichael at the RCA Victor Studios in New York City. Some have said that Carmichael wrote the song about his sister named Georgia, however in his second published autobiography/memoir, Sometimes I Wonder (1976), Carmichael said that his saxophonist, Frankie Trumbauer, told him he should write a song about the State of Georgia. Trumbauer 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.

As mentioned, the song is most often associated with Ray Charles, who was a native of the state of Georgia in the Deep South, and he recorded it in 1960 for his album, The Genius Hits the Road. In 1979, the state of Georgia through its General Assembly of Georgia, designated Charle’s version the official state song. The song has also become part of the Great American Songbook tradition. The song has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame twice. The first was in 1993 for the 1960 recording on the ABC-Paramount label by Charles. The second induction happened in 2014 for the earlier 1930 recording on the RCA Victor label by Carmichael and his orchestra.

Jean Reinhardt (1910-1953), known by his Romani nickname Django, was a Belgian-French Manouche or Sinti jazz guitarist and composer. Since he was born on Belgium soil, in Liberchies, he is often referred to as a Belgian musician instead of as a French one. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most significant exponents. With violinist Stéphane Grappelli, Reinhardt formed the Paris-based Quintette du Hot Club de France in 1934. The group was among the first to play jazz that featured the guitar as the lead instrument. Reinhardt recorded in France with many visiting American musicians, including Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter, and briefly toured the United States with Duke Ellington’s orchestra in 1946. Some of his most popular compositions have become “gypsy jazz” standards.

Stéphane Grappelli (1908-1997) was a French jazz violinist and was best known as the founder of the above mentioned quintet with Reinhardt, which was one of the first all-string jazz bands. He has been referred to as “the grandfather of jazz violinists,” as he continued to perform at concerts around the world well into his eighties.

Ray Charles Robinson (1930-2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential musicians in history, often being referred to by his contemporaries as “The Genius.” He pioneered the soul music genre during the 1950s by combining elements of blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, and gospel into his music during his time at Atlantic Records. He then went on to integrate country music, rhythm and blues, and pop music during the 1960s, contributing to his crossover success on ABC Records. While he was with ABC, Charles became one of the first black musicians to be granted artistic control by a mainstream record company. “Georgia on my Mind” was the first of his three career No.1 hits on The Billboard Hot 100.

When I first decided to feature the song “Georgia on my Mind” for my DUTC series, the plan was to use the original by Carmichael and Ray Charles’s cover because, as I mentioned above, I did not know about the 1936 cover by Reinhardt and Grappelli. So, I said to myself: “No problem, I’ll just feature two covers.” As you can see, that didn’t last long! The final cover, and possibly the newest one (2024), I found when I was searching for other material done by the Joscho Stephan Trio, whom I featured on my Quadzilla’s Playlist (Funkalicious.2, May 7, 2025). Stephan is an amazing West German jazz guitarist who, I feel, definitely equals or surpasses Reinhardt’s guitar work on this song.

Enjoy!

Hoagy Carmichael. “Georgia on my Mind” 1930.

Django Reinhardt & Stéphane Grappelli with Freddy Taylor vocals. “Georgia on my Mind” cover 1936.

Ray Charles. “Georgia on my Mind” cover 1960.

Joscho Stephan Trio. “Georgia on my Mind” cover 2024. Sven Jungbeck (guitar) and Volker Kemp (bass).

Los Angeles 2025