The Controversial Song That Created Soul Music Topped the Charts on This Day in 1955

On March 15, 1955, Ray Charles hit number one on the Billboard R&B chart with "I Got a Woman" — and American music was never quite the same again.

The song was brewing for over a year by that point. In the summer of 1954, Charles was riding through the South with his band when he heard a gospel number called "It Must Be Jesus" by the Southern Tones playing on the radio. Feeling inspired, Charles started working with his trumpeter and bandleader Renald Richard — who transcribed Charles's ideas by hand as they drove...