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Soul music, you may have heard, is a blend of the holy and the dirty: gospel and blues rubbing up against each other. What you may not have heard is that Charles was just about the first person to perfect that mix. Charles was knocking around Seattle when Atlantic bought out his contract in 1952. For the next eight years, he turned out brilliant singles such as "What'd I Say" and "I Got a Woman." He was inventing the sound of ecstasy, three minutes at a time. Charles told Rolling Stone in 1973, "Anything I do, good or bad, it's very, very natural."
Total album sales: 60,000
Peak chart position: N/A