Forty-one years ago today (March 24) in 1985, Ray Charles was at No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart with “Seven Spanish Angels,” a duet with Willie Nelson. While Charles had already had multiple top 40 country hits, one of which cracked the top 10, this was his sole country chart-topper.
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While Charles is most commonly remembered as a soul and R&B singer, he was no stranger to country music. He released Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music volumes one and two in 1962. A little more than two decades later, in 1983, he inked a deal with Columbia, where he recorded five country albums. While they received some favorable reviews, most of those releases didn’t chart well. Friendship, though, topped the country albums chart for a week in 1985. In fact, it and its second and most successful single, “Seven Spanish Angels,” were at No. 1 simultaneously, topping the chart dated March 23.
[RELATED: 3 Ray Charles Songs That Sound Like Pure Country Gold]
How Ray Charles and Willie Nelson Came Together for a Hit
Troy Seals and Eddie Setser co-wrote “Seven Spanish Angels” with Marty Robbins’ classic Tejano ballads in mind, according to Songfacts. “We started writing, hoping we could emulate Marty Robbins and ‘El Paso.’ We didn’t think we had a song like that, but that whole flavor of the Southwest and cowboys,” Seals said. “Of course, the chorus is kind of an old wives’ tale, an old story that’s been handed down,” he added.
The songsmiths sent demos of the song to Willie Nelson and Billy Sherrill, who was producing Friendship for Ray Charles. He immediately wanted to add the song to the tracklist and tapped Ronnie Milsap to join Charles for the song. However, Milsap declined.
At the same time, Nelson heard the demo and had reserved the song to record for his next project. After learning this, Sherill contacted Nelson and invited him to be part of Charles’ duets project. He agreed, recording his vocals in a Texas studio and mailing them to Sherrill in Nashville, where he put the song together.
Sherrill also made a huge change to the song that may have helped it become a hit. “The song was in two movements,” the producer recalled. “One of ‘em was the ‘Seven Spanish Angels’ thing, and the boy and the girl and the soldiers comin’ and shootin’. Then, it went into some sort of a refrain and another melody that explained it all–why the angels, why there were seven, and all that,” he explained. After speaking with Seals, he chopped the second half of the lyrics, leaving the story ambiguous. More importantly, it kept it short enough for widespread radio play.
Featured Image by CBS via Getty Images
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