Ray Charles feat. Willie Nelson - It Was A Very Good Year (Official Audio)

The official audio of Ray Charles and Willie Nelson performing "It Was A Very Good Year" from the 2004 album GENIUS LOVES COMPANY

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LYRICS:
[Verse]
When I was seventeen
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for small town girls
And soft summer nights
We'd hide from the lights
On the village green
When I was seventeen
When I was twenty-one
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for city girls
Who lived up the stair
With all that perfumed hair
And it came undone
When I was twenty-one
When I was thirty-five
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for blue-blooded girls
Of independent means
We'd ride in limousines
Their chauffeurs would drive
When I was thirty-five
But now the days grow short
I'm in the autumn of the year
And now I think of my life as vintage wine
From fine old kegs
From the brim to the dregs
And it poured sweet and clear
It was a very good year
It was a mess of good years

#RayCharles #WillieNelson #GeniusLovesCompany

[wtburns]

What a song! What a performance! Just heartbreakingly good. Perfectly sung, and the strings...the tune. Perfection.

[jacobc]

Love all the stories Nelson told about working with Ray. Iirc, this was their first pairing working directly together. Nelson talked often about how elated, honored, even nervous, he was to go line for line with an irrefutable legend. Charles loved the guy, they bonded over a background of folk and blues and by all accounts snapped together like puzzle pieces and produced this masterpiece as coequals of mutual respect. Oh to have been a fly on the wall in that studio 😍😍

[kevin_dasilva]

That final harmony they do is bone-chilling...

[jeraldprater]

a rare but strong illustration of a remake surpassing the original

[trawlins]

This version is so poignant it almost hurts to listen to. Especially when you're fast approaching 50.