How James Ray inadvertently saved The Beatles

By Mark Hooper

It’s unlikely that many of you even recognise the name of James Ray, despite him being one of The Beatles’ favourite artists. I can guarantee you know at least one of his songs, however. Some of you may even own a copy. Paul McCartney has spoken of how Ray’s 1961 album was on constant repetition when the band were first touring the States.

If I tell you that the album’s title track was the first recorded version of the Rudy Clark-written song ‘I’ve Got My Mind Set On You’, the penny may start to drop. George Harrison may not have released his cover of that song until 25 years after its first release as a single in 1962, but it proved an inspired choice – reaching No1 in the US and proving one of his biggest post-Beatles hits. (It was also, incidentally, the last solo number one single in the US by any of the former Beatles.)

Harrison recalled buying Earl’s album in 1963 while visiting his sister Louis in Illinois, a year before The Beatles’ first landed in the US for their tour in February 1964. But, as McCartney told Rick Rubin in the documentary 3, 2, 1, it wasn’t even the band’s favourite – at least not Lennon or McCartney’s. That honour fell to ‘If You Gotta Make A Fool of Somebody’, which reached number 10 on the US Billboard R&B chart in 1962, and which they included in their early repertoire. McCartney remembers buying the single in one of Brian Epstein’s NEMS (North End Music Stores) shops the year of its release, and how its distinctive, waltzing, shuffle beat had a particular influence on him. Lennon too was a fan – he had the single in the jukebox in his home, which survived him.

And it doesn’t end there. Skip to the last track on the album – intriguingly only included on the 1961 version of the album on Spotify* – is ‘I’m Not Guilty’. Although the tune is different, it seems reasonable to conject that Harrison liked the title enough for it to inform his 1968 song ‘Not Guilty’ – relegated to the Anthology, but one of his best songs.

But James Ray’s most lasting impact on The Beatles wasn’t revealed until 2021 – officially at least – with the release of Peter Jackson’s ‘Get Back’ – the enhanced, cleaned-up and extended version of Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s  ‘Let It Be’ film. It is here, when the band are at their lowest ebb, that another track from Ray’s album, changes the course of The Beatles’ story. When Billy Preston arrives like a beacon of light in the hastily-constructed studio at the Apple HQ on Savile Row, he instantly lifts the collective mood. The amount of times people – Beatles, producers, film crew, studio engineers et al – say the words ‘I love you, Billy’ is testament enough to his galvanising effect. Here is the piano player they need to perform live while McCartney is playing bass. And what a player – the band first met him in Hamburg, when Preston was a prodigy who was touring with the Little Richard band in 1962 as a teenager.

As the band walk Preston through their new compositions, they break the ice by jamming with him on a number of familiar tunes. At one point, Preston takes the vocals as they work their way through a slightly ramshackle version of ‘Without A Song’ – another track for Ray’s album. Although owners of the numerous bootlegs of the ‘Let It Be’ sessions will have been familiar with the performance for decades, it marks an incredible first: with the release of the ‘Get Back’ soundtrack, it is the only time that a song officially listed as being performed by ‘The Beatles’ features lead vocals by someone other than the Fab Four.

It's somehow fitting that Ray’s songs bookend the story of The Beatles. From their early gigs to one of their last recordings – and subsequently Harrison’s last number one – this relatively obscure R&B star is present. Sadly, Ray never lived to see the impact he had on the world’s greatest band. In 1963, the same year Harrison first heard ‘I’ve Got My Mind Set On You’, Ray died of an overdose, aged just 22. But, in the four short years he was a recording artist, the man originally known as ‘Little Jimmy’ (he stood just 5 foot tall), left an indelible mark.


*If any readers can shed light on the different versions of the album – and why ‘I’m Not Guilty’ only appears on one – we’d love to hear. Was it an import-only version? Could The Beatles conceivably have heard that version, either in the US or Germany – or even from the regular trade in US vinyl coming off the docks in Liverpool? Spotify lists a 1961 version and a 2001 rereleased version – minus ‘I’m Not Guilty’ and renamed simply ‘James Ray’ – as well as a compilation, ‘Come Rain Or Shine’, listed as a 1958 release, despite featuring most of the debut album.