Let’s Go Get Stoned

Ray Charles recorded Lets Go Get Stoned at RPM International Studios in Los Angeles for his 1966 album Crying Time. The single featured the Ray Charles Band and the Raelets, with Joe Adams producing a slow, gospel-charged arrangement of the Ashford, Simpson, and Armstead song. Released by ABC in 1966, Lets Go Get Stoned reached number 1 on the Billboard R&B chart and number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100. It became one of Charles strongest mid-1960s soul hits and one of the first major successes for the Ashford and Simpson writing team. Lets Go Get Stoned became a durable Ray Charles standard and brought the song into the soul and rock repertoires. Later versions by Joe Cocker, James Brown, Big Mama Thornton, and the Amboy Dukes kept the composition in circulation beyond Charles recording.