Recorded by The Southern Tones in Houston in 1954, this Black church gospel hymn drives on call-and-response and sacred fervor — the radio spark Ray Charles heard and used as the melodic seed of "I Got a Woman".
Ray Charles fused this gospel melody with secular lyrics and a blues progression to create "I Got a Woman" (1954), transmuting the church’s sacred fervor into worldly sensuality and opening the door to soul music.
A church hymn was "reinstalled" into soul and R&B when Ray Charles secularized the gospel melody.