Yet in the case of David “Fathead” Newman and R&B giant and bandleader Ray Charles, their friendship connected them to a decade-long musical relationship from which the most seminal work of Charles’s career was recorded. In 1959, Newman released his debut album, Fathead: Ray Charles Presents David Fathead Newman, thanks to the support of Charles: “Ray played piano on the album, and it took off like a rocket. In 2004, with the film biopic Ray receiving critical success, particularly due to Jamie Foxx’s performance as Ray Charles, Newman would find renewed audience interest in Charles’s recordings as well as his own.