64 Years Ago, Ray Charles' 'I Can't Stop Loving You' Set 31-Year Record on Multiple Charts

On June 2, 1962, Ray Charles hit No. 1 on the charts with "I Can't Stop Loving You," where it stayed for five weeks.

But Charles' cover of the Don Gibson song didn't just top the Billboard Hot 100. It also hit the top of the Hot R&B Singles and Adult Contemporary charts, setting a 31-year record for the longest time atop all three charts at once. Whitney Houston broke the record in 1993 with her own similarly-titled country cover, "I Will Always Love You."

"I Can't Stop Loving You" was a massive hit for Charles. It earned a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year and won a Grammy for Best R&B Recording. Rolling Stone named it No. 164 on its original list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and CMT put it at No. 49 on its list of 100 Greatest Country Songs.

It was the lead single off Charles' country album Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music, which also proved to be a massive success. In addition to earning a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year, it also topped the Billboard 200 chart for a whopping 14 weeks in a row - feats all the more impressive given the historical context.

In 1962, racial segregation was still alive and well in America. R&B was Black music. Country was white music. But Charles' album managed to appeal to both audiences - hugely - and ushered in a new era. "In the world [Modern Sounds] created, not only could a black person sing the American songbook Ella Fitzgerald owned by then, but a country black person could take it over," journalist Robert Christgau wrote in Rolling Stone. "Soon Charles's down-home diction, cotton-field grit, corn-pone humor and overstated shows of emotion were standard operating procedure in American music, black and white."

You could say Charles was the original Cowboy Carter.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published June 2, 2026 at 9:37 PM.