One of the great side effects of all the Grammy/Oscar buzz surrounding Jamie Foxx's performance in "Ray" is that suddenly, Ray Charles is so posthumously hip that VH1 has started playing "Georgia on My Mind" with a video of scenes from the movie in the morning. It's fantastic, even if it's somewhat disconcerting to go straight from "Georgia On My Mind," which is undoubtedly one of the finest songs recorded in the 20th century to, say, J-Lo's latest song/excuse to shake her stuff on TV. The downside of this brief outbreak of taste on the part of VH1 is that I get all choked up every time I hear that song, even though I'm not from Georgia. I don't cry during the national anthem or other patriotic songs, but "Georgia on My Mind" does me in. I'm not sure if that makes me a really bad American or a really good Southerner.
As a side note, I am completely at the mercy of the powers that be at VH1 and MTV right now, because BOTH of the CD players in our house are broken, and I basically only have control over music in my car. Something's gotta give.