"Georgia on My Mind" was composed by Hoagy Carmichael with lyrics by Stuart Gorrell in 1930. The song originated from a suggestion by saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer, who told Carmichael that nobody ever lost money writing songs about the South and jokingly offered the opening lyric "Georgia, Georgia." Carmichael and Gorrell, former roommates at Indiana University, completed the song during a session in Gorrell's New York apartment overlooking 52nd Street. Neither man had any connection to the state of Georgia, and a persistent myth that Carmichael wrote it about his sister is contradicted by his own memoir. The original recording was made on September 15, 1930, at RCA Victor Studios in New York, featuring Bix Beiderbecke on muted cornet. Though it did not achieve immediate major success, the composition gained momentum the following year and has since become one of the most widely performed songs in the Great American Songbook. Ray Charles recorded the definitive version in 1960 for his album The Genius Hits the Road, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and winning two Grammy Awards. The Georgia state legislature designated Charles's recording as the official state song in 1979. The composition has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame twice, in 1993 for Charles's version and in 2014 for Carmichael's original. Gorrell never wrote another lyric, making this his sole songwriting credit.
