Question for anyone who were old enough for Modern Sounds in Country and Western vol1

[MichaelSherry59]

So, today I was reading a lot of information on Wikipedia about Ray Charles Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music Vol 1 regarding it's impact, sales and colour barriers it broke back in 1962. So I'll give a sample {I won't copy and past everything single thing word for word but this is what I read so far today} I was born in 1959 so I missed it but here's what I found.


Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music was released in April 1962 and quickly became one of the best-selling albums recorded by a black musician of the time, as well as one of the best-selling country albums, shipping at least 500,000 copies in its first three months of release. This achievement was due in part to the mainstream promotional efforts Modern Sounds had received from ABC prior to and following release. The album proved to be a crossover hit as well, as distributors claimed the record had been selling in pop, R&B and country music markets; at the time, often referred to as white and black markets during the period.
Writing of the album shortly after its release, Billboard magazine claimed that, "in addition to being powerful dealer material, this package will fracture knowledgeable jockeys who will find in it a wealth of material to talk about as well as play." By mid-April, reports of the album's sales and radio airplay had started coming in from cities such as Dallas and Philadelphia. On June 23, 1962, the mono issue of Modern Sounds replaced the West Side Story soundtrack album as the number one album in the United States, knocking it off the top of the Billboard Pop Albums chart

There's more which I'll post later but now my question is this for anyone who were old enough then. How big of a deal was this era throughout Rays career from your experience between 1962-1963?