Ray Charles' birthday is today, September 23, and to honor his life as a singer-songwriter, the U.S. Postal Service announced a new postage stamp featuring his big smile will be added to its "Music Icons Forever" stamp series.

Postal officials say the agency is releasing a stamp featuring the Albany, Georgia native on Monday, Ray Charles' birthday, as well as one of the artist's previously unreleased songs, ABC News reports via AP.

The artwork for the stamp is based on a photograph by Yves Carrère, NBC News reports.

Designer Neal Ashby, who with art director Ethel Kessler was involved in the search for the right photo to feature on the stamp, and told the USPS publication Beyond the Perf that it was hard to find an iconic image, given Charles' long career, NBC News reports.

"I was looking for that smile, that slight cock of the head - that almost rapturous expression he had when he performed," Ashby said.

The photograph that was eventually chosen was a picture from the album "The Best of Ray Charles."

"It's Ray soaking in the applause and the pure joy of the moment," Kessler told Beyond the Perf. "I loved the color in his shirt and the diagonal of the photo. It's clean and graphic, which I knew would work well at stamp size."

There will be two events for the stamp: one at Morehouse College's Ray Charles Performing Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where Charles was born, and one at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. Ashanti will perform as part of the Atlanta event and Chaka Khan will be singing at the Grammy Museum, NBC News reports.

A previously-unreleased recording of "They Can't Take That Away From Me," which Charles often performed live, will also be available on Tuesday, September 24th, on a new compilation album, "Ray Charles Forever."