Eddie Ray is an African-American who rose from a stock boy to a major record label executive and then became a key figure in a governmental body that makes major decisions on copyrights, the foundation of the of the entertainment industry.

Eddie Ray is a veteran music executive with over sixty years of professional experience and expertise in several facets of the commercial music industry, including record distribution; promotion/sales; record production; songwriting/music publishing; artist acquisition/development; business administration; commercial music education; and federal copyright administration. He has held top level executive positions with major music entities in Hollywood, CA; Memphis, TN; and with the Federal government in Washington, DC.

In Hollywood, Eddie served as a Senior Executive with M. G.M. Records; Capitol Records (Tower Record Division); CO- Burt Television Productions (Record/Music Division); Imperial Records; and Central Record Sales Company (Independent Record Distributor).

In Memphis, Eddie served as Executive V.P./G.M. of Cream/Hi Records (Memphis Division) and President/CEO of Eddie Ray Music Enterprises. As a division of his company, he founded and operated, The Tennessee College of Recording Arts & Sciences, a vocational school specializing in commercial music business education.

Subsequently, Eddie was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as a Commissioner of the US Copyright Royalty Tribunal in Washington, DC.  He served the Tribunal for approximately eight years and served as Chairman or Acting Chairman of the Tribunal for four years.

During his career, Eddie has been directly involved in the super successful careers of scores of recording artists, songwriters and producers, representing various genres of music. Fats Domino, Rick Nelson, Sandy Nelson, Dave Bartholomew, Mike Curb, Allen Toussaint, Sammy Davis, Jr., The Osmond, Donnie & Marie Osmond, Pink Floyd, Lou Rawls, Hank William, Jr., Jimmy Smith, Slim Whitman, Al Green, Ian Whitcomb, Johnny Rivers, and Irma Thomas  are representative of the many musically diverse artists with whom Eddie has been  involve.

As a song writer, Eddie Ray is co-author of Hearts of Stone a national hit song in the pop, R&B and country fields by the Fontaine Sisters, The Charms and Red Foley. The song was recorded by thirty two additional artists, including Elvis Pressley, The McGuire Sisters, John Fogerty, and the Bill Black Combo.  Hearts of Stone is in several movie soundtracks, including the hit movie, Good Fellas.

Eddie Ray’s success as a pioneer music industry executive paved the way for other African Americans in the executive offices of the music business today.

Max Roach, a pioneer in bebop, is one of the most important drummers in the history of jazz. During his career he worked with jazz legends Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins and Clifford Brown

Although Roach’s birth certificate lists his date of birth as January 10, his family believed he was born on January 8. At the age of four, his family moved to Brooklyn, New York. Roach played bugle with parade groups and by ten was playing drums in gospel bands (his mother was a gospel singer). When he was 18, Roach filled in on drums with the Duke Ellington Orchestra at the Paramount Theater in New York.

During the 1940s, Roach played in jazz clubs where he introduced some major innovations in drumming, including playing a 4/4 time on the ride cymbal while using his snare drum for dramatic accents.

Roach was the drummer in groups led by Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell, Miles Davis and Charlie Parker; in fact, he played on most of Parker’s landmark recordings.

During 1950-1953 Roach studied classical percussion at the Manhattan School of Music and in 1952 co-founded Debut Records with bassist Charles Mingus. That label released the seminal recording, Jazz at Massey Hall which featured Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Mingus and Roach.

Roach formed several groups during the 1950s and was the drummer on a number of records by Dinah Washington as well as during her appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958. In 1960 he composed the suite “We Insist!–Freedom Now!” with lyrics by Oscar Brown, Jr.; in 1962 he was the drummer on Money Jungle, a trio album consisting of Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Roach.

During the 1970s he formed a percussion orchestra, “M’Boom” and wrote music for several of Sam Shepard’s plays; he also played in a hip hop concert with Fab Five Freddy and the New York Break Dancers, demonstrating that he always remained current with music and was open minded with new and different styles of music.

From 1972 until the mid-1990s, Max Roach was on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, teaching drumming.

Johnny Bristol was a producer and songwriter best known for his work with Motown during the late 1960s and early 1970s when he worked with Harvey Fuqua on Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrells’ “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” (1967), “Your Precious Love (1967) and “If I Could Build My Whole World Around You” (1968); Edwin Starr’s “Twenty-Five Miles (1969) and David Ruffin’s “My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)” (1969).

Bristol’s first experience in the music business came after he was discharged from the Air Force and teamed with Jackey Beavers to form the duo, “Johnny & Jackey.” In 1959 Bristol recorded two singles for Anna Records, owned by Berry Gordy’s sister, Gwen, and Billy Davis. He then recorded for the Tri Phi label until that label was absorbed by Motown, which brought him into the Motown family.

Among the songs he wrote and/or produced are: “These Things Keep Me Loving You” by The Velvelettes (1973); “I Don’t Want To Do Wrong” (1971) and “Daddy Could Swear, I Declare” (1972) by Gladys Knight & the Pips. Bristol wrote “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)” (1969), “These Eyes (1969), “Gotta Hold On To This Feeling” (1970) and “Walk in the Night” (1972), which were recorded by Jr. Walker & The All Stars.

Bristol wrote Jermaine Jackson’s first solo record “That’s How Love Goes” (1972) and served as producer and co-writer for “Someday We’ll Be Together” (1969) by Diana Ross and The Supremes, (which was originally recorded by Johnny & Jackey in 1961) and “We’ve Come Too Far To End It Now” (1972) by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. These last two songs were the last singles recorded by those groups for Motown.

In 1973, Bristol joined CBS as a producer and worked with Nancy Wilson, Johnny Mathis, and Boz Scaggs. Bristol is credited with creating the blue-eyed soul sound of Scaggs for his Slow Dancer album (1974). In 1975 he produced Tom Jones album Memories Don’t Leave Like People Do.

Bristol signed as an artist with MGM and released two successful albums and several chart singles, including “Hang On In There Baby” and “You and I.” He also recorded the chart singles “Do It To My Mind” and “My Guy/My Girl, a duet with Amii Stewart.

Johnny Bristol was nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1975.

During the mid-1980s, a group of young performers changed the course of country music by recording songs with a retro sound that harkened back to the traditional sound of country music from the 1940s and 1950s. Randy Travis was a leader in the movement with his baritone twang, his youthful, handsome looks and sex appeal. His recordings of songs such as “On the Other Hand,” “1982,” “Diggin’ Up Bones,” and “Always and Forever” led to albums that sold platinum and a host of awards from the Country Music Association and the Grammys.

Randy Traywick grew up in a household where his father loved country music and bought albums by Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell. Randy and his brother, Ricky, performed but Randy’s problems with booze and drugs led him into trouble. In nearby Charlotte, Randy won a talent contest at the Country City U.S.A Nightclub, owned and managed by Lib Hatcher; he initially performed two nights a week but then became a full time performer at the club and also worked in the kitchen. Arrested for run-ins with the law, Traywick was released into Hatcher’s custody and she became his manager.

In 1978 Joe Stampley was instrumental in getting Traywick a contract with Paula Records; Lib put up $10,000 and Joe South produced two singles, but neither hit. In 1981 Lib Hatcher sold her club in Charlotte  and moved to Nashville with Randy; she managed the Nashville Palace Club, where Randy worked in the kitchen and sang as Randy Ray.

When he was signed to Warner Brother Records, after being turned down by that label three times, A&R executive Martha Sharpe changed his name to “Travis.”

Randy Travis won the Country Music Association’s Horizon Award in 1986, Male Vocalist honors in 1987 and 1988, and a Grammy in 1987 and 1988. He became the first country artist to sell in large numbers and his success as a recording artist with hit singles and multi-platinum albums led to an acting career.

Travis has appeared in the TV movies “Frank and Jesse,” “Edie & Pen,” “A Dead Man’s Revenge,” “Texas and A Holiday to Remember” and TV features “The Legend of O.B. Taggert,” “At Risk” and “Maverick.” He appeared in the TV shows “Matlock” and “Touched by an Angel.”

In 1990 Travis married Lib Hatcher in Hawaii and in 1992 he cut back on his performing schedule. His album Wind in the Wire, released in 1993, led to a television special with the same name featuring Burt Reynolds, Denver Pyle, Lou Diamond Phillips, Dale Robertson, Chuck Norris, Melanie Chartoff and the Sons of the San Joaquin

Randy Travis became a born-again Christian and released several gospel-oriented albums on Word Records. His first single for that label, “Three Wooden Crosses,” was the Country Music Association’s Song of the Year’ in 2003 as well as the Academy of Country Music’s Song of the Year and a Dove Award for “Country Recorded Song of the Year.” The following year he won a Grammy for “Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album.

By the end of 2009, Randy Travis had sold over 25 million albums, had 22 number one hits, won six Grammys, six CMA awards, nine ACMs, ten American Music Association Awards, seven Dove Awards and had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Roberta Flack was born into a musical family; her mother was a church organist and her father was a jazz musician. She grew up in Arlington, Virginia and studied classical piano; at 15 she won a scholarship to Howard University in Washington, D.C. where she studied piano and voice and served as assistant conductor of the University choir. She graduated at 19 and intended to enroll in graduate studies but the sudden death of her father caused her to return to North Carolina, where she took a job teaching music and English in Farmville.

Flack moved back to Washington, taught private piano lessons and performed at the Tivoli Club and then Mr. Henry’s a Capitol Hill night club where she built her repertoire and honed her performance skills. At a benefit concert for the Inner City Ghetto Children’s Library Fund in 1968, Flack performed before an audience that included pianist Les McCann. McCann recommended her to Atlantic Records, who signed her, and Joel Dorn produced her first album, First Take, which was completed in ten hours.

Her recording of the Ewan MacColl ballad, “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” was featured in the Clint Eastwood movie, Play Misty For Me in 1972, which led to that recording being a number one pop single for six weeks in 1972 and the Grammy winner of “Record of the Year” for that year. This single was followed by “Where Is The Love,” a duet with Donny Hathaway, that was a top five pop single, and then “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” which was number one on the pop chart for five weeks in 1973 and won the Grammy for “Record of the Year,” making Flack the only artist to win back to back Grammys for “Record of the Year.”

Flack followed with other hits, including “Feel Like Makin’ Love” in 1974 and released duets with Donny Hathaway and Peabo Bryson. She has toured internationally, including a concert in South Africa that was attended by Nelson Mandela, and continued to release critically acclaimed albums. In 1981 she composed and produced the soundtrack for Bustin’ Loose and in 1983 recorded music for Sudden Impact, a Dirty Harry film. In 1999 Flack was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has been involved in educational programs for disadvantaged youth.

Mike Curb’s connection to North Carolina extends back to his involvement with NASCAR in 1980 when he owned the car driven by Dale Earnhardt when that driver won the NASCAR championship.

Mike Curb is the owner and founder of Curb Records, one of the most successful independent labels in the history of the music business. The label began as Sidewalk Records in 1964 and released the soundtracks to a number of films as well as chart singles such as “Apache ’65″ by Davy Allen and the Arrows. Curb then served as President of MGM Records, where he launched the successful recording career of the Osmonds as well as Donny and Marie Osmond. In 1972, Curb was named Producer of the Year by Billboard Magazine. In addition to producing all of the Osmonds, Curb also produced “Candy Man” by Sammy Davis, Jr. and a number of film soundtracks. His group, the Mike Curb Congregation, appeared regularly in Las Vegas and on “The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour” on network television. “Burning Bridges,” featured in the movie Kelly’s Heroes, was a pop hit for the group, which also had an adult contemporary hit with “It’s a Small World” and released several albums in conjunction with Walt Disney that featured Disney songs. He produced “You Light Up My Life” by Debbie Boone, the most successful record of the 1970s, according to Billboard chart activity.

Curb served as Lieutenant Governor and Acting Governor of California and then joined the Reagan administration as Chair of the Republican Finance Committee. In 1984 Curb returned to the entertainment industry full-time and built Curb Records into a major powerhouse. In 1992 Curb Records moved to Nashville.

Mike Curb has been involved in the careers of numerous artists, including The Judds, Wynonna, Lyle Lovett, The Everly Brothers, Sawyer Brown, Desert Rose Band, The Righteous Brothers, Tim McGraw, LeAnn Rimes, Jo Dee Messina, Rodney Atkins, Eric Burden, Tony Bennett, Hanks Williams, Jr. Mel Tillis, Billy Walker, Ray Stevens, Eddy Arnold, The Stone Ponys (Linda Ronstadt), The Electric Flag (featuring Mike Bloomfield and Buddy Miles), Lou Rawls, Don Gibson, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Andy Williams, and Sammy Davis, Jr.

Mike Curb has a museum in Kannapolis dedicated to his involvement with racing. He owns the number 43 car that Richard Petty drove for his 200th NASCAR win, which Curb witnessed with President Ronald Reagan at Daytona. Mike Curb is still actively involved with NASCAR through the Baker-Curb team as well as sponsoring a number of other racing cars.

Ben E. King is known as the lead vocalist for The Drifters on their hits “There Goes My Baby,” “This Magic Moment” and “Save The Last Dance For Me” and as a solo artist who recorded “Spanish Harlem” and “Stand By Me.”

King sang in church choirs in North Carolina but his professional musical career began in 1947 when, at the age of nine, his family moved to Harlem. At James Fenimore Junior High School he formed the doo-wop group, the Four B’s (each member’s name began with “B”). He auditioned for The Moonglows and was turned down but joined the Five Crowns in 1956.

“The Drifters” name was owned by George Treadwell and when the original group left, he recruited the Five Crowns to become The Drifters. King co-wrote and sang lead on “There Goes My Baby,” which featured orchestral strings on the record. That song, released in 1959, reached number one on the R&B charts and number two on the pop chart. “Save The Last Dance For Me,” released in 1960, was number one on both the pop and R&B charts.

King left the Drifters and embarked on a solo career in 1960. “Spanish Harlem,” produced by Phil Spector and Jerry Leiber, was a top ten record but King’s biggest solo hit was “Stand By Me” in 1961; it was top five on the pop chart and number one for four weeks on the R&B chart.

During the 1960s and 1970s King continued to release records. His biggest hit came in 1975 when his recording of “Supernatural Thing–Part 1″ reached number one on the pop chart and was followed by “Do It In the Name of Love,” which was a top five record.

The 1986 movie Stand By Me featured King’s recording and resulted in a hit the second time for that record. The song has proved to be an enduring classic with numerous artists covering it.

George Clinton grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey, where he ran a barber salon; while there, inspired by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, he formed a doo wop group, The Parliaments (after the cigarette brand by that name). In 1964 Clinton formed a backing band and the group moved to Detroit to audition for Motown.

Clinton became a staff songwriter for Motown and wrote songs for The Jackson 5 and The Supremes; his biggest hit was “(I Wanna) Testify” in 1967 by the Parliaments.

The Parliaments recorded for the Revilot label, which folded but kept the name “Parliaments” when it went under. Clinton them formed a new band, Funkadelic, whose sound evolved into psychodelic rock, R&B and a raw funk music sound. Featuring distortion and feedback and eye-popping live performances, the terms “P-Funk” or “Funk” came to define Clinton’s sound.

The name Parliament was dormant for four years but Clinton revived it in 1974; during the 1970s and 1980s Clinton headed two bands, Parliament and Funkadelic which were, essentially, the same line-up of musicians recording for two different labels. In 1975 the classic album, Mothership Connection featured the hit single “Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker”); the album went platinum. In 1978 he released the album Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome which featured the hit single “Flash Light.”

As his career progressed, Clinton and his groups released concept albums that often had space-age themes with political and sociological messages. Later, Clinton recorded as a solo “Funk” artist.

In 1985 Clinton produced the Red Hot Chili Peppers album, Freaky Styley and during the 1980s and 90s became one of the most sampled musicians by rappers. He appeared in a number of films, including Graffiti Bridge (1990), House Party (1990), PCU (1994), Good Burger (1997) and The Breaks (1999), was the voice of The Funktipus, the DJ of Funk radio station Bounce FM in the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and wrote the theme song to “The Tracey Ullman Show,” “You’re Thinking Right.”

In 1997 George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.