Eddie Reeves
Encyclopedia
Edward Benton Reeves (born November 17, 1939) is an American songwriter who has also been a recording artist, music publisher, artist manager, record company executive, and author. He wrote several hit songs including "All I Ever Need Is You", co-written with Jimmy Holiday and recorded by many artists including Ray Charles
, Sonny & Cher
(#7 pop and #1 adult contemporary for 5 consecutive weeks in 1971 as well as top 10 in Canada and the U.K. with worldwide sales of over 2 million copies), Ray Sanders
, Andre Hazes
(#1 Dutch version titled "Ik meen 't" in 1984) Tom Jones
, Sammi Smith
, Chet Atkins
& Jerry Reed
and Kenny Rogers
& Dottie West
(#1 country from their platinum album “Classics” in 1979); "Rings", co-written with Alex Harvey and recorded by; Cymarron
(#17 pop in 1971), Lobo
(#43 pop and #8 adult contemporary in 1974), Ruben Howell, Leo Kottke
, Twiggy
, Tompall and The Glaser Brothers (#7 country in 1971), Lonnie Mack
(a vocal rendition from the guitar man of “Memphis” hit record fame), and other artists; "Don't Change on Me"' co-written with Jimmy Holiday and recorded by Ray Charles
(#36 pop, #13 R&B, and #22 adult contemporary in 1971), B.B. King, Van Morrison
(recorded for Warner Bros. but available only on an Italian bootleg album), and by Alan Jackson
(“Like Red On a Rose” album in 2006); "If You Wouldn't Be My Lady", co-written with Jimmy Holiday and recorded by both Ray Charles
and Charlie Rich
(Behind Closed Doors
album that sold 4 million copies); and "It’s a Hang Up Baby", recorded by both Jerry Lee Lewis
and Z.Z. Hill
. BMI awarded Reeves and co-writer Alex Harvey their Special Citation of Achievement for "Rings" having received over 1 million radio and television performances making it one of BMI’s most performed songs from BMI's repertoire of over 3 million songs. One million performances is the equivalent of over 40,000 broadcast hours or nearly 5 years of continuous airplay.
and raised in Amarillo, Texas
, Reeves graduated Amarillo High School
with honors and attended the University of Texas at Austin
where he was a member of Delta Tau Delta
Fraternity.
) in November 1958. After college, Reeves spent time in Amarillo, TX working for his father's residential construction, retail building materials, and real estate businesses.
In 1964 Norman Petty
hired Reeves as his New York representative and the following year Reeves was hired by United Artists
Music where he signed an exclusive recording artist and songwriting contract. In 1968, United Artists sent him to Hollywood to set up a west coast office and during a 7 year tenure he worked with recording artists and/or songwriters Mac Davis
, Jackie DeShannon
, Jimmy Holiday, Sharon Sheeley
, Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett, Billy Ed Wheeler, Alex Harvey, Buddy Buie
, Richie Havens
, Andy Kim
, Paul Leka
, Kenny Young
, and others.
In 1972, he signed an exclusive recording artist and songwriting contract with ABC Dunhill Records. After having no further success as a writer and recording artist, he accepted a job in 1974 as west coast vice-president of Chappell Music, the world's largest publishing company. During his years at Chappell Music, he signed and helped launch the careers of Kim Carnes
, the Sanford Townsend Band, and Jules Shear
. He also hired young record producer Jim Ed Norman with whom in later years he would share great success at Warner Bros. Records
in Nashville, TN. In 1977 he started his own music publishing and personal management company working with recording artists/songwriters Kim Carnes, Jules Shear (Jules and the Polar Bears) and the group Slow Children
. Kim Carnes and her husband Dave Ellingson wrote all of the songs on the Kenny Rogers
“Gideon” album that sold over 2 million copies. In 1980 Reeves returned to his hometown of Amarillo, Texas where he managed real estate properties for 4 years.
In the spring of 1984 he was hired by former employee Jim Ed Norman as General Manager of Warner Bros. Records
in Nashville where he spent sixteen years—the last ten as Executive Vice President and General Manager until retiring at the end of 1999 at age 60. While at Warner Bros. Nashville he shared in the great success of launching and developing the careers of Faith Hill
, Randy Travis
, Dwight Yoakam
, Travis Tritt
, Little Texas
, Jeff Foxworthy
, Bill Engvall
, David Ball
, and Take 6
while promoting the continued success of Hank Williams, Jr.
, Emmylou Harris
, John Anderson
, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and others.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DY7l5Uujgc
“If You Wouldn’t Be My Lady” by Ray Charles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrCRhkr_6zw
“All I Ever Need Is You” by Ray Charles
(with sax solo by Ray)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK_3Xv4jaxY
“Rings” by Cymarron
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um-x9fmXQrE&feature=related
“It’s a Hang Up Baby” by Z.Z. Hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zBh1M-6mxA
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, Sonny & Cher
Sonny & Cher
Sonny & Cher were an American pop music duo, actors, singers and entertainers made up of husband-and-wife team Sonny and Cher Bono in the 1960s and 1970s. The couple started their career in the mid-1960s as R&B backing singers for record producer Phil Spector....
(#7 pop and #1 adult contemporary for 5 consecutive weeks in 1971 as well as top 10 in Canada and the U.K. with worldwide sales of over 2 million copies), Ray Sanders
Ray Sanders
Raymond Floyd Sanders was a professional baseball player. Primarily a first baseman, he played all or part of six seasons in Major League Baseball between 1942 and 1949.- Cardinals :...
, Andre Hazes
André Hazes
André Gerardus Hazes was a Dutch singer in a genre called levenslied which is a form of emotional folk music about everyday life sung in the Dutch language. André Hazes was one of the most successful singers in this genre...
(#1 Dutch version titled "Ik meen 't" in 1984) Tom Jones
Tom Jones
Tom Jones is the name of:* Tom Jones , Welsh singer* Tom Jones , Australian politician representing Collie-Wellington district...
, Sammi Smith
Sammi Smith
Sammi Smith was an American country music singer and songwriter. Born Jewel Faye Smith, she is best known for her 1971 country/pop crossover hit, "Help Me Make It Through the Night", which was written by Kris Kristofferson...
, Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...
& Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed Hubbard , known professionally as Jerry Reed, was an American country music singer, innovative guitarist, songwriter, and actor who appeared in more than a dozen films...
and Kenny Rogers
Kenny Rogers
Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur...
& Dottie West
Dottie West
Dottie West was an American country music singer and songwriter. Along with her friends and co-recording artists Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn, she is considered one of the genre's most influential and groundbreaking female artists...
(#1 country from their platinum album “Classics” in 1979); "Rings", co-written with Alex Harvey and recorded by; Cymarron
Cymarron
Cymarron was an American soft rock band from the 1970s, most famous for their song "Rings" - a number 17 hit in 1971 . "Rings" was also the first single release on Columbia's Entrance label. Cymarron was composed of Rick Yancey, Sherrill Parks, and Richard Mainegra...
(#17 pop in 1971), Lobo
Lobo
-Wolf:*Lobo, Spanish and Portuguese for wolf , especially:**Lobo, Mexican Wolf **Lobo, Iberian Wolf *Lobo , University of New Mexico mascot-Places:...
(#43 pop and #8 adult contemporary in 1974), Ruben Howell, Leo Kottke
Leo Kottke
Leo Kottke is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his innovative fingerpicking style, which draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies...
, Twiggy
Twiggy
Lesley Lawson née Hornby known as Twiggy is an English model, actress, and singer. In the early-1960s she became a prominent British teenage model of swinging sixties London with others such as Penelope Tree....
, Tompall and The Glaser Brothers (#7 country in 1971), Lonnie Mack
Lonnie Mack
Lonnie Mack is an American rock, blues and country guitarist and vocalist....
(a vocal rendition from the guitar man of “Memphis” hit record fame), and other artists; "Don't Change on Me"' co-written with Jimmy Holiday and recorded by Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
(#36 pop, #13 R&B, and #22 adult contemporary in 1971), B.B. King, Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
(recorded for Warner Bros. but available only on an Italian bootleg album), and by Alan Jackson
Alan Jackson
Alan Eugene Jackson is an American country music singer, known for blending traditional honky tonk and mainstream country sounds and penning many of his own hits. He has recorded 13 studio albums, 3 Greatest Hits albums, 2 Holiday albums, 1 Gospel album and several compilations, all on the Arista...
(“Like Red On a Rose” album in 2006); "If You Wouldn't Be My Lady", co-written with Jimmy Holiday and recorded by both Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
and Charlie Rich
Charlie Rich
Charles Rich was an American country music singer and musician. A Grammy Award winner, his eclectic-style of music was often hard to classify in a single genre, playing in the rockabilly, jazz, blues, country, and gospel genres.In the latter part of his life, Rich acquired the nickname The Silver...
(Behind Closed Doors
Behind Closed Doors (Charlie Rich album)
Behind Closed Doors is a 1973 album by Charlie Rich. The album received three Country Music Association awards: Best Male Vocalist, Album of the Year, and Single of the Year, for the title song written by Kenny O'Dell. The album also went gold...
album that sold 4 million copies); and "It’s a Hang Up Baby", recorded by both Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...
and Z.Z. Hill
Z.Z. Hill
Arzell "Z. Z." Hill was an American blues singer, in the soul blues tradition, known for his 1970s and 1980s recordings for Malaco. His 1982 album, Down Home, stayed on the Billboard soul album chart for nearly two years. The track "Down Home Blues" has been called the best-known blues song of the...
. BMI awarded Reeves and co-writer Alex Harvey their Special Citation of Achievement for "Rings" having received over 1 million radio and television performances making it one of BMI’s most performed songs from BMI's repertoire of over 3 million songs. One million performances is the equivalent of over 40,000 broadcast hours or nearly 5 years of continuous airplay.
Early life
Born in Austin, TexasAustin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
and raised in Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...
, Reeves graduated Amarillo High School
Amarillo High School
Amarillo High School is a school located in the city of Amarillo, Texas, United States, in the Amarillo Independent School District.- History :...
with honors and attended the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
where he was a member of Delta Tau Delta
Delta Tau Delta
Delta Tau Delta is a U.S.-based international secret letter college fraternity. Delta Tau Delta was founded in 1858 at Bethany College, Bethany, Virginia, . It currently has around 125 student chapters nationwide, as well as more than 25 regional alumni groups. Its national community service...
Fraternity.
Career
He started singing, playing guitar and writing songs in high school in 1956 and formed the Nighthawks (original band by this name) in 1957 with high school friends Bob Venable, Mike Hinton and John Thompson. The band recorded two singles at Norman Petty’s studio in Clovis, New Mexico with only one, "When Sin Stops" b/w "All’a Your Love", being released on Hamilton Records (subsiduary of Dot RecordsDot Records
Dot Records was an American record label and company that was active between 1950 and 1977. It was founded by Randy Wood. In Gallatin, Tennessee, Wood had earlier started a mail order record shop, known for its radio ads on WLAC in Nashville and its R&B air personality Bill "Hoss" Allen...
) in November 1958. After college, Reeves spent time in Amarillo, TX working for his father's residential construction, retail building materials, and real estate businesses.
In 1964 Norman Petty
Norman Petty
Norman Petty was an American musician, songwriter, and pioneer record producer who helped shape modern popular music, including pop and rock....
hired Reeves as his New York representative and the following year Reeves was hired by United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
Music where he signed an exclusive recording artist and songwriting contract. In 1968, United Artists sent him to Hollywood to set up a west coast office and during a 7 year tenure he worked with recording artists and/or songwriters Mac Davis
Mac Davis
Mac Davis is a country music singer, songwriter, and actor originally from Lubbock, Texas who has enjoyed much crossover success...
, Jackie DeShannon
Jackie DeShannon
Jackie DeShannon is an American singer-songwriter with a string of hit song credits from the 1960s onwards. She was one of the first female singer-songwriters of the rock 'n' roll period.- Life and early career :...
, Jimmy Holiday, Sharon Sheeley
Sharon Sheeley
Sharon Sheeley was an American songwriter, born in California, who wrote songs for Glen Campbell, Ricky Nelson, Brenda Lee, and Sheeley's former fiancé, Eddie Cochran.-Life:...
, Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett, Billy Ed Wheeler, Alex Harvey, Buddy Buie
Buddy Buie
Buddy Buie is a songwriter, producer, and publisher. He is most commonly associated with Roy Orbison, The Classics IV and The Atlanta Rhythm Section.-Biography:...
, Richie Havens
Richie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
, Andy Kim
Andy Kim
Andrew Youakim, performing as Andy Kim, is a Lebanese Canadian pop rock singer and songwriter. He grew up in Montreal, Quebec in Canada. Kim is known for a number of hit singles that he released in the late 1960s and early 1970s such as "Rock Me Gently", which topped the US singles charts. In 1968,...
, Paul Leka
Paul Leka
Paul Leka was an American songwriter, pianist, arranger, and orchestrator, most notable for his writing associations with the 1960s hits "Green Tambourine" and "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye", the latter of which has become a standard song at sporting events.-Life and career:Born in Bridgeport,...
, Kenny Young
Kenny Young
Kenny Young is an American songwriter who has been an active writer, artist, and producer from 1963 to the present. His most famous song was "Under the Boardwalk," co-written with Arthur Resnick and recorded by The Drifters in 1964 and by The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, and many other artists;...
, and others.
In 1972, he signed an exclusive recording artist and songwriting contract with ABC Dunhill Records. After having no further success as a writer and recording artist, he accepted a job in 1974 as west coast vice-president of Chappell Music, the world's largest publishing company. During his years at Chappell Music, he signed and helped launch the careers of Kim Carnes
Kim Carnes
Kim Carnes is an American singer-songwriter. She is a two-time Grammy Award winner noted for her distinctive raspy vocal style. Some people have called her "The Female Rod Stewart" due to her raspy voice....
, the Sanford Townsend Band, and Jules Shear
Jules Shear
Jules Mark Shear is a US singer, songwriter, and guitarist born in Pittsburgh in 1952. Although he has had only one minor hit as a performer , he has recorded almost 20 albums to date...
. He also hired young record producer Jim Ed Norman with whom in later years he would share great success at Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
in Nashville, TN. In 1977 he started his own music publishing and personal management company working with recording artists/songwriters Kim Carnes, Jules Shear (Jules and the Polar Bears) and the group Slow Children
Slow Children
Slow Children was a New Wave pop group from the early 1980s. Their three most popular songs were "President Am I", "Spring in Fialta" and "Vanessa Vacillating". The two primary performers were Pal Shazar and Andrew Chinich.-Audio sample:-External links:*...
. Kim Carnes and her husband Dave Ellingson wrote all of the songs on the Kenny Rogers
Kenny Rogers
Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur...
“Gideon” album that sold over 2 million copies. In 1980 Reeves returned to his hometown of Amarillo, Texas where he managed real estate properties for 4 years.
In the spring of 1984 he was hired by former employee Jim Ed Norman as General Manager of Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
in Nashville where he spent sixteen years—the last ten as Executive Vice President and General Manager until retiring at the end of 1999 at age 60. While at Warner Bros. Nashville he shared in the great success of launching and developing the careers of Faith Hill
Faith Hill
Faith Hill is an American country singer. She is known both for her commercial success and her marriage to fellow country star Tim McGraw. Hill has sold more than 40 million records worldwide and accumulated eight number-one singles and three number-one albums on the U.S...
, Randy Travis
Randy Travis
Randy Travis is an American country music singer and actor. Since 1985, he has recorded 20 studio albums and charted more than 30 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, 22 of which were number one hits...
, Dwight Yoakam
Dwight Yoakam
Dwight David Yoakam is an American singer-songwriter, actor and film director, most famous for his pioneering country music...
, Travis Tritt
Travis Tritt
James Travis Tritt is an American country music singer from Marietta, Georgia. He signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1989, releasing seven studio albums and a greatest hits package for the label between then and 1999. In the 2000s, he released two albums on Columbia Records and one for the defunct...
, Little Texas
Little Texas
Little Texas is an American country music band founded in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1988 by Tim Rushlow , Brady Seals , Del Gray , Porter Howell , Dwayne O'Brien , and Duane Propes . Signed to Warner Bros...
, Jeff Foxworthy
Jeff Foxworthy
Jeffrey Marshall "Jeff" Foxworthy is an American comedian, television and radio personality and author. He is a member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, a comedy troupe which also comprises Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall and Ron White. Known for his "you might be a redneck" one-liners, Foxworthy...
, Bill Engvall
Bill Engvall
William Ray "Bill" Engvall, Jr. is an American comedian and actor best known for his work as a stand-up comic and as a member of the Blue Collar Comedy group.-Early life:Bill Engvall was born in Galveston, Texas...
, David Ball
David Ball
David James Ball is an English producer and electronic musician, who has played in bands such as Soft Cell and The Grid, and collaborated with other producers including Ingo Vauk and Chris Braide...
, and Take 6
Take 6
Take 6 is an American a cappella gospel music sextet formed in 1980 on the campus of Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama. The group sings in a contemporary style, integrating R&B and jazz influences into their devotional songs and has 10 Grammy wins, 10 Dove Awards, one Soul Train Award and two...
while promoting the continued success of Hank Williams, Jr.
Hank Williams, Jr.
Randall Hank Williams , better known as Hank Williams, Jr. and Bocephus, is an American country singer-songwriter and musician. His musical style is often considered a blend of Southern rock, blues, and traditional country...
, Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
, John Anderson
John Anderson (musician)
John David Anderson is an American country music artist with a successful career that has lasted more than 30 years...
, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and others.
Books
In 2000 Eddie moved to Winnipeg, Canada and started the process of compiling his songwriting catalog of over 100 songs as well as beginning work on his collection of writings from notes he had been keeping since 1972. Reeves says, "My writing is mostly from a spoken-word inner voice and sometimes spoken word makes poor written word. My struggle to succeed in writing something worth reading has on occasion caused me to state my occupation as 'word wrestler.'" When Sin Stops, a collection of life stories and other thoughts, was privately published for friends and family and is currently being revised for possible commercial publication.Personal Life
Reeves has 3 children—Marc, Natalie, and Sophie—and he currently resides in Houston, Texas with his wife, singer/songwriter Lena Shammas Reeves. He lives by his credo of "work hard, play hard, and love hard” while never wavering from his solemn commitment of being the teenager he was born to be.External links
“Don’t Change On Me” by Ray CharlesRay Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DY7l5Uujgc
“If You Wouldn’t Be My Lady” by Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrCRhkr_6zw
“All I Ever Need Is You” by Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
(with sax solo by Ray)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK_3Xv4jaxY
“Rings” by Cymarron
Cymarron
Cymarron was an American soft rock band from the 1970s, most famous for their song "Rings" - a number 17 hit in 1971 . "Rings" was also the first single release on Columbia's Entrance label. Cymarron was composed of Rick Yancey, Sherrill Parks, and Richard Mainegra...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um-x9fmXQrE&feature=related
“It’s a Hang Up Baby” by Z.Z. Hill
Z.Z. Hill
Arzell "Z. Z." Hill was an American blues singer, in the soul blues tradition, known for his 1970s and 1980s recordings for Malaco. His 1982 album, Down Home, stayed on the Billboard soul album chart for nearly two years. The track "Down Home Blues" has been called the best-known blues song of the...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zBh1M-6mxA