Eddie Ray experiences great personalities like Irma Thomas, Fats Domino, Pink Floyd, Janis Joplin, The Jackson 5, and others as he works his way up through the music industry and lands the title of the first African American Vice President of A&R for Capitol/Tower Records during the Jim Crow era.

SYNOPSIS:

The story behind the script is real and a book was published. "Against All Odds" is the story of Eddie Ray, the Music Man. Eddie Ray thought since he was not an alcoholic, drug user, or exhibited other types of wild lifestyles that his life was not interesting enough for a movie. This thought changed as soon as he read the first draft of the script. He revised the script and deleted a couple of scenes simply because he did not want to hurt the grandchildren of one of the characters that may still be living.

On Sunday mornings when Eddie was young, he loved listening to gospel music on the radio. Eddie fell in love with music at a young age. Eddie always jokes that he was in the music industry, but never sung or played in a band. Eddie was given a talent of knowing successes when he heard them.

In his youth, Eddie always walked by the Franklin library and so wished he was allowed to enter. Because the town was still segregated, Eddie was not allowed the luxury so many people took for granted to enjoy the town library. After publishing his book, he was honored with a book signing in that library.

In early 1945, Eddie moved to Milwaukee where he started working for the music industry as a stock boy at Decca Records Distributing Company. There are other interesting things that Eddie experienced before arriving to Decca Records which will be reflected in the movie. The movie will include Eddie’s life from childhood until current day. The story will reflect his progression through the music industry and the interesting artists he intertwined with during his lifetime. The script journeys through several of Eddie’s job changes from Aladdin Records to Central Records Sales Company and encompasses the close bonds he formed with the owners of several of the companies he worked. Another one of my favorite parts of the movie was when Eddie exemplified the art of upgrading a relationship from bad to good and even better. Eddie is blessed with pureness and grace in his relationships which changes the person that he has the relationship with. That attribute is an amazing talent. It is my purpose the movie will grasp that part of his story while experiencing Eddie’s trials as well as his accomplishments.

While at Central Record Sales, Eddie promoted and sold records for numerous rhythm and blues artists including Ruth Brown, The Drifters, B.B. King Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Joe Turner, Clyde McPhatterr, Howlin’ Wolf, Jesse Berlvin, The Clovers, and other R&B recording stars of that era. The movie will take you through a couple of these artists and the MUSIC IS WHAT WILL MAKE THE MOVIE…doesn’t it always?

Eddie and a musician/songwriter, Rudy Jackson, began writing songs together. Their biggest hit was entitled “Hearts of Stone,” performed by a local Los Angeles singing group, The Jewels. The script has a taste of Eddie’s “Hearts of Stone.” The song later became a top national charted, Pop, R&B and Country hit by the Fontaine Sisters, The Charms, and Red Foley. Years later it became a national top charted record by the Bill Black Combo and John Fogerty along with The Blue Ridge Rangers and other artists in the future including Elvis Presley. It was also in the soundtracks of several movies including Goodfellas. Some of my favorite scenes are the ones with Fats Domino, Ricky Nelson, Irma Thomas, and Mike Curb. When I go back and read the script, Eddie’s life lights up in different ways.

As the movie progresses through Eddie’s life, you will experience Eddie’s several marriages and the obstacles in each with the last marriage still in existence in their 90’s. Truly inspiring. As we reach 1964, Eddie joined Capitol Records as Artists and Repertoire (A&R) as Director of Tower Records. During Eddie’s music career, he was the reason for the acquisition of the EMI rock group, Pink Floyd. One of Eddie’s accomplishments while at CoBurt Television was his production of a Chevrolet merchandising album featuring Glen Campbell, Dionne Warwick, and Burt that sold over a million units. We had to not only include this part of Eddie’s life in the movie, but I tracked down old copies of the album and gave Eddie one for his reminiscing.

Although there are several artists with whom Eddie worked while at MGM (the Osmonds, Donnie & Marie, Lou Rawls, Sammy Davis, Jr., Hank Williams, Jr., Richie havens, and The Sylvers), the story of Eddie and Sammy Davis Jr. and how the “Candyman” was one of Eddie’s misses, is another one of my favorite parts of his story. Guess who some of his other misses were…Janis Joplin, The Jackson 5…can you imagine being there in that era!

After several years in the music industry, Eddie’s story journeys to the US Copyright Royalty Tribunal when in 1981, Eddie was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, and confirmed by the US senate, to serve as a US Commissioner on the US Copyright Royalty Tribunal (CRT).

In October 2009, Ray was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame as a non-performing artist, originally from the State of North Carolina.