Edward Wiley Ray
After graduating from high school in 1944, Ray was accepted into an Army Reserve Specialized Training Program at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Some of the major recording artists on Aladdin at that time included, Johnny Moore, The Three Blazers featuring Charles Brown, Amos Milburn, The Five Keys, Lester Young and Illinois Jacquet.
During Ray's three years employment at Aladdin Records, he also earned an Associate Arts degree in Business Administration from Los Angeles City College.
[2] Initially Ray was responsible for Central's “in house sales” to Southern California's smaller retail stores and juke box operators.
King, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Joe Turner, Clyde McPhatter, Howlin' Wolf, Jesse Belvin, The Clovers, and other R&B recording stars of that era.
[4] Their biggest hit, was a song entitled “Hearts of Stone”, performed by a local Los Angeles singing group, The Jewels.
[13] COBURT was an independent television production company owned by Pierre Cossette, a successful Hollywood entertainment agent and subsequently an exclusive television producer of the Grammy Awards telecast for thirty four years and Burt Sugarman, a successful Beverly Hills business and investment financier, who subsequently produced Midnight Special TV musical series.
Some of Ray's most important accomplishments while with Coburt were his establishment of BMI & ASCAP music publishing firms for the Coburt Music Division; the successful negotiation of a Coburt/MGM Records label distribution agreement; and his production of a Chevrolet merchandising album featuring Glen Campbell, Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach that sold over a million units.
In 1970, Ray left CoBurt Television Production and joined MGM Records in Hollywood, California as Senior Vice President of A&R Administration.
Some of the artists with whom Ray worked while at MGM were the Osmonds, Donnie & Marie, Lou Rawls, Sammy Davis, Jr., Hank Williams, Jr., Richie Havens, and The Sylvers.
Some of the artists represented by Ray while at SOM were Solomon Burke, Jazz organist Jimmy Smith, the Ovations, Barbara and the Browns, hit songwriter/artist George Jackson and others.
Cream/Hi Records was well known for the numerous valuable music copyrights they owned which included songs such as “In The Midnight Hour”, “Knock On Wood”, “Green Onions”, “Hold On I'm Coming”, “Respect”, “Soul Man”, “Lets Stay Together” and many others.
[24] In each of the Distribution Hearing's the CRT's final Determination were challenged by one or more of the copyright Claimants and appealed to the Second Federal Circuit Court in Washington, D.C.
The book contained disparaging remarks about African Americans, suggesting they were inferior to Caucasians quoting, “They insist on preserving their jungle freedoms, their women, their avoidance of personal responsibility, and their abhorrence of the work ethic”.
In addition, he oversaw changes to the CRT like the reduction of commissions from 7 to 5 which were voted on by Congress in response to the issues raised during the Hall controversy.
The NCMHOF is a non-profit organization and museum that was created to honor musicians, composers and artists with ties to North Carolina that have made significant impact in the music industry.
Ray was instrumental in reopening the museum and moving it from its original home in Thomasville, North Carolina, to its present location in Kannapolis.
