Having grown up in Florida, Norman pursued music at North Texas State University where he met Don Henley and joined his group, Felicity, in 1969, playing keyboards and guitar.

Norman contributed string arrangements and piano to a series of bestselling Asylum Records albums by the Eagles, released between 1973 and 1980 including Desperado (1973), One of These Nights (1975) and Hotel California (1976).

He would continue to accrue arrangement credits throughout his career and well into its next phase in Nashville, for artists including Garth Brooks (Sevens, Capitol, 1997) and Trisha Yearwood ("In Another's Eyes", MCA, 1997).

Other productions included albums by New Riders of the Purple Sage (Marin County Line, MCA, 1977), Glenn Frey (No Fun Aloud, Elektra, 1982), and Jennifer Warnes's first hit, "Right Time of the Night" (Arista, 1977, US #6).

Notoriously hard-to-please critic Robert Christgau credited these albums with Murray's "gradual revitilazation..." thanks to Jim Ed Norman's "...clean, honest, Nashville-quality work".

[2] The albums were platinum-selling successes, spawning multiple hit singles including the US #1 "You Needed Me", which went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and a string of US AC chart-toppers – "I Just Fall in Love Again", "Shadows in the Moonlight", "Broken Hearted Me", and "Daydream Believer".

While Norman had been known for providing arrangements and keyboards on albums that typified the lush, Californian sound of the seventies, as a producer his natural inclination towards country music became increasingly prominent through his work with such artists as Kenny Rogers, Hank Williams Jr., Crystal Gayle, Michael Martin Murphey, BJ Thomas, Mark O'Connor, Victoria Shaw, Mickey Gilley, Johnny Lee, John Anderson, TG Sheppard, Gary Morris, Clay Walker, Pinkard & Bowden, Mac McAnally and Brenda Lee among others.

In addition, Norman created the Progressive division, signing artists including multi-Grammy-winning Take 6, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Mark O'Connor and American guitar virtuoso Shawn Lane.

[4] In 2010 he returned to Nashville to produce a variety of artists, notably Curb Records star, Dylan Scott, for whom he co-produced the 2016 US Country Airplay #1 hit "My Girl" and the follow-up success, "Hooked" (2017).

Artists present to perform and pay tribute to Norman were Big & Rich, Don Henley, Mickey Gilley, Michael Martin Murphy, TG Sheppard, Gary Morris, Crystal Gayle, Mo Pitney, Jeff Hanna, Lee Brice and Kenny Rogers.