He grew up intending to study to become a doctor, and as a teenager worked during the summer as a lifeguard at Castle Park Resort in Holland, Michigan, where he started performing songs he had written.
As a result, Schroeder recorded a single for Vee-Jay produced by Calvin Carter, featuring his song "Melanie", so becoming the R&B label's first white artist.
He had shows on radio station WKDA, and then started work for the Cedarwood music publishing company in Nashville, where he wrote songs with Mel Tillis and Wayne Walker, and produced demos.
In 1966 he produced Mighty Sam McClain's version of Don Gibson's song "Sweet Dreams", recorded with engineer Dan Penn at Muscle Shoals.
Through McClain, Schroeder was introduced to James Purify and Robert Lee Dickey, and produced the pair's recordings as James & Bobby Purify, including the hits "I'm Your Puppet" – written by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham – and "Shake A Tail Feather", which was the first of Schroeder's productions to be recorded at Chips Moman's American Sound Studio in Memphis, Tennessee.
[8] He returned to record production in the mid-1970s, producing Carl Carlton's hit version of "Everlasting Love" as well as further tracks by James and Bobby Purify.