Edward Benton (Eddie) 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 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; "Rings", co-written with Alex Harvey and recorded by; Cymarron, Lobo, Reuben Howell, Leo Kottke, Twiggy, Tompall and The Glaser Brothers, 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, B.B. King, Van Morrison (recorded for Warner Bros. but available only on an Italian bootleg album), and by Alan Jackson; "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. The song was also performed on November 6, 1969 by Tom Jones with musical backing by the Moody Blues on his national television show, "This Is Tom Jones". Although the three Jimmy Holiday - Eddie Reeves songs recorded by Ray Charles attained only limited commercial success, the long reach of Charles' musical influence brought significant collateral success for all three compositions. Kapp Records' label head Johnny Musso became aware of Charles' recording of "All I Ever Need Is You" when Reeves was under contract as a recording artist to Kapp. Reeves' decision not to include the song on an upcoming recording session prompted Musso to request a copy of Charles' album for Sonny & Cher's producer Snuff Garrett. Garrett immediately recorded the song with the duo, the first Sonny & Cher single released after their television show "The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour" exploded onto the national scene. "If You Wouldn't Be My Lady" was included on Charlie Rich's quadruple platinum "Behind Closed Doors" album after he and producer Billy Sherrill discovered it on Charles' 1972 "Through the Eyes of Love" album. Thirty-five years after Charles' moderate success with "Don't Change On Me," his recording was discovered by Alison Krauss who then recorded it with country artist Alan Jackson for his 2006 hit album "Like Red On a Rose" produced by Krauss. Reeves stated, "It's as though Jimmy Holiday and I had acquired the prodigious talents of Ray Charles to create demonstration recordings of our three songs. What greater good fortune could have come our way for these songs?" BMI awarded Reeves and co-writer Alex Harvey their Special Citation of Achievement for "Rings" having received over 1 million radio and television performances (the equivalent of over 40,000 broadcast hours or nearly 5 years of continuous airplay) making it one of the most performed songs from BMI's repertoire of over 8 million songs. Reeves' songs are associated with three Grammy Award Nominations: 1971 Pop Vocal Group - Sonny & Cher - All I Ever Need Is You lyrics; 1971 Best Country Vocal Performance - Duo or Group - Tompall & the Glaser Bros. - Rings; and 1973 Best Country Instrumental Performance - Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed - Me and Chet (album included "All I Ever Need Is You"). Early life edit: Born in Austin, Texas 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. Career edit: 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 "When Sin Stops" b/w "All'a Your Love" commercially released by Hamilton Records (subsidiary of Dot Records) on November 17, 1958, Reeves' 19th Birthday. After college, he returned to Amarillo where he worked for two years in his father's retail building materials, residential construction, 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 total 7-year United Artist 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, 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, then the world's largest music publishing company. During his years at Chappell Music, he signed and helped launch the careers of Kim Carnes, the Sanford Townsend Band, Jules Shear and 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. Books edit: 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 edit: Reeves has 3 children--Marc, Natalie, and Sophie--and he currently resides in Houston, Texas with his wife, singer/songwriter Lena Shammas Reeves where 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.

Source: Wikipedia

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