Jim Ed Norman

Jim Ed Norman (born October 16, 1948) is an American musician, record producer, arranger and label-head. As an arranger and producer, he was one of the principal architects of the distinctive sound of West Coast 1970s pop and country rock. He was President of Warner Bros. Nashville from 1984 to 2004.

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. After renaming themselves Shiloh, and by now based in Los Angeles, the group recorded an album produced by Kenny Rogers (Amos Records, 1970) which bore early signs of the direction in which 1970s country-rock would soon move en masse. The group disbanded shortly after the release of the album.

Norman then joined Uncle Jim's Music, a group which included award-winning singer-songwriter, Gary Nicholson. Uncle Jim's Music disbanded and he made the decision to pursue his primary interest in arranging and producing.

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). During the same period, he wrote string and horn arrangements for Linda Ronstadt's album, Don't Cry Now (Asylum, 1973) and Hat Trick by America (Warner Bros, 1973). He arranged strings for Bob Seger's 1978 hit, "We've Got Tonite" (Capitol) and Kim Carnes' albums St. Vincent's Court (EMI, 1979) and Romance Dance (EMI, 1980) among others. 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).

Norman's producing career began in the mid-1970s. Among the albums he worked on, and which featured his smooth signature style, were songwriting legend Jackie DeShannon's You're The Only Dancer (Amherst, 1977) and Quick Touches (Amherst, 1978), the first of which restored DeShannon to the pop charts with the spirited anthem "Don't Let The Flame Burn Out". 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).

From 1977 onwards, Norman produced a large portion of Anne Murray's platinum-selling output, including Let's Keep It That Way (Capitol, 1978), New Kind of Feeling (Capitol, 1979), and I'll Always Love You (Capitol, 1979). 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".

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". Norman's work with Murray extended well into the 1980s during which he produced the Grammy-winning A Little Good News (Capitol, 1983) and Heart Over Mind (Capitol, 1984), both of which won CMA awards. A Little Good News marked the first time that the CMA Album of the Year award had been won by a solo female act.

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. Norman was named Producer of the Year by Cashbox in 1989.