John Rhys Eddins
John Rhys-Eddins has been a producer, songwriter, musician, and promoter. Rhys has worked with some of the most hallowed names in the music business in a career spanning almost a half-century. Walter Trout, Terry Evans, and Terersa Russell are but as few of the music greats Rhys-Eddins has either interviewed, or have had play live, at his Van Nuys, California recording studio.
History
John Rhys-Eddins first broke into the music business when he performed at the first-ever "Big Ape" Gator Bowl Concert at the age of eighteen with now-legends Brenda Lee, Jimmy Clanton, Charlie Rich, and Roy Orbison.
Rhys-Eddins’ extensive record promotion work began a year later, working with Joe Galkin in Atlanta on acts from major labels Columbia, Atlantic, Ace, and Roulette. During that time John met two of the biggest names in the industry: Atlantic’s Jerry Wexler and Roulette’s Morris Levy. At the same time Rhys-Eddins worked nights at NRC Studios where he made records with the likes of Joe South, The Tams, Tommy Roe, Ray Stevens and Jerry Reed.
In 1962 John was hired by Georgia Record Distributors in Atlanta, owned by Mercury Records. He then was handling record promotion for the entire state of Georgia. By 1963 Rhys-Eddins was in charge of the entire Southeast region (eight states) for Mercury Records. One year later, John won the coveted Bill Gavin Award for "Best Promo Man".
From there Rhys-Eddins was hired by Merit Music Distributors in Detroit, working with A&M (who had a hit with "The Lonely Bull"), Hickory ("I Like Bread & Butter"), Monument, Red Bird ("Chapel Of Love" and "The Boy From New York City") and Soul/VIP (The Marvelettes).
John’s fortunes continued to escalate; he was hired by Golden World Records/Detroit as a producer/engineer and was involved with recordings by Edwin Starr, The Holidays, Gino Washington, The Reflections and The Shades of Blue.
Rhys-Eddins joined up with Harry Balk (producer of Del Shannon, Johnny and the Hurricanes, Don and Juan, and Little Willie John) to form the Impact label in 1966.
In May that year he released "Oh How Happy" by the Shades of Blue, which immediately shot up to #1 over most of the East coast and ended up charting #7 on Cashbox and #12 on Billboard.
John produced many songs that, while not charting in the U.S., became hits in England’s fledgling Northern Soul scene. One such song: "Time Will Pass You By", written by Rhys-Eddins, Nick Zesses and Dino Fekaris that charted #14 on the Northern Soul play lists.
Hollywood beckoned and Rhys-Eddins followed its calling, arriving in the West coast at the famed Capitol Records building in 1968 where he signed as an independent record producer. During his association with Capitol, John produced The SRC, The Corporation, and The Pack; the latter went on to become known as Grand Funk Railroad, the superstar band of "We’re An American Band" renown. Rhys-Eddins produced the first four cuts on the "Thirty Years of Funk" CD released by Capitol.
In 1971 Rhys made a deal with Jack Lees of Hollywood Central Recording Studios, opening for business in 1973. A year later, at Hollywood Central, John recorded legendary singer/songwriter/pianist, Warren Zevon, as well as the controversial comedy duo, Franken and Davis. In 1976 Rhys-Eddins met Amanda McBroom, signing her as a writer to his own Hollywood AllStar Music Company. A year later McBroom wrote "The Rose" – made into a hit by Bette Midler and taken by 20th Century Fox Films and used in a movie of the same name, in 1978. Also that year, John engineered Brenda Russell's first album for A&M Records, spawning the single, "So Good, So Right".
In 1979 Rhys-Eddins went to Japan to record and produce that country’s #1 artist, Chiharu Matsuyama. While there John produced seven Number One LP's for Matsuyama, selling over twelve million albums in the process! Continuing his success in Japan, Rhys-Eddins signed a contract in 1980 to produce commercials for Dentsu, Japan’s largest commercial agency at the time. John produced 340 commercials for Dentsu during that time.
Rhys opened Hollywood Central 2 in 1982 and worked with acts including Lowell Fulson, The Gap Band, Ry Cooder, Evans and King, Southern Comfort, and Harry Nilsson. John sold his two Hollywood Central Studios in 1986, after which time he briefly retired for a while.
When the music bug once again bit, Rhys-Eddins went to work for respected industry Cash Box Magazine in 1994, becoming the Hollywood-based publications' Blues Editor and working there until 1996 when owner George Albert died. That same year, John launched Bluepower.com, which has continued to grow and prosper to the present and now includes live performances as well as podcasts.
In October 2005, Rhys-Eddins was inducted into the Southern Legends Entertainment and Performing Arts Hall of Fame for "lifetime promotion, contribution, and indelible goodwill to Southern original music and its heritage".