Did you know Thomas Edwards was the first African-American to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100? It was his multi-million selling song, "It's All in the Game.” Edwards originally recorded and chatted the song in 1951, but it climbed to only no. 18. Edwards made no recordings for his recording label MGM between September 1955 and June 1958. Often broke, he relied on loans from friends in the music business. Edwards attributed his decline to the onset of rock and roll during the mid-1950s. The better-known 1958 version was made with a different arrangement more suited to the style of the time. The labels remixed recording spent six weeks at number one on Billboard, topped the charts in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and eventually sold 3.5 million copies. In 1962 he had a victory in court when the New York State Supreme Court ordered MGM to disclose royalty figures. In 1965 Edwards joined Musicor Records, but a 1966 release flopped. He was not feeling rock and roll but that’s where music was heading. Anyhow, his recording labels didn’t allow him that creative freedom. On October 23, 1969, Edwards died at the age of 47 from massive internal hemorrhaging due to esophageal varices linked to cirrhosis of the liver. In 2004 Universal Music Group, which then owned the MGM catalog, agreed to pay the Edwards estate about $229,000 as part of a royalties settlement by major music corporations.
enemies too.