Songs From & Inspired By The CBS Television Series Cold Case Featuring The Music of Ray Charles.

The timeless artistry of Ray Charles will kick off the seventh season premiere of "Cold Case." The CBS Television investigative series will exclusively feature music from the legendary artist's extensive catalog during the season opener, which airs Sunday, Sept. 27, at 10 p.m., ET/PT.

Titled "The Crossing," the episode centers around a 1966 shipboard murder of a young working-class woman who shared a room with a friend on an upscale ocean liner's final trans-Atlantic crossing. While on board, the victim becomes involved in an epic love affair. To underscore the riveting drama that is the "Cold Case" hallmark, seven Charles songs recorded between 1954 and 1965 were specifically chosen.

More than 100 songs from Charles' vault of 700+ recordings were reviewed by the Ray Charles Marketing Group in collaboration with "Cold Case" executive producers Greg Plageman and Jennifer Johnson and Jenee DeAngelis of Swill Merchant Music Supervision. Two of the episode's seven featured songs are Grammy Hall of Fame honorees. Another has been out of print for most of the last 30 years, making it a "new release" for many of Charles' younger fans. The season premiere episode, written by Taylor Elmore, draws from the same pallet of human emotion that Ray Charles used when recording these songs.

"These seven songs are truly a panoramic view of Ray's entire musical legacy," says Tony Gumina, President of Ray Charles Marketing. "We went deep into the vault to include songs that Ray wrote, songs written specifically for him (by Percy Mayfield) and songs featuring Ray's world-renowned background singers, the Raeletts. It's truly a testament to Ray's ability to cross over into virtually every genre as this episode segues from blues and R&B to rock 'n' roll, country and jazz."

Previous single-artist "Cold Case" episodes have showcased the music of such fellow icons as Frank Sinatra, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen and Johnny Cash. The series' two-part sixth season finale featured the music of Pearl Jam.

"What's different about 'Cold Case' from other cop shows is that we get to go back in time," notes executive producer Plageman. "And music helps shuttle you back to a particular time and world. For this episode, we didn't want to just feature music of the early '60s. We wanted something more classic with an epic feel. There is something so timeless about Ray's music and that's what we were going for: timeless, romantic and epic."

Prepping for the "The Crossing"episode began in late June, with Swill Merchant's DeAngelis receiving an initial graph outlining the script's year before reviewing potential music selections and securing legal clearances. "In the last five years, integrating music into television shows has become a major avenue for building consumer awareness about music and artists," adds DeAngelis.

Directed by Alex Zakrzewski, guest stars in "The Crossing" include Michael Nader ("Dynasty," "All My Children"), Jonathan LaPaglia ("The District") and Daniel Baldwin ("Grey Gardens," "Homicide: Life on the Street"). The "Cold Case" series regulars are Kathryn Morris, Danny Pino, John Finn, Jeremy Ratchford, Thom Barry and Tracie Thoms. It is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Television in association with CBS Television Studios and Warner Bros. Television.