THE MUSIC OF LEGENDARY RECORDING ARTIST RAY CHARLES WILL PLAY EXCLUSIVELY DURING THE SEVENTH SEASON PREMIERE OF "COLD CASE," SUNDAY, SEPT. 27 ON THE CBS TELEVISION NETWORK

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 26 - The soulful music of the legendary Ray Charles will be featured exclusively during the seventh season premiere of COLD CASE, to be broadcast Sunday, Sept. 27, in its new (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) timeslot, on the CBS Television Network.

In the episode, titled "The Crossing," the team investigates the 1966 shipboard murder of a starry-eyed young working-class woman who shared a room in steerage with a friend on an upscale ocean liner's final round-trip Atlantic crossing. Meanwhile, the trial against the military academy official who tried to harm Rush in last season's two-part finale begins.

Michael Nader ("Dynasty," "All My Children") guest stars as a dashing man with whom the victim shared a shipboard romance. Jonathan LaPaglia ("The District") returns as Assistant District Attorney Curtis Bell -- and Daniel Baldwin ("Grey Gardens," "Homicide: Life on the Street") returns as Major Moe Kitchener, the man on trial for having run Rush's car off a bridge as an attempt to thwart the team's previous investigation. This episode was written by Taylor Elmore and directed by Alex Zakrzewski.

"Ray Charles is a national treasure with a career that spanned multiple decades, making him the perfect artist to complement the epic nature of our season premiere," said series executive producer Greg Plageman. "When a body is discovered deep within the bowels of one of the last great transatlantic ocean liners dry docked in Philly, the case transports our detectives back to an era just before airplanes superseded ships as the primary mode of travel abroad." Adds series executive producer Jennifer Johnson, "We discover that our victim became involved in an epic love affair on the ship's final voyage in the mid-60s, losing herself in the romance of the ship's grandeur, with flashbacks set to the timeless nature of Ray Charles' music."

Past single-artist episodes of COLD CASE featured the music of John Lennon, Frank Sinatra, Nirvana, Johnny Cash, John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, Tim McGraw, U2 and Bob Dylan. Additionally, the music of Pearl Jam rocked throughout the two-part seventh season finale of the series.

COLD CASE stars 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. Jerry Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman, Meredith Stiehm, Jennifer Johnson and Greg Plageman are the executive producers.