copyright laws and music?

If the sound recording is older than 1972 then there is no US federal copyright on it at all, but you may have to watch out for certain state laws that limit mass production (pirating) of musical records that are not covered under the federal copyright.

This page of the RIAA website seems to cover what you want:

http://www.riaa.com/whatwedo.php?content_selector=...

I asked my son, he is in college for music production and entertainment law and he said that you need to do the research and find who owns the recording and who published the song and get permission from them. He said that it could take several months so get busy if you want to use the music.

Quite simply, you cannot use it without permission from the copyright holder (who may or may not be the recording artist). Get the permission in writing. You can purchase licenses to use it from warehouses such as ASCAP and BMI. Those licenses are extremely expensive.