Billy Vera

Introduced to music through his mother, who worked on the Perry Como Show as one of Ray Charles' backing singers, Billy Vera started out in bands in the early 1960s before turning to songwriting. It paid off instantly when the first song he ever took to a publisher, Mean Old World, was recorded by teen pop idol Ricky Nelson in 1965. Around that time he also penned a song for garage rock band The Remains which, years later, became a cult favourite when it was featured on the Nuggets compilation album and was covered by Robert Plant. A music obsessive with a deep knowledge and love of jazz, soul, blues and early rock & roll, Vera broke new ground when he teamed up with gospel singer Judy Clay and recorded the hit Storybook Children. It was the first time an interracial act had performed love songs together and they became a popular act at the famed Apollo Theatre in Harlem, appealing to both black and white audiences. In the 1970s he composed music for The Shirelles and Ronnie Spector and played on the New York club scene before writing I Really Got That Feeling for Dolly Parton which was a number one single on the Country Charts in 1979. A naturally smooth crooner, Vera set up his own big band style group inspired by the music of his youth and became a popular attraction in the clubs of South California in the 1980s. When a television producer saw one of his shows and decided to feature his song At This Moment in the Michael J. Fox sitcom Family Ties, the track became an unlikely phenomenon and ended up topping the US Singles Chart and becoming a popular romantic standard for weddings. He went on to produce albums for Lou Rawls, had his songs covered by Bonnie Raitt, Michael Bublé, Fats Domino and Etta James, worked as a music historian, did some acting and continues to perform with his band Billy Vera And The Beaters.

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