1987

After years of struggle, which included performingshows with dozens of music’s greats and most colorful characters, Billy’srecording of “At This Moment” reaches #1 on the Billboard and Cashboxnational charts, where it remains for two weeks, making it one of the toprecords of that year. Its broad appealcrosses all demographic lines of age, sex and race. In addition to the Pop charts, the song gracesthe Country, Adult Contemporary, Easy Listening and Rhythm & Blueslistings. Both the single and the albumare awarded gold records in the United States and Canada.

Billy Vera & the Beaters appear on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson ninetimes and on Dick Clark’s AmericanBandstand twice, as well as every television show that featurescontemporary music. Billy is a specialfavorite of Dick Clark, who books him on every show he produces.

1944

A baby boy is born on May 28 to Bill McCord and hiswife, Ann. The father is a 1stlieutenant in the Army Air Corps, stationed at March Field in Riverside,California, where he teaches the boys to pilot B-24 bombers. Before the War, Bill was a radio announcerand Ann was a singer. Both will returnto those careers when the War is over, working at station WLW in Cincinnati,Ohio, until Bill is fired for union activities.

1951

The little family, with another baby on the way,moves to New York, where Bill finds work announcing, eventually landing a jobas a staff TV and radio announcer at NBC, where he will remain untilretirement.

Ann and little Billy appear as contestants on NBCradio’s Live Like A Millionaire,Billy singing “The Darktown Strutters’ Ball,” in a raspy voice reminiscent ofLouis Armstrong’s.

1952

A few months after the birth of sister Kathleen (nowKat), the family moves to a house in Hartsdale, a middle-class town betweenScarsdale and White Plains, New York. Ann resumes her singing career, winning the Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts show. She eventually becomes a member of the RayCharles Singers, backing Perry Como, Frankie Laine and Pat Boone on record andon their TV shows.

Much of Billy’s early childhood is spent backstage indressing rooms, with half naked singers and dancers, being petted and spoiledby them. In later life, he willhabitually seek to replicate these experiences, leading him to numerousrelationships with beautiful, narcissistic women.

Both parents take Billy to work with themoccasionally, and the boy gets to see the professional world of show biz closeup. All the biggest stars of the time appearon the Como show. As Dad isuninterested in theater, Billy becomes Mom’s date at many Broadwaymusicals. He also listens to the recordsin Mom’s collection, particular favorites being Frank Sinatra, Nat King Coleand Duke Ellington, which he plays over and over again, memorizing every note.

1956

Rock’n’Roll explodes across the nation, and the radioat Billy’s bedside is tuned each night to Alan Freed’s show, where Billy hearsthe music that will determine the course of his life: Fats Domino, Chuck Berry,Little Richard and Frankie Lymon, a 13 year old phenomenon who inspires him totry singing himself.

His parents buy him a set of drums and pay forlessons. He sees Chuck Berry on AmericanBandstand and saves his lawn mowing money for a $35 Silvertone electricguitar from Sears.

He begins amassing what will eventually become aworld-class record collection. He readsthe fine print on the labels, memorizing, not just the titles and artists, butthe songwriters and publishers as well. The knowledge will serve him well and he will one day be recognized as anoted authority on popular music, producing and annotating hundreds of reissueCDs and box sets and writing countless essays on black music and other genres.

1961

Joins an existing band, the Pharoahs, appearing atdances around Westchester County. Meetsand is befriended by a black vocal group, the Five Voices, from whom he learnsmore about the black style of singing. At one club, he is taken under the wing of a black drummer from a bandcalled the Mighty Cravers, who let this young white boy sit in with them,learning how to perform before a black audience. Billy becomes obsessed with black music.

During this period, his mother’s vocal coachintroduces him to his first manager, who arranges for him to make a record, aspart of an ad hoc vocal group named the Resolutions, on a song entitled,“January 1, 1962.” Dad manages to get acouple disc jockey friends from AFTRA, the radio and television performers’union, to play the record.

1962

Graduates from high school and begins playing nightclubs. It is the era of the Twist, andevery dingy low life bar becomes a Twist lounge. Now with the Knight-Riders, he worksmob-owned clubs on Times Square, including the famed Peppermint Lounge. He begins to get noticed for his uniquestyle: white boy sings black.

Records a regional hit. One side, “My Heart Cries,” reaches #1 inPittsburgh, while the flip side, “All My Love,” written by Billy, is a hit inTexas and Louisiana.

1963

Billy quits college, leaves home and lives in oneroom that once hid out the infamous gangster, Lucky Luciano. No heat, no plumbing, a bedpan his onlytoilet. He has to tape dry cleaningplastic over the windows to keep out the winter cold.

1965

A song Billy writes, “Mean Old World,” is recorded byRicky Nelson and makes the national charts. Ricky performs it five weeks in a row on his family’s TV show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Billy is now an accepted member of theBroadway community and the doors of music publishers are open to him. One of these, April-Blackwood Music, thepublishing arm of CBS and Columbia Records, signs him as a staff songwriter,giving him his own tiny office.

Chip Taylor, brother of up-and-coming actor JonVoight, is put in charge of teaching Billy to write commercial material. The first song they write together, “Make MeBelong To You,” becomes a 1966 summertime hit for R&B singer, BarbaraLewis, and is covered by over 35 artists around the world in various languages.

Miss Lewis records for Atlantic Records, thelegendary home of Ray Charles, Joe Turner, the Drifters, the Coasters, LaVernBaker and Bobby Darin, all of whom reside in Billy’s record collection. He is thrilled to see his name on an Atlanticlabel.

1967-68

Now with entre to Atlantic, he and Chip bring a demoof a new song to label chief Jerry Wexler, who just returned from his firstsession with his latest signing, Aretha Franklin. Wexler loves the song, “Storybook Children,” anddeclares it “a fucking smash,” offering to record it with Billy himself if hecan find a girl to sing it with.

After auditioning some 20 singers, they settle onJudy Clay, the adopted cousin of Dionne Warwick. Judy, whose good fortune has been a long timecoming, is a bitter, cranky woman, but Billy recognizes that, beneath the gruffexterior, lies a scared little girl and the two hit it off.

The record becomes a hit, reaching #1 in New York andother markets. The pair is booked at thefamed Apollo Theater in Harlem, where it is assumed that Billy is black… untilhe walks onstage. After the audience’sinitial shock, the duo is a smash hit, stopping the show, night after night,playing to standing ovations. Embodyingthe dream of racial integration, Billy & Judy become great favorites in Harlem.

Despite a follow-up hit, “Country Girl-City Man,”America’s first interracial romantic duo is never booked to appear on nationalTV. The vaunted “liberal” media turnsout not to be as liberal as they claim.

During their second week-long appearance at theApollo, Billy gets a phone call from Wexler, telling him that Atlantic andStax, the company Judy is contracted to, have ended their partnership and Billyand Judy are no longer allowed to record together. Wexler has found a song for Billy’s firstsolo session, Bobby Goldsboro’s “With Pen In Hand.”

The Apollo engagement ends on a Thursday night and,the next morning, Billy is in Atlantic’s studio with a full orchestra,recording the tune. By Monday morning,test pressings are at every major radio station in the country and Billy Verahas his first solo hit.

That summer, Dr. Martin Luther King is murdered and amass psychosis descends upon the black community. Once beloved in that community, Billy Vera& Judy Clay represent a dream that has died with Dr. King. With the advent of Black Power, integrationis no longer a goal and the pair are an irrelevant and, to some, anembarrassing reminder of that failed dream.

American society is going through radical changes,and popular music is a big part of that change. British rock, acid rock, folk rock and a culture based largely on drugs,and created and consumed by a generation for whom drugs are a major part oftheir day-to-day life, have taken over. There is no longer a place for a blue-eyed soul singer who doesn’tdrink, smoke or use drugs. Born twoyears before the first Baby Boomer, Billy Vera is of a previous generation, andis hopelessly passé.

1970

He has been living in a black middle class part ofthe Bronx with his girlfriend, a member of the girl group, the Chiffons,another casualty of the Hippie Revolution. The hostility of her friends, who once embraced both Billy andintegration, causes the relationship to crumble and Billy moves, “temporarily,”back to his mother’s house in Hartsdale.

He winds up staying for the next nine years.

The early 70s find Billy in survival mode. No longer signed to a record label orpublishing company, he puts together a little trio that ends up playing sixnights a week in the New York area, in every kind of club imaginable. A typical week:

Monday: a mob-owned joint in New Jersey, completewith topless dancers in cages above the bar.

Tuesday: a blue-collar club in the Bronx, the kindfrequented by cops and firemen, and gum-chewing girls with big hair.

Wednesday: a Long Island singles bar, populated bypolyester-wearing 70s clichés.

Thursday: a tiny place in Port Chester, whosecustomers are rich hippie kids from Greenwich and Darien.

Friday: your average dancing club gig, followed by aprivate, black after hours club until the wee hours.

Some of these places featured oldies acts from the50s, who Billy’s group backs up. This leadsto him leading a house band at the oldies shows during the rock’n’roll revivalof that era, where he accompanies acts like Dion, the Platters, Chuck Berry,the Shirelles, the Drifters and dozens more, including Ronnie Spector, withwhom he has a year long affair, as described in her autobiography.

During this period, he continues to write songs, butis unable to make any headway in the record business, other than making the oddrecord, or writing the odd song, here and there.

1976

At a week long Ramada Inn gig in New Jersey, he meetssongwriter L. Russell Brown, writer of such hits as “Tie A Yellow Ribbon RoundThe Ole Oak Tree.” Brown, a fan ofBilly’s, tells him, “Vera, you’re one of the greatest singers and songwritersin our business. Everybody respects you,but you never make any money. Me, I makelots of money, but nobody respects me. Let’s write together. You help meget respect and I’ll teach you how to make money.”

This collaboration results in an album. It fails to sell but, when Brown is hired toproduce Nancy Sinatra, he asks Billy to write a song for the project. Nancy hates the song, but Brown believes init and convinces Billy to exploit it.

Billy records the tune with a local girl whose lackof rehearsal results in a poor performance. Everywhere he takes the tape, the answer is the same, “Love the song;hate the girl.” At the last place on hislist, the guy says, “Love the song, hate the girl, BUT we’re recording DollyParton next week. Give me the song forher, and I’ll guarantee it’ll be her next single.”

Unusual for the music business, the man is true tohis word. In the interim, Billy is offereda position as staff songwriter at Warner Bros Music…but he must relocate to LosAngeles. He packs everything he owns,except his vast record collection, into his old Mercedes Benz, and drivesacross country, hearing Dolly singing his song, “I Really Got The Feeling,”every 20 minutes throughout the South.

The day he reaches L.A. in January 1979, Dolly’srecord hits #1 on the national Country charts, his first #1 record. An omen.

1979

Flying in the face of the commonplace formula of twoguitars, bass and drums, he forms Billy & the Beaters, a ten-piece bandwith four saxophones…and a pedal steel guitar. Not even thinking of trying for a record deal at age 35, Billy and theguys are just looking to play the music they love on weekends, and to meet girls.

One year later, they begin a year long run at thefamed Troubadour, on Monday nights at midnight, and are soon being called thetop band in L.A. By the end of the year,record companies are bidding for Billy, who chooses Alfa, a Japanese label forwhom he will be the first artist.

A hit record, “I Can Take Care Of Myself,”results. A second single, “At ThisMoment,” scrapes the lower end of the charts, followed by a second album, whichfails to sell. This, and a series ofill-advised signings results in the Japanese owners to pull the plug on theAmerican operation and Billy is out in the cold again.

Early 1980s

Urged by old friend Jon Voight to study acting withVoight’s teacher, David Proval, Billy eventually gets acting work in various TVseries and in what turns out to be the cult film, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, in which he plays the character,Pinky Carruthers, alongside Peter Weller, Jeff Goldblum, John Lithgow,Christopher Lloyd and Ellen Barkin.

Without a record deal, acting becomes his main sourceof income, along with the band and songwriting royalties. He spends his free time, too much of it,dating soap actresses and movie stars. He’s never used drugs or alcohol, despite an alcoholic mother andsister; his inherited addictive nature takes this form, diverting his energyfrom more productive pursuits.

1983

During this period, Billy begins hosting a weeklyradio show on KCRW, the Santa Monica public station, where he plays old Rhythm& Blues records from the 1940s-50s. It is soon required listening for hipsters, as well as music and movieindustry people from all around Los Angeles. Guests on the show range from legendary songwriters Jerry Leiber &Mike Stoller to bluesman Charles Brown to jazz singer Jimmy Scott, revealingBilly’s interviewing skills. The showlasts for six years and leads to yet another career, as a voiceover artist.

1986

Billy and the band film scenes for Blind Date, the big screen debut ofBruce Willis. They perform three ofBilly’s songs.

One day he gets a chance phone call from the producerof the TV sitcom Family Ties. They want to use his song, “At This Moment”in an episode. The day after the showairs, a bag of mail from NBC gives him the idea to try to get a label to allowhim to rerecord the song, but there is no interest.

At lunch with Richard Foos, head of Rhino Records, alabel whose business is reissuing old recordings, Billy suggests that Rhinoreissue his Alfa material and release a single of “At This Moment,” tocapitalize on the audience interest in the song. Foos agrees, but by the time the record isreleased, they miss the reruns.

Then Lady Luck steps in, and the following season,the song is reprised on an episode where Michael J. Fox’s girlfriend dumpshim. America responds…in a big way,calling radio stations, demanding to hear “At This Moment.” All this without a penny of payola.

The song reaches #1 and, at age 42, Billy has thebiggest hit of his career.

1988

Rhino, not in the business of contemporary music, hasno clue on what to do about a follow-up and momentum is lost. Poor management decisions, like turning downthe chance to sing a song on the soundtrack of the movie Dirty Dancing, which went on to sell over 30 million copiesworldwide, compound the problem.

Billy signs with Capitol Records and records analbum. One single, “Between Like AndLove,” reaches #9 on the Adult Contemporary charts, thanks to the daytime dramaDays Of Our Lives, which uses it asthe love song for one of their main couples. The album flops and he doesn’t make another. However, he is well liked by the top brassand remains part of the Capitol family.

Label president Joe Smith good naturedly “roasts”Billy when he is given his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His star is placed just a few steps north ofthe Capitol Tower on Vine Street.

1989

Billy is asked to co-produce an album for Lou Rawlsfor Capitol’s jazz subsidiary, Blue Note Records. The CD reaches #1 on the jazz charts andserves as a comeback for Rawls’ career, bringing a Grammy nomination. He and his partner, Michael Cuscuna producetwo more Rawls albums for Blue Note, both reaching the top five. Rawls records seven of Billy’s own songs.

Billy appears in the Oliver Stone picture, The Doors, and has a recurring role as Dukeon the hit TV series, Beverly Hills 90210,and appears on two episodes of Baywatch,among other shows.

He begins a side career as a noted music historian,compiling and annotating over 200 CDs and box sets by artists ranging from RayCharles to Louis Prima to Nat “King” Cole to Duke Ellington.

1990

Bonnie Raitt asks him to join the Board of Directorsof the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, on which he serves for the next tenyears, helping former R&B performers in their hour of need. Bonnie also records Billy’s song, “Papa ComeQuick (Jody & Chico)” on her five million selling CD, Luck of the Draw.

He makes important inroads with his other career, inthe unglamorous-but-lucrative voiceover field, quickly becoming one of the topvoices in that business. His voice isheard on commercials, network promos and even cartoons.

He continues in this low profile, behind the sceneswork, such as singing the theme songs of the hit TV series, Empty Nest and King of Queens, which stays on the air for a full decade.

2003

Billy produces what turns out to be the final albumof Lou Rawls’ life, Rawls Sings Sinatra,which remains on the charts for six months. Dolly Parton’s recording of his tune, “I Really Got The Feeling” isincluded on her album, The EssentialDolly Parton, which also spends six months on the Country chart thatyear. These mark the fifth decade inwhich Billy Vera, either as a singer, songwriter or producer, had graced thenational sales charts.

2008

On July 31st, the city of Stamford,Connecticut holds a Billy Vera Homecoming concert in the center ofdowntown. He plays to several thousandold fans and friends. He spots peoplewho danced to his music in the clubs as far back as 1962. Local musicians, some of whom had played withhim and others who’d just known of him, came out to pay tribute.

2009

Michael Buble records Billy’s song, “At This Moment”on an album that eventually sells over eight million copies. Vera takes one of the royalty checks andself-finances his dream album, a tribute to the great black songwriters of the1920s, 30s and 40s, backed by a big 18 piece band at Capitol’s famed StudioA. The album is acclaimed and heperforms with the big band at jazz clubs from Hollywood to New York and at jazzfestivals, reinventing himself once again.

2013

After four nominations, Billy finally wins his firstGrammy, for Best Album Notes, for the Ray Charles box set, Singular Genius: The Complete ABC Singles.

These days, his life is never dull. If he’s not performing, he’s in the studio,lending his voice to various products, putting his kids through college, ordoing his historical work, such as the three four-disc box sets he recentlyproduced to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Atlantic Records.

As Billy says, “I do the voiceovers for themoney. I do the historical work so I canfeel at the end of the day that I’ve done something that matters.” As his old friend and industry legend JerryWexler often told him, “You’re the best vault man in the business. Somebody’s got to carry the flame.. and keepthis music alive.”