| [No Photo] |
|
Billy Vera, Billy Vera (born William McCord; May 28, 1944) is an American singer, actor, writer and music historian.[edit] Life and careerVera was born in Riverside, California. He began his singing career in 1962 as a member of the Resolutions. He went on to write several songs throughout the early 1960s, writing for the likes of Barbara Lewis, Fats Domino, The Shirelles and Ricky Nelson. He also wrote the garage band classic, Dont Look Back, performed by the Remains.In 1967 Vera penned a song entitled Storybook Children and brought it to Atlantic Records. The decision to place former gospel singer Judy Clay with Vera in a white-black duet to record the song was a commercial and artistic success and a subsequent album by Vera and Clay remains a highpoint for soul duet partnerships. He would have a solo hit later that same year with the Bobby Goldsboro penned With Pen in Hand which was also the name of his next album.Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s Vera focused on songwriting including I Really Got the Feeling which was a number 1 hit for Dolly Parton. He also participated in several archival and music preservation projects, including fronting the band at the 1972 Reunion concert of Dion & the Belmonts.Living in Los Angeles, and writing songs for Warner Brothers, Vera and his old friend, bass player Chuck Fiore decided to put together a band to play the local club scene. Modeling their band on 1950s Rock and roll bands, The Beaters were born. They featured a horn section, as well as a pedal steel guitar, along with drums, piano, Fiores bass, and Veras lead guitar and vocals. As a result of the buzz the band generated, Alfa Records offered them a recording contract. They recorded the band live, and in 1981 yielded the minor hits I Can Take Care of Myself, which reached #39 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S., and At This Moment, which (initially) charted at #79.By 1982, Alfa Records was out of business, but Vera and the Beaters continued to play the clubs of Southern California. In 1985, a producer from the TV show Family Ties was in the audience to hear the band play At This Moment. The song was featured in the fall of 1985 as a backdrop for romantic interludes between characters Alex (Michael J. Fox) and Ellen (Tracy Pollan). Viewers responded by clamoring for the song, and in 1986, Rhino Records released By Request: The Best of Billy Vera & the Beaters, which featured the song. The single became a number one hit in its re-release, and remained on the charts for 15 weeks.Before At This Moment, Vera had a small career in movies and television including appearances in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai and soap opera Days of our Lives. At This Moment propelled his movie career as he and the Beaters were featured prominently in the Bruce Willis movie Blind Date. He would go on to star in one episode of a TV series, Wiseguy and would have several other roles on shows such as Baywatch, Boy Meets World, and Beverly Hills, 90210 as well as being a guest on the Super Dave Osborne Show. These roles would lead him into singing theme songs for TV shows, such as Empty Nest and King of Queens, as well as voice acting on Cartoon Network cartoons. He served as band leader on Rick Dees short-lived late night talk show Into the Night on ABC in the early 1990s.During that period, Vera co-produced three Lou Rawls albums with his friend, Michael Cuscuna, for Blue Note Records, including At Last, which reached #1 on the Billboard Jazz Chart. Vera also produced Rawlss final album, Rawls Sings Sinatra, which remained on the jazz charts for over six months. Rawls recorded seven of Billys songs, including If I Were A Magician and You Cant Go Home. In 1990, Veras tune, Papa Come Quick (Jody & Chico), was included on Bonnie Raitts album, Luck Of The Draw, the biggest of her career, selling over five million copies.Currently the Beaters are still playing the California club scene, and Vera continues his work as a music historian. He has helped produce, archive, and write liner notes for over 200 reissue albums and sets, from artists such as Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Louis Jordan, Ray Charles, Louis Prima, and more.Billy is currently voicing intros on the George Lopez TV show and continues working as one of the top voice over artists in Los Angeles. His song, At This Moment is included on Michael Bubles #1 CD, Crazy Love. Veras latest CD is Hopeless Romantic: The Best Of Billy Vera & The Beaters, on Shout Factory Records, available on amazon.com and other sites.Billy Vera also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame right in front of the Capitol Records Building in Hollywood, California.[edit] External linksBilly Veras websiteBilly Vera on MySpaceinterview on Just My ShowPersondataNameVera, BillyAlternative namesShort descriptionDate of birthMay 28, 1944Place of birthRiverside, CaliforniaDate of deathPlace of deathRetrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_VeraCategories: 1944 births | Living people | People from Riverside, California | American actors | American male singers | American pop singers | Blue-eyed soul singersHidden categories: Infobox person using deprecated parameters | Articles with hCardsPersonal toolsLog in / create accountNamespacesArticleDiscussionVariantsViewsReadEditView historyActionsSearchNavigationMain pageContentsFeatured contentCurrent eventsRandom articleDonate to WikipediaInteractionHelpAbout WikipediaCommunity portalRecent changesContact WikipediaToolboxWhat links hereRelated changesUpload fileSpecial pagesPermanent linkCite this pagePrint/exportCreate a bookDownload as PDFPrintable versionLanguagesDeutschNederlands This page was last modified on 22 January 2011 at 18:54.Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;additional terms may apply.See Terms of Use for details.WikipediaŽ is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.Contact usPrivacy policyAbout WikipediaDisclaimersif ( window.mediaWiki ) {mediaWiki.config.set({wgCanonicalNamespace: , wgCanonicalSpecialPageName: false, wgNamespaceNumber: 0, wgPageName: Billy_Vera, wgTitle: Billy Vera, wgAction: view, wgArticleId: 921970, wgIsArticle: true, wgUserName: null, wgUserGroups: [*], wgCurRevisionId: 409407361, wgCategories: [Infobox person using deprecated parameters, Articles with hCards, 1944 births, Living people, People from Riverside, California, American actors, American male singers, American pop singers, Blue-eyed soul singers], wgBreakFrames: false, wgRestrictionEdit: [], wgRestrictionMove: [], wgSearchNamespaces: [0], wgFlaggedRevsParams: {tags: {status: {levels: 1, quality: 2, pristine: 3}}}, wgStableRevisionId: null, wgRevContents: {error: Unable to get content., waiting: Waiting for content}, wgWikimediaMobileUrl: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki, wgCollapsibleNavBucketTest: false, wgCollapsibleNavForceNewVersion: false, wgArticleAssessmentJUIPath: http://bits.wikimedia.org/w/extensions-1.17/UsabilityInitiative/js/js2stopgap/jui.combined.min.js, Geo: {city: , country: }, wgNoticeProject: wikipedia});}if ( window.mediaWiki ) {mediaWiki.loader.load([mediawiki.legacy.wikibits, mediawiki.util, mediawiki.legacy.ajax, mediawiki.legacy.mwsuggest, ext.vector.collapsibleNav, ext.vector.collapsibleTabs, ext.vector.editWarning, ext.vector.simpleSearch]);mediaWiki.loader.go();}if ( window.mediaWiki ) {mediaWiki.user.options.set({ccmeonemails:0,cols:80,contextchars:50,contextlines:5,date:default,diffonly:0,disablemail:0,disablesuggest:0,editfont:default,editondblclick:0,editsection:1,editsectiononrightclick:0,enotifminoredits:0,enotifrevealaddr:0,enotifusertalkpages:1,enotifwatchlistpages:0,extendwatchlist:0,externaldiff:0,externaleditor:0,fancysig:0,forceeditsummary:0,gender:unknown,hideminor:0,hidepatrolled:0,highlightbroken:1,imagesize:2,justify:0,math:1,minordefault:0,newpageshidepatrolled:0,nocache:0,noconvertlink:0,norollbackdiff:0,numberheadings:0,previewonfirst:0,previewontop:1,quickbar:1,rcdays:7,rclimit:50,rememberpassword:0,rows:25,searchlimit:20,showhiddencats:0,showjumplinks:1,shownumberswatching:1,showtoc:1,showtoolbar:1,skin:vector,stubthreshold:0,thumbsize:4,underline:2,uselivepreview:0,usenewrc:0,watchcreations:1,watchdefault:0,watchdeletion:0,watchlistdays:3,watchlisthideanons:0,watchlisthidebots:0,watchlisthideliu:0,watchlisthideminor:0,watchlisthideown:0,watchlisthidepatrolled:0,watchmoves:0,wllimit:250,flaggedrevssimpleui:1,flaggedrevsstable:false,flaggedrevseditdiffs:true,flaggedrevsviewdiffs:false,vector-simplesearch:1,useeditwarning:1,vector-collapsiblenav:1,usebetatoolbar:1,usebetatoolbar-cgd:1,variant:en,language:en,searchNs0:true,searchNs1:false,searchNs2:false,searchNs3:false,searchNs4:false,searchNs5:false,searchNs6:false,searchNs7:false,searchNs8:false,searchNs9:false,searchNs10:false,searchNs11:false,searchNs12:false,searchNs13:false,searchNs14:false,searchNs15:false,searchNs100:false,searchNs101:false,searchNs108:false,searchNs109:false});mediaWiki.loader.state({user.options:ready});/* cache key: enwiki:resourceloader:filter:minify-js:3:ae2156c08a06314b12473d37e57711e2 */} if ( window.isMSIE55 ) fixalpha();