he music of Billy Vera spans genres and generations.

Raised on the soul of Ray Charles, the jazz of Benny Golson, and the pop of Frankie Lymon, Vera broke color barriers in music in the 60s, wrote hit songs for numerous notable singers as well as for himself, and is undoubtedly one of the most knowledgeable ethnomusicologists in the eld of blues, soul, and R&B. Jilly Rizzo, famed as Frank Sinatras righthand man, was quoted as saying, Other than Frank, this kid is the best phraser in the business. While he never met Ol Blue Eyes himself, Vera heard from other friends of Sinatra that he was one of his fans. Vera grew up with music; his mother sang with the Ray Charles Singers on The Perry Como Show; his father was a sta announcer for NBC. Veras early exposure to music came from the R&B and jazz records his father would bring home from the station. After experimenting with drums, Vera learned to play the guitar and began writing, recording, and performing. He received regional airplay in the Northeast, Texas, and Louisiana while he was still a teenager. By the mid-60s, he was beginning to make his mark in the music business. In our interview for ADS, Vera said, In those days, I could write a song in the morning and by the afternoon play the song in a publishers oce and walk out with 50 dollars. When Vera was 21, Ricky Nelson charted with his song, Mean Old World, which gave Vera his rst Billboard hit. A year later his song, Make Me Belong to You charted as a hit for Atlantic Records vocalist Barbara Lewis. This success brought R&B godfather Jerry Wexler into Veras life. Wexler, producer and label exec for Atlantic Records, believed in the hit potential of one of Veras love ballads, Storybook Children (co-written with Chip Taylor). Written as a duet, numerous vocalists were auditioned for the female part; none of them had the right feeling until Wexler brought in gospel/R&B singer Judy Clay. Judys relatives included Cissy Houston (mother of Whitney) and Dionne Warwick. If you havent heard of Judy, she sang with strength, sensitivity, and feeling on a par with any star singer you may care to name. While there had been a few interracial performances in the Big Band Era, Storybook Children broke the interracial barrier in the realm of pop, R&B, and love ballads. However, it was too soon for television; the fear and myopia of the programming executives of the day would not allow the duo to perform on national TV. The song became a hit regionally in many parts of the nation, but it only reached the mid-charts nationwide. Storybook Children opened the door for Vera to achieve one of his lifelong dreams to perform at the famed Apollo Theatre in Harlem; 40 years later, his photo is still displayed in the lobby. Subsequently such legendary performers as Lou Rawls, Dolly

Parton, Robert Plant, and Bonnie Raitt recorded Veras songs. He hit the charts himself in the '80s singing his songs, "I Can Take Care of Myself" and "At This Moment." One of those magic moments that make history occurred when Michael J. Fox, the star of the television show Family Ties, brought the shows producer, Michael Whitehorn, to see Vera perform at At My Place, a small nightclub in Santa Monica. With the help of Family Ties, At This Moment became the number-one hit in the nation in 1987. By this time, Veras talent had expanded beyond the boundaries of music into acting and voiceovers. In his rst lm in 1984, he played the role of Pinky Carruthers in Buckaroo Banzai. Since then he played a concert promoter in Oliver Stones lm homage to The Doors, sang three songs in Blind Date, performed in a number of roles as cops and bad guys, and often appeared as himself singing on and o camera. If youve heard a car or food commercial or a movie trailer with a wise guy doing the talking, odds are the talker is Billy Vera. To get an overview of Veras lm and television career, check out his lmography page at www.billyvera.com. After topping the charts, working in lm, radio, and television for the past 40 years, and earning a star on Hollywood Boulevard, Vera is about to realize another lifelong dream, singing and recording with a big band. As we go to press, he is putting the nishing touches on an album featuring songs by Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and lesser-known black songwriters of the Golden Age. Vera has provided ADS with two tracks from the new album, If I Could Be With You by James P. Johnson and Henry Creamer, and When Its Sleepy Time Down South, Louis Armstrongs theme song, written by Clarence Muse, Leon Ren, and Otis Ren. Ever grateful for the legacy that inspired his career, Vera spent 10 years on the board of directors of the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, providing a number of services for rhythm and blues artists. Those artists planted the roots and extended the branches of an American art form that has seasoned and sizzled music throughout the world, yet, at the end of their lives, many of them were having a dicult time surviving. Services of the foundation include help with health care, nancial assistance, and encouraging record labels and publishers to pay back royalties and rewrite their contracts to provide the artists with a fair compensation for their work. If you would like to learn more about the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, you can visit www.rhythm-n-blues.org. To learn more about Billy Vera and information about his upcoming album release, please visit his website.

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