Billy Vera
Listen for free or download any Billy Vera track for just 12 cents per song!
Billy Vera, from California, began his singing career in 1962 as both a member of a band called The Resolutions and as a song writer for 60's musicians such as Fats Domino, Ricky Nelson, and Barbara Lewis. In the late 1960's, Billy Vera teamed up with Judy Clay and recorded an album that included he song "Storybook Children". His more significant contribution to the pop culture of the 1980's was in TV cameos, theme songs, and song writing, but his band did have one significant hit that is the main reason he is included here.
Throughout the 1970's, Billy Vera continued as a song writer before moving to Los Angeles in 1979 and starting the bar band called The Beaters. He was also found from time to time on the silver screen, on shows like Buckaroo Banzai and Days of Our Lives. After catching the ear of some recording execs, Billy Vera and his Beaters were offered a contract by Alfa Records. A live recording was produced which featured the minor hit songs "I Can Take Care of Myself" and "At This Moment". "At This Moment" became a number hit on a re-release in 1986 called By Request: The Best of Billy Vera & The Beaters, after the song was featured on the TV show Family Ties.
The success of the song "At This Moment" jump started things for the band. The band was featured in a Bruce Willis movie called Blind Date, as wells as a cameo in the movie Adventures in Babysitting. Billy Vera then went on to have cameos in shows like Baywatch, Beverly Hills 90210 and theme song gigs for shows like Empty Nest. At the time of this writing in early 2013, Billy Vera and the Beaters were still active on the California club scene. The current Billy Vera and the Beaters Discography is as follows:
Listen for free or download any Billy Vera track for just 12 cents per song!
- 1986: By Request: The Best of Billy Vera & the Beaters
- 1996: Oh, What a Nite Live
- 2002: At This Moment
- 2010: Hopeless Romantic: The Best of Billy Vera & the Beaters
- 2011: The Billy Vera Story