Black History Month: Billy Vera

Ahhh, 1985... a year in the 80's. Family Ties was one of my favorite shows...."What would I do baby, without your love..Shalalalaaaaa" Well, sing, y'all! It can't be a sing-a-long, if I'm doing all the vocal acrobatics!

When Alex P. Keaton, played by Michael J. Fox, finally declared his love for Ellen, Fox's real-life wife, Tracey Pollen, a beautiful, pensive love song swelled in the background. The brotha singing that song made anyone watching want to fall head first into a big old tub of LOVE!

The song was "At This Moment" and  it became the soundtrack for young republicans and democrats falling in love. It was played on both Black radio stations, both country stations, and Y-102, the pop station with the best stereo sound  in Montgomery, Alabama.

Today we salute Black History Pioneer,  Billy Vera, writer and singer of a song that brought Blacks and whites together with one goal: let's fall in love!  Damn, I thought that dude was black. Nope. He is white. He's a credit to his race.  Vera's voice is  "Sexual White Chocolate."



You must read this in your Barry White, Right On, Right On Voice:   (Source: Wikipedia)

Vera was born in Riverside, California. He began his singing career in 1962 as a member of the Resolutions. He went on to write severalsongs 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, "Don't Look Back", performed by the Remains.


 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,^[2] and remained on the charts for 15 weeks.

We salute you Billy Vera, Drum Major for Justice,  for making us fall in love..

By the way, in 1985 I was bad in love with a short, white republican, too.** He broke my heart. He broke up with me outside of the lunchroom at Sidney Lanier High School. I played this cassette over and over on my Walkman until it snapped from the searing white heat of my pain. *sniff*  I had to bootleg me a copy off of Y-102, WHHY-FM's countdown with dj Phil "The Fish" Horton. You kids today have it easy! You can bootleg with one click of a mouse, but we had to work hard to steal  download music. We had to hold a tape recorder up to the radio and try not to breathe while we were bootlegging ---while walking backwards uphill in the snow!  Y'all are too damned spoiled ! 


** I am now married to a very tall white republican, but I won't let him near a high school lunchroom. Y'all know what President Lincoln said about history repeating itself. 


By the way to the second power, watch this all the way until the end. The dude sounds like Snoop Dog  giving a keynote at a Glaucoma Retreat.