Billy Vera - Billy Vera: Harlem to Hollywood

Copyright 2017 by Billy Vera

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a newspaper or magazine reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

Published in 2017 by Backbeat Books
An Imprint of Hal Leonard Corporation
7777 West Bluemound Road
Milwaukee, WI 53213

Trade Book Division Editorial Offices
33 Plymouth St., Montclair, NJ 07042

Printed in the United States of America

Book design by Kristina Rolander

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Vera, Billy.
Title: Harlem to Hollywood / Billy Vera.
Description: Montclair, NJ : Backbeat Books, 2017.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016046566 | ISBN 9781617136627
Subjects: LCSH: Vera, Billy. | Singers--United States--Biography.
Classification: LCC ML420.V338 A3 2017 | DDC 781.64092 [B] --dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016046566

www.backbeatbooks.com

When I turned forty-five, I couldnt get arrested.
Then I turned sixty-five, and I became a legend.

Benny Golson

Contents

June 21, 2014. Billy Vera takes the stage of the Cutting Room in midtown Manhattan, and hes not alone. Im not talking about the swinging eighteen-piece band that exuberantly backs him on his loving tribute to the great black songwriters of Americas last century. What I mean is hes brought something else up there with him. What hes carrying, tucked deep into his heart and soul, is a whole history of jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock n roll.

On this night, in a set that pops with Billys evident joy in the music, he grabs you with such moody and melancholic blues classics as Buddy Johnsons Since I Fell for You, Count Basies Blue and Sentimental, and Billy Strayhorns My Little Brown Book, as well as his own Room with a View, written with the great Lowell Fulson. True, this singers not black of skin, but he sure aint Pat Boone covering Little Richard. This is the cat whose soulful hit with former gospel singer Judy Clay preceded the duos very first appearance at Harlems Apollo Theater in the sixties, the one who shocks the pants off em when he walks out onstage for the first time and heswhite? B. V. knows of what he sings. Hes walked the walk, witnessed the woes, and suffered the slings and arrows. And tonight at the Cutting Room he looks you in the eye and tells the truthafter all, Vera is the first half of veracity, is it not?

So, wait, stop the music. Or at least hit pause for a moment. Because we are compelled to ask this former white kid from suburban White Plains, New York, a nagging but pertinent question: What did you do to be so black and blue?

Billys answer to this and other musical questions is this book, and its delivered in the cool, mellow tone of his distinctive voice. If youve ever had the pleasure of hearing Billy speakon the phone, onstage, on TV in his many commercial voiceoversthat same hip, husky drawl is here on every page. Its after midnight, hes finished his last set, and the two of you are sitting in the back booth of some roadhouse over a couple ofwell, in his case its Pepsiand hes laying it all out intimately, understatedly, again giving it to you straight, the whole fascinating, up-and-down trip that was and is his life. And he is that rare bird in music thats never dabbled in drugs or alcohol. The sixties? The seventies? Hes not only been there, he remembers it.

Pick a musical period of the last fifty years and Billy Vera is there, almost Zelig-like, though hardly anonymous. As a composer, his songs have been recorded by Ricky Nelson (before he was Rick) and Michael Bubl. Hows that for longevity? As a record producer and scholar of American music, his album notes won him a Grammy in 2013 for Ray Charles Singular Genius: The Complete ABC Singles . And as a singer, my old boss Johnny Carson ranked him second only to the great Tony Bennett, booking him on the Tonight Show nearly as often. But dont let me tell you about Billy Vera. Let Billy tell you. Waiter, pour the man another cola.

Michael Barrie

Michael Barries work on The Late Show with David Letterman and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson has earned him twenty Emmy nominations and absolutely no wins. Barrie lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the lovely Fredrica Duke.

Unlike most books, where theres often dozens of people who helped out, this has been basically a two-person effort. After I wrote it from memory with an assist from my old date books to ensure accuracy, the task of finding someone to publish a memoir by a guy most publishers and agents deemed not a big enough name fell to my dear friend and fearless protector, Tamela DAmico, who has had my back and encouraged me daily for the past six years.

As if that werent enough, Tamela did the hours of tedious grunt work, editing and formatting all these pages into a proper manuscript submission. I thank you from the bottom of my little black heart. Also, many thanks to the Backbeat Books team, senior editor Bernadette Malavarca and publisher John Cerullo, who both believed my story deserved to be heard; marketing and publicity manager Wes Seeley for his enthusiasm and wonderful ideas for getting it out to the public; and to copyeditor Zahra Brown and designer Kristina Rolander, who made my words into a beautiful book. You are all professionals of the highest order.

I am also grateful to the generosity of the wonderful photographers who allowed us to use their work, adding the visual historical perspective that makes a book of this kind come alive: Vera Anderson, Barry Druxman, Carol Friedman, Mark Hanauer, Rob Lewine, and Stephen Paley. And for my author photo, my friend and homeboy, Richard Roundtree. Extra thanks to Dhana Taprogge for touching Richards photo up to make my skin look as smooth as a babys butt.

To the many talented musicians who have made my music come to life over the years: without you there wouldve been nothing to write about.

Finally, to my friends and family, both here and gone: thank you for your love, understanding, and acceptance.

Tuesday, February 16, 1988.

It was a busy week, recording a duet of Percy Mayfields Please Send Me Someone to Love with E. G. Daily for her album at A&Ms studio. An early-morning radio interview with Rick Dees. An appearance on Will Shriners TV talk show, goofing with Don Rickles. A screening of a movie Id just worked on called Baja Oklahoma , where I got to sing a song with Willie Nelson and hang out all night with a beautiful young up-and-coming actress named Julia Roberts. I would close out with a pair of nightclub gigs with my band, the Beaters.

But the highlight of the week came on Tuesday at noon, when I was to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a long way from behind the counter at the Boss Record Shop in White Plains, New York.

Around 11:00 a.m., a crowd began to gather on Vine Street in front of the Capitol Records Tower, by the fenced-off section where the podium stood. I arrived in an old Rolls Royce driven by my friend Paul Gayten, the first rhythm-and-blues star from New Orleans to have a hit record back in 1947. Paul, who was exactly my mothers age, had adopted me when I first moved to Los Angeles in 1979 and had been my biggest supporter and cheerleader, through thick and thin.

A few days prior, Id worried that some might criticize me, fearing I wasnt a big enough name to deserve this honor. But Angie Dickinson, who had nominated me, explained the process. After nomination, a committee from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce decided, based on whether your fame had come as a result of your connection with that city. Having made a name for myself in local clubs, making records and doing movies, TV, and radio in Hollywood, I was deemed by the powers that be to be qualified.