There is no part of the music business in which Billy Terrell hasn’t been involved in during a career that has spanned more than four decades. Since being discovered as a singer by New York TV dance-party host Clay Cole in 1963, Billy won acclaim as a vocalist, composer, arranger and record producer.
Though originally a singer of other’s songs, Billy soon began composing his own material. This lead to a deal, in 1965, with the legendary Kama Sutra label. But fate, in the form of the military draft of the 1960s, intervened. While recording his first album, he was sent to Vietnam, where he served two years before returning home and to a radically changed world—and music industry.
Although the kind of R&B-inflected pop that was Billy’s specialty as a singer was no longer in vogue during the era of “underground” rock, Billy was undaunted. He simply turned his considerable talents to the behind-the-scenes realm, beginning a long, successful career as a composer and record producer.