Remember When: A Sitcom Character Boosted Billy Vera to the Top of the Charts in 1981

As the 80s progressed, Billy Vera started to wonder if his dreams of music stardom were achievable. Little did he know that a TV character’s romantic issues would catalyze the massive success of one of his years-old songs.

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Such is the strange tale of “At This Moment”, first released in 1981, which finally became a No. 1 pop hit in 1987. Billy Vera, may we introduce you to Alex P. Keaton?

Sitcom Suffering

If the name Alex P. Keaton rings a bell, you likely grew up a fan of 80s sitcoms. Michael J. Fox found stardom playing Keaton on the comedy Family Ties. The character proudly wore his conservative beliefs on his sleeve, much to the chagrin of his liberal parents.

In the fourth season of the show, producers decided that Alex needed a love interest who could give him a run for his money. Tracy Pollan, who’d later become Fox’s real-life wife, played a college classmate of Alex’s who stole his heart. Their romance was cinched when they shared a slow dance.

When the fifth season came around, Ellen had left Alex behind to pursue her career in dance. In the season’s second episode, which aired in September 1986, a forlorn Alex plays the same song to which they had danced on the jukebox. That’s when the strange phenomenon of “At This Moment” truly took flight.

Calling Mr. Vera

Billy Vera wrote “At This Moment” in the late 70s after enduring a painful breakup. He included the song on the 1981 album Billy and the Beaters, which was recorded by him and his band live. They released the song as the album’s second single. But his record company fell apart right about the same time as the single’s release, causing it to sink without much promotion behind it.

That also left Vera without a record deal. A few years passed. Vera split his time between playing occasional live shows and trying to find work as an actor. That’s when he received a call from Michael Weithorn, one of the executives behind the scenes at Family Ties.

Weithorn had seen one of Vera’s live shows and loved “At This Moment”. He asked Vera if he could re-record the song for the show in a studio setting. When he started receiving fan mail out of the blue for the song after it first aired, Vera thought he might be able to capitalize.

A Belated “Moment”

Unfortunately, Vera struggled to find a record company that would give “At This Moment” and some of his earlier work with The Beaters another go. When he failed to secure a deal before the re-airing of the episode featuring the song showed, he thought he’d missed out on his chance.

Luckily, Family Ties had more in store for “At This Moment”. When it used the song again for the aforementioned breakup episode, NBC’s switchboards were inundated with calls from fans wondering what the song was. Soon after, Vera’s bluesy ballad was re-released to radio.

From there, there was no stopping “At This Moment”. A decade after it was first written and six years after it was recorded, it reached the top of the pop charts in January 1987. Alex P. Keaton might have lost the girl, but Billy Vera gained a signature song as a trade-off.

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