After earning some on-the-road experience singing with the Young-Holt Trio and touring with the original road company of The Wiz, Billy and his brother John were signed to a deal at A&M Records to record as The Valentine Brothers. While The Valentine Brothers never became household names, they did have some fairly successful R&B chart hits, including the Reaganomics-critiquing “Money’s Too Tight (To Mention),” and the crate digger quiet storm classic “Lonely Nights.” The jazz sensibilities within his own vocal, interpretative prowess and within the splendid arrangements will certainly catapult Valentine in a head-turning late-career renaissance, especially given the acclaim the Los Angeles’ West Coast Get Down and Jazz Is Dead scenes are receiving.

In the years that followed Billy Valentine’s first brush with fame – when he and his brother John scored a breakthrough with their Reagan-era protest song Money’s Too Tight (To Mention) – the veteran singer made peace with life away from the spotlight. “There were periods when ‘Billy Valentine’ wasn’t needed,” the 73-year-old humbly reflects today, via video call from his home in Los Angeles. “It just wasn’t my time.” a b Porter, Lewis; Chris DeVito, David Wild, Yasuhiro Fujioka, Wolf Schmaler. The John Coltrane Reference, pp. 43, 374-6. Routledge, 2013. At Google Books. Retrieved 8 August 2019. Valentine says that he’s always been drawn to message songs. He remembers witnessing the civil rights protests through the Deep South in the United States, the Kent State University shootings in 1970, and the Vietnam War and its devastating aftermath on many military veterans returning to civilian life. “The music on my album speaks to me,” Valentine says, “I think this is the most important music that I’ve done yet in my life.” William A. Valentine". U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940–1947 . Retrieved 28 January 2023.Valentine was born in Birmingham, Alabama on December 16, 1925. [1] [2] In 1948, Valentine replaced Charles Brown in Johnny Moore's Three Blazers, [3] then featuring jazz guitarist Oscar Moore. In 1950 that line-up did a couple of recording sessions for RCA Victor before embarking on a 50-date tour. [4] The "R & B Blue Notes" section of the May 27, 1950 issue of The Billboard, in announcing the tour, stated that Valentine had also recorded for Mercury Records [4] (Mercury 8173 [5]). The note added that the Blazers would be joined by Hal "Cornbread" Singer for part of the tour. [4] The same line-up accompanied Mari Jones, Maxwell Davies (probably) and the former Nat King Cole Trio bassist Johnny Miller for a recording session in Los Angeles in 1952. [6] With the break-up of The Valentine Brothers, Billy, Phil Roy and Bob Thiele, Jr. formed a songwriting partnership penning songs for Ray Charles, Aaron Neville, The Neville Brothers and for Robert Townsend’s film The Five Heartbeats. (Billy also provided the singing vocals for fictional lead singer, Eddie King, Jr.)

The making of Billy Valentine and the Universal Truth seems to have started more than 30 years, after Valentine first met Bob Thiele Jr. in the late-1980s. Around that time, Valentine had recently ended his partnership with his brother John. Together, they’d recorded as the Valentine Brothers. Beginning in 1979, the Valentine Brothers released a handful of (now rare groove) modern soul LPs on Source, Bridge, A&M, and EMI Records. Some of their most renowned singles include 1982’s “Lonely Nights” and “Money’s Too Tight (to Mention).” The latter was covered three years later by the British soul group, Simply Red.

Since last September when we announced our collaboration with Billy Valentine, Bob Thiele Jr and the Flying Dutchman label, with Billy’s peerless cover of Curtis Mayfield’s ‘We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue’, we have been looking forward to the moment when we could share more music with you. Earlier this month we shared Billy’s take on Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘Home Is Where The Hatred Is’ and it followed its predecessor onto Jazz FM’s A list. Today we can share with you the news that the album ‘Billy Valentine & The Universal Truth’ is out on March 24th. It’s one you don’t want to miss.

Find out more about Billy Valentine and this album via out recent interview… https://www.soulandjazzandfunk.com/interviews/speaking-a-universal-truth-the-billy-valentine-interview/ Following the duo’s dissolution in 1987, Valentine linked up with Bob Thiele Jr. (now the caretaker of Flying Dutchman) and Phil Roy, who as a trio began collaborating on songs that would ultimately go on to be recorded by Ray Charles, The Neville Brothers, and both Pops and Mavis Staples. Singing demos opened doors for Valentine to work in television too. In television, Valentine sang on songs produced for Boston Legal and Sabrina, The Teenage Witch . And on the popular FX series Sons of Anarchy, over its entire 7 season run, Valentine’s voice would become a staple on so many memorable cover songs produced by the series’ composer Bob Thiele, Jr. Billy’s songwriting partnership with Phil Roy andThiele, Jr. also led him to singing demos for the cream of LA based songwriters, such as Gerry Goffin, Burt Bacharach and Will Jennings. “I was singing demos for writers, who were trying to plug songs for Michael Bolton, Al Green, or Bonnie Raitt” Valentine recalls. “I started to truly make a living singing demos.”The three album heralding singles still have the power to disturb, notably the version of ‘My People…Hold On’ which delivers a powerful vocal supported by biting guitar work and an eerie vibraphone break while Mayfield’s ‘Darker Than Blue’ is just a beautiful song. After earning some on-the-road experience singing with the Young-Holt Trio and touring with the original road company of T he Wiz, Billy and his brother John were signed to a deal at A&M Records to record as The Valentine Brothers. While The Valentine Brothers never became household names, they did have some fairly successful R&B chart hits, including the Reaganomics- critiquing “Money’s Too Tight (To Mention),” and the crate digger quiet storm classic “Lonely Nights.” Billy Valentine is a Los Angeles-based soul singer, songwriter, and producer who has been performing for five decades. He scored some hits during the 1980s with his brother John in the Valentine Brothers, including "Money’s Too Tight (To Mention)" and "Lonely Nights," and has sung for film and television. He has held club residencies for many years, playing to sold-out houses. Billy Valentine & The Universal Truth collects eight topical, spiritual, and socially conscious soul and gospel songs. This is the first release from the newly revamped Flying Dutchman label run by producer Bob Thiele, Jr. It was founded by his producer father and was the home of seminal recordings by Gato Barbieri, Leon Thomas, Lonnie Liston Smith, Gil Scott-Heron, and dozens of others. Thiele, Jr. is a longtime creative associate and business partner of Valentine's. In addition to his core band, they brought on an impressive cast of session players including vibraphonist Joel Ross, saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, pianist Larry Goldings, bassists Pino Palladino, and Linda May Han Oh, trumpeter Theo Croker, drummer Abe Rounds, and guitarist Jeff Parker. Now we an illustrious and multifaceted career that spans more than 50 years, Billy Valentine is ready to be reintroduced to world with the glowing, Billy Valentine & The Universal Truth .