At This Moment

"At This Moment"
Single by Billy Vera and the Beaters
from the album Billy and the Beaters
Released	1981 (rerelease 1986)
Recorded	January 17, 1981 Roxy Theatre
Genre	Blue eyed soul
Length	4:21
Label	Alfa, Rhino Records
Writer(s)	Billy Vera
Producer(s)	Jeff Baxter Executive Producer: Lorne Saifer
Certification	Gold (RIAA)
Billy Vera and the Beaters singles chronology
"I Can Take Care of Myself" (1981) "At This Moment" (1981) "At This Moment" (reissue) (1986)

"At This Moment" is a song that was first recorded by Billy Vera & The Beaters in 1981 during a string of performances at the Roxy in West Hollywood (January 15–17) and featured on their self-titled live album, Billy and the Beaters, released that year on the American subsidiary of Japan's Alfa Records.

When it was originally released as a single (Alfa 7005), as the follow-up to the album's first single, "I Can Take Care of Myself"^[1] (which had become the band's first Billboard Top 40 hit^[2]), "At this Moment" stalled on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at #79 at the end of 1981.

Then, when the song was included on several episodes of the NBC sitcom Family Ties during the 1985-86 season as the love song associated with Alex P. Keaton (played by Michael J. Fox) and his girlfriend Ellen Reed (played by Tracy Pollan, whom Fox eventually married in real life), the exposure renewed interest in the song. Reissue label Rhino Records purchased the track from the band's original record label, Alfa (the American subsidiary of which was by then inactive), and re-released it in its original version as Rhino 74403. The tune then began a revived chart run, eventually hitting #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100^[3] and Adult Contemporary charts in January 1987. The song also hit the Billboard R&B Chart and the Billboard Hot Country Chart. As the song was starting to take off it came to the attention of Ron Carpentier President of RCI Music Promotion who was hired on the promotion of the song to radio and soon after the song hit the Billboard Hot Country Chart. It quickly sold over a million copies in the United States, becoming one of the last Gold-certified singles in the 45 RPM format. The song crossed over to the R&B and Country formats, reaching #40 Country.

In an interview with Rachael Ray in 2007, Michael J. Fox good-naturedly said, "Tracy and I couldn't get on the dance floor anywhere in the world for like ten years without them playing 'What did you think...' "^[4]

A cover version was recorded by country music singer Neal McCoy on his 1990 debut album, also titled At This Moment. McCoy's version was released as a single, but did not chart. Another cover version of the song appears on Michael Bublé's 2009 album, Crazy Love. The song has gone on to become a modern standard with dozens of covers, including Tom Jones, Freda Payne, Danny Boone, Arthur Prysock, Wayne Newton, blues singer Little Milton and soul singer Will Downing. Seth MacFarlane also sang the song's opening lines in the character of Brian Griffin in the Family Guy episode "Brian the Bachelor", as well as in the title character in the 2015 film, Ted 2.

Chart peaks

Chart (1981)	Peak position
US Billboard Hot 100 Singles	79
Chart (1987)	Peak position
US Billboard Hot 100 Singles	1
US Billboard Adult Contemporary	1
US R&B Singles	70
US Billboard Hot Country Singles	42
Canadian RPM Top Tracks	1
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary	1
UK Singles Chart	32
Dutch Singles Charts	26
New Zealand Singles Charts	50

References

1. Billy Vera Discography @Billy Vera's Official Site Retrieved 2010-07-04.
2. Chart position for "I Can Take Care of Myself" @AllMusic.com Retrieved 2010-07-09.
3. "Billy Vera & the Beaters". Billboard.
4. "Michael J. Fox and Rachael Ray". YouTube. April 27, 2007. Retrieved January 14, 2012.